Thread (26 messages) 26 messages, 5 authors, 2024-02-28

Re: [PATCH v2 2/2] fbcon: Defer console takeover for splash screens to first switch

From: Daniel Vetter <hidden>
Date: 2024-02-09 10:58:06
Also in: dri-devel, lkml

On Thu, Feb 08, 2024 at 09:16:50AM +0800, Daniel van Vugt wrote:
On 8/2/24 04:21, Mario Limonciello wrote:
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On 2/7/2024 03:51, Daniel Vetter wrote:
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On Wed, Feb 07, 2024 at 10:03:10AM +0800, Daniel van Vugt wrote:
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On 6/2/24 23:41, Mario Limonciello wrote:
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On 2/6/2024 08:21, Daniel Vetter wrote:
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On Tue, Feb 06, 2024 at 06:10:51PM +0800, Daniel van Vugt wrote:
quoted
Until now, deferred console takeover only meant defer until there is
output. But that risks stepping on the toes of userspace splash screens,
as console messages may appear before the splash screen. So check the
command line for the expectation of userspace splash and if present then
extend the deferral until after the first switch.

V2: Added Kconfig option instead of hard coding "splash".

Closes: https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1970069
Cc: Mario Limonciello <mario.limonciello@amd.com>
Signed-off-by: Daniel van Vugt <redacted>
---
   drivers/video/console/Kconfig    | 13 +++++++++++
   drivers/video/fbdev/core/fbcon.c | 38 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
   2 files changed, 49 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/drivers/video/console/Kconfig b/drivers/video/console/Kconfig
index bc31db6ef7..a6e371bfb4 100644
--- a/drivers/video/console/Kconfig
+++ b/drivers/video/console/Kconfig
@@ -138,6 +138,19 @@ config FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE_DEFERRED_TAKEOVER
         by the firmware in place, rather then replacing the contents with a
         black screen as soon as fbcon loads.
   +config FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE_DEFERRED_TAKEOVER_CONDITION
+    string "Framebuffer Console Deferred Takeover Condition"
+    depends on FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE_DEFERRED_TAKEOVER
+    default "splash"
+    help
+      If enabled this defers further the framebuffer console taking over
+      until the first console switch has occurred. And even then only if
+      text has been output, and only if the specified parameter is found
+      on the command line. This ensures fbcon does not interrupt userspace
+      splash screens such as Plymouth which may be yet to start rendering
+      at the time of the first console output. "splash" is the simplest
+      distro-agnostic condition for this that Plymouth checks for.
Hm this seems a bit strange since a lot of complexity that no one needs,
also my impression is that it's rather distro specific how you want this
to work. So why not just a Kconfig option that lets you choose how much
you want to delay fbcon setup, with the following options:

- no delay at all
- dely until first output from the console (which then works for distros
    which set a log-level to suppress unwanted stuff)
- delay until first vt-switch. In that case I don't think we also need to
    delay for first output, since vt switch usually means you'll get first
    output right away (if it's a vt terminal) or you switch to a different
    graphical console (which will keep fbcon fully suppressed on the drm
    side).
I had similar thoughts, and had prototyped some of this already. But in the end
it felt like extra complexity there was no demand for.
For me this one is a bit too complex, since if you enable the vt switch
delay you also get the output delay on top. That seems one too much and I
can't come up with a use-case where you actually want that. So just a
choice of one or the other or none feels cleaner.
Remember the output "delay" goes to zero if any putc has occurred prior to
registration (see dummycon.c).

My current reason for using both is that in theory it prevents fbcon from
taking over *earlier* than it did before, in case there was never any output.
But I don't think there is "never any output" by the time you've tried to
manually VT switch so maybe that's unnecessary.
Yeah, but I'm not sure that's like a choice anyone needs, just these
three:

- no delay
- wait until first output, and set debuglevel appropriately (what fedora
  and other distros do)
- wait until first vt switch (what ubuntu wants)

I don't ever expect fedora to just enable this, because they have
something that works. Plus many distros are moving away from CONFIG_VT and
all the in-kernel consoles anyway, so they want this even less.

So if just the delay to first vt-switch is enough for you, I think it's
best we just implement that. The entire vt switch/ownership rules with drm
and fbdev and all that is already really complex and in many cases it's
impossible to tell what's accidental cargo-culted behaviour and what is
actually required. That's why I'd prefer we exactly implement what you
need in this area, nothing more, nothing less.

And from the testing you discuss below it sounds like you don't need both
delays?

Cheers, Sima
quoted
quoted
quoted
If you would like to specify the preferred Kconfig design then I can implement
it. Though I don't think there is an enumeration type. It could also be a
runtime enumeration (deferred_takeover) controlled by fbcon=something.
There's a choice in Kconfig, see e.g. kernel/Kconfig.hz for an example.
Thanks!
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IIUC there is an "automatic" VT switch that happens with Ubuntu GRUB + Ubuntu
kernels.

