Re: Kernel panic while doing vfio-pci hot-plug/unplug test

From: Matthew Wilcox
Date: Thu Oct 24 2019 - 07:22:36 EST


On Wed, Oct 23, 2019 at 03:46:38PM -0500, Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
> [+cc Thomas, Rafael, beginning of thread at
> https://lore.kernel.org/r/79827f2f-9b43-4411-1376-b9063b67aee3@xxxxxxxxxx]
>
> On Wed, Oct 23, 2019 at 09:38:51AM -0700, Matthew Wilcox wrote:
> > On Wed, Oct 23, 2019 at 10:15:40AM -0500, Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
> > > I don't like being one of a handful of callers of __add_wait_queue(),
> > > so I like that solution from that point of view.
> > >
> > > The 7ea7e98fd8d0 ("PCI: Block on access to temporarily unavailable pci
> > > device") commit log suggests that using __add_wait_queue() is a
> > > significant optimization, but I don't know how important that is in
> > > practical terms. Config accesses are never a performance path anyway,
> > > so I'd be inclined to use add_wait_queue() unless somebody complains.
> >
> > Wow, this has got pretty messy in the umpteen years since I last looked
> > at it.
> >
> > Some problems I see:
> >
> > 1. Commit df65c1bcd9b7b639177a5a15da1b8dc3bee4f5fa (tglx) says:
> >
> > x86/PCI: Select CONFIG_PCI_LOCKLESS_CONFIG
> >
> > All x86 PCI configuration space accessors have either their own
> > serialization or can operate completely lockless (ECAM).
> >
> > Disable the global lock in the generic PCI configuration space accessors.
> >
> > The concept behind this patch is broken. We still need to lock out
> > config space accesses when devices are undergoing D-state transitions.
> > I would suggest that for the contention case that tglx is concerned about,
> > we should have a pci_bus_read_config_unlocked_##size set of functions
> > which can be used for devices we know never go into D states.
>
> Host bridges that can't do config accesses atomically, e.g., they have
> something like the 0xcf8/0xcfc addr/data ports, need serialization.
> CONFIG_PCI_LOCKLESS_CONFIG removes the use of pci_lock for that, and I
> think that part makes sense regardless of whether devices can enter D
> states.

I disagree. If a device is in D state, we need to block the access.
Maybe there needs to be a different mechanism for doing it that's not
a machine-wide lock, but it needs to happen.

> We *should* prevent config accesses during D-state transitions (per
> PCIe r5.0, sec 5.9), but I don't think pci_lock ever did that.

It used to set block_ucfg_access. Maybe that's been lost; I see
there are still calls to pci_dev_lock() in pci_reset_function(),
for example.

> pci_raw_set_power_state() contains delays, but that only prevents
> accesses from the caller, not from other threads or from userspace.
> I suppose we should also prevent accesses by other threads during
> transitions done by ACPI, e.g., _PS0, _PS1, _PS2, _PS3. AFAICT we
> don't do any of that.
>
> It looks like pci_lock currently:
>
> - Serializes all kernel config accesses system-wide in
> pci_bus_read_config_##size() (unless CONFIG_PCI_LOCKLESS_CONFIG=y).
>
> - Serializes all userspace config accesses system-wide in
> pci_user_read_config_##size() (this seems unnecessary when
> CONFIG_PCI_LOCKLESS_CONFIG=y).
>
> - Serializes userspace config accesses with resets of the device via
> the dev->block_cfg_access bit and waitqueue mechanism.
>
> - Serializes kernel and userspace config accesses with bus->ops
> changes in pci_bus_set_ops() (except that we don't serialize
> kernel config accesses if CONFIG_PCI_LOCKLESS_CONFIG=y, which is
> probably a problem). But pci_bus_set_ops() is hardly used and I'm
> not sure it's worth keeping it.
>
> > 2. Commit a2e27787f893621c5a6b865acf6b7766f8671328 (jan kiszka)
> > exports pci_lock. I think this is a mistake; at best there should be
> > accessors for the pci_lock. But I don't understand why it needs to
> > exclude PCI config space changes throughout pci_check_and_set_intx_mask().
> > Why can it not do:
> >
> > - bus->ops->read(bus, dev->devfn, PCI_COMMAND, 4, &cmd_status_dword);
> > + pci_read_config_dword(dev, PCI_COMMAND, &cmd_status_dword);
> >
> > 3. I don't understand why 511dd98ce8cf6dc4f8f2cb32a8af31ce9f4ba4a1
> > changed pci_lock to be a raw spinlock. The patch description
> > essentially says "We need it for RT" which isn't terribly helpful.
> >
> > 4. Finally, getting back to the original problem report here, I wouldn't
> > write this code this way today. There's no reason not to use the
> > regular add_wait_queue etc. BUT! Why are we using this custom locking
> > mechanism? It pretty much screams to me of an rwsem (reads/writes
> > of config space take it for read; changes to config space accesses
> > (disabling and changing of accessor methods) take it for write.
>
> So maybe the immediate thing is to just convert to add_wait_queue()?

Isn't that going to run foul of the lock inversion you fixed in
cdcb33f9824429a926b971bf041a6cec238f91ff ?

> There's a lot we could clean up here, but I think it would take a fair
> bit of untangling before we actually solve this panic.

Yes, the mess has spread over many years ;-)