Re: Gaps in logs while using usb-serial as a console

[Greg KH <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>]

On Sun, Oct 29, 2023 at 08:21:21PM +0200, ariel marcovitch wrote:
> Greetings!
> 
> While using a usb-serial device as console, I've noticed some
> significant gaps in the kernel logs it receives.
> 
> The problem can be reproduced in qemu like this (the kernel is a
> x86_64_defconfig with usb-serial enabled and with the ftdi_sio driver
> enabled):
> qemu-system-x86_64 -m 4G -kernel arch/x86_64/boot/bzImage -usb -device
> usb-serial,chardev=ser -chardev pty,id=ser -append 'console=ttyUSB0'
> (this will create a `pts` device that will connect to the other end of
> the emulated usb-serial)
> 
> Then the logs look something like this:
> [    1.006459] SELinux:  Initializing.
> [    1.011620] Mount-cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 4, 65536
> bytes, li[    2.315341] ACPI: \_SB_.LNKD: Enabled at IRQ 11
> 
> This probably happens because of the code in
> `usb_serial_generic_write` which tries to insert the data into the
> fifo:
> count = kfifo_in_locked(&port->write_fifo, buf, count, &port->lock);
> Because added indications for when the result is less than expected
> and it showed significant losses.
> The return value is silently ignored in `usb_console_write`
> Also making the fifo bigger in `setup_port_bulk_out` helped (I made it
> 10 times bigger and there were no losses)
> 
> The reason so much data is written at a short time is because
> usb-serial is initialized rather late, and when it is registered as a
> console, all the logs until this point are written to it.
> 
> I'm not sure what the solution should be. Maybe we need to check
> whether the write in `console_emit_next_record` was successful and not
> increase the seq counter in this case.
> 
> Any suggestions?

Please realize that usb-serial console was the result of me loosing a
drunken bet.  It's amazing it works at all.  For "fake" devices like
this, that use the generic usb-serial code, yes, you will have overruns
and other problems, that's just part of how it works (i.e. not well.)

For something like qemu, please use a real console, like the serial port
(i.e. a fake serial port), not the fake usb-serial port.

So this is "working as designed" in that it wasn't designed at all and
again, it is a miracle any data is flowing there at all :)

sorry,

greg k-h