Re: [PATCH v2 1/2] mwifiex: Use non-posted PCI write when setting TX ring write pointer

[Andy Shevchenko]

On Tue, Sep 14, 2021 at 01:48:12PM +0200, Jonas Dreßler wrote:
> On the 88W8897 card it's very important the TX ring write pointer is
> updated correctly to its new value before setting the TX ready
> interrupt, otherwise the firmware appears to crash (probably because
> it's trying to DMA-read from the wrong place). The issue is present in
> the latest firmware version 15.68.19.p21 of the pcie+usb card.

Please, be consistent in the commit message(s) and the code (esp. if the term
comes from a specification).

Here, PCIe (same in the code, at least that I have noticed, but should be done
everywhere).

> Since PCI uses "posted writes" when writing to a register, it's not
> guaranteed that a write will happen immediately. That means the pointer
> might be outdated when setting the TX ready interrupt, leading to
> firmware crashes especially when ASPM L1 and L1 substates are enabled
> (because of the higher link latency, the write will probably take
> longer).
> 
> So fix those firmware crashes by always using a non-posted write for
> this specific register write. We do that by simply reading back the
> register after writing it, just as a few other PCI drivers do.
> 
> This fixes a bug where during rx/tx traffic and with ASPM L1 substates

Ditto. TX/RX.

> enabled (the enabled substates are platform dependent), the firmware
> crashes and eventually a command timeout appears in the logs.

Should it have a Fixes tag?

> Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Signed-off-by: Jonas Dreßler <verdre@xxxxxxx>

...

> -		/* Write the TX ring write pointer in to reg->tx_wrptr */
> -		if (mwifiex_write_reg(adapter, reg->tx_wrptr,
> -				      card->txbd_wrptr | rx_val)) {
> +		/* Write the TX ring write pointer in to reg->tx_wrptr.
> +		 * The firmware (latest version 15.68.19.p21) of the 88W8897
> +		 * pcie+usb card seems to crash when getting the TX ready
> +		 * interrupt but the TX ring write pointer points to an outdated
> +		 * address, so it's important we do a non-posted write here to
> +		 * force the completion of the write.
> +		 */
> +		if (mwifiex_write_reg_np(adapter, reg->tx_wrptr,
> +				        card->txbd_wrptr | rx_val)) {

>  			mwifiex_dbg(adapter, ERROR,
>  				    "SEND DATA: failed to write reg->tx_wrptr\n");
>  			ret = -1;

I'm not sure how this is not a dead code.

On top of that, I would rather to call old function and explicitly put the
dummy read after it.

		/* Write the TX ring write pointer in to reg->tx_wrptr */
		if (mwifiex_write_reg(adapter, reg->tx_wrptr,
				      card->txbd_wrptr | rx_val)) {
			...eliminate dead code in the following patch(es)...
		}

+		/* The firmware (latest version 15.68.19.p21) of the 88W8897
+		 * pcie+usb card seems to crash when getting the TX ready
+		 * interrupt but the TX ring write pointer points to an outdated
+		 * address, so it's important we do a non-posted write here to
+		 * force the completion of the write.
+		 */
		mwifiex_read_reg(...);

Now, since I found the dummy read function to be present, perhaps you need to
dive more into the code and understand why it exists.

-- 
With Best Regards,
Andy Shevchenko