Why?

Couldn't this also be suppressed by just not doing that?
I have not seen any automatic VT switches in debugging but now that you mention
it I was probably only debugging on drm-misc-next and not an Ubuntu kernel.
Hm but I don't see how the output delay would paper over a race (if there
is one) reliable for this case? If you do vt switch for boot splash or
login screen and don't yet have drm opened for display or something like
that, then fbcon can sneak in anyway ...
There is no VT switch according to my logs, so there is no race with the
patchset. The only race that occurs is without this patchset, which is what's
being fixed here.
quoted
Ubuntu has had in (at least some) kernels:

https://git.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-kernel/ubuntu/+source/linux/+git/unstable/commit/?id=320cfac8ef31

I'm unsure if it's still there today, but maybe it would be best if the author
(Andy) could enlighten us?  Any idea why that didn't go upstream?

I had thought that tied with a automatic VT switch that was trying to hide
fbcon as well.
I checked the current Ubuntu 24.04 kernel yesterday and there is no VT switch
(anymore). The vc_num stays at zero until you do a manual VT switch. This seems
to be true for both drm-misc-next and Ubuntu kernels.

There is still vt.handoff=7 on the command line for Ubuntu, but I'm not sure it
has a function anymore. Maybe it was primarily for legacy BIOS? Andy can confirm.
quoted
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Cheers, Sima
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- Daniel
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I think you could even reuse the existing
CONFIG_FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE_DEFERRED_TAKEOVER for this, and then just
compile-time select which kind of notifier to register (well plus the
check for "splash" on the cmdline for the vt switch one I guess).

Thoughts?

Cheers, Sima

quoted
+
   config STI_CONSOLE
       bool "STI text console"
       depends on PARISC && HAS_IOMEM
diff --git a/drivers/video/fbdev/core/fbcon.c
b/drivers/video/fbdev/core/fbcon.c
index 63af6ab034..98155d2256 100644
--- a/drivers/video/fbdev/core/fbcon.c
+++ b/drivers/video/fbdev/core/fbcon.c
@@ -76,6 +76,7 @@
   #include <linux/crc32.h> /* For counting font checksums */
   #include <linux/uaccess.h>
   #include <asm/irq.h>
+#include <asm/cmdline.h>
     #include "fbcon.h"
   #include "fb_internal.h"
@@ -3358,6 +3359,26 @@ static int fbcon_output_notifier(struct
notifier_block *nb,
         return NOTIFY_OK;
   }
+
+#ifdef CONFIG_FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE_DEFERRED_TAKEOVER_CONDITION
+static int initial_console;
+static struct notifier_block fbcon_switch_nb;
+
+static int fbcon_switch_notifier(struct notifier_block *nb,
+                 unsigned long action, void *data)
+{
+    struct vc_data *vc = data;
+
+    WARN_CONSOLE_UNLOCKED();
+
+    if (vc->vc_num != initial_console) {
+        dummycon_unregister_switch_notifier(&fbcon_switch_nb);
+        dummycon_register_output_notifier(&fbcon_output_nb);
+    }
+
+    return NOTIFY_OK;
+}
+#endif
   #endif
     static void fbcon_start(void)
@@ -3370,7 +3391,16 @@ static void fbcon_start(void)
         if (deferred_takeover) {
           fbcon_output_nb.notifier_call = fbcon_output_notifier;
-        dummycon_register_output_notifier(&fbcon_output_nb);
+#ifdef CONFIG_FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE_DEFERRED_TAKEOVER_CONDITION
+        if (cmdline_find_option_bool(boot_command_line,
+              CONFIG_FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE_DEFERRED_TAKEOVER_CONDITION)) {
+            initial_console = fg_console;
+            fbcon_switch_nb.notifier_call = fbcon_switch_notifier;
+            dummycon_register_switch_notifier(&fbcon_switch_nb);
+        } else
+#endif
+            dummycon_register_output_notifier(&fbcon_output_nb);
+
           return;
       }
   #endif
@@ -3417,8 +3447,12 @@ void __exit fb_console_exit(void)
   {
   #ifdef CONFIG_FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE_DEFERRED_TAKEOVER
       console_lock();
-    if (deferred_takeover)
+    if (deferred_takeover) {
           dummycon_unregister_output_notifier(&fbcon_output_nb);
+#ifdef CONFIG_FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE_DEFERRED_TAKEOVER_CONDITION
+        dummycon_unregister_switch_notifier(&fbcon_switch_nb);
+#endif
+    }
       console_unlock();
         cancel_work_sync(&fbcon_deferred_takeover_work);
-- 
2.43.0
-- 
Daniel Vetter
Software Engineer, Intel Corporation
http://blog.ffwll.ch
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