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Merge commit 'origin' into master

Manual merge of:

	arch/powerpc/Kconfig
	arch/powerpc/include/asm/page.h
hifive-unleashed-5.1
Benjamin Herrenschmidt 2008-10-21 15:52:04 +11:00
commit a02efb906d
2652 changed files with 278722 additions and 43894 deletions

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@ -66,6 +66,7 @@ Kenneth W Chen <kenneth.w.chen@intel.com>
Koushik <raghavendra.koushik@neterion.com>
Leonid I Ananiev <leonid.i.ananiev@intel.com>
Linas Vepstas <linas@austin.ibm.com>
Mark Brown <broonie@sirena.org.uk>
Matthieu CASTET <castet.matthieu@free.fr>
Michael Buesch <mb@bu3sch.de>
Michael Buesch <mbuesch@freenet.de>

12
CREDITS
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@ -1653,14 +1653,14 @@ S: Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514-4818
S: USA
N: Dave Jones
E: davej@codemonkey.org.uk
E: davej@redhat.com
W: http://www.codemonkey.org.uk
D: x86 errata/setup maintenance.
D: AGPGART driver.
D: Assorted VIA x86 support.
D: 2.5 AGPGART overhaul.
D: CPUFREQ maintenance.
D: Backport/Forwardport merge monkey.
D: Various Janitor work.
S: United Kingdom
D: Fedora kernel maintainence.
D: Misc/Other.
S: 314 Littleton Rd, Westford, MA 01886, USA
N: Martin Josfsson
E: gandalf@wlug.westbo.se

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@ -21,6 +21,9 @@ Changes
- list of changes that break older software packages.
CodingStyle
- how the boss likes the C code in the kernel to look.
development-process/
- An extended tutorial on how to work with the kernel development
process.
DMA-API.txt
- DMA API, pci_ API & extensions for non-consistent memory machines.
DMA-ISA-LPC.txt

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@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
What: /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usbtmc/devices/*/interface_capabilities
What: /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usbtmc/devices/*/device_capabilities
Date: August 2008
Contact: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>
Description:
These files show the various USB TMC capabilities as described
by the device itself. The full description of the bitfields
can be found in the USB TMC documents from the USB-IF entitled
"Universal Serial Bus Test and Measurement Class Specification
(USBTMC) Revision 1.0" section 4.2.1.8.
The files are read only.
What: /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usbtmc/devices/*/usb488_interface_capabilities
What: /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usbtmc/devices/*/usb488_device_capabilities
Date: August 2008
Contact: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>
Description:
These files show the various USB TMC capabilities as described
by the device itself. The full description of the bitfields
can be found in the USB TMC documents from the USB-IF entitled
"Universal Serial Bus Test and Measurement Class, Subclass
USB488 Specification (USBTMC-USB488) Revision 1.0" section
4.2.2.
The files are read only.
What: /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usbtmc/devices/*/TermChar
Date: August 2008
Contact: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>
Description:
This file is the TermChar value to be sent to the USB TMC
device as described by the document, "Universal Serial Bus Test
and Measurement Class Specification
(USBTMC) Revision 1.0" as published by the USB-IF.
Note that the TermCharEnabled file determines if this value is
sent to the device or not.
What: /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usbtmc/devices/*/TermCharEnabled
Date: August 2008
Contact: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>
Description:
This file determines if the TermChar is to be sent to the
device on every transaction or not. For more details about
this, please see the document, "Universal Serial Bus Test and
Measurement Class Specification (USBTMC) Revision 1.0" as
published by the USB-IF.
What: /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usbtmc/devices/*/auto_abort
Date: August 2008
Contact: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>
Description:
This file determines if the the transaction of the USB TMC
device is to be automatically aborted if there is any error.
For more details about this, please see the document,
"Universal Serial Bus Test and Measurement Class Specification
(USBTMC) Revision 1.0" as published by the USB-IF.

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@ -85,3 +85,19 @@ Description:
Users:
PowerTOP <power@bughost.org>
http://www.lesswatts.org/projects/powertop/
What: /sys/bus/usb/device/<busnum>-<devnum>...:<config num>-<interface num>/supports_autosuspend
Date: January 2008
KernelVersion: 2.6.27
Contact: Sarah Sharp <sarah.a.sharp@intel.com>
Description:
When read, this file returns 1 if the interface driver
for this interface supports autosuspend. It also
returns 1 if no driver has claimed this interface, as an
unclaimed interface will not stop the device from being
autosuspended if all other interface drivers are idle.
The file returns 0 if autosuspend support has not been
added to the driver.
Users:
USB PM tool
git://git.moblin.org/users/sarah/usb-pm-tool/

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@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
Where: /sys/bus/usb/.../powered
Date: August 2008
Kernel Version: 2.6.26
Contact: Harrison Metzger <harrisonmetz@gmail.com>
Description: Controls whether the device's display will powered.
A value of 0 is off and a non-zero value is on.
Where: /sys/bus/usb/.../mode_msb
Where: /sys/bus/usb/.../mode_lsb
Date: August 2008
Kernel Version: 2.6.26
Contact: Harrison Metzger <harrisonmetz@gmail.com>
Description: Controls the devices display mode.
For a 6 character display the values are
MSB 0x06; LSB 0x3F, and
for an 8 character display the values are
MSB 0x08; LSB 0xFF.
Where: /sys/bus/usb/.../textmode
Date: August 2008
Kernel Version: 2.6.26
Contact: Harrison Metzger <harrisonmetz@gmail.com>
Description: Controls the way the device interprets its text buffer.
raw: each character controls its segment manually
hex: each character is between 0-15
ascii: each character is between '0'-'9' and 'A'-'F'.
Where: /sys/bus/usb/.../text
Date: August 2008
Kernel Version: 2.6.26
Contact: Harrison Metzger <harrisonmetz@gmail.com>
Description: The text (or data) for the device to display
Where: /sys/bus/usb/.../decimals
Date: August 2008
Kernel Version: 2.6.26
Contact: Harrison Metzger <harrisonmetz@gmail.com>
Description: Controls the decimal places on the device.
To set the nth decimal place, give this field
the value of 10 ** n. Assume this field has
the value k and has 1 or more decimal places set,
to set the mth place (where m is not already set),
change this fields value to k + 10 ** m.

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@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
What: /sys/kernel/profile
Date: September 2008
Contact: Dave Hansen <dave@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Description:
/sys/kernel/profile is the runtime equivalent
of the boot-time profile= option.
You can get the same effect running:
echo 2 > /sys/kernel/profile
as you would by issuing profile=2 on the boot
command line.

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@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
# To add a new book the only step required is to add the book to the
# list of DOCBOOKS.
DOCBOOKS := wanbook.xml z8530book.xml mcabook.xml videobook.xml \
DOCBOOKS := wanbook.xml z8530book.xml mcabook.xml \
kernel-hacking.xml kernel-locking.xml deviceiobook.xml \
procfs-guide.xml writing_usb_driver.xml networking.xml \
kernel-api.xml filesystems.xml lsm.xml usb.xml kgdb.xml \

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@ -557,6 +557,9 @@ Near-term plans include converting all of them, except for "gadgetfs".
</para>
!Edrivers/usb/gadget/f_acm.c
!Edrivers/usb/gadget/f_ecm.c
!Edrivers/usb/gadget/f_subset.c
!Edrivers/usb/gadget/f_obex.c
!Edrivers/usb/gadget/f_serial.c
</sect1>

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@ -1105,7 +1105,7 @@ static struct block_device_operations opt_fops = {
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Function names as strings (__FUNCTION__).
Function names as strings (__func__).
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>

