[PATCH v3 3/5] coresight: add support for debug module

Wed Mar 22 09:01:02 PDT 2017

On Wed, Mar 22, 2017 at 02:07:47PM +0000, Sudeep Holla wrote:
> On 22/03/17 12:54, Mike Leach wrote:
> > On 21 March 2017 at 15:39, Sudeep Holla <sudeep.holla at arm.com 
> > <mailto:sudeep.holla at arm.com>> wrote:
> > 
> [...]
> 
> > I disagree with this approach. One of the main usefulness of such
> > self hosted debug feature is to debug issues around features like
> > cpuidle. Adding constraints like "cpuidle needs to be disabled" is
> > not good IMO. There are ways to make it work with cpuidle enabled.
> > Please explore them. In particular refer H9.2.39 EDPRCR, External
> > Debug Power/Reset Control Register.
> > 
> > So, "nohlt" option is not an option. I prefer some sysfs option like 
> > Suzuki suggested to enable this feature on demand if power saving in 
> > normal usecase is the concern. Using "nohlt" just disables idle and 
> > doesn't ensure the debug power domain is ON. Using the flag directly
> > in this driver to enable debug power domain also sounds misuse of
> > that flag for me.
> > 
> > I think the key issue to remember here is that experience with
> > external debug shows that CPU Idle means different things to
> > different SoC designs / power management schemes. (and we are using
> > external debug in a self hosted way here).
>
> Yes agreed on the point that meaning of "cpuidle" differs on each SoC.

Very appreciate for Mike's summary. It's shame for me this is one thing
I should do better :)

This good summary is quite important.

> > Some designs will power down an entire cluster if all CPUs on the 
> > cluster are powered down - including the parts of the debug
> > registers that should remain powered in the debug power domain.
> 
> Interesting, at-least ETMv4 or some other coresight specification
> clearly classify the power domains and the register access. The actual
> power domain itself may vary depending on implementation.
> 
> > The bits in EDPRCR are not respected in these cases - these designs
> > do not really support debug over power down in the way that the
> > CoreSight / Debug designers anticipated. This means that even
> > checking EDPRSR has the potential to cause a bus hang if the target
> > register is unpowered. (and if the debug power domain is unpowered
> > then the PC data is also lost).
> > 
> 
> Agreed, but can we start supporting the sane designs in sane way first.
> We can always add compatible and handle deviations. I agree we may need
> to support such deviations but starting with that seems setting a bad
> example.
> 
> > In these cases, accessing to the debug registers while they are not 
> > powered is a recipe for disaster - so preventing CPUIdle and the
> > subsequent cluster power down  allows investigation on this class of
> > system - and allowing the CPUs of interest be interrogated without
> > hanging the crash log process.
> > 
> 
> Agreed. But my point is that many issues are around cpuidle and some
> usecase and just eliminating that use-case sounds bad. For me,
> core-sight was most useful to debug issues around cpu power management
> and lockups where we can't stop cores but examine these registers.
> There are other alternatives for other use-cases IMO.
> 
> > 
> > On systems that do behave correctly with respect to debug power 
> > domains, then disabling CPUIdle is unnecessary - these can be
> > controlled by EDPRCR - perhaps; per the specification it is
> > "implementation defined" if writing bits to this register have an
> > effect on the system anyway even if the debug domain is correctly
> > powered.
> > 
> 
> We can always do that unconditionally. If implementations don't honor
> those bits, it's different. If they hang on accessing something which is
> on debug power domain and not on core power domain, then you have much
> bigger issue to solve. How can you even trust and make any other
> register accesses that are in debug power domain then ?

So we can add below code before really access another other registers
are possible in CPU power domain:

        /*
         * Force to power on CPU power domain and assert
         * DBGPWRUPREQ signal
         */
        val = readl(drvdata->base + EDPRCR);
        val |= BIT(3);
        writel(val, drvdata->base + EDPRCR);

> > While it is true to say that disabling CPUIdle does not guarantee
> > that the debug power domain is on, it does in a certain class of
> > designs prevent it being powered off (Juno historically - not sure if
> > that is still the case.).
> > 
> 
> Again it's completely platform specific. All you need to care is that
> the debug power domain is on or not. Disabling CPUIdle to achieve that
> is simply wrong and may work only on few platforms.
> 
> > However, I do agree that the use of the driver should not be
> > triggered _only_ on the existence of /nohlt on the command line - 
> > there is a class of designs where this will not be required.
> > 
> 
> Thanks
> 
> > When enabing the driver as a kernel config the user needs to
> > decide:- 1) do I need this to debug the issue I am seeing 2) does the
> > power management on my system require I use /nohlt as well.
> 
> Please don't *misuse* nohlt to disable idle. There are other ways to
> do the same either from the user-space or from the driver.
> 
> > 
> > I think that the use of /nohlt as an option, and the reasons why it 
> > might be needed should be part of the configuration help in this
> > case.
> > 
> > There is also a case for considering if there should be an option to 
> > configure it to be enabled or disabled at boot time. It is easy to 
> > imagine cases I want to have this running from the start as a crash 
> > happens early - and cases I can enable it on demand later.
> > 
> 
> Also consider with cpuidle enabled ;). I can help testing if needed.

I tried to digest these info and below are my understanding from your
suggestion:

### For boot time: add two command line flags

- coresight.cpu_debug: this flag is used to enable cpu debug module at
  boot time, and it relys on sane hardware design (like PRCR can works
  well) to access registers;

- coresight.cpu_debug_pwrup: this flag is used to enable cpu debug
  module at boot time, and it cannot relys on PRCR anymore so we need
  manually constraint CPU power states;

### For runtime: use one sysfs node

- Create sysfs node:
  /sys/kernel/debug/coresight_cpu_debug/enable_debug

  echo 1 > /sys/kernel/debug/coresight_cpu_debug/enable_debug: same
  functionality with boot time's 'coresight.cpu_debug';

  echo 2 > /sys/kernel/debug/coresight_cpu_debug/enable_debug: same
  functionality with boot time's 'coresight.cpu_debug_pwrup';

  echo 0 > /sys/kernel/debug/coresight_cpu_debug/enable_debug: disable
  debug functionality.

Does this make sense?

Thanks,
Leo Yan