Re: [DRIVER][RFC] SC1200 Watchdog driver

Christer Weinigel
2002-02-22T20:49:08Z

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Francois Romieu wrote:
> > I've gone through the drivers and tried to write down "established
> > practice". I guess I'm too wordy as usual, but it should be a
> > starting point. Please take a look at the attached file and if you or
>
> -ENOATTACHMENT

I'm blaming the hangover. *sigh* I do this all the time...

I really have to turn on my brain sometime today :-)

/Christer

--
"Nothing is as easy as it seems"

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The Linux Watchdog driver API.

Copyright 2002 Christer Weingel <wingel@nano-system.com>

Some parts of this document are copied verbatim from the sbc60xxwdt
driver which is (c) Copyright 2000 Jakob Oestergaard <jakob@ostenfeld.dk>

This document describes the state of the Linux 2.4.17 kernel.

Introduction:

A Watchdog Timer (WDT) is a hardware circuit that can reset the
computer system in case of a software fault. You probably knew that
already.

Usually a userspace daemon will notify the kernel watchdog driver via the
/proc/watchdog special device file that userspace is still alive, at
regular intervals. When such a notification occurs, the driver will
usually tell the hardware watchdog that everything is in order, and
that the watchdog should wait for yet another little while to reset
the system. If userspace fails (RAM error, kernel bug, whatever), the
notifications cease to occur, and the hardware watchdog will reset the
system (causing a reboot) after the timeout occurs.

The Linux watchdog API is a rather AD hoc construction and different
drivers implent different, and sometimes incompatible parts of it.
This file is an attempt to document the existing usage and allow
future driver writers to use it as a reference.

The simplest API:

All drivers support the basic mode of operation, where the watchdog
activates as soon as /dev/watchdog is opened and will reboot unless
the watchdog is pinged within a certain time, this time is called the
timeout or margin. The simplest way to ping the watchdog is to write
some data to the device. So a very simple watchdog daemon would look
like this:

int main(int argc, const char *argv[]) {
int fd=open("/dev/watchdog",O_WRONLY);
if (fd==-1) {
perror("watchdog");
exit(1);
}
while(1) {
write(fd, "\0", 1);
sleep(10);
}
}

A more advanced driver could for example check that a HTTP server is
still responding before doing the write call to ping the watchdog.

When the device is closed, the watchdog is disabled. This is not
always such a good idea, since if there is a bug in the watchdog
daemon and it crashes the system will not reboot. Because of this,
some of the drivers support the configuration option "Disable watchdog
shutdown on close", CONFIG_WATCHDOG_NOWAYOUT. If it is set to Y when
compiling the kernel, there is no way of disabling the watchdog once
it has been started. So, if the watchdog dameon crashes, the system
will reboot after the timeout has passed.

Some other drivers will not disable the watchdog, unless a specific
magic character 'V' has been sent /dev/watchdog just before closing
the file. If the userspace daemon closes the file without sending
this special character, the driver will assume that the daemon (and
userspace in general) died, and will stop pinging the watchdog without
disabling it first. This will then cause a reboot.

The ioctl API:

Some drivers also support an ioctl API. I belive this API was first
used in the Berkshire PC Watchdog driver and has been adopted by the
other drivers.

Pinging the watchdog using an ioctl:

All drivers that have an ioctl interface support at least one ioctl,
KEEPALIVE. This ioctl does exactly the same thing as a write to the
watchdog device, so the main loop in the above program could be
replaced with:

while (1) {
ioctl(fd, WDIOC_KEEPALIVE, 0);
sleep(10);
}

the argument to the ioctl is ignored.

Setting the timeout:

For some drivers it is possible to modify the watchdog timeout on the
fly with the SETTIMEOUT ioctl. The argument is an integer
representing the timeout in seconds. The driver returns the real
timeout used in the same variable, and this timeout might differ from
the requested one due to limitation of the hardware.

int timeout = 45;
ioctl(fd, WDIOC_SETTIMEOUT, &timeout);
printf("The timeout was set to %d seconds\n", timeout);

This example might actually print "The timeout was set to 60 seconds"
if the device has a granularity of minutes for its timeout.