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@ -14,17 +14,20 @@
<othername>(J.A.K.)</othername>
<surname>Mouw</surname>
<affiliation>
<orgname>Delft University of Technology</orgname>
<orgdiv>Faculty of Information Technology and Systems</orgdiv>
<address>
<email>J.A.K.Mouw@its.tudelft.nl</email>
<pob>PO BOX 5031</pob>
<postcode>2600 GA</postcode>
<city>Delft</city>
<country>The Netherlands</country>
<email>mouw@nl.linux.org</email>
</address>
</affiliation>
</author>
<othercredit>
<contrib>
This software and documentation were written while working on the
LART computing board
(<ulink url="http://www.lartmaker.nl/">http://www.lartmaker.nl/</ulink>),
which was sponsored by the Delt University of Technology projects
Mobile Multi-media Communications and Ubiquitous Communications.
</contrib>
</othercredit>
</authorgroup>
<revhistory>
@ -108,18 +111,6 @@
proofreading.
</para>
<para>
This documentation was written while working on the LART
computing board (<ulink
url="http://www.lart.tudelft.nl/">http://www.lart.tudelft.nl/</ulink>),
which is sponsored by the Mobile Multi-media Communications
(<ulink
url="http://www.mmc.tudelft.nl/">http://www.mmc.tudelft.nl/</ulink>)
and Ubiquitous Communications (<ulink
url="http://www.ubicom.tudelft.nl/">http://www.ubicom.tudelft.nl/</ulink>)
projects.
</para>
<para>
Erik
</para>

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@ -1,28 +1,16 @@
/*
* procfs_example.c: an example proc interface
*
* Copyright (C) 2001, Erik Mouw (J.A.K.Mouw@its.tudelft.nl)
* Copyright (C) 2001, Erik Mouw (mouw@nl.linux.org)
*
* This file accompanies the procfs-guide in the Linux kernel
* source. Its main use is to demonstrate the concepts and
* functions described in the guide.
*
* This software has been developed while working on the LART
* computing board (http://www.lart.tudelft.nl/), which is
* sponsored by the Mobile Multi-media Communications
* (http://www.mmc.tudelft.nl/) and Ubiquitous Communications
* (http://www.ubicom.tudelft.nl/) projects.
*
* The author can be reached at:
*
* Erik Mouw
* Information and Communication Theory Group
* Faculty of Information Technology and Systems
* Delft University of Technology
* P.O. Box 5031
* 2600 GA Delft
* The Netherlands
*
* computing board (http://www.lartmaker.nl), which was sponsored
* by the Delt University of Technology projects Mobile Multi-media
* Communications and Ubiquitous Communications.
*
* This program is free software; you can redistribute
* it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General

File diff suppressed because it is too large Load Diff

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@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ required reading:
Other excellent descriptions of how to create patches properly are:
"The Perfect Patch"
http://www.zip.com.au/~akpm/linux/patches/stuff/tpp.txt
http://userweb.kernel.org/~akpm/stuff/tpp.txt
"Linux kernel patch submission format"
http://linux.yyz.us/patch-format.html
@ -620,7 +620,7 @@ all time. It should describe the patch completely, containing:
For more details on what this should all look like, please see the
ChangeLog section of the document:
"The Perfect Patch"
http://www.zip.com.au/~akpm/linux/patches/stuff/tpp.txt
http://userweb.kernel.org/~akpm/stuff/tpp.txt

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@ -236,10 +236,8 @@ software system can set different pages for controlling accesses to the
MSI-X structure. The implementation of MSI support requires the PCI
subsystem, not a device driver, to maintain full control of the MSI-X
table/MSI-X PBA (Pending Bit Array) and MMIO address space of the MSI-X
table/MSI-X PBA. A device driver is prohibited from requesting the MMIO
address space of the MSI-X table/MSI-X PBA. Otherwise, the PCI subsystem
will fail enabling MSI-X on its hardware device when it calls the function
pci_enable_msix().
table/MSI-X PBA. A device driver should not access the MMIO address
space of the MSI-X table/MSI-X PBA.
5.3.2 API pci_enable_msix

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@ -163,6 +163,10 @@ need pass only as many optional fields as necessary:
o class and classmask fields default to 0
o driver_data defaults to 0UL.
Note that driver_data must match the value used by any of the pci_device_id
entries defined in the driver. This makes the driver_data field mandatory
if all the pci_device_id entries have a non-zero driver_data value.
Once added, the driver probe routine will be invoked for any unclaimed
PCI devices listed in its (newly updated) pci_ids list.

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@ -203,22 +203,17 @@ to mmio_enabled.
3.3 helper functions
3.3.1 int pci_find_aer_capability(struct pci_dev *dev);
pci_find_aer_capability locates the PCI Express AER capability
in the device configuration space. If the device doesn't support
PCI-Express AER, the function returns 0.
3.3.2 int pci_enable_pcie_error_reporting(struct pci_dev *dev);
3.3.1 int pci_enable_pcie_error_reporting(struct pci_dev *dev);
pci_enable_pcie_error_reporting enables the device to send error
messages to root port when an error is detected. Note that devices
don't enable the error reporting by default, so device drivers need
call this function to enable it.
3.3.3 int pci_disable_pcie_error_reporting(struct pci_dev *dev);
3.3.2 int pci_disable_pcie_error_reporting(struct pci_dev *dev);
pci_disable_pcie_error_reporting disables the device to send error
messages to root port when an error is detected.
3.3.4 int pci_cleanup_aer_uncorrect_error_status(struct pci_dev *dev);
3.3.3 int pci_cleanup_aer_uncorrect_error_status(struct pci_dev *dev);
pci_cleanup_aer_uncorrect_error_status cleanups the uncorrectable
error status register.

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@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
Linux 2.4.2 Secure Attention Key (SAK) handling
18 March 2001, Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
18 March 2001, Andrew Morton
An operating system's Secure Attention Key is a security tool which is
provided as protection against trojan password capturing programs. It

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@ -85,3 +85,6 @@ kernel patches.
23: Tested after it has been merged into the -mm patchset to make sure
that it still works with all of the other queued patches and various
changes in the VM, VFS, and other subsystems.
24: All memory barriers {e.g., barrier(), rmb(), wmb()} need a comment in the
source code that explains the logic of what they are doing and why.

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@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ Linux 2.4:
Linux 2.6:
The same rules apply as 2.4 except that you should follow linux-kernel
to track changes in API's. The final contact point for Linux 2.6
submissions is Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>.
submissions is Andrew Morton.
What Criteria Determine Acceptance
----------------------------------

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@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ Quilt:
http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/quilt
Andrew Morton's patch scripts:
http://www.zip.com.au/~akpm/linux/patches/
http://userweb.kernel.org/~akpm/stuff/patch-scripts.tar.gz
Instead of these scripts, quilt is the recommended patch management
tool (see above).
@ -405,7 +405,7 @@ person it names. This tag documents that potentially interested parties
have been included in the discussion
14) Using Test-by: and Reviewed-by:
14) Using Tested-by: and Reviewed-by:
A Tested-by: tag indicates that the patch has been successfully tested (in
some environment) by the person named. This tag informs maintainers that
@ -653,7 +653,7 @@ SECTION 3 - REFERENCES
----------------------
Andrew Morton, "The perfect patch" (tpp).
<http://www.zip.com.au/~akpm/linux/patches/stuff/tpp.txt>
<http://userweb.kernel.org/~akpm/stuff/tpp.txt>
Jeff Garzik, "Linux kernel patch submission format".
<http://linux.yyz.us/patch-format.html>
@ -672,4 +672,9 @@ Kernel Documentation/CodingStyle:
Linus Torvalds's mail on the canonical patch format:
<http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/4/7/183>
Andi Kleen, "On submitting kernel patches"
Some strategies to get difficult or controversal changes in.
http://halobates.de/on-submitting-patches.pdf
--

