Re: [PATCH v9 9/9] PCI: Add a new 'boot_display' attribute

[Bjorn Helgaas <helgaas@kernel.org>]

On Fri, Jul 18, 2025 at 12:29:05PM -0500, Mario Limonciello wrote:
> On 7/18/2025 12:25 PM, Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
> > On Thu, Jul 17, 2025 at 12:38:12PM -0500, Mario Limonciello wrote:
> > > From: Mario Limonciello <mario.limonciello@amd.com>
> > > 
> > > On systems with multiple GPUs there can be uncertainty which GPU is the
> > > primary one used to drive the display at bootup. In some desktop
> > > environments this can lead to increased power consumption because
> > > secondary GPUs may be used for rendering and never go to a low power
> > > state. In order to disambiguate this add a new sysfs attribute
> > > 'boot_display' that uses the output of video_is_primary_device() to
> > > populate whether a PCI device was used for driving the display.
> > 
> > > +What:		/sys/bus/pci/devices/.../boot_display
> > > +Date:		October 2025
> > > +Contact:	Linux PCI developers <linux-pci@vger.kernel.org>
> > > +Description:
> > > +		This file indicates that displays connected to the device were
> > > +		used to display the boot sequence.  If a display connected to
> > > +		the device was used to display the boot sequence the file will
> > > +		be present and contain "1".
> > 
> > >   int __must_check pci_create_sysfs_dev_files(struct pci_dev *pdev)
> > >   {
> > > +	int retval;
> > > +
> > >   	if (!sysfs_initialized)
> > >   		return -EACCES;
> > > +	retval = pci_create_boot_display_file(pdev);
> > 
> > In addition to Mani's question about whether /sys/bus/pci/ is the
> > right place for this (which is a very good question), it's also been
> > pointed out to me that we've been trying to get rid of
> > pci_create_sysfs_dev_files() for years.
> > 
> > If it's possible to make this a static attribute that would be much,
> > much cleaner.
> 
> Right - I tried to do this, but the problem is at the time the PCI device is
> created the information needed to make the judgement isn't ready.  The
> options end up being:
> * a sysfs file for every display device with 0/1
> * a sysfs file that is not accurate until later in the boot

What's missing?  The specifics might be helpful if someone has another
crack at getting rid of pci_create_sysfs_dev_files() in the future.

> So IMO it /needs/ to come later.
> 
> > 
> > > +	if (retval)
> > > +		return retval;
> > > +
> > >   	return pci_create_resource_files(pdev);
> > >   }
> > > @@ -1671,6 +1716,7 @@ void pci_remove_sysfs_dev_files(struct pci_dev *pdev)
> > >   	if (!sysfs_initialized)
> > >   		return;
> > > +	pci_remove_boot_display_file(pdev);
> > >   	pci_remove_resource_files(pdev);
> > >   }
> > > -- 
> > > 2.43.0
> > > 
>