Re: runtime check for omap-aes bus access permission (was: Re: 3.13-rc3 (commit 7ce93f3) breaks Nokia N900 DT boot)

Tony Lindgren
2015-05-29T18:16:26Z

* Tony Lindgren <tony@atomide.com> [150529 08:52]:
> * Matthijs van Duin <matthijsvanduin@gmail.com> [150528 18:37]:
> > On 29 May 2015 at 02:58, Matthijs van Duin <matthijsvanduin@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > It is only guaranteed to happen immediately (before the next
> > > instruction is executed) if the error occurs before the posting-point
> > > of the write. However, in that case the error is reported in-band to
> > > the cpu, resulting in a (synchronous) bus error which takes precedence
> > > over the out-of-band error irq (if any is signalled).
> >
> > OK, all this was actually assuming linux uses device-type mappings for
> > device mappings, which was also the impression I got from
> > build_mem_type_table() in arch/arm/mm/mmu.c (although it's a bit of a
> > maze). A quick test however seems to imply otherwise:
> >
> > ~# ./bogus-dev-write
> > Bus error
> >
> > So... linux actually uses strongly-ordered mappings? I really didn't
> > expect that, given the performance implications (especially on a
> > strictly in-order cpu like the Cortex-A8 which will really just sit
> > there picking its nose until the write completes) and I think I recall
> > having seen an OCP barrier being used somewhere in driver code...
>
> I believe some TI kernels use strongly-ordered mappings, mainline
> kernel does not. Which kernel version are you using?
>
> > Well, in that case everything I said is technically still true, except
> > the posting point is the peripheral itself. That also means the
> > interconnect error reporting mechanism is not really useful for
> > probing since you'll get a bus error before any error irq is
> > delivered.
>
> Hmm if that's the case then yes we can't use the error irq. However,
> what I've seen so far is that we only get the bus error if the
> l3_* drivers are configured. I guess some more testing is needed.
>
> > So I'd say you're back at having to trap that bus error using the
> > exception handling mechanism, which I still suspect shouldn't be hard
> > to do.
>
> And in that case it makes sense to do that in the bootloader to
> avoid adding any custom early boot code to Linux kernel.
>
> > Or perhaps you could probe the device using a DMA access and combine
> > that with the interconnect error reporting irq... ;-)
>
> Heh too many dependencies :)

If we can't use the l3 interrrupts, then something similar to commit
fdf4850cb5b2 ("ARM: BCM5301X: workaround suppress fault") might be
doable too.

Regards,

Tony