Re: [PATCH v2 56/65] clk: ingenic: cgu: Switch to determine_rate

Aidan MacDonald
2022-11-07T20:57:31Z

Maxime Ripard <maxime@cerno.tech> writes:

> Hi,
>
> On Fri, Nov 04, 2022 at 05:35:29PM +0000, Aidan MacDonald wrote:
>>
>> Maxime Ripard <maxime@cerno.tech> writes:
>>
>> > Hi Paul,
>> >
>> > On Fri, Nov 04, 2022 at 02:31:20PM +0000, Paul Cercueil wrote:
>> >> Le ven. 4 nov. 2022 à 14:18:13 +0100, Maxime Ripard <maxime@cerno.tech> a
>> >> écrit :
>> >> > The Ingenic CGU clocks implements a mux with a set_parent hook, but
>> >> > doesn't provide a determine_rate implementation.
>> >> >
>> >> > This is a bit odd, since set_parent() is there to, as its name implies,
>> >> > change the parent of a clock. However, the most likely candidate to
>> >> > trigger that parent change is a call to clk_set_rate(), with
>> >> > determine_rate() figuring out which parent is the best suited for a
>> >> > given rate.
>> >> >
>> >> > The other trigger would be a call to clk_set_parent(), but it's far less
>> >> > used, and it doesn't look like there's any obvious user for that clock.
>> >> >
>> >> > So, the set_parent hook is effectively unused, possibly because of an
>> >> > oversight. However, it could also be an explicit decision by the
>> >> > original author to avoid any reparenting but through an explicit call to
>> >> > clk_set_parent().
>> >> >
>> >> > The driver does implement round_rate() though, which means that we can
>> >> > change the rate of the clock, but we will never get to change the
>> >> > parent.
>> >> >
>> >> > However, It's hard to tell whether it's been done on purpose or not.
>> >> >
>> >> > Since we'll start mandating a determine_rate() implementation, let's
>> >> > convert the round_rate() implementation to a determine_rate(), which
>> >> > will also make the current behavior explicit. And if it was an
>> >> > oversight, the clock behaviour can be adjusted later on.
>> >>
>> >> So it's partly on purpose, partly because I didn't know about
>> >> .determine_rate.
>> >>
>> >> There's nothing odd about having a lonely .set_parent callback; in my case
>> >> the clocks are parented from the device tree.
>> >>
>> >> Having the clocks driver trigger a parent change when requesting a rate
>> >> change sounds very dangerous, IMHO. My MMC controller can be parented to the
>> >> external 48 MHz oscillator, and if the card requests 50 MHz, it could switch
>> >> to one of the PLLs. That works as long as the PLLs don't change rate, but if
>> >> one is configured as driving the CPU clock, it becomes messy.
>> >> The thing is, the clocks driver has no way to know whether or not it is
>> >> "safe" to use a designated parent.
>> >>
>> >> For that reason, in practice, I never actually want to have a clock
>> >> re-parented - it's almost always a bad idea vs. sticking to the parent clock
>> >> configured in the DTS.
>> >
>> > Yeah, and this is totally fine. But we need to be explicit about it. The
>> > determine_rate implementation I did in all the patches is an exact
>> > equivalent to the round_rate one if there was one. We will never ask to
>> > change the parent.
>> >
>> > Given what you just said, I would suggest to set the
>> > CLK_SET_RATE_NO_REPARENT flag as well.
>>
>> Ideally there should be a way for drivers and the device tree to
>> say, "clock X must be driven by clock Y", but the clock framework
>> would be allowed to re-parent clocks freely as long as it doesn't
>> violate any DT or driver constraints.
>
> I'm not really sure what you mean there, sorry. Isn't it what
> assigned-clock-parents/clk_set_parent() at probe, plus a determine_rate
> implementation that would affect best_parent_hw would already provide?

Assigning the parent clock in the DT works once, at boot, but going off
what you wrote in the commit message, if the clock driver has a
.determine_rate() implementation that *can* reparent clocks then it
probably *will* reparent them, and the DT assignment will be lost.

What I'm suggesting is a runtime constraint that the clock subsystem
would enforce, and actively prevent drivers from changing the parent.
Either explicitly with clk_set_parent() or due to .determine_rate().

That way you could write a .determine_rate() implementation that *can*
select a better parent, but if the DT applies a constraint to fix the
clock to a particular parent, the clock subsystem will force that parent
to be used so you can be sure the clock is never reparented by accident.

>> That way allowing reparenting doesn't need to be an all-or-nothing
>> thing, and it doesn't need to be decided at the clock driver level
>> with special flags.
>
> Like I said, the default implementation is already working to what you
> suggested if I understood properly. However, this has never been tested
> for any of the drivers in that series so I don't want to introduce (and
> debug ;)) regressions in all those drivers that were not setting any
> constraint but never actually tested their reparenting code.
>
> So that series is strictly equivalent to what you had before, it's just
> explicit now.
>
> If you find that some other decision make sense for your driver in
> particular cases, feel free to change it. I barely know most of these
> platforms, so I won't be able to make that decision (and test it)
> unfortunately.
>
> Maxime

That's OK, I didn't review the patch, I'm just making a general
suggestion. :)