Re: [PATCH] [RESEND] drm: fb_helper: fix CONFIG_FB dependency

[Jani Nikula <jani.nikula@linux.intel.com>]

On Thu, 30 Sep 2021, Daniel Vetter <daniel@ffwll.ch> wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 27, 2021 at 09:23:45AM -0700, Kees Cook wrote:
>> On Mon, Sep 27, 2021 at 04:28:02PM +0200, Arnd Bergmann wrote:
>> > From: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de>
>> > 
>> > With CONFIG_FB=m and CONFIG_DRM=y, we get a link error in the fb helper:
>> > 
>> > aarch64-linux-ld: drivers/gpu/drm/drm_fb_helper.o: in function `drm_fb_helper_alloc_fbi':
>> > (.text+0x10cc): undefined reference to `framebuffer_alloc'
>> > 
>> > Tighten the dependency so it is only allowed in the case that DRM can
>> > link against FB.
>> > 
>> > Fixes: f611b1e7624c ("drm: Avoid circular dependencies for CONFIG_FB")
>> > Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20210721152211.2706171-1-arnd@kernel.org/
>> > Signed-off-by: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de>
>> 
>> Thanks for fixing this!
>> 
>> Reviewed-by: Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>
>
> Stuffed into drm-misc-next.

The problem is, I don't think the patch is semantically correct.

drm_fb_helper.o is not part of drm.ko, it's part of
drm_kms_helper.ko. This adds some sort of indirect dependency via DRM
which might work, maybe by coincidence, maybe not - but it's certainly
not obvious.

The likely culprit is, again, the overuse of select, and in this case
select DRM_KMS_HELPER. And DRM_KMS_HELPER should depend on FB if
DRM_FBDEV_EMULATION=y. That's the problem.

All of the drm Kconfigs could use an overhaul to be semantically
correct, but that's a hill nobody wants to die on. Instead we keep
piling up tweaks to paper over the issues, ad infinitum.

(And this ties to a previous comment I had about the organization of
files under drm/, a hundred files in one big lump that belong to
different modules, and it's not helping people figure out the
dependencies.)


BR,
Jani.


PS. I was brought here via [1] which is another complicated "fix" to the
same problem.


[1] https://lore.kernel.org/r/20211027072044.4105113-1-javierm@redhat.com


-- 
Jani Nikula, Intel Open Source Graphics Center