Re: [PATCH v2 2/2] net: ethernet: stmmac: remove private tx queue lock

Hi!

The driver uses a private lock for synchronization of the xmit function and
the xmit completion handler, but since the NETIF_F_LLTX flag is not set,
the xmit function is also called with the xmit_lock held.

On the other hand the completion handler uses the reverse locking order by
first taking the private lock and (in case that the tx queue had been
stopped) then the xmit_lock.

Improve the locking by removing the private lock and using only the
xmit_lock for synchronization instead.

Do you have stmmac hardware to test on?

I believe something is very wrong with the locking there. In
particular... scheduling the stmmac_tx_timer() function to run often
should not do anything bad if locking is correct... but it breaks the
driver rather quickly. [Example patch below, needs applying to two
places in net-next.]

(Other possibility is that hardware races with the driver.)

Giuseppe, is there documentation available for the chip? Driver says

  Documentation available at:
          http://www.stlinux.com

but that page does not work for me...

404 Not Found

Code: NoSuchBucket
Message: The specified bucket does not exist
BucketName: www.stlinux.com
RequestId: 1C8A20CB99AE7F75
HostId:
ljPnqbEpyD8exct5MUgcDXSW8n+I67Yw0aejNhLuBQ0pqN0UCfiRBa3ztlOMngiXoSN+COX+VSw=

Best regards,
									Pavel

diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/stmicro/stmmac/stmmac_main.c b/drivers/net/ethernet/stmicro/stmmac/stmmac_main.c
index ffbcd03..8040370 100644
--- a/drivers/net/ethernet/stmicro/stmmac/stmmac_main.c
+++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/stmicro/stmmac/stmmac_main.c

@@ -1973,8 +1973,9 @@ static void stmmac_xmit_common(struct sk_buff *skb, struct net_device *dev, int
 	 */
 	priv->tx_count_frames += nfrags + 1;
 	if (likely(priv->tx_coal_frames > priv->tx_count_frames)) {
-		mod_timer(&priv->txtimer,
-			  STMMAC_COAL_TIMER(priv->tx_coal_timer));
+		if (priv->tx_count_frames == nfrags + 1)
+			mod_timer(&priv->txtimer,
+				  STMMAC_COAL_TIMER(priv->tx_coal_timer));
 	} else {
 		priv->tx_count_frames = 0;
 		priv->hw->desc->set_tx_ic(desc);

-- 
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(cesky, pictures) http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~pavel/picture/horses/blog.html