Re: [PATCH 02/10] xhci: 'noxhci_port_switch' kernel parameter

[Dan Williams]

On Tue, May 20, 2014 at 1:34 PM, Greg KH <gregkh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Tue, May 20, 2014 at 11:25:37AM -0700, Dan Williams wrote:
>> On Tue, May 20, 2014 at 2:51 AM, Takashi Iwai <tiwai@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>> > At Tue, 20 May 2014 12:47:36 +0300,
>> > Mathias Nyman wrote:
>> >>
>> >> On 05/20/2014 04:01 AM, Greg KH wrote:
>> >> > On Thu, May 08, 2014 at 07:25:55PM +0300, Mathias Nyman wrote:
>> >> >> From: Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@xxxxxxxxx>
>> >> >>
>> >> >> Add a command line switch for disabling ehci port switchover.  Useful
>> >> >> for working around / debugging xhci incompatibilities where ehci
>> >> >> operation is available.
>> >> >>
>> >> >> Reference: http://marc.info/?l=linux-usb&m=138920063001509&w=2
>> >> >>
>> >> >> Cc: Sarah Sharp <sarah.a.sharp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> >> >> Cc: Mathias Nyman <mathias.nyman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> >> >> Cc: Holger Hans Peter Freyther <holger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> >> >> Suggested-by: Alan Stern <stern@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> >> >> Signed-off-by: Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@xxxxxxxxx>
>> >> >> Signed-off-by: Mathias Nyman <mathias.nyman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> >> >> ---
>> >> >>  Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt |  3 +++
>> >> >>  drivers/usb/host/pci-quirks.c       | 15 +++++++++++++--
>> >> >>  2 files changed, 16 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>> >> >>
>> >> >> diff --git a/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt b/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt
>> >> >> index 4384217..fc3403114 100644
>> >> >> --- a/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt
>> >> >> +++ b/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt
>> >> >> @@ -2251,6 +2251,9 @@ bytes respectively. Such letter suffixes can also be entirely omitted.
>> >> >>
>> >> >>    nox2apic        [X86-64,APIC] Do not enable x2APIC mode.
>> >> >>
>> >> >> +  noxhci_port_switch
>> >> >> +                  [USB] Use EHCI instead of XHCI where available
>> >> >> +
>> >> >
>> >> > Ugh, I really don't like new command line options.
>> >> >
>> >> > Especially one that isn't very well documented.  Why would someone want
>> >> > to enable this?  What problem is it solving?  Can we detect this
>> >> > automatically and do it for the user?  Is this just for prototype
>> >> > hardware that has not shipped?  What hardware needs this?
>> >> >
>> >> > I need a whole lot more documentation at the very least before I will
>> >> > apply this.
>> >> >
>> >>
>> >> On Intel hardware with both ehci and xhci controllers we can select if a usb2 port
>> >> is controlled by ehci or xhci. This capability can be checked from Intel xhci pci
>> >> config space. Xhci driver checks this on boot and switches over the supported ports.
>> >>
>> >> This is a feature in Intel Panther point and later chipsets, in shipped hardware.
>> >> Its working quite well in most cases, but sometimes vendors claim they support
>> >> switchover, but then forget to connect some wires, and the usb2 port ends up dead
>> >> after switching.
>> >>
>> >> A recently found case is the Sony VAIO T-series. (I'll send you a different patch
>> >> for that shortly)
>> >> http://marc.info/?l=linux-usb&m=139993106029340&w=2
>> >>
>> >> This is the extreme case that the usb2 ports appears completely dead.
>> >> Other reasons are that some devices might work better under ehci than xhci,
>> >> and users want to enforce the ehci opton. For powermanagement developers it's nice
>> >> to disable switchover as it turns out some hardware are quirky with port
>> >> switchover and suspend/resume. (might need to turn port back to ehci before
>> >> suspending).
>> >>
>> >> I don't think we can detect this automatically.
>> >>
>> >> Dan, can you add more documentation to this patch?
>> >
>> > While we're at it: can we implement a bitmask instead?
>> >
>> > We've seen lots of HP laptops having Webcams or BT devices that don't
>> > work XHCI but only with EHCI.  For making them working properly, the
>> > specific xhci ports have to be disabled.  But, we don't want to kill
>> > the whole XHCI at all.  The single boolean option doesn't work for
>> > such a case.
>> >
>>
>> I'm not sure we want to make this more complex.  Ideally this is just
>> a stop-gap measure for users to workaround incompatibilities in xhci
>> while the xhci fix is identified.
>
> We can't use a kernel command line option as a "stop-gap", sorry.  Let's
> just fix the real problem here.
>

Greg,

Sorry, I don't think it is fair to users to force them to re-compile
their kernel to get their device to work.  Granted, I'm new to USB
development, but the rate of reports of endpoint devices that mess up
and require quirks in the hcd-driver or usb-core seems un-ending to
me.  So, I don't think it is fair to expect that the tide of quirky
devices will be stemmed in any reasonable amount of time.  Having a
"works with noxhci_port_switch" report from users is good data (hmm, I
think a printk to tell users to file a report upstream if the option
resolves their issue is needed).

Ideally, we could just tell users to blacklist xhci and use ehci while
we work on a fix for their problem, but this ehci port-switchover
happens well in advance of the xhci driver loading.  Ultimately, it's
a userspace policy decision of what driver to use when multiple are
available and for ehci vs xhci we currently force a xhci-only policy
at compile time.

--
Dan
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