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@ -246,7 +246,7 @@ will require extra work due to the application tag.
retrieve the tag buffer using bio_integrity_get_tag().
6.3 PASSING EXISTING INTEGRITY METADATA
5.3 PASSING EXISTING INTEGRITY METADATA
Filesystems that either generate their own integrity metadata or
are capable of transferring IMD from user space can use the
@ -283,7 +283,7 @@ will require extra work due to the application tag.
integrity upon completion.
6.4 REGISTERING A BLOCK DEVICE AS CAPABLE OF EXCHANGING INTEGRITY
5.4 REGISTERING A BLOCK DEVICE AS CAPABLE OF EXCHANGING INTEGRITY
METADATA
To enable integrity exchange on a block device the gendisk must be

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@ -0,0 +1,99 @@
The cgroup freezer is useful to batch job management system which start
and stop sets of tasks in order to schedule the resources of a machine
according to the desires of a system administrator. This sort of program
is often used on HPC clusters to schedule access to the cluster as a
whole. The cgroup freezer uses cgroups to describe the set of tasks to
be started/stopped by the batch job management system. It also provides
a means to start and stop the tasks composing the job.
The cgroup freezer will also be useful for checkpointing running groups
of tasks. The freezer allows the checkpoint code to obtain a consistent
image of the tasks by attempting to force the tasks in a cgroup into a
quiescent state. Once the tasks are quiescent another task can
walk /proc or invoke a kernel interface to gather information about the
quiesced tasks. Checkpointed tasks can be restarted later should a
recoverable error occur. This also allows the checkpointed tasks to be
migrated between nodes in a cluster by copying the gathered information
to another node and restarting the tasks there.
Sequences of SIGSTOP and SIGCONT are not always sufficient for stopping
and resuming tasks in userspace. Both of these signals are observable
from within the tasks we wish to freeze. While SIGSTOP cannot be caught,
blocked, or ignored it can be seen by waiting or ptracing parent tasks.
SIGCONT is especially unsuitable since it can be caught by the task. Any
programs designed to watch for SIGSTOP and SIGCONT could be broken by
attempting to use SIGSTOP and SIGCONT to stop and resume tasks. We can
demonstrate this problem using nested bash shells:
$ echo $$
16644
$ bash
$ echo $$
16690
From a second, unrelated bash shell:
$ kill -SIGSTOP 16690
$ kill -SIGCONT 16990
<at this point 16990 exits and causes 16644 to exit too>
This happens because bash can observe both signals and choose how it
responds to them.
Another example of a program which catches and responds to these
signals is gdb. In fact any program designed to use ptrace is likely to
have a problem with this method of stopping and resuming tasks.
In contrast, the cgroup freezer uses the kernel freezer code to
prevent the freeze/unfreeze cycle from becoming visible to the tasks
being frozen. This allows the bash example above and gdb to run as
expected.
The freezer subsystem in the container filesystem defines a file named
freezer.state. Writing "FROZEN" to the state file will freeze all tasks in the
cgroup. Subsequently writing "THAWED" will unfreeze the tasks in the cgroup.
Reading will return the current state.
* Examples of usage :
# mkdir /containers/freezer
# mount -t cgroup -ofreezer freezer /containers
# mkdir /containers/0
# echo $some_pid > /containers/0/tasks
to get status of the freezer subsystem :
# cat /containers/0/freezer.state
THAWED
to freeze all tasks in the container :
# echo FROZEN > /containers/0/freezer.state
# cat /containers/0/freezer.state
FREEZING
# cat /containers/0/freezer.state
FROZEN
to unfreeze all tasks in the container :
# echo THAWED > /containers/0/freezer.state
# cat /containers/0/freezer.state
THAWED
This is the basic mechanism which should do the right thing for user space task
in a simple scenario.
It's important to note that freezing can be incomplete. In that case we return
EBUSY. This means that some tasks in the cgroup are busy doing something that
prevents us from completely freezing the cgroup at this time. After EBUSY,
the cgroup will remain partially frozen -- reflected by freezer.state reporting
"FREEZING" when read. The state will remain "FREEZING" until one of these
things happens:
1) Userspace cancels the freezing operation by writing "THAWED" to
the freezer.state file
2) Userspace retries the freezing operation by writing "FROZEN" to
the freezer.state file (writing "FREEZING" is not legal
and returns EIO)
3) The tasks that blocked the cgroup from entering the "FROZEN"
state disappear from the cgroup's set of tasks.

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@ -112,14 +112,22 @@ the per cgroup LRU.
2.2.1 Accounting details
All mapped pages (RSS) and unmapped user pages (Page Cache) are accounted.
RSS pages are accounted at the time of page_add_*_rmap() unless they've already
been accounted for earlier. A file page will be accounted for as Page Cache;
it's mapped into the page tables of a process, duplicate accounting is carefully
avoided. Page Cache pages are accounted at the time of add_to_page_cache().
The corresponding routines that remove a page from the page tables or removes
a page from Page Cache is used to decrement the accounting counters of the
cgroup.
All mapped anon pages (RSS) and cache pages (Page Cache) are accounted.
(some pages which never be reclaimable and will not be on global LRU
are not accounted. we just accounts pages under usual vm management.)
RSS pages are accounted at page_fault unless they've already been accounted
for earlier. A file page will be accounted for as Page Cache when it's
inserted into inode (radix-tree). While it's mapped into the page tables of
processes, duplicate accounting is carefully avoided.
A RSS page is unaccounted when it's fully unmapped. A PageCache page is
unaccounted when it's removed from radix-tree.
At page migration, accounting information is kept.
Note: we just account pages-on-lru because our purpose is to control amount
of used pages. not-on-lru pages are tend to be out-of-control from vm view.
2.3 Shared Page Accounting

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@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ hooks, beyond what is already present, required to manage dynamic
job placement on large systems.
Cpusets use the generic cgroup subsystem described in
Documentation/cgroup.txt.
Documentation/cgroups/cgroups.txt.
Requests by a task, using the sched_setaffinity(2) system call to
include CPUs in its CPU affinity mask, and using the mbind(2) and

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@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ operating system.
The ETRAX 100LX chip
--------------------
For reference, plase see the press-release:
For reference, please see the press-release:
http://www.axis.com/news/us/001101_etrax.htm

