Re: [PATCH v2] drivers/crypto: Mark QCE as BROKEN
From: Bartosz Golaszewski
Date: Thu Jul 23 2026 - 05:52:29 EST
On Wed, 22 Jul 2026 18:20:40 +0200, Eric Biggers <ebiggers@xxxxxxxxxx> said:
> On Wed, Jul 22, 2026 at 01:33:51AM -0700, Bartosz Golaszewski wrote:
>> > Also, what can the current driver do that cannot be done better using
>> > software crypto? I understand that you have future plans to add more
>> > features to the driver, but those are not relevant to this discussion.
>> >
>>
>> We can offload crypto operations to the QCE saving CPU cycles but more
>> importantly, the QCE provides HW based isolation which some vendors care
>> about.
>
> Do you have any concrete proof of anyone using this with a specific
> Linux kernel feature and actually getting a benefit from it?
>
I'm not required to produce a proof of Qualcomm's clients using it. That's
never been a requirement to keep a driver in mainline. I'm saying that Qualcomm
wants to keep it and I've stepped up to fix and maintain it, which is what I'm
doing.
But yes, I know about companies that do use this driver as is for whatever
reasons. I'm not sure I can mention them so I won't.
> Just for some additional context, I've been on the Android team for many
> years and have worked with lots of companies shipping Android devices
> with Qualcomm SoCs. I also upstreamed the support for the
> Qualcomm Inline Crypto Engine (ICE)
> (https://lore.kernel.org/all/20200710072013.177481-6-ebiggers@xxxxxxxxxx/
> https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mmc/20210126001456.382989-9-ebiggers@xxxxxxxxxx/),
> which is what people actually use and isn't the same as QCE.
>
Yes, I know about your work. Thank you for doing all of that.
Best Regards,
Bartosz