Re: [RFC 1/1] ARM: Drop !ARCH_MULTIPLATFORM dependency from Cortex A8/9 erratas

[Sebastian Reichel]

Hi,

On Fri, Dec 09, 2022 at 10:36:17PM +0100, Arnd Bergmann wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 9, 2022, at 19:45, Russell King (Oracle) wrote:
> > On Fri, Dec 09, 2022 at 07:20:00PM +0100, Sebastian Reichel wrote:
> >> All the erratas for more recent CPUs (Cortex A15/A12/A17) do not
> >> require !ARCH_MULTIPLATFORM, since there is runtime detection of
> >> effected CPUs in arch/arm/mm/proc-v7.S.
> >> 
> >> Errata config options for the older Cortex A8/A9 CPUs have the
> >> !ARCH_MULTIPLATFORM dependency, but the CPUs are also runtime
> >> detected. Since there is runtime detection, it should be fine
> >> to enable the erratas for a multi platform kernel.
> >> 
> >> Signed-off-by: Sebastian Reichel <sebastian.reichel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> >> ---
> >> For me the most likely explanation that this has not yet happened is
> >> me missing an important detail, so I sent it as RFC. If you point it
> >> out I will try to document the reason.
> >
> > IIRC, the reason these are marked with !ARCH_MULTIPLATFORM is for when
> > the kernel is running in the non-secure world - the accessed registers
> > may prevent platforms booting. However, it was a long time ago and I
> > don't remember clearly now.
> 
> The git log confirms your memory, this is the description of
> commit 62e4d357aae0 ("ARM: 7609/1: disable errata work-arounds
> which access secure registers"):
> 
>     In order to support secure and non-secure platforms in multi-platform
>     kernels, errata work-arounds that access secure only registers need to
>     be disabled. Make all the errata options that fit in this category
>     depend on !CONFIG_ARCH_MULTIPLATFORM.
>     
>     This will effectively remove the errata options as platforms are
>     converted over to multi-platform.
>     
>     Signed-off-by: Rob Herring <rob.herring@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>     Acked-by: Tony Lindgren <tony@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>     Signed-off-by: Russell King <rmk+kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> 
> As far as I understand, these are all boot time chicken bits that
> should already be set up by the boot loader before entering the
> kernel. 

Ah, I should have spent more time in the git history instead of
trying to search the mailing list :( I will propose a patch adding
a sentence to the config option helptexts, so that one does not need
to go through the git history to understand the requirement and
correct solution:

This errata workaround requires access to secure registers and thus
is not available on multiplatform kernels. The workaround should be
applied by the bootloader instead.

> Sebastian, are you aware of any particular machines that ship
> without the workaround code in the bootloader or in secure world?

No. I'm investigating sporadic GPU hungs on i.MX6QP on a customer
device and just noticed a couple of erratas missing in the .config.
They might already be enabled in the bootloader (and otherwise
definitely can be enabled there).

Thanks for the fast feedback!

-- Sebastian

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