Querying the timeout:

Starting with the Linux 2.4.18 kernel (2.4.18-pre actually), it is
possible to query the current timeout using the GETTIMEOUT ioctl.

ioctl(fd, WDIOC_GETTIMEOUT, &timeout);
printf("The timeout was is %d seconds\n", timeout);

Envinronmental monitoring:

Some watchdog drivers can return more information about the system,
some do temperature, fan and power level monitoring, some can tell you
the reason for the last reebot of the system. The GETSUPPORT ioctl is
available to ask what the device can do:

struct watchdog_info ident;
ioctl(fd, WDIOC_GETSUPPORT, &ident);

the fields returned in the ident struct are:

identity a string identifying the watchdog driver
firmware_version the firmware version of the card if available
options a flags describing what the device supports

the options field can have the following bits set, and describes what
kind of information that the GET_STATUS and GET_BOOT_STATUS ioctls can
return. [FIXME -- Is this correct?]

WDIOF_OVERHEAT Reset due to CPU overheat
WDIOF_FANFAULT Fan failed
WDIOF_EXTERN1 External relay 1
WDIOF_EXTERN2 External relay 2
WDIOF_POWERUNDER Power bad/power fault
WDIOF_CARDRESET Card previously reset the CPU
WDIOF_POWEROVER Power over voltage
WDIOF_KEEPALIVEPING Keep alive ping reply

[FIXME -- Can somebody explain what the flags mean in more detail,
especially KEEPALIVEPING?]

For those drivers that return any bits set in the option field, the
GETSTATUS and GETBOOTSTATUS ioctls can be used to ask for the current
status, and the status at the last reboot, respectively.

int flags;
ioctl(fd, WDIOC_GETSTATUS, &flags);

or

ioctl(fd, WDIOC_GETBOOTSTATUS, &flags);

Note that not all devices support these two calls, and some only
support the GETBOOTSTATUS call.

Some drivers can measure the temperature using the GETTEMP ioctl.
[FIXME -- what is the value returned in temperature, degrees celsius?]

int temperature;
ioctl(fd, WDIOC_GETTEMP, &temperature);

Finally the SETOPTIONS ioctl can be used to control some aspects of
the cards operation; right now the pcwd driver is the only one
supporting thiss ioctl.

int options = 0;
ioctl(fd, WDIOC_SETOPTIONS, options);

The following options are available:

WDIOS_DISABLECARD Turn off the watchdog timer
WDIOS_ENABLECARD Turn on the watchdog timer
WDIOS_TEMPPANIC Kernel panic on temperature trip

[FIXME -- better explanations]

Implementations in the current drivers in the kernel tree:

Here I have tried to summarize what the different drivers support and
where they do strange things compared to the other drivers.

acquirewdt.c -- Acquire Single Board Computer

This driver has a hardcoded timeout of 1 minute

Supports CONFIG_WATCHDOG_NOWAYOUT

GETSUPPORT returns KEEPALIVEPING and GETSTATUS will return 1
if the device is open, 0 if not. [FIXME -- isn't this rather
silly? To be able to use the ioctl, the device must be open
and so GETSTATUS will always return 1].

advantechwdt.c -- Advantech Single Board Computer

Hardcoded timeout of 60 seconds

Supports CONFIG_WATCHDOG_NOWAYOUT

GETSUPPORT returns WDIOF_KEEPALIVEPING, and the GETSTATUS call
returns if the device is open or not. [FIXME -- silliness
again?]

eurotechwdt.c -- Eurotech CPU-1220/1410

The timeout can be set using the SETTIMEOUT ioctl and defaults
to 60 seconds.

Also has a module parameter "ev", event type which controls
what should happen on a timeout, the string "int" or anything
else that causes a reboot. [FIXME -- better description]

Supports CONFIG_WATCHDOG_NOWAYOUT

GETSUPPORT returns CARDRESET but GETSTATUS is not supported
and GETBOOTSTATUS just returns 0.

i810-tco.c -- Intel 810 chipset

Also has support for a lot of other i810 stuff, but the
watchdog is one of the things.

The timeout is set using the module parameter "i810_margin",
which is in steps of 0.6 seconds where 2<i810_margin<64

Supports CONFIG_WATCHDOG_NOWAYOUT.

