Re: Issue with Clock Parent Assignment on AM335x SoC (Watchdog Timer)

[Stephen Boyd <sboyd@kernel.org>]

+Tony (author of commit)

Quoting Mathieu Dubois-Briand (2026-04-28 05:03:16)
> Hi,
> 
> I believe I’ve identified an issue with clock management on the AM335x
> SoC and possibly other TI SoC. It can be seen while using the SoC
> watchdog timer, but I suspect other clocks or modules might be impacted.
> 
> While I partially understand the issue, I struggle to find a correct
> solution. I will describe my findings below.
> 
> First, here is a quick way to reproduce it.
> - Hardware: Beagle Bone Black.
> - Linux kernel version: v7.1-rc1 (or anything after 5.19).
> - Configuration: omap2plus_defconfig + CONFIG_OMAP_WATCHDOG=y
> - In the bootloader, I select the 32KHz clock derived from the 24MHz one
>   as the watchdog clock source. This is controlled by bit 1 of
>   CLKSEL_WDT1_CLK.
>   This is probably the point that differs from most use cases, and why
>   it hasn't been observed before. On my final setup, I do not control
>   the bootloader and so cannot change this value.
>   In u-boot, this is: mw.l 0x44e00538 1
> - Once the kernel is booted, I open the watchdog device node. I'm using
>   busybox "watchdog" command, but a simple "cat" will trigger the same
>   error.
>   watchdog /dev/watchdog0
> - This will result in the bus clock failing to be enabled and a failure
>   to access the watchdog module:
>   [   11.677752] l4-wkup-clkctrl:00d4:0: failed to enable
>   [   11.686079] Unhandled fault: external abort on non-linefetch (0x1028) at 0xf9e35034
>   I'm attaching the full trace at the very end of my email.
> 
> So, I tried to dig a bit into this issue and the reason why the
> l4-wkup-clkctrl:00d4:0 clock can't be enabled.
> 
> The parent clock of l4-wkup-clkctrl:00d4:0 is wdt1_fck, and the "struct
> clk_core" [1] representing this wdt1_fck looks incorrect:
> - The "parents" list of all possible sources is set correctly. It
>   contains pointers on both "clk_rc32k_ck" and "clk_24mhz_clkctrl"
>   structures.
> - The "parent" pointer is NULL, while it should point onto the
>   "clk_24mhz_clkctrl" clk_core structure.
> 
> I believe this is because the value fails to be initialized correctly
> during boot. This should be set in clk_core_set_parent_nolock() [2], but
> fails as the call to clk_fetch_parent_index() [3] is failing.
> 
> The reason it fails is easy to explain:
> - The clk_fetch_parent_index() function is used to find which entry in
>   core->parents[] corresponds to the clock we try to assign as a parent.
> - The name of the desired parent, as set in the "struct clk_core" is set
>   to "clk-24mhz-clkctrl:0000:0".
> - The expected name of the clock, as specified in core->parents[1]
>   "struct clk_parent_map" is just "clk_24mhz_clkctrl".
> - As a consequence, the name comparison [4] fails, and the clock choice
>   is deemed invalid.
> 
> Now, where does these names come from? I believe it's partly from the
> device tree, partly from drivers/clk/ti/clkctrl.c and
> drivers/clk/ti/clk.c. I tried to play a bit with this code, but I'm a
> bit lost with the logic here.
> 
> Yet, I confirm I can get a working configuration with this horrible
> hack:
> --- c/drivers/clk/clk.c
> +++ w/drivers/clk/clk.c
> @@ -2026,6 +2026,11 @@ static int clk_fetch_parent_index(struct clk_core *core,
>                 if (core->parents[i].name &&
>                     !strcmp(parent->name, core->parents[i].name))
>                         break;
> +               if (core->parents[i].name &&
> +                   !strcmp("clk_24mhz_clkctrl", core->parents[i].name) &&
> +                   !strcmp("clk-24mhz-clkctrl:0000:0", parent->name)) {
> +                       break;
> +               }
>         }
> 
> I can trace the issue back to commit ec7aa25fa483 [5] introduced in
> v5.19. Yet today, reverting this commit is not sufficient, as I believe
> the code did evolve significantly.
