Re: [PATCHv2 RFC] virtio-spec: flexible configuration layout

Sasha Levin
2011-11-09T21:15:55Z

On Wed, 2011-11-09 at 23:14 +0200, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 09, 2011 at 10:57:28PM +0200, Sasha Levin wrote:
> > On Wed, 2011-11-09 at 22:52 +0200, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote:
> > > On Wed, Nov 09, 2011 at 10:24:47PM +0200, Sasha Levin wrote:
> > > > On Wed, 2011-11-09 at 21:59 +0200, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote:
> > > >
> > > > [snip]
> > > >
> > > > > +\begin_layout Enumerate
> > > > > +Reset the device.
> > > > > + This is not required on initial start up.
> > > > > +\end_layout
> > > > > +
> > > > > +\begin_layout Enumerate
> > > > > +The ACKNOWLEDGE status bit is set: we have noticed the device.
> > > > > +\end_layout
> > > > > +
> > > > > +\begin_layout Enumerate
> > > > > +The DRIVER status bit is set: we know how to drive the device.
> > > > > +\end_layout
> > > > > +
> > > > > +\begin_layout Enumerate
> > > > > +
> > > > > +\change_inserted 1986246365 1320838089
> > > > > +PCI capability list scan, detecting virtio configuration layout using Virtio
> > > > > + Structure PCI capabilities.
> > > >
> > > > Does the legacy space always gets mapped from BAR0?
> > > >
> > > > If yes,
> > >
> > > Yes and this is repeated in several places. Not clear? How can this
> > > be made clearer?
> >
> > Do you mean comments such as "For backwards compatibility, devices
> > should also present legacy configuration space in the first I/O region
> > of the PCI device"? What I understood from it is that the device should
> > have a legacy config in case it's used with an older guest, but I didn't
> > understand from it that the legacy config will be used even if new
> > layout is present.
>
> Yes, this is what I meant. New guest is required to use the new space
> and not the legacy one. So you dont need a legacy space for the at all.
> But practically, we'll need to support old guests for a long while.
>
> > > > It'll be a bit harder deprecating it in the future.
> > >
> > > Harder than ... what ?
> >
> > Harder than allowing devices not to present it at all if new layout
> > config is used.
>
> Yes, it's allowed if you know you have a new guest. It says
> explicitly that drivers are required to use new capabilities
> is they are there.
>
> > Right now the simple implementation is to use MMIO for
> > config and device specific, and let it fallback to legacy for ISR and
> > notifications (and therefore, this is probably how everybody will
> > implement it), which means that when you do want to deprecate legacy,
> > there will be extra work to be done then, instead of doing it now.
>
> If hypervisors don't implement the new layout then drivers will
> have to keep supporting the old one. I don't think we can do
> much about that.
>
> > > IMO there's no way to put legacy anywhere except the first BAR
> > > without breaking existing guests.
> >
> > It's not about where we put legacy, it's about how easy it is to drop
> > legacy entirely.
>
> We can only do this after all guests and hypervisors are updated. When
> they are, we can drop legacy from drivers and hypervisors, and
> I don't see a way to make it easier.

Well, in that case, why does the PCI cap probing is #4 in the device
init list? Shouldn't we getting the layout and mapping it before we
write to the status byte?

--

Sasha.