No bits set in GETSUPPORT, but the GETSTATUS call returns some
kind of timer value. GETBOOT status returns some kind of
hardware specific boot status. [FIXME -- describe this]

ib700wdt.c -- IB700 Single Board Computer

Hardcoded timeout of 30 seconds

Supports CONFIG_WATCHDOG_NOWAYOUT

GETSUPPORT returns WDIOF_KEEPALIVEPING, and the GETSTATUS call
returns if the device is open or not. [FIXME -- silliness
again?]

machzwd.c -- MachZ ZF-Logic

Hardcoded timeout of 10 seconds

Has a module parameter "action" that controls what happens
when the timeout runs out which can be 0 = RESET (default),
1 = SMI, 2 = NMI, 3 = SCI.

Supports CONFIG_WATCHDOG_NOWAYOUT and the the magic character
'V' close handling.

GETSUPPORT returns WDIOF_KEEPALIVEPING, and the GETSTATUS call
returns if the device is open or not. [FIXME -- silliness
again?]

mixcomwd.c -- MixCom Watchdog

[FIXME -- I'm unable to tell what the timeout is]

Supports CONFIG_WATCHDOG_NOWAYOUT

GETSUPPORT returns WDIOF_KEEPALIVEPING, GETSTATUS returns if
the device is opened or not [FIXME -- I'm not really sure how
this works, there seems to be some magic connected to
CONFIG_WATCHDOG_NOWAYOUT]

pcwd.c -- Berkshire PC Watchdog

Hardcoded timeout of 1.5 seconds

Supports CONFIG_WATCHDOG_NOWAYOUT

GETSUPPORT returns WDIOF_OVERHEAT|WDIOF_CARDRESET and both
GETSTATUS and GETBOOTSTATUS return something useful.

The SETOPTIONS call can be used to enable and disable the card
and to ask the driver to call panic if the system overheats.

sbc60xxwdt.c -- 60xx Single Board Computer

Hardcoded timeout of 10 seconds

Does not support CONFIG_WATCHDOG_NOWAYOUT, but has the magic
character 'V' close handling.

No bits set in GETSUPPORT

shwdt.c -- SuperH 3/4 processors

[FIXME -- I'm unable to tell what the timeout is]

Supports CONFIG_WATCHDOG_NOWAYOUT

GETSUPPORT returns WDIOF_KEEPALIVEPING, and the GETSTATUS call
returns if the device is open or not. [FIXME -- silliness
again?]

softdog.c -- Software watchdog

The timeout is set with the module parameter "soft_margin"
which defaults to 60 seconds

Supports CONFIG_WATCHDOG_NOWAYOUT

No bits set in GETSUPPORT

w83877f_wdt.c -- W83877F Computer

Hardcoded timeout of 30 seconds

Does not support CONFIG_WATCHDOG_NOWAYOUT, but has the magic
character 'V' close handling.

No bits set in GETSUPPORT

wdt.c -- ICS WDT500/501 ISA and wdt_pci.c -- ICS WDT500/501 PCI

Hardcoded timeout of 120 seconds.

Supports CONFIG_WATCHDOG_NOWAYOUT

GETSUPPORT returns with a lot of bits set, it seems that the
driver can check for overheating, power failure, fan failure
and a two external relay inputs. GETSTATUS can be used to
read these flags.

wdt285.c -- Footbridge watchdog

The timeout is set with the module parameter "soft_margin"
which defaults to 60 seconds

Does not support CONFIG_WATCHDOG_NOWAYOUT

No bits set in GETSUPPORT

wdt977.c -- Netwinder W83977AF chip

Hardcoded timeout of 3 minutes

Supports CONFIG_WATCHDOG_NOWAYOUT

Does not support any ioctls at all.

scx200.c -- National SCx200 CPUs

Not in the kernel yet.

The timeout is set using a module parameter "margin" which
defaults to 60 seconds. The timeout can also be set using
SETTIMEOUT and read using GETTIMEOUT.

Supports a module parameter "nowayout" that is initialized
with the value of CONFIG_WATCHDOG_NOWAYOUT. Also supports the
magic character 'V' handling.