Re: [PATCH v2 2/2] vring: Force use of DMA API for ARM-based systems

[Will Deacon <will.deacon@arm.com>]

On Wed, Jan 11, 2017 at 01:33:31AM +0200, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 10, 2017 at 05:51:18PM +0000, Robin Murphy wrote:
> > From: Will Deacon <will.deacon@arm.com>
> > 
> > Booting Linux on an ARM fastmodel containing an SMMU emulation results
> > in an unexpected I/O page fault from the legacy virtio-blk PCI device:
> > 
> > [    1.211721] arm-smmu-v3 2b400000.smmu: event 0x10 received:
> > [    1.211800] arm-smmu-v3 2b400000.smmu:	0x00000000fffff010
> > [    1.211880] arm-smmu-v3 2b400000.smmu:	0x0000020800000000
> > [    1.211959] arm-smmu-v3 2b400000.smmu:	0x00000008fa081002
> > [    1.212075] arm-smmu-v3 2b400000.smmu:	0x0000000000000000
> > [    1.212155] arm-smmu-v3 2b400000.smmu: event 0x10 received:
> > [    1.212234] arm-smmu-v3 2b400000.smmu:	0x00000000fffff010
> > [    1.212314] arm-smmu-v3 2b400000.smmu:	0x0000020800000000
> > [    1.212394] arm-smmu-v3 2b400000.smmu:	0x00000008fa081000
> > [    1.212471] arm-smmu-v3 2b400000.smmu:	0x0000000000000000
> > 
> > <system hangs failing to read partition table>
> > 
> > This is because the virtio-blk is behind an SMMU, so we have consequently
> > swizzled its DMA ops and configured the SMMU to translate accesses. This
> > then requires the vring code to use the DMA API to establish translations,
> > otherwise all transactions will result in fatal faults and termination.
> > 
> > Given that ARM-based systems only see an SMMU if one is really present
> > (the topology is all described by firmware tables such as device-tree or
> > IORT), then we can safely use the DMA API for all virtio devices.
> > 
> > Cc: Andy Lutomirski <luto@kernel.org>
> > Cc: Michael S. Tsirkin <mst@redhat.com>
> > Signed-off-by: Will Deacon <will.deacon@arm.com>
> 
> I'd like to better understand then need for this one.
> Can't the device in question just set VIRTIO_F_IOMMU_PLATFORM ?
> 
> I'd rather we avoided need for more hacks and just
> have everyone switch to that.

There are a couple of problems with VIRTIO_F_IOMMU_PLATFORM:

1. It doesn't exist for legacy devices, which are all we have on the
   platform in question.

2. It's not documented in the virtio sp^H^HSTOP PRESS. I see you applied
   my patch ;). Thanks.

In which case, for non-legacy devices we should definitely be using
VIRTIO_F_IOMMU_PLATFORM, but since this platform hasn't yet moved to the
world of flying cars, could we unconditionally set the DMA ops on ARM
for legacy devices? The alternative is disabling the SMMU altogether,
but that's less than ideal because there are non-virtio devices on the
same PCI bus.

Will