> 
> Does anyone have suggestions for fixing this issue? If any part of my
> analysis seems incorrect, please let me know.
> 
> [1]: https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/v7.0.1/source/drivers/clk/clk.c#L66
> [2]: https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/v7.0.1/source/drivers/clk/clk.c#L2883
> [3]: https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/v7.0.1/source/drivers/clk/clk.c#L2004
> [4]: https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/v7.0.1/source/drivers/clk/clk.c#L2035
> [5]: https://web.git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=ec7aa25fa483
> 
> Thanks,
> Mathieu
> 
> The full log follows.
> 
> -------------- >8 -------------
> # watchdog /dev/watchdog0
> [   11.677752] l4-wkup-clkctrl:00d4:0: failed to enable
> [   11.682999] 8<--- cut here ---
> [   11.686079] Unhandled fault: external abort on non-linefetch (0x1028) at 0xf9e35034
> [   11.693778] [f9e35034] *pgd=44e11452(bad)
> [   11.697834] Internal error: : 1028 [#1] SMP ARM
> [   11.702394] Modules linked in:
> [   11.705474] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 130 Comm: watchdog Not tainted 7.1.0-rc1-00001-g700d54ce1b97-dirty #2 VOLUNTARY 
> [   11.715619] Hardware name: Generic AM33XX (Flattened Device Tree)
> [   11.721742] PC is at omap_wdt_disable+0x14/0xb8
> [   11.726327] LR is at omap_wdt_start+0x34/0xf8
> [   11.730714] pc : [<c0944e08>]    lr : [<c0945068>]    psr: 600f0013
> [   11.737010] sp : e0305d58  ip : f9e35048  fp : c1aaea80
> [   11.742260] r10: c216b220  r9 : c1ec9ba0  r8 : c1f60c00
> [   11.747509] r7 : b7cab00b  r6 : c1ec9bbc  r5 : f9e35000  r4 : c1ec9b40
> [   11.754068] r3 : f9e35034  r2 : 00000000  r1 : 600f0013  r0 : f9e35000
> [   11.760627] Flags: nZCv  IRQs on  FIQs on  Mode SVC_32  ISA ARM  Segment none
> [   11.767800] Control: 10c5387d  Table: 82e68019  DAC: 00000051
> [   11.773573] Register r0 information: 0-page vmalloc region starting at 0xf9c00000 allocated at iotable_init+0x0/0xc0
> [   11.784171] Register r1 information: non-paged memory
> [   11.789254] Register r2 information: NULL pointer
> [   11.793986] Register r3 information: 0-page vmalloc region starting at 0xf9c00000 allocated at iotable_init+0x0/0xc0
> [   11.804570] Register r4 information: slab kmalloc-256 start c1ec9b00 pointer offset 64 size 256
> [   11.813342] Register r5 information: 0-page vmalloc region starting at 0xf9c00000 allocated at iotable_init+0x0/0xc0
> [   11.823927] Register r6 information: slab kmalloc-256 start c1ec9b00 pointer offset 188 size 256
> [   11.832781] Register r7 information: non-paged memory
> [   11.837861] Register r8 information: slab kmalloc-1k start c1f60c00 pointer offset 0 size 1024
> [   11.846539] Register r9 information: slab kmalloc-256 start c1ec9b00 pointer offset 160 size 256
> [   11.855391] Register r10 information: slab dentry start c216b220 pointer offset 0 size 136
> [   11.863721] Register r11 information: slab filp start c1aaea80 pointer offset 0 size 128
> [   11.871876] Register r12 information: 0-page vmalloc region starting at 0xf9c00000 allocated at iotable_init+0x0/0xc0
> [   11.882548] Process watchdog (pid: 130, stack limit = 0x(ptrval))
> [   11.888674] Stack: (0xe0305d58 to 0xe0306000)
> [   11.893055] 5d40:                                                       c1ec9b40 c1e44930
> [   11.901275] 5d60: 00000002 c0943de8 0f900000 00000000 c18a5000 c1f60df0 c1ba7580 c1f60c00
> [   11.909496] 5d80: c1e44930 c1aaea80 c1ec9b40 c1f60eac 00000000 c0943f4c c1f60df0 c1e44930
> [   11.917715] 5da0: c0d90324 00000000 c1aaea80 c0370ba8 00000000 73a085ae e0305e78 c1aaea80
> [   11.925935] 5dc0: 00000000 c1e44930 c0370ab8 c1aaeaa8 e0305e78 c0365070 c1aaea80 c1286208
> [   11.934154] 5de0: c1aaeaa8 00000000 e0305f30 c0366ba4 e0305f30 c037986c e0305f30 c037a844
> [   11.942374] 5e00: 00020001 c1286208 00000000 c0380710 e0305e68 b6e56000 b6fb7fff c1bc880c
> [   11.950594] 5e20: 00000000 00000101 00000000 00000000 00000000 82e4a831 c2e79880 00100cca
> [   11.958814] 5e40: 00000150 b6fa6000 b6fa6000 73a085ae c2e6adb8 c195bc00 e0305f30 ffffff9c
> [   11.967034] 5e60: 00000001 c01002ec c1fe1500 00000142 005a6874 c0381170 c18f6f10 c216b220
> [   11.975253] 5e80: 4a3c55ab 00000009 c195bc11 00000000 00000000 c21a2b28 c1e44930 00010001
> [   11.983472] 5ea0: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000098 00000002 00000000 00000000 00000000
> [   11.991692] 5ec0: e0305ec4 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
> [   11.999911] 5ee0: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 c195bc00 c195bc0c 00000000
> [   12.008131] 5f00: 00000002 ffffff9c 00000000 000041ed e0305f60 73a085ae ffffff9c 00000003
> [   12.016351] 5f20: e0305f60 c195bc00 ffffff9c c0367010 00020001 00000000 00000002 00010000
> [   12.024571] 5f40: 00000001 73a085ae bed20ab4 ffffff9c bed20f58 005a79bc 00000142 c03673e8
> [   12.032790] 5f60: 00020001 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00020001 00000000
> [   12.041009] 5f80: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 bed20b38 73a085ae bed20be4 00000000
> [   12.049229] 5fa0: 00000000 c0100080 00000000 00000000 ffffff9c bed20f58 00020001 00000000
> [   12.057449] 5fc0: 00000000 00000000 005a79bc 00000142 004dfc60 b6ffccf8 00000000 005a6874
> [   12.065668] 5fe0: 00020001 bed20c28 00000001 b6ed2458 200f0010 ffffff9c 00000000 00000000
> [   12.073883] Call trace: 
> [   12.073895]  omap_wdt_disable from omap_wdt_start+0x34/0xf8
> [   12.082052]  omap_wdt_start from watchdog_start+0x8c/0x184
> [   12.087579]  watchdog_start from watchdog_open+0x6c/0xf0
> [   12.092930]  watchdog_open from chrdev_open+0xf0/0x220
> [   12.098113]  chrdev_open from do_dentry_open+0x120/0x4f8
> [   12.103465]  do_dentry_open from vfs_open+0x24/0xe4
> [   12.108378]  vfs_open from path_openat+0x828/0x1224
> [   12.113293]  path_openat from do_file_open+0x64/0xd8
> [   12.118290]  do_file_open from do_sys_openat2+0x80/0xe8
> [   12.123550]  do_sys_openat2 from sys_openat+0x7c/0xd0
> [   12.128637]  sys_openat from ret_fast_syscall+0x0/0x58
> [   12.133810] Exception stack(0xe0305fa8 to 0xe0305ff0)
> [   12.138891] 5fa0:                   00000000 00000000 ffffff9c bed20f58 00020001 00000000
> [   12.147111] 5fc0: 00000000 00000000 005a79bc 00000142 004dfc60 b6ffccf8 00000000 005a6874
> [   12.155329] 5fe0: 00020001 bed20c28 00000001 b6ed2458
> [   12.160412] Code: e59f30a4 e280c048 e58c3000 e2803034 (e5902034) 
> [   12.166540] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---
> [   12.171183] note: watchdog[130] exited with irqs disabled
> [   13.282448] omap_prm 44e00d00.prm: sync_state() pending due to 44d00000.cpu
> 
> -- 
> Mathieu Dubois-Briand, Bootlin
> Embedded Linux and Kernel engineering
> https://bootlin.com