[PATCH v2 7/7] ARM: smp: Add runtime PM support for CPU hotplug

[Lina Iyer]

On Fri, Sep 04 2015 at 10:23 -0600, Russell King - ARM Linux wrote:
>On Fri, Sep 04, 2015 at 09:12:02AM -0600, Lina Iyer wrote:
>> On Fri, Sep 04 2015 at 03:27 -0600, Russell King - ARM Linux wrote:
>> >On Fri, Sep 04, 2015 at 10:17:35AM +0100, Russell King - ARM Linux wrote:
>> >>On Thu, Sep 03, 2015 at 01:58:34PM -0600, Lina Iyer wrote:
>> >>> @@ -401,6 +412,11 @@ asmlinkage void secondary_start_kernel(void)
>> >>>  	local_irq_enable();
>> >>>  	local_fiq_enable();
>> >>>
>> >>> +	/* We are running, enable runtime PM for the CPU. */
>> >>> +	cpu_dev = get_cpu_device(cpu);
>> >>> +	if (cpu_dev)
>> >>> +		pm_runtime_get_sync(cpu_dev);
>> >>> +
>> >>
>> >>Please no.  This is fragile.
>> >>
>> >>pm_runtime_get_sync() can sleep, and this path is used when the system
>> >>is fully up and running.  Locks may be held, which cause this to sleep.
>> >>However, we're calling it from a context where we can't sleep - which
>> >>is the general rule for any part of system initialisation where we
>> >>have not entered the idle thread yet (the idle thread is what we run
>> >>when sleeping.)
>> >>
>> More explanation below.
>>
>> Another patch (3/7) in this series defines CPU devices as IRQ safe and
>> therefore the dev->power.lock would be spinlock'd before calling the
>> rest of the PM runtime code and the domain. The CPU PM domain would also
>> be an IRQ safe domain (patch 2/7 makes the genpd framework usable in IRQ
>> safe context).
>>
>> >>NAK on this.
>> >
>> >There's another issue here.  This is obviously wrong.  If the CPU is
>> >inside the PM domain, then don't you need the PM domain powered up for
>> >the CPU to start executing instructions?
>> >
>> This would not be the case for CPU PM domains. The CPU PM domains AFAIK,
>> are triggered by the same wake up interrupt that brings the CPU out of
>> its power downs state. The domain hardware has to be awake before the
>> CPU executes its first instruction. Thefore the hw power up is a logical
>> OR of the wakeup signals to any of the cores.
>
>You're taking the behaviour of the hardware you have in front of you
>and claiming that it's true everywhere, and shoving that into generic
>code.
>
>I know, for example on OMAP, you have to power up the CPU first before
>you can "wake" it.
>
>I wouldn't be surprised if other SoCs are like that: where they require
>the CPU core to be powered and held in reset, before releasing the reset
>to then allow them to start executing the secondary core bringup.
>
It would still require that the CPU's domain be powered on in the hw,
before the CPU can run Linux.

>Relying on hardware to do this sounds really fragile and bad design to
>me.
>
>If you want to persue your current design, don't make it generic code,
>because it's got no right to be generic with assumptions like that.
>
Hmm, okay. I can look at alternatives like  hotplug notifiers.

-- Lina