Re: [PATCH v2 1/3] cpufreq: add resolve_freq driver callback

From: Steve Muckle
Date: Tue May 31 2016 - 14:49:04 EST


On Tue, May 31, 2016 at 11:00:11AM +0530, Viresh Kumar wrote:
> On 30-05-16, 08:31, Steve Muckle wrote:
> > My goal here was to have the system operate in this case in a manner
> > that is obviously not optimized (running at fmax), so the platform owner
> > realizes that the cpufreq driver doesn't fully support the schedutil
> > governor.
> >
> > I was originally going to just return an error code but that also means
> > having to check for it which would be nice to avoid if possible on this
> > fast path.
>
> Okay, I get what you are saying.
>
> But all we are doing here is to make things fast by not sending IPIs,
> etc. That should *not* lead to a behavior where the frequency stays at
> MAX all the time even if the driver doesn't provide this callback or
> the freq-table.
>
> If we just return the target_freq in this case instead of UINT_MAX,
> the platform may eventually have some unnecessary IPIs, wakeups, etc,
> but its frequency will still be switched properly.
>
> Wouldn't that be a better choice ?

I'm still concerned that a platform owner may use this and accept
suboptimal perf/power because they aren't aware their cpufreq driver is
not fully compliant. But I agree it'd be better to have it work as well
as it can. I will make the change.

Maybe a warning message can be added when schedutil initializes if
resolve_freq is not supported.

thanks,
Steve