Re: [PATCH] Fix failure of simpledrm probe when trying to grab FB from the EFI-based Framebuffer

From: Thomas Zimmermann
Date: Mon Nov 13 2023 - 03:40:11 EST


Hi Javier

Am 12.11.23 um 11:35 schrieb Javier Martinez Canillas:
Andrew Worsley <amworsley@xxxxxxxxx> writes:

Hello Andrew,

On Sat, 11 Nov 2023 at 20:10, Javier Martinez Canillas
<javierm@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

....
On Sat, 11 Nov 2023 at 15:30, Andrew Worsley <amworsley@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

The simpledrm.c does not call aperture_remove_conflicting_devices() in it's probe
function as the drivers/video/aperture.c documentation says it should. Consequently
it's request for the FB memory fails.


The current behaviour is correct since aperture_remove_conflicting_devices()
is for native drivers to remove simple framebuffer devices such as simpledrm,
simplefb, efifb, etc.

The efifb is the driver that has "grabbed" the FB earlier

Here's a debug output with a dump_stack() call in the devm_aperture_acquire()
% grep --color -A14 -B4 devm_aperture_acquire ~/dmesg2.txt
[ 0.055752] efifb: framebuffer at 0xbd58dc000, using 16000k, total 16000k
[ 0.055755] efifb: mode is 2560x1600x32, linelength=10240, pages=1
[ 0.055758] efifb: scrolling: redraw
[ 0.055759] efifb: Truecolor: size=2:10:10:10, shift=30:20:10:0
[ 0.055771] devm_aperture_acquire: dump stack for debugging
[ 0.055775] CPU: 2 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Tainted: G S

I see. This is the problem then. Your platform then is using a Device Tree
that contains a "simple-framebuffer" node but also doing a UEFI boot and
providing an EFI GOP table that is picked by the Linux EFI stub on boot.

[...]


...
[ 3.085302] simple-framebuffer bd58dc000.framebuffer: [drm] *ERROR* could not acquire memory range [??? 0xffff6e1d8629d580-0x2a5000001a7 flags 0x0]: -16
[ 3.086433] simple-framebuffer: probe of bd58dc000.framebuffer failed with error -16
...


This is -EBUSY. What is your kernel configuration? Can you share it please.

Attached - hope that's acceptable...



Thanks a lot for providing this. It was very helpful to understand the issue.

[...]


I would rather try to understand what is going on in your setup and why
the acquire is returning -EBUSY.


Ok - thanks - let me know where to go from here.


I think that what we should do instead is to prevent both the EFI GOP and
"simple-framebuffer" to provide a system framebuffer information and the
kernel to register two devices (a "simple-framebuffer" by the OF core and
an "efi-framebuffer" by the sysfb infrastructure).

In my opinion, the DTB is the best source of truth on an DT platform and
so is the sysfb that should be disabled if there's a "simple-framebuffer"
DT node found.

Can you please try the following (untested) patch?

From 7bf4a7917962c24c9f15aaf6e798db9d652c6806 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Javier Martinez Canillas <javierm@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2023 11:06:22 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] of/platform: Disable sysfb if a simple-framebuffer node is
found

Some DT platforms use EFI to boot and in this case the EFI Boot Services
may register a EFI_GRAPHICS_OUTPUT_PROTOCOL handle, that will later be
queried by the Linux EFI stub to fill the global struct screen_info data.

The data is used by the Generic System Framebuffers (sysfb) framework to
add a platform device with platform data about the system framebuffer.

But if there is a "simple-framebuffer" node in the DT, the OF core will
also do the same and add another device for the system framebuffer.

This could lead for example, to two platform devices ("simple-framebuffer"
and "efi-framebuffer") to be added and matched with their corresponding
drivers. So both efifb and simpledrm will be probed, leading to following:

[ 0.055752] efifb: framebuffer at 0xbd58dc000, using 16000k, total 16000k
[ 0.055755] efifb: mode is 2560x1600x32, linelength=10240, pages=1
[ 0.055758] efifb: scrolling: redraw
[ 0.055759] efifb: Truecolor: size=2:10:10:10, shift=30:20:10:0
...
[ 3.295896] simple-framebuffer bd58dc000.framebuffer: [drm] *ERROR*
could not acquire memory range [??? 0xffff79f30a29ee40-0x2a5000001a7
flags 0x0]: -16
[ 3.298018] simple-framebuffer: probe of bd58dc000.framebuffer
failed with error -16

To prevent the issue, make the OF core to disable sysfb if there is a node
with a "simple-framebuffer" compatible. That way only this device will be
registered and sysfb would not attempt to register another one using the
screen_info data even if this has been filled.

Reported-by: Andrew Worsley <amworsley@xxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Javier Martinez Canillas <javierm@xxxxxxxxxx>

Reviewed-by: Thomas Zimmermann <tzimmermann@xxxxxxx>

It's a known problem and a know workaround. I don't find it particularly elegant, but have no other solution either. It would be much nicer to have a way for the sysfb code to detect whether it should create a device for the framebuffer.

Best regards
Thomas

---
drivers/of/platform.c | 17 +++++++++++++++--
1 file changed, 15 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/of/platform.c b/drivers/of/platform.c
index f235ab55b91e..a9fd91e6a6df 100644
--- a/drivers/of/platform.c
+++ b/drivers/of/platform.c
@@ -621,8 +621,21 @@ static int __init of_platform_default_populate_init(void)
}
node = of_get_compatible_child(of_chosen, "simple-framebuffer");
- of_platform_device_create(node, NULL, NULL);
- of_node_put(node);
+ if (node) {
+ /*
+ * Since a "simple-framebuffer" device is already added
+ * here, disable the Generic System Framebuffers (sysfb)
+ * to prevent it from registering another device for the
+ * system framebuffer later (e.g: using the screen_info
+ * data that may had been filled as well).
+ *
+ * This can happen for example on DT systems that do EFI
+ * booting and may provide a GOP table to the EFI stub.
+ */
+ sysfb_disable();
+ of_platform_device_create(node, NULL, NULL);
+ of_node_put(node);
+ }
/* Populate everything else. */
of_platform_default_populate(NULL, NULL, NULL);

--
Thomas Zimmermann
Graphics Driver Developer
SUSE Software Solutions Germany GmbH
Frankenstrasse 146, 90461 Nuernberg, Germany
GF: Ivo Totev, Andrew Myers, Andrew McDonald, Boudien Moerman
HRB 36809 (AG Nuernberg)

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