[PATCH v2 1/2] i2c: imx: Don't recover bus when arbitration lost

[Dan Scally]

Hi Carlos

On 19/05/2026 11:29, Carlos Song (OSS) wrote:
> 
> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Dan Scally <dan.scally at ideasonboard.com>
>> Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2026 4:42 PM
>> To: Oleksij Rempel <o.rempel at pengutronix.de>; Pengutronix Kernel Team
>> <kernel at pengutronix.de>
>> Cc: linux-i2c at vger.kernel.org; imx at lists.linux.dev;
>> linux-arm-kernel at lists.infradead.org; Andi Shyti <andi.shyti at kernel.org>; Frank
>> Li <frank.li at nxp.com>; Sascha Hauer <s.hauer at pengutronix.de>; Fabio
>> Estevam <festevam at gmail.com>; Gao Pan <b54642 at freescale.com>; Fugang
>> Duan <B38611 at freescale.com>; Wolfram Sang <wsa at kernel.org>
>> Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 1/2] i2c: imx: Don't recover bus when arbitration lost
>>
>> [You don't often get email from dan.scally at ideasonboard.com. Learn why this is
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>>
>> Hello Oleksij / all
>>
>> On 24/04/2026 13:36, Daniel Scally wrote:
>>> In i2c_imx_xfer_common(), the driver attempts bus recovery whenever
>>> i2c_imx_start() fails. One of the failure modes for i2c_imx_start() is
>>> an arbitration-lost signal which results when a second I2C master on
>>> the bus tries to control the bus simultaneously, which is a normal and
>>> expected behaviour.
>>>
>>> Bus recovery is not the right response for this case. Add a check for
>>> the -EAGAIN return code to avoid running the bus recovery.
>>>
>>> Fixes: 1c4b6c3bcf30d ("i2c: imx: implement bus recovery")
>>> Signed-off-by: Daniel Scally <dan.scally at ideasonboard.com>
>>> ---
>>
>> I raised this patch after we had issues with one of the i2c controllers on imx8mp.
>> In that case, the bus had multiple masters that were causing the SoC's i2c
>> controller to lose arbitration. The result was that the framework attempted to
>> run i2c_generic_scl_recovery() and regularly hit the "SCL is stuck low, exit
>> recovery" message [1] because the bus was busy rather than stuck.
>>
>> I'm now experiencing a different issue with the imx8mp in which a different
>> controller - which isn't on a multiple-masters bus - starts transacting fine early in
>> boot, but then seems to get stuck - any attempt to start a transaction by either
>> a driver or i2ctransfer results in the IAL bit in I2C_I2SR being set and so the
>> driver reports that it's lost arbitration [2]. In this case, the bus recovery is
>> needed to fix the problem, and so this commit hurts things rather than helps
>> them. This problem isn't consistent - I get it on maybe 10% of boots.
>>
> Hi Dan,
> 
> This is the RM shows:
> 
> Arbitration lost. Set by hardware in the following circumstances (IAL must be cleared by software by
> writing a "0" to it at the start of the interrupt service routine):
> * I2Cn_SDA input samples low when the master drives high during an address or data-transmit cycle.
> * I2Cn_SDA input samples low when the master drives high during the acknowledge bit of a datareceive
> cycle.
> For the above two cases, the bit is set at the falling edge of the ninth I2Cn_SCL clock during the ACK
> cycle.
> * A Start cycle is attempted when the bus is busy.
> * A Repeated Start cycle is requested in Slave mode.
> * A Stop condition is detected when the master did not request it.
> NOTE: Software cannot set the bit.
> 0 No arbitration lost.
> 1 Arbitration is lost.
> 
>  From my understanding:
> The IAL (Arbitration Lost) bit is set not only when true arbitration is lost, but also in several other conditions:
> 
> - SDA is sampled low when the master drives it high (during address/data or ACK phase)
> - A START is attempted while the bus is busy
> - A STOP condition is detected unexpectedly
> - A repeated START occurs in slave mode
> 
> So in practice, IAL can be asserted not only by real arbitration loss, but also when the controller detects abnormal bus conditions.
> 
> Since your system is single-master, this is unlikely to be a true arbitration scenario. Instead, it is more likely caused by signal integrity or timing-related issues, such as:
> - weak pull-up / slow rising edges
> - noise or glitches on SDA
> - timing violations from the slave device
> - others
> 
> As a workaround, you can enable the 'single-master' property to disable arbitration checks in single-master systems, for example:
> 
> &i2c1 {
>      clock-frequency = <400000>;
>      pinctrl-names = "default", "gpio";
>      pinctrl-0 = <&pinctrl_i2c1>;
>      pinctrl-1 = <&pinctrl_i2c1_gpio>;
>      scl-gpios = <&gpio5 14 (GPIO_ACTIVE_HIGH | GPIO_OPEN_DRAIN)>;
>      sda-gpios = <&gpio5 15 (GPIO_ACTIVE_HIGH | GPIO_OPEN_DRAIN)>;
>      single-master;
>      status = "okay";
> };

Thanks! I'm away from the hardware at the moment but I'll give it a try next week and see if that 
fixes the issue.

Dan

> 
> Hope it will help some.
> 
> Carlos