[PATCH v3] ata: ahci: work around lost interrupts on Marvell 88SE61xx
From: Hajo Noerenberg
Date: Mon Aug 31 2026 - 08:47:07 EST
ahci_single_level_irq_intr() services the ports first and clears the
global HOST_IRQ_STAT afterwards, as recommended by AHCI 1.1 section
10.6.2. The Marvell 88SE6111/6121/6145 family stops reporting interrupts
for a port when HOST_IRQ_STAT is cleared while PxIS still holds bits:
PxIS keeps its content, HOST_IRQ_STAT reads back as 0, the port is never
looked at again, and the command in flight only ends in a timeout.
Measured on a Seagate Blackarmor NAS440 (Marvell 88F6281 Kirkwood,
88SE6121 rev B2 behind PCIe) by polling the AHCI registers from userspace
while an IDENTIFY was outstanding:
t=303.046 irqs 127 PxIS 0x00000000 PxCI 0x00000001
IDENTIFY issued
t=303.057 irqs 128 PxIS 0x00000020 PxCI 0x00000000
CI cleared, DPS set, one interrupt taken
... PxIS stays 0x00000020, HOST_IRQ_STAT stays 0 ...
t~308.05 qc timeout after 5000 msecs
The command had completed - PxCI was clear and PxIS had DPS set - so
ahci_qc_complete() would have completed it. It never got the chance
because the handler read HOST_IRQ_STAT as 0 and returned IRQ_NONE.
Marvell's own driver for these chips clears the two registers in the
opposite order and says so ("clear global before channel"), and
ahci_xgene handles its broken edge latch the same way. Since the
reordering costs at most one spurious interrupt per valid one on
conforming controllers, do it in a private interrupt handler selected for
board_ahci_mv instead of changing libahci for everyone.
With this applied, SATA-2 and SATA-3 disks work at 3.0 Gbps on the
88SE6121 without the drive-side 1.5 Gbps jumper that was needed before.
Time from link up to a successful IDENTIFY:
WDC WD5000AADS-00S9B0 port 0 7 ms (never identified before)
WDC WD3202ABYS-01B7A0 port 1 28 ms
WDC WD30EFRX-68EUZN0 port 1 200 ms (3 TB, HPA detection ok)
Only the 88SE6121 was tested; board_ahci_mv also covers the 88SE6145,
which Marvell's driver treats identically.
Fixes: cd70c26617f4 ("[libata] AHCI: Add support for Marvell AHCI-like chips (initially 6145)")
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-ide/db6b48b7-d69a-564b-24f0-75fbd6a9e543@xxxxxxxxxxxxx/
Link: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=216094
Signed-off-by: Hajo Noerenberg <hajo-linux-ide@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reviewed-by: Damien Le Moal <dlemoal@xxxxxxxxxx>
Acked-by: Pali Rohar <pali@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
Niklas, sorry for the wasted round trip. Kernel patches are not my daily
business and I had not realised how far the tree I was working against had
drifted - v2 was generated against 6.10-rc6. Rebased on v7.3-rc1 now, and
the base commit is recorded at the bottom so this cannot happen unnoticed
again. Thank you for taking the time to look at it anyway.
v3:
- rebase onto v7.3-rc1; v2 did not apply
- add Fixes: and Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, as requested
- collect Reviewed-by from Damien and Acked-by from Pali
- no code change
v2:
- retitle "clear HOST_IRQ_STAT before the ports" -> "work around lost
interrupts", per review
drivers/ata/ahci.c | 49 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 49 insertions(+)
diff --git a/drivers/ata/ahci.c b/drivers/ata/ahci.c
--- a/drivers/ata/ahci.c
+++ b/drivers/ata/ahci.c
@@ -2614,6 +2614,51 @@
}
#endif
+/*
+ * The Marvell 88SE6111/6121/6145 ("Thor") family stops reporting interrupts
+ * for a port when HOST_IRQ_STAT is cleared while PxIS still holds bits: PxIS
+ * keeps its content, HOST_IRQ_STAT reads back as 0, the port is never looked
+ * at again and the command in flight only ends in a timeout. On a 88SE6121
+ * this makes every SATA-2 or SATA-3 disk fail to IDENTIFY, while SATA-1 disks
+ * happen to win the race often enough to work.
+ *
+ * Clearing the host status before servicing the ports avoids it. Marvell's
+ * own driver for these chips does the same and says so ("clear global before
+ * channel"), and ahci_xgene handles its broken edge latch the same way. The
+ * price is at most one spurious interrupt per valid one, which is why this is
+ * not the generic behaviour - see AHCI 1.1 section 10.6.2.
+ *
+ * Link: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=216094
+ */
+static irqreturn_t ahci_mv_irq_handler(int irq, void *dev_instance)
+{
+ struct ata_host *host = dev_instance;
+ struct ahci_host_priv *hpriv = host->private_data;
+ void __iomem *mmio = hpriv->mmio;
+ unsigned int rc;
+ u32 irq_stat, irq_masked;
+
+ irq_stat = readl(mmio + HOST_IRQ_STAT);
+ if (!irq_stat)
+ return IRQ_NONE;
+
+ irq_masked = irq_stat & hpriv->port_map;
+
+ spin_lock(&host->lock);
+
+ /*
+ * Use the unmasked value to clear the interrupt, as a spurious pending
+ * event on a dummy port might cause a screaming IRQ.
+ */
+ writel(irq_stat, mmio + HOST_IRQ_STAT);
+
+ rc = ahci_handle_port_intr(host, irq_masked);
+
+ spin_unlock(&host->lock);
+
+ return IRQ_RETVAL(rc);
+}
+
static void ahci_remap_check(struct pci_dev *pdev, int bar,
struct ahci_host_priv *hpriv)
{
@@ -2917,6 +2962,10 @@
return -ENOMEM;
hpriv->flags |= (unsigned long)pi.private_data;
+ /* the Marvell "Thor" family needs HOST_IRQ_STAT cleared first */
+ if (board_id == board_ahci_mv)
+ hpriv->irq_handler = ahci_mv_irq_handler;
+
/* MCP65 revision A1 and A2 can't do MSI */
if (board_id == board_ahci_mcp65 &&
(pdev->revision == 0xa1 || pdev->revision == 0xa2))
base-commit: cee9395acd8043be0644b25c34bfa86623f2b935