Re: [PATCH 0/8] Asynchronous device/driver probing support

[Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>]

On Tue, Feb 03, 2015 at 03:12:19PM -0800, Dmitry Torokhov wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 16, 2015 at 03:33:09PM -0800, Dmitry Torokhov wrote:
> > This series is a combination of changes proposed by Luis a couple months
> > ago and implementation used by Chrome OS. The issue we are trying to solve
> > here is "slow" devices and drivers spending "too much time" in their probe()
> > methods and it affects:
> > 
> > - overall kernel boot process when drivers are compiled into the kernel
> >   and slow devices stall entire boot progress;
> > - systemd desire to time out module loading process.
> > 
> > Unlike Luis' proposal we do make use of asycn_schedule() infrastructure
> > instead of using a dedicated workqueue, so all  existing synchronization
> > points in kernel that wait for device registration still work the same.
> > Also, the asynchronous probing is done not only during driver registration
> > (i.e. when devices are probed asynchronously only if they are registered
> > before the driver), but also during device registration and deferred probe
> > handling. This way slow devices do not stall kernel boot even when drivers
> > are compiled into the kernel.
> > 
> > The last patch is for adventurous people to try and force
> > fully-asynchronous boot. It works for me with limited success - I can boot
> > Rockhip-based box to userspace as long as I force serial to be sychronously
> > probed and ignore the fact that most devices are using "dummy" regulators
> > as regulator subsystem really expects regulators to be registered in
> > orderly fashion on OF-based systems.
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > Dmitry
> > 
> > 
> > Dmitry Torokhov (3):
> >   driver-core: add asynchronous probing support for drivers
> >   driver-core: platform_driver_probe() must probe synchronously
> >   module: add core_param_unsafe
> > 
> > Luis R. Rodriguez (5):
> >   module: add extra argument for parse_params() callback
> >   driver-core: add driver module asynchronous probe support
> >   driver-core: enable drivers to opt-out of async probe
> >   amd64_edac: enforce synchronous probe
> >   driver-core: allow forcing async probing for modules and builtins
> > 
> >  Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt |  13 +++
> >  arch/powerpc/mm/hugetlbpage.c       |   4 +-
> >  drivers/base/base.h                 |   1 +
> >  drivers/base/bus.c                  |  31 +++++--
> >  drivers/base/dd.c                   | 166 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----
> >  drivers/base/platform.c             |  13 +++
> >  drivers/edac/amd64_edac.c           |   1 +
> >  include/linux/device.h              |  26 ++++++
> >  include/linux/module.h              |   2 +
> >  include/linux/moduleparam.h         |  12 ++-
> >  init/main.c                         |  25 +++---
> >  kernel/module.c                     |  25 +++++-
> >  kernel/params.c                     |  11 ++-
> >  lib/dynamic_debug.c                 |   4 +-
> >  14 files changed, 284 insertions(+), 50 deletions(-)
> > 
> > -- 
> > 2.2.0.rc0.207.ga3a616c
> > 
> 
> *ping*

Sorry, I was waiting for someone else here to speak up.

It's too late for 3.20, I'll look at this when 3.20-rc1 is out, thanks,

greg k-h