Re: [PATCH 00/15] tty: serial: switch from circ_buf to kfifo

["Ilpo Järvinen" <ilpo.jarvinen@linux.intel.com>]

On Mon, 10 Jun 2024, Ferry Toth wrote:
> Op 07-06-2024 om 22:32 schreef Ferry Toth:
> > Op 22-04-2024 om 07:51 schreef Jiri Slaby:
> > > On 19. 04. 24, 17:12, Neil Armstrong wrote:
> > > > On 05/04/2024 08:08, Jiri Slaby (SUSE) wrote:
> > > > > This series switches tty serial layer to use kfifo instead of
> > > > > circ_buf.
> > > > > 
> > > > > The reasoning can be found in the switching patch in this series:
> > > > > """
> > > > > Switch from struct circ_buf to proper kfifo. kfifo provides much
> > > > > better
> > > > > API, esp. when wrap-around of the buffer needs to be taken into
> > > > > account.
> > > > > Look at pl011_dma_tx_refill() or cpm_uart_tx_pump() changes for
> > > > > example.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Kfifo API can also fill in scatter-gather DMA structures, so it easier
> > > > > for that use case too. Look at lpuart_dma_tx() for example. Note that
> > > > > not all drivers can be converted to that (like atmel_serial), they
> > > > > handle DMA specially.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Note that usb-serial uses kfifo for TX for ages.
> > > > > """

> > > Sadly, everyone had a chance to test the series:
> > >    https://lore.kernel.org/all/20240319095315.27624-1-jirislaby@kernel.org/
> > > for more than two weeks before I sent this version for inclusion. And then
> > > it took another 5 days till this series appeared in -next. But noone with
> > > this HW apparently cared enough back then. I'd wish they (you) didn't.
> > > Maybe next time, people will listen more carefully:
> > > ===
> > > This is Request for Testing as I cannot test all the changes
> > > (obviously). So please test your HW's serial properly.
> > > ===
> > > 
> > > > and should've been dropped immediately when the first regressions were
> > > > reported.
> > > 
> > > Provided the RFT was mostly ignored (anyone who tested that here, or I
> > > only wasted my time?), how exactly would dropping help me finding
> > > potential issues in the series? In the end, noone is running -next in
> > > production, so glitches are sort of expected, right? And I believe I
> > > smashed them quickly enough (despite I was sidetracked to handle the n_gsm
> > > issue). But I might be wrong, as usual.
> > 
> > I arrived at this party a bit late, sorry about that. No good excuses.
> > 
> > > So no, dropping is not helping moving forward, actions taken by e.g. Marek
> > > Szyprowski <m.szyprowski@samsung.com> do, IMNSHO.
> > 
> > Good news is I tested on Merrifield (Intel Edison) which is slow (500MHz)
> > and has a HSU that can transmit up to 3.5Mb/s. It really normally needs DMA
> > and just a single interrupt at the end of transmit and receive for which I
> > my own patches locally. The bounce buffer I was using on transmit broke due
> > to this patch, so I dropped that. Still, with the extra interrupts caused by
> > the circ buffer wrapping around it seems to work well. Too late to add my
> > Tested-by.
> > 
> > One question though: in 8250_dma.c serial8250_tx_dma() you mention "/* kfifo
> > can do more than one sg, we don't (quite yet) */".
> > 
> > I see the opportunity to use 2 sg entries to get all the data out in one dma
> > transfer, but there doesn't seem to be much documentation or examples on how
> > to do that. It seems just increasing nents to 2 would do the trick?
> 
> Nevertheless I got this to work. Very nice. Thanks for this series.
> I am seeing only 2 interrupts (x2 as each interrupt happens twice), one for
> dma complete. The 2nd, not sure but likely, uart tx done.
> In any case the whole buffer is transferred without interchar gaps.
> 
> > So, what was the reason to "don't (quite yet)"?
> 
> Before considering to send out a patch for this, are there any caveats that
> I'm overlooking?

Not exactly related to that quoted comment, but you should Cc the person 
who added RNZ1 DMA a year or two back (in 8250_dw.c) because it required 
writing Tx length into some custom register. I don't know the meaning of 
that HW specific register so it would be good to get confirmation the HW 
is okay if it gets more than 1 sg entry (at worst, a HW-specific limit 
on nents might need to be imposed).

-- 
 i.