Re: [PATCH 08/11] MTD: m25p80: Add option to limit SPI transfer size.

[Marek Vasut <marex@denx.de>]

On Wednesday, July 22, 2015 at 10:38:14 AM, Michal Suchanek wrote:
> On 22 July 2015 at 10:24, Marek Vasut <marex@denx.de> wrote:
> > On Wednesday, July 22, 2015 at 10:18:04 AM, Michal Suchanek wrote:
> >> On 22 July 2015 at 09:58, Marek Vasut <marex@denx.de> wrote:
> >> > On Wednesday, July 22, 2015 at 09:45:27 AM, Michal Suchanek wrote:
> >> >> On 22 July 2015 at 09:33, Marek Vasut <marex@denx.de> wrote:
> >> >> > On Wednesday, July 22, 2015 at 09:30:54 AM, Michal Suchanek wrote:
> >> >> >> On 22 July 2015 at 06:49, Vinod Koul <vinod.koul@intel.com> wrote:
> >> >> >> > On Tue, Jul 21, 2015 at 10:14:11AM +0200, Michal Suchanek wrote:
> >> >> >> >> > Or alternatively we could publish the limitations of the
> >> >> >> >> > channel using capabilities so SPI knows I have a dmaengine
> >> >> >> >> > channel and it can transfer max N length transfers so would
> >> >> >> >> > be able to break rather than guessing it or coding in DT.
> >> >> >> >> > Yes it may come from DT but that should be dmaengine driver
> >> >> >> >> > rather than client driver :)
> >> >> >> >> > 
> >> >> >> >> > This can be done by dma_get_slave_caps(chan, &caps)
> >> >> >> >> > 
> >> >> >> >> > And we add max_length as one more parameter to existing set
> >> >> >> >> > 
> >> >> >> >> > Also all this could be handled in generic SPI-dmaengine layer
> >> >> >> >> > so that individual drivers don't have to code it in
> >> >> >> >> > 
> >> >> >> >> > Let me know if this idea is okay, I can push the dmaengine
> >> >> >> >> > bits...
> >> >> >> >> 
> >> >> >> >> It would be ok if there was a fixed limit. However, the limit
> >> >> >> >> depends on SPI slave settings. Presumably for other buses using
> >> >> >> >> the dmaengine the limit would depend on the bus or slave
> >> >> >> >> settings as well. I do not see a sane way of passing this all
> >> >> >> >> the way to the dmaengine driver.
> >> >> >> > 
> >> >> >> > I don't see why this should be client (SPI) dependent. The max
> >> >> >> > length supported is a dmaengine constraint, typically flowing
> >> >> >> > from max blocks/length it can transfer. Know this limit can
> >> >> >> > allow clients to split transfers.
> >> >> >> 
> >> >> >> In practice on the board I have the maximum transfer length before
> >> >> >> it fails depends on SPI bus speed which is set up per slave. I
> >> >> >> did not try searching the space of possible settings thorougly
> >> >> >> and settled for a setting that gives reasonable speed and
> >> >> >> transfer length.
> >> >> > 
> >> >> > This looks more like a signal integrity issue though.
> >> >> 
> >> >> It certainly does on the surface. However, when wrong data is
> >> >> delivered over the SPI bus (such as when I use wrong phase setting)
> >> >> the SPI controller happily delivers wrong data over PIO.
> >> >> 
> >> >> The failure I am seeing is that the pl330 DMA program which
> >> >> repeatedly waits for data from the SPI controller never finishes the
> >> >> read loop and does not signal the interrupt. It seems it also leaves
> >> >> some data in a FIFO somewhere so next command on the flash returns
> >> >> garbage and fails.
> >> > 
> >> > I observed something similar on MXS (mx28) SPI block. Do you use mixed
> >> > PIO/DMA mode perhaps ?
> >> 
> >> The SPI driver uses PIO for short transfers and DMA for transfers
> >> longer than the controller FIFO. This seems to be the standard way to
> >> do things.It works flawlessly so long as submitting overly long DMA
> >> programs is avoided.
> > 
> > Can you try doing JUST DMA, no PIO ? I remember seeing some bus
> > synchronisation issues when I did mixed PIO/DMA on the MXS and it was
> > nasty to track down. Just give pure DMA a go to see if the thing
> > stabilizes somehow.
> 
> It's probably slower to set up DMA for 2-byte commands but it might
> work nonetheless.

It is, the overhead will be considerable. It might help the stability
though. I'm really looking forward to the results!

> I will give it a go.
> 
> >> > Do you have the option to connect a bus analyzer?
> >> > I can probably offer you some tools, I'm in Prague ...
> >> 
> >> The flash chip is accessible when removing the bottom cover. It is
> >> VSOP8 package slightly lower than SOP8 so attaching clips to it might
> >> be a bit problematic. That's the only accessible part. Everything
> >> other than SPI is inside the SoC.
> > 
> > That might be doable, though you might want to try the above thing first.
> > 
> >> Since SPI has no verification whatsoever the chip might be completely
> >> dead and you can still read fine all zeroes or all ones when
> >> attempting a read from it. I observed this behaviour when I used a
> >> flash chip in a socket and it was not firmly seated. It was with a
> >> different SPI controller, though.
> > 
> > You should run into issues as soon as the SPI NOR framework tries to read
> > status register, no ?
> 
> Yes, when the DMA transfer fails the next command fails due to garbage
> lying around. However, you can unload the SPI NOR driver, load spidev
> driver, and read enough garbage to empty the fifos. Then the flash
> identifies as normal again and you can access it.

Yikes :(

> When the flash is not seated properly and acts autistic you get all
> 0xff or all 0 back whatever you send to it, obvously. The
> identification by the SPI NOR driver fails then.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Michal