Re: [PATCH 1/6] drm/i915: Fix lock order reversal in GTT pwritepath.

[Eric Anholt]

On Thu, 2009-03-26 at 17:43 -0700, Jesse Barnes wrote:
> On Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:45:05 -0700
> Eric Anholt <eric@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> > Since the pagefault path determines that the lock order we use has to
> > be mmap_sem -> struct_mutex, we can't allow page faults to occur
> > while the struct_mutex is held.  To fix this in pwrite, we first try
> > optimistically to see if we can copy from user without faulting.  If
> > it fails, fall back to using get_user_pages to pin the user's memory,
> > and map those pages atomically when copying it to the GPU.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Eric Anholt <eric@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > ---
> > +	/* Pin the user pages containing the data.  We can't fault
> > while
> > +	 * holding the struct mutex, and all of the pwrite
> > implementations
> > +	 * want to hold it while dereferencing the user data.
> > +	 */
> > +	first_data_page = data_ptr / PAGE_SIZE;
> > +	last_data_page = (data_ptr + args->size - 1) / PAGE_SIZE;
> > +	num_pages = last_data_page - first_data_page + 1;
> > +
> > +	user_pages = kcalloc(num_pages, sizeof(struct page *),
> > GFP_KERNEL);
> > +	if (user_pages == NULL)
> > +		return -ENOMEM;
> 
> If kmalloc limits us to a 128k allocation (and maybe less under
> pressure), then we'll be limited to 128k/8 page pointers on 64 bit, or
> 64M per pwrite...  Is that ok?  Or do we need to handle multiple passes
> here?

That's a really good point.  This hurts.  However, we're already in
pain:
	obj_priv->page_list = drm_calloc(page_count, sizeof(struct page *),
					 DRM_MEM_DRIVER);

drm_calloc is kcalloc, so we already fall on our faces with big objects,
before this code.  Thinking about potential regressions for big objects
from the change in question:

pixmaps: Can't render with them already.  X only limits you to 4GB
pixmaps.  Doesn't use pread/pwrite.

textures: Can't render with them already.  Largest texture size is
2048*2048*4*6*1.5 or so for a mipmapped cube map, or around 150MB.  This
would fail on 32-bit as well. Doesn't use pread/write.

FBOs: Can't render with them.  Same size as textures.  Software
fallbacks use pread/pwrite, but it's always done a page at a time.

VBOs (965): Can't render with them.  No size limitations I know of.

VBOs (915): Not used for rendering, just intermediate storage (this is a
bug).  No size limitations I know of.  So here we would regress huge
VBOs on 915 when uploaded using BufferData instead of MapBuffer
(unlikely).  Of course, it's already a bug that we make real VBOs on 915
before it's strictly necessary.

PBOs: Can't render with them.  Normal usage wouldn't be big enough to
trigger the bug, though.  Does use pread/pwrite when accessed using
{Get,}Buffer{Sub,}Data.

My summary here would be: Huge objects are already pretty thoroughly
broken, since any acceleration using them fails at the kcalloc of the
page list when binding to the GTT.  Doing one more kalloc of a page list
isn't significantly changing the situation.

I propose going forward with these patches, and I'll go off and build
some small testcases for our various interfaces with big objects so we
can fix them and make sure we stay correct.

-- 
Eric Anholt
eric@xxxxxxxxxx                         eric.anholt@xxxxxxxxx

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: This is a digitally signed message part