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@ -0,0 +1,274 @@
1: A GUIDE TO THE KERNEL DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
The purpose of this document is to help developers (and their managers)
work with the development community with a minimum of frustration. It is
an attempt to document how this community works in a way which is
accessible to those who are not intimately familiar with Linux kernel
development (or, indeed, free software development in general). While
there is some technical material here, this is very much a process-oriented
discussion which does not require a deep knowledge of kernel programming to
understand.
1.1: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The rest of this section covers the scope of the kernel development process
and the kinds of frustrations that developers and their employers can
encounter there. There are a great many reasons why kernel code should be
merged into the official ("mainline") kernel, including automatic
availability to users, community support in many forms, and the ability to
influence the direction of kernel development. Code contributed to the
Linux kernel must be made available under a GPL-compatible license.
Section 2 introduces the development process, the kernel release cycle, and
the mechanics of the merge window. The various phases in the patch
development, review, and merging cycle are covered. There is some
discussion of tools and mailing lists. Developers wanting to get started
with kernel development are encouraged to track down and fix bugs as an
initial exercise.
Section 3 covers early-stage project planning, with an emphasis on
involving the development community as soon as possible.
Section 4 is about the coding process; several pitfalls which have been
encountered by other developers are discussed. Some requirements for
patches are covered, and there is an introduction to some of the tools
which can help to ensure that kernel patches are correct.
Section 5 talks about the process of posting patches for review. To be
taken seriously by the development community, patches must be properly
formatted and described, and they must be sent to the right place.
Following the advice in this section should help to ensure the best
possible reception for your work.
Section 6 covers what happens after posting patches; the job is far from
done at that point. Working with reviewers is a crucial part of the
development process; this section offers a number of tips on how to avoid
problems at this important stage. Developers are cautioned against
assuming that the job is done when a patch is merged into the mainline.
Section 7 introduces a couple of "advanced" topics: managing patches with
git and reviewing patches posted by others.
Section 8 concludes the document with pointers to sources for more
information on kernel development.
1.2: WHAT THIS DOCUMENT IS ABOUT
The Linux kernel, at over 6 million lines of code and well over 1000 active
contributors, is one of the largest and most active free software projects
in existence. Since its humble beginning in 1991, this kernel has evolved
into a best-of-breed operating system component which runs on pocket-sized
digital music players, desktop PCs, the largest supercomputers in
existence, and all types of systems in between. It is a robust, efficient,
and scalable solution for almost any situation.
With the growth of Linux has come an increase in the number of developers
(and companies) wishing to participate in its development. Hardware
vendors want to ensure that Linux supports their products well, making
those products attractive to Linux users. Embedded systems vendors, who
use Linux as a component in an integrated product, want Linux to be as
capable and well-suited to the task at hand as possible. Distributors and
other software vendors who base their products on Linux have a clear
interest in the capabilities, performance, and reliability of the Linux
kernel. And end users, too, will often wish to change Linux to make it
better suit their needs.
One of the most compelling features of Linux is that it is accessible to
these developers; anybody with the requisite skills can improve Linux and
influence the direction of its development. Proprietary products cannot
offer this kind of openness, which is a characteristic of the free software
process. But, if anything, the kernel is even more open than most other
free software projects. A typical three-month kernel development cycle can
involve over 1000 developers working for more than 100 different companies
(or for no company at all).
Working with the kernel development community is not especially hard. But,
that notwithstanding, many potential contributors have experienced
difficulties when trying to do kernel work. The kernel community has
evolved its own distinct ways of operating which allow it to function
smoothly (and produce a high-quality product) in an environment where
thousands of lines of code are being changed every day. So it is not
surprising that Linux kernel development process differs greatly from
proprietary development methods.
The kernel's development process may come across as strange and
intimidating to new developers, but there are good reasons and solid
experience behind it. A developer who does not understand the kernel
community's ways (or, worse, who tries to flout or circumvent them) will
have a frustrating experience in store. The development community, while
being helpful to those who are trying to learn, has little time for those
who will not listen or who do not care about the development process.
It is hoped that those who read this document will be able to avoid that
frustrating experience. There is a lot of material here, but the effort
involved in reading it will be repaid in short order. The development
community is always in need of developers who will help to make the kernel
better; the following text should help you - or those who work for you -
join our community.
1.3: CREDITS
This document was written by Jonathan Corbet, corbet@lwn.net. It has been
improved by comments from Johannes Berg, James Berry, Alex Chiang, Roland
Dreier, Randy Dunlap, Jake Edge, Jiri Kosina, Matt Mackall, Arthur Marsh,
Amanda McPherson, Andrew Morton, Andrew Price, Tsugikazu Shibata, and
Jochen Voß.
This work was supported by the Linux Foundation; thanks especially to
Amanda McPherson, who saw the value of this effort and made it all happen.
1.4: THE IMPORTANCE OF GETTING CODE INTO THE MAINLINE
Some companies and developers occasionally wonder why they should bother
learning how to work with the kernel community and get their code into the
mainline kernel (the "mainline" being the kernel maintained by Linus
Torvalds and used as a base by Linux distributors). In the short term,
contributing code can look like an avoidable expense; it seems easier to
just keep the code separate and support users directly. The truth of the
matter is that keeping code separate ("out of tree") is a false economy.
As a way of illustrating the costs of out-of-tree code, here are a few
relevant aspects of the kernel development process; most of these will be
discussed in greater detail later in this document. Consider:
- Code which has been merged into the mainline kernel is available to all
Linux users. It will automatically be present on all distributions which
enable it. There is no need for driver disks, downloads, or the hassles
of supporting multiple versions of multiple distributions; it all just
works, for the developer and for the user. Incorporation into the
mainline solves a large number of distribution and support problems.
- While kernel developers strive to maintain a stable interface to user
space, the internal kernel API is in constant flux. The lack of a stable
internal interface is a deliberate design decision; it allows fundamental
improvements to be made at any time and results in higher-quality code.
But one result of that policy is that any out-of-tree code requires
constant upkeep if it is to work with new kernels. Maintaining
out-of-tree code requires significant amounts of work just to keep that
code working.
Code which is in the mainline, instead, does not require this work as the
result of a simple rule requiring any developer who makes an API change
to also fix any code that breaks as the result of that change. So code
which has been merged into the mainline has significantly lower
maintenance costs.
- Beyond that, code which is in the kernel will often be improved by other
developers. Surprising results can come from empowering your user
community and customers to improve your product.
- Kernel code is subjected to review, both before and after merging into
the mainline. No matter how strong the original developer's skills are,
this review process invariably finds ways in which the code can be
improved. Often review finds severe bugs and security problems. This is
especially true for code which has been developed in a closed
environment; such code benefits strongly from review by outside
developers. Out-of-tree code is lower-quality code.
- Participation in the development process is your way to influence the
direction of kernel development. Users who complain from the sidelines
are heard, but active developers have a stronger voice - and the ability
to implement changes which make the kernel work better for their needs.
- When code is maintained separately, the possibility that a third party
will contribute a different implementation of a similar feature always
exists. Should that happen, getting your code merged will become much
harder - to the point of impossibility. Then you will be faced with the
unpleasant alternatives of either (1) maintaining a nonstandard feature
out of tree indefinitely, or (2) abandoning your code and migrating your
users over to the in-tree version.
- Contribution of code is the fundamental action which makes the whole
process work. By contributing your code you can add new functionality to
the kernel and provide capabilities and examples which are of use to
other kernel developers. If you have developed code for Linux (or are
thinking about doing so), you clearly have an interest in the continued
success of this platform; contributing code is one of the best ways to
help ensure that success.
All of the reasoning above applies to any out-of-tree kernel code,
including code which is distributed in proprietary, binary-only form.
There are, however, additional factors which should be taken into account
before considering any sort of binary-only kernel code distribution. These
include:
- The legal issues around the distribution of proprietary kernel modules
are cloudy at best; quite a few kernel copyright holders believe that
most binary-only modules are derived products of the kernel and that, as
a result, their distribution is a violation of the GNU General Public
license (about which more will be said below). Your author is not a
lawyer, and nothing in this document can possibly be considered to be
legal advice. The true legal status of closed-source modules can only be
determined by the courts. But the uncertainty which haunts those modules
is there regardless.
- Binary modules greatly increase the difficulty of debugging kernel
problems, to the point that most kernel developers will not even try. So
the distribution of binary-only modules will make it harder for your
users to get support from the community.
- Support is also harder for distributors of binary-only modules, who must
provide a version of the module for every distribution and every kernel
version they wish to support. Dozens of builds of a single module can
be required to provide reasonably comprehensive coverage, and your users
will have to upgrade your module separately every time they upgrade their
kernel.
- Everything that was said above about code review applies doubly to
closed-source code. Since this code is not available at all, it cannot
have been reviewed by the community and will, beyond doubt, have serious
problems.
Makers of embedded systems, in particular, may be tempted to disregard much
of what has been said in this section in the belief that they are shipping
a self-contained product which uses a frozen kernel version and requires no
more development after its release. This argument misses the value of
widespread code review and the value of allowing your users to add
capabilities to your product. But these products, too, have a limited
commercial life, after which a new version must be released. At that
point, vendors whose code is in the mainline and well maintained will be
much better positioned to get the new product ready for market quickly.
1.5: LICENSING
Code is contributed to the Linux kernel under a number of licenses, but all
code must be compatible with version 2 of the GNU General Public License
(GPLv2), which is the license covering the kernel distribution as a whole.
In practice, that means that all code contributions are covered either by
GPLv2 (with, optionally, language allowing distribution under later
versions of the GPL) or the three-clause BSD license. Any contributions
which are not covered by a compatible license will not be accepted into the
kernel.
Copyright assignments are not required (or requested) for code contributed
to the kernel. All code merged into the mainline kernel retains its
original ownership; as a result, the kernel now has thousands of owners.
One implication of this ownership structure is that any attempt to change
the licensing of the kernel is doomed to almost certain failure. There are
few practical scenarios where the agreement of all copyright holders could
be obtained (or their code removed from the kernel). So, in particular,
there is no prospect of a migration to version 3 of the GPL in the
foreseeable future.
It is imperative that all code contributed to the kernel be legitimately
free software. For that reason, code from anonymous (or pseudonymous)
contributors will not be accepted. All contributors are required to "sign
off" on their code, stating that the code can be distributed with the
kernel under the GPL. Code which has not been licensed as free software by
its owner, or which risks creating copyright-related problems for the
kernel (such as code which derives from reverse-engineering efforts lacking
proper safeguards) cannot be contributed.
Questions about copyright-related issues are common on Linux development
mailing lists. Such questions will normally receive no shortage of
answers, but one should bear in mind that the people answering those
questions are not lawyers and cannot provide legal advice. If you have
legal questions relating to Linux source code, there is no substitute for
talking with a lawyer who understands this field. Relying on answers
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2: HOW THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS WORKS
Linux kernel development in the early 1990's was a pretty loose affair,
with relatively small numbers of users and developers involved. With a
user base in the millions and with some 2,000 developers involved over the
course of one year, the kernel has since had to evolve a number of
processes to keep development happening smoothly. A solid understanding of
how the process works is required in order to be an effective part of it.
2.1: THE BIG PICTURE
The kernel developers use a loosely time-based release process, with a new
major kernel release happening every two or three months. The recent
release history looks like this:
2.6.26 July 13, 2008
2.6.25 April 16, 2008
2.6.24 January 24, 2008
2.6.23 October 9, 2007
2.6.22 July 8, 2007
2.6.21 April 25, 2007
2.6.20 February 4, 2007
Every 2.6.x release is a major kernel release with new features, internal
API changes, and more. A typical 2.6 release can contain over 10,000
changesets with changes to several hundred thousand lines of code. 2.6 is
thus the leading edge of Linux kernel development; the kernel uses a
rolling development model which is continually integrating major changes.
A relatively straightforward discipline is followed with regard to the
merging of patches for each release. At the beginning of each development
cycle, the "merge window" is said to be open. At that time, code which is
deemed to be sufficiently stable (and which is accepted by the development
community) is merged into the mainline kernel. The bulk of changes for a
new development cycle (and all of the major changes) will be merged during
this time, at a rate approaching 1,000 changes ("patches," or "changesets")
per day.
(As an aside, it is worth noting that the changes integrated during the
merge window do not come out of thin air; they have been collected, tested,
and staged ahead of time. How that process works will be described in
detail later on).
The merge window lasts for two weeks. At the end of this time, Linus
Torvalds will declare that the window is closed and release the first of
the "rc" kernels. For the kernel which is destined to be 2.6.26, for
example, the release which happens at the end of the merge window will be
called 2.6.26-rc1. The -rc1 release is the signal that the time to merge
new features has passed, and that the time to stabilize the next kernel has
begun.
Over the next six to ten weeks, only patches which fix problems should be
submitted to the mainline. On occasion a more significant change will be
allowed, but such occasions are rare; developers who try to merge new
features outside of the merge window tend to get an unfriendly reception.
As a general rule, if you miss the merge window for a given feature, the
best thing to do is to wait for the next development cycle. (An occasional
exception is made for drivers for previously-unsupported hardware; if they
touch no in-tree code, they cannot cause regressions and should be safe to
add at any time).
As fixes make their way into the mainline, the patch rate will slow over
time. Linus releases new -rc kernels about once a week; a normal series
will get up to somewhere between -rc6 and -rc9 before the kernel is
considered to be sufficiently stable and the final 2.6.x release is made.
At that point the whole process starts over again.
As an example, here is how the 2.6.25 development cycle went (all dates in
2008):
January 24 2.6.24 stable release
February 10 2.6.25-rc1, merge window closes
February 15 2.6.25-rc2
February 24 2.6.25-rc3
March 4 2.6.25-rc4
March 9 2.6.25-rc5
March 16 2.6.25-rc6
March 25 2.6.25-rc7
April 1 2.6.25-rc8
April 11 2.6.25-rc9
April 16 2.6.25 stable release
How do the developers decide when to close the development cycle and create
the stable release? The most significant metric used is the list of
regressions from previous releases. No bugs are welcome, but those which
break systems which worked in the past are considered to be especially
serious. For this reason, patches which cause regressions are looked upon
unfavorably and are quite likely to be reverted during the stabilization
period.
The developers' goal is to fix all known regressions before the stable
release is made. In the real world, this kind of perfection is hard to
achieve; there are just too many variables in a project of this size.
There comes a point where delaying the final release just makes the problem
worse; the pile of changes waiting for the next merge window will grow
larger, creating even more regressions the next time around. So most 2.6.x
kernels go out with a handful of known regressions though, hopefully, none
of them are serious.
Once a stable release is made, its ongoing maintenance is passed off to the
"stable team," currently comprised of Greg Kroah-Hartman and Chris Wright.
The stable team will release occasional updates to the stable release using
the 2.6.x.y numbering scheme. To be considered for an update release, a
patch must (1) fix a significant bug, and (2) already be merged into the
mainline for the next development kernel. Continuing our 2.6.25 example,
the history (as of this writing) is:
May 1 2.6.25.1
May 6 2.6.25.2
May 9 2.6.25.3
May 15 2.6.25.4
June 7 2.6.25.5
June 9 2.6.25.6
June 16 2.6.25.7
June 21 2.6.25.8
June 24 2.6.25.9
Stable updates for a given kernel are made for approximately six months;
after that, the maintenance of stable releases is solely the responsibility
of the distributors which have shipped that particular kernel.
2.2: THE LIFECYCLE OF A PATCH
Patches do not go directly from the developer's keyboard into the mainline
kernel. There is, instead, a somewhat involved (if somewhat informal)
process designed to ensure that each patch is reviewed for quality and that
each patch implements a change which is desirable to have in the mainline.
This process can happen quickly for minor fixes, or, in the case of large
and controversial changes, go on for years. Much developer frustration
comes from a lack of understanding of this process or from attempts to
circumvent it.
In the hopes of reducing that frustration, this document will describe how
a patch gets into the kernel. What follows below is an introduction which
describes the process in a somewhat idealized way. A much more detailed
treatment will come in later sections.
The stages that a patch goes through are, generally:
- Design. This is where the real requirements for the patch - and the way
those requirements will be met - are laid out. Design work is often
done without involving the community, but it is better to do this work
in the open if at all possible; it can save a lot of time redesigning
things later.
- Early review. Patches are posted to the relevant mailing list, and
developers on that list reply with any comments they may have. This
process should turn up any major problems with a patch if all goes
well.
- Wider review. When the patch is getting close to ready for mainline
inclusion, it will be accepted by a relevant subsystem maintainer -
though this acceptance is not a guarantee that the patch will make it
all the way to the mainline. The patch will show up in the maintainer's
subsystem tree and into the staging trees (described below). When the
process works, this step leads to more extensive review of the patch and
the discovery of any problems resulting from the integration of this
patch with work being done by others.
- Merging into the mainline. Eventually, a successful patch will be
merged into the mainline repository managed by Linus Torvalds. More
comments and/or problems may surface at this time; it is important that
the developer be responsive to these and fix any issues which arise.
- Stable release. The number of users potentially affected by the patch
is now large, so, once again, new problems may arise.
- Long-term maintenance. While it is certainly possible for a developer
to forget about code after merging it, that sort of behavior tends to
leave a poor impression in the development community. Merging code
eliminates some of the maintenance burden, in that others will fix
problems caused by API changes. But the original developer should
continue to take responsibility for the code if it is to remain useful
in the longer term.
One of the largest mistakes made by kernel developers (or their employers)
is to try to cut the process down to a single "merging into the mainline"
step. This approach invariably leads to frustration for everybody
involved.
2.3: HOW PATCHES GET INTO THE KERNEL
There is exactly one person who can merge patches into the mainline kernel
repository: Linus Torvalds. But, of the over 12,000 patches which went
into the 2.6.25 kernel, only 250 (around 2%) were directly chosen by Linus
himself. The kernel project has long since grown to a size where no single
developer could possibly inspect and select every patch unassisted. The
way the kernel developers have addressed this growth is through the use of
a lieutenant system built around a chain of trust.
The kernel code base is logically broken down into a set of subsystems:
networking, specific architecture support, memory management, video
devices, etc. Most subsystems have a designated maintainer, a developer
who has overall responsibility for the code within that subsystem. These
subsystem maintainers are the gatekeepers (in a loose way) for the portion
of the kernel they manage; they are the ones who will (usually) accept a
patch for inclusion into the mainline kernel.
Subsystem maintainers each manage their own version of the kernel source
tree, usually (but certainly not always) using the git source management
tool. Tools like git (and related tools like quilt or mercurial) allow
maintainers to track a list of patches, including authorship information
and other metadata. At any given time, the maintainer can identify which
patches in his or her repository are not found in the mainline.
When the merge window opens, top-level maintainers will ask Linus to "pull"
the patches they have selected for merging from their repositories. If
Linus agrees, the stream of patches will flow up into his repository,
becoming part of the mainline kernel. The amount of attention that Linus
pays to specific patches received in a pull operation varies. It is clear
that, sometimes, he looks quite closely. But, as a general rule, Linus
trusts the subsystem maintainers to not send bad patches upstream.
Subsystem maintainers, in turn, can pull patches from other maintainers.
For example, the networking tree is built from patches which accumulated
first in trees dedicated to network device drivers, wireless networking,
etc. This chain of repositories can be arbitrarily long, though it rarely
exceeds two or three links. Since each maintainer in the chain trusts
those managing lower-level trees, this process is known as the "chain of
trust."
Clearly, in a system like this, getting patches into the kernel depends on
finding the right maintainer. Sending patches directly to Linus is not
normally the right way to go.
2.4: STAGING TREES
The chain of subsystem trees guides the flow of patches into the kernel,
but it also raises an interesting question: what if somebody wants to look
at all of the patches which are being prepared for the next merge window?
Developers will be interested in what other changes are pending to see
whether there are any conflicts to worry about; a patch which changes a
core kernel function prototype, for example, will conflict with any other
patches which use the older form of that function. Reviewers and testers
want access to the changes in their integrated form before all of those
changes land in the mainline kernel. One could pull changes from all of
the interesting subsystem trees, but that would be a big and error-prone
job.
The answer comes in the form of staging trees, where subsystem trees are
collected for testing and review. The older of these trees, maintained by
Andrew Morton, is called "-mm" (for memory management, which is how it got
started). The -mm tree integrates patches from a long list of subsystem
trees; it also has some patches aimed at helping with debugging.
Beyond that, -mm contains a significant collection of patches which have
been selected by Andrew directly. These patches may have been posted on a
mailing list, or they may apply to a part of the kernel for which there is
no designated subsystem tree. As a result, -mm operates as a sort of
subsystem tree of last resort; if there is no other obvious path for a
patch into the mainline, it is likely to end up in -mm. Miscellaneous
patches which accumulate in -mm will eventually either be forwarded on to
an appropriate subsystem tree or be sent directly to Linus. In a typical
development cycle, approximately 10% of the patches going into the mainline
get there via -mm.
The current -mm patch can always be found from the front page of
http://kernel.org/
Those who want to see the current state of -mm can get the "-mm of the
moment" tree, found at:
http://userweb.kernel.org/~akpm/mmotm/
Use of the MMOTM tree is likely to be a frustrating experience, though;
there is a definite chance that it will not even compile.
The other staging tree, started more recently, is linux-next, maintained by
Stephen Rothwell. The linux-next tree is, by design, a snapshot of what
the mainline is expected to look like after the next merge window closes.
Linux-next trees are announced on the linux-kernel and linux-next mailing
lists when they are assembled; they can be downloaded from:
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/sfr/linux-next/
Some information about linux-next has been gathered at:
http://linux.f-seidel.de/linux-next/pmwiki/
How the linux-next tree will fit into the development process is still
changing. As of this writing, the first full development cycle involving
linux-next (2.6.26) is coming to an end; thus far, it has proved to be a
valuable resource for finding and fixing integration problems before the
beginning of the merge window. See http://lwn.net/Articles/287155/ for
more information on how linux-next has worked to set up the 2.6.27 merge
window.
Some developers have begun to suggest that linux-next should be used as the
target for future development as well. The linux-next tree does tend to be
far ahead of the mainline and is more representative of the tree into which
any new work will be merged. The downside to this idea is that the
volatility of linux-next tends to make it a difficult development target.
See http://lwn.net/Articles/289013/ for more information on this topic, and
stay tuned; much is still in flux where linux-next is involved.
2.5: TOOLS
As can be seen from the above text, the kernel development process depends
heavily on the ability to herd collections of patches in various
directions. The whole thing would not work anywhere near as well as it
does without suitably powerful tools. Tutorials on how to use these tools
are well beyond the scope of this document, but there is space for a few
pointers.
By far the dominant source code management system used by the kernel
community is git. Git is one of a number of distributed version control
systems being developed in the free software community. It is well tuned
for kernel development, in that it performs quite well when dealing with
large repositories and large numbers of patches. It also has a reputation
for being difficult to learn and use, though it has gotten better over
time. Some sort of familiarity with git is almost a requirement for kernel
developers; even if they do not use it for their own work, they'll need git
to keep up with what other developers (and the mainline) are doing.
Git is now packaged by almost all Linux distributions. There is a home
page at
http://git.or.cz/
That page has pointers to documentation and tutorials. One should be
aware, in particular, of the Kernel Hacker's Guide to git, which has
information specific to kernel development:
http://linux.yyz.us/git-howto.html
Among the kernel developers who do not use git, the most popular choice is
almost certainly Mercurial:
http://www.selenic.com/mercurial/
Mercurial shares many features with git, but it provides an interface which
many find easier to use.
The other tool worth knowing about is Quilt:
http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/quilt/
Quilt is a patch management system, rather than a source code management
system. It does not track history over time; it is, instead, oriented
toward tracking a specific set of changes against an evolving code base.
Some major subsystem maintainers use quilt to manage patches intended to go
upstream. For the management of certain kinds of trees (-mm, for example),
quilt is the best tool for the job.
2.6: MAILING LISTS
A great deal of Linux kernel development work is done by way of mailing
lists. It is hard to be a fully-functioning member of the community
without joining at least one list somewhere. But Linux mailing lists also
represent a potential hazard to developers, who risk getting buried under a
load of electronic mail, running afoul of the conventions used on the Linux
lists, or both.
Most kernel mailing lists are run on vger.kernel.org; the master list can
be found at:
http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html
There are lists hosted elsewhere, though; a number of them are at
lists.redhat.com.
The core mailing list for kernel development is, of course, linux-kernel.
This list is an intimidating place to be; volume can reach 500 messages per
day, the amount of noise is high, the conversation can be severely
technical, and participants are not always concerned with showing a high
degree of politeness. But there is no other place where the kernel
development community comes together as a whole; developers who avoid this
list will miss important information.
There are a few hints which can help with linux-kernel survival:
- Have the list delivered to a separate folder, rather than your main
mailbox. One must be able to ignore the stream for sustained periods of
time.
- Do not try to follow every conversation - nobody else does. It is
important to filter on both the topic of interest (though note that
long-running conversations can drift away from the original subject
without changing the email subject line) and the people who are
participating.
- Do not feed the trolls. If somebody is trying to stir up an angry
response, ignore them.
- When responding to linux-kernel email (or that on other lists) preserve
the Cc: header for all involved. In the absence of a strong reason (such
as an explicit request), you should never remove recipients. Always make
sure that the person you are responding to is in the Cc: list. This
convention also makes it unnecessary to explicitly ask to be copied on
replies to your postings.
- Search the list archives (and the net as a whole) before asking
questions. Some developers can get impatient with people who clearly
have not done their homework.
- Avoid top-posting (the practice of putting your answer above the quoted
text you are responding to). It makes your response harder to read and
makes a poor impression.
- Ask on the correct mailing list. Linux-kernel may be the general meeting
point, but it is not the best place to find developers from all
subsystems.
The last point - finding the correct mailing list - is a common place for
beginning developers to go wrong. Somebody who asks a networking-related
question on linux-kernel will almost certainly receive a polite suggestion
to ask on the netdev list instead, as that is the list frequented by most
networking developers. Other lists exist for the SCSI, video4linux, IDE,
filesystem, etc. subsystems. The best place to look for mailing lists is
in the MAINTAINERS file packaged with the kernel source.
2.7: GETTING STARTED WITH KERNEL DEVELOPMENT
Questions about how to get started with the kernel development process are
common - from both individuals and companies. Equally common are missteps
which make the beginning of the relationship harder than it has to be.
Companies often look to hire well-known developers to get a development
group started. This can, in fact, be an effective technique. But it also
tends to be expensive and does not do much to grow the pool of experienced
kernel developers. It is possible to bring in-house developers up to speed
on Linux kernel development, given the investment of a bit of time. Taking
this time can endow an employer with a group of developers who understand
the kernel and the company both, and who can help to train others as well.
Over the medium term, this is often the more profitable approach.
Individual developers are often, understandably, at a loss for a place to
start. Beginning with a large project can be intimidating; one often wants
to test the waters with something smaller first. This is the point where
some developers jump into the creation of patches fixing spelling errors or
minor coding style issues. Unfortunately, such patches create a level of
noise which is distracting for the development community as a whole, so,
increasingly, they are looked down upon. New developers wishing to
introduce themselves to the community will not get the sort of reception
they wish for by these means.
Andrew Morton gives this advice for aspiring kernel developers
The #1 project for all kernel beginners should surely be "make sure
that the kernel runs perfectly at all times on all machines which
you can lay your hands on". Usually the way to do this is to work
with others on getting things fixed up (this can require
persistence!) but that's fine - it's a part of kernel development.
(http://lwn.net/Articles/283982/).
In the absence of obvious problems to fix, developers are advised to look
at the current lists of regressions and open bugs in general. There is
never any shortage of issues in need of fixing; by addressing these issues,
developers will gain experience with the process while, at the same time,
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3: EARLY-STAGE PLANNING
When contemplating a Linux kernel development project, it can be tempting
to jump right in and start coding. As with any significant project,
though, much of the groundwork for success is best laid before the first
line of code is written. Some time spent in early planning and
communication can save far more time later on.
3.1: SPECIFYING THE PROBLEM
Like any engineering project, a successful kernel enhancement starts with a
clear description of the problem to be solved. In some cases, this step is
easy: when a driver is needed for a specific piece of hardware, for
example. In others, though, it is tempting to confuse the real problem
with the proposed solution, and that can lead to difficulties.
Consider an example: some years ago, developers working with Linux audio
sought a way to run applications without dropouts or other artifacts caused
by excessive latency in the system. The solution they arrived at was a
kernel module intended to hook into the Linux Security Module (LSM)
framework; this module could be configured to give specific applications
access to the realtime scheduler. This module was implemented and sent to
the linux-kernel mailing list, where it immediately ran into problems.
To the audio developers, this security module was sufficient to solve their
immediate problem. To the wider kernel community, though, it was seen as a
misuse of the LSM framework (which is not intended to confer privileges
onto processes which they would not otherwise have) and a risk to system
stability. Their preferred solutions involved realtime scheduling access
via the rlimit mechanism for the short term, and ongoing latency reduction
work in the long term.
The audio community, however, could not see past the particular solution
they had implemented; they were unwilling to accept alternatives. The
resulting disagreement left those developers feeling disillusioned with the
entire kernel development process; one of them went back to an audio list
and posted this:
There are a number of very good Linux kernel developers, but they
tend to get outshouted by a large crowd of arrogant fools. Trying
to communicate user requirements to these people is a waste of
time. They are much too "intelligent" to listen to lesser mortals.
(http://lwn.net/Articles/131776/).
The reality of the situation was different; the kernel developers were far
more concerned about system stability, long-term maintenance, and finding
the right solution to the problem than they were with a specific module.
The moral of the story is to focus on the problem - not a specific solution
- and to discuss it with the development community before investing in the
creation of a body of code.
So, when contemplating a kernel development project, one should obtain
answers to a short set of questions:
- What, exactly, is the problem which needs to be solved?
- Who are the users affected by this problem? Which use cases should the
solution address?
- How does the kernel fall short in addressing that problem now?
Only then does it make sense to start considering possible solutions.
3.2: EARLY DISCUSSION
When planning a kernel development project, it makes great sense to hold
discussions with the community before launching into implementation. Early
communication can save time and trouble in a number of ways:
- It may well be that the problem is addressed by the kernel in ways which
you have not understood. The Linux kernel is large and has a number of
features and capabilities which are not immediately obvious. Not all
kernel capabilities are documented as well as one might like, and it is
easy to miss things. Your author has seen the posting of a complete
driver which duplicated an existing driver that the new author had been
unaware of. Code which reinvents existing wheels is not only wasteful;
it will also not be accepted into the mainline kernel.
- There may be elements of the proposed solution which will not be
acceptable for mainline merging. It is better to find out about
problems like this before writing the code.
- It's entirely possible that other developers have thought about the
problem; they may have ideas for a better solution, and may be willing
to help in the creation of that solution.
Years of experience with the kernel development community have taught a
clear lesson: kernel code which is designed and developed behind closed
doors invariably has problems which are only revealed when the code is
released into the community. Sometimes these problems are severe,
requiring months or years of effort before the code can be brought up to
the kernel community's standards. Some examples include:
- The Devicescape network stack was designed and implemented for
single-processor systems. It could not be merged into the mainline
until it was made suitable for multiprocessor systems. Retrofitting
locking and such into code is a difficult task; as a result, the merging
of this code (now called mac80211) was delayed for over a year.
- The Reiser4 filesystem included a number of capabilities which, in the
core kernel developers' opinion, should have been implemented in the
virtual filesystem layer instead. It also included features which could
not easily be implemented without exposing the system to user-caused
deadlocks. The late revelation of these problems - and refusal to
address some of them - has caused Reiser4 to stay out of the mainline
kernel.
- The AppArmor security module made use of internal virtual filesystem
data structures in ways which were considered to be unsafe and
unreliable. This code has since been significantly reworked, but
remains outside of the mainline.
In each of these cases, a great deal of pain and extra work could have been
avoided with some early discussion with the kernel developers.
3.3: WHO DO YOU TALK TO?
When developers decide to take their plans public, the next question will
be: where do we start? The answer is to find the right mailing list(s) and
the right maintainer. For mailing lists, the best approach is to look in
the MAINTAINERS file for a relevant place to post. If there is a suitable
subsystem list, posting there is often preferable to posting on
linux-kernel; you are more likely to reach developers with expertise in the
relevant subsystem and the environment may be more supportive.
Finding maintainers can be a bit harder. Again, the MAINTAINERS file is
the place to start. That file tends to not always be up to date, though,
and not all subsystems are represented there. The person listed in the
MAINTAINERS file may, in fact, not be the person who is actually acting in
that role currently. So, when there is doubt about who to contact, a
useful trick is to use git (and "git log" in particular) to see who is
currently active within the subsystem of interest. Look at who is writing
patches, and who, if anybody, is attaching Signed-off-by lines to those
patches. Those are the people who will be best placed to help with a new
development project.
If all else fails, talking to Andrew Morton can be an effective way to
track down a maintainer for a specific piece of code.
3.4: WHEN TO POST?
If possible, posting your plans during the early stages can only be
helpful. Describe the problem being solved and any plans that have been
made on how the implementation will be done. Any information you can
provide can help the development community provide useful input on the
project.
One discouraging thing which can happen at this stage is not a hostile
reaction, but, instead, little or no reaction at all. The sad truth of the
matter is (1) kernel developers tend to be busy, (2) there is no shortage
of people with grand plans and little code (or even prospect of code) to
back them up, and (3) nobody is obligated to review or comment on ideas
posted by others. If a request-for-comments posting yields little in the
way of comments, do not assume that it means there is no interest in the
project. Unfortunately, you also cannot assume that there are no problems
with your idea. The best thing to do in this situation is to proceed,
keeping the community informed as you go.
3.5: GETTING OFFICIAL BUY-IN
If your work is being done in a corporate environment - as most Linux
kernel work is - you must, obviously, have permission from suitably
empowered managers before you can post your company's plans or code to a
public mailing list. The posting of code which has not been cleared for
release under a GPL-compatible license can be especially problematic; the
sooner that a company's management and legal staff can agree on the posting
of a kernel development project, the better off everybody involved will be.
Some readers may be thinking at this point that their kernel work is
intended to support a product which does not yet have an officially
acknowledged existence. Revealing their employer's plans on a public
mailing list may not be a viable option. In cases like this, it is worth
considering whether the secrecy is really necessary; there is often no real
need to keep development plans behind closed doors.
That said, there are also cases where a company legitimately cannot
disclose its plans early in the development process. Companies with
experienced kernel developers may choose to proceed in an open-loop manner
on the assumption that they will be able to avoid serious integration
problems later. For companies without that sort of in-house expertise, the
best option is often to hire an outside developer to review the plans under
a non-disclosure agreement. The Linux Foundation operates an NDA program
designed to help with this sort of situation; more information can be found
at:
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/en/NDA_program
This kind of review is often enough to avoid serious problems later on
without requiring public disclosure of the project.

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4: GETTING THE CODE RIGHT
While there is much to be said for a solid and community-oriented design
process, the proof of any kernel development project is in the resulting
code. It is the code which will be examined by other developers and merged
(or not) into the mainline tree. So it is the quality of this code which
will determine the ultimate success of the project.
This section will examine the coding process. We'll start with a look at a
number of ways in which kernel developers can go wrong. Then the focus
will shift toward doing things right and the tools which can help in that
quest.
4.1: PITFALLS
* Coding style
The kernel has long had a standard coding style, described in
Documentation/CodingStyle. For much of that time, the policies described
in that file were taken as being, at most, advisory. As a result, there is
a substantial amount of code in the kernel which does not meet the coding
style guidelines. The presence of that code leads to two independent
hazards for kernel developers.
The first of these is to believe that the kernel coding standards do not
matter and are not enforced. The truth of the matter is that adding new
code to the kernel is very difficult if that code is not coded according to
the standard; many developers will request that the code be reformatted
before they will even review it. A code base as large as the kernel
requires some uniformity of code to make it possible for developers to
quickly understand any part of it. So there is no longer room for
strangely-formatted code.
Occasionally, the kernel's coding style will run into conflict with an
employer's mandated style. In such cases, the kernel's style will have to
win before the code can be merged. Putting code into the kernel means
giving up a degree of control in a number of ways - including control over
how the code is formatted.
The other trap is to assume that code which is already in the kernel is
urgently in need of coding style fixes. Developers may start to generate
reformatting patches as a way of gaining familiarity with the process, or
as a way of getting their name into the kernel changelogs - or both. But
pure coding style fixes are seen as noise by the development community;
they tend to get a chilly reception. So this type of patch is best
avoided. It is natural to fix the style of a piece of code while working
on it for other reasons, but coding style changes should not be made for
their own sake.
The coding style document also should not be read as an absolute law which
can never be transgressed. If there is a good reason to go against the
style (a line which becomes far less readable if split to fit within the
80-column limit, for example), just do it.
* Abstraction layers
Computer Science professors teach students to make extensive use of
abstraction layers in the name of flexibility and information hiding.
Certainly the kernel makes extensive use of abstraction; no project
involving several million lines of code could do otherwise and survive.
But experience has shown that excessive or premature abstraction can be
just as harmful as premature optimization. Abstraction should be used to
the level required and no further.
At a simple level, consider a function which has an argument which is
always passed as zero by all callers. One could retain that argument just
in case somebody eventually needs to use the extra flexibility that it
provides. By that time, though, chances are good that the code which
implements this extra argument has been broken in some subtle way which was
never noticed - because it has never been used. Or, when the need for
extra flexibility arises, it does not do so in a way which matches the
programmer's early expectation. Kernel developers will routinely submit
patches to remove unused arguments; they should, in general, not be added
in the first place.
Abstraction layers which hide access to hardware - often to allow the bulk
of a driver to be used with multiple operating systems - are especially
frowned upon. Such layers obscure the code and may impose a performance
penalty; they do not belong in the Linux kernel.
On the other hand, if you find yourself copying significant amounts of code
from another kernel subsystem, it is time to ask whether it would, in fact,
make sense to pull out some of that code into a separate library or to
implement that functionality at a higher level. There is no value in
replicating the same code throughout the kernel.
* #ifdef and preprocessor use in general
The C preprocessor seems to present a powerful temptation to some C
programmers, who see it as a way to efficiently encode a great deal of
flexibility into a source file. But the preprocessor is not C, and heavy
use of it results in code which is much harder for others to read and
harder for the compiler to check for correctness. Heavy preprocessor use
is almost always a sign of code which needs some cleanup work.
Conditional compilation with #ifdef is, indeed, a powerful feature, and it
is used within the kernel. But there is little desire to see code which is
sprinkled liberally with #ifdef blocks. As a general rule, #ifdef use
should be confined to header files whenever possible.
Conditionally-compiled code can be confined to functions which, if the code
is not to be present, simply become empty. The compiler will then quietly
optimize out the call to the empty function. The result is far cleaner
code which is easier to follow.
C preprocessor macros present a number of hazards, including possible
multiple evaluation of expressions with side effects and no type safety.
If you are tempted to define a macro, consider creating an inline function
instead. The code which results will be the same, but inline functions are
easier to read, do not evaluate their arguments multiple times, and allow
the compiler to perform type checking on the arguments and return value.
* Inline functions
Inline functions present a hazard of their own, though. Programmers can
become enamored of the perceived efficiency inherent in avoiding a function
call and fill a source file with inline functions. Those functions,
however, can actually reduce performance. Since their code is replicated
at each call site, they end up bloating the size of the compiled kernel.
That, in turn, creates pressure on the processor's memory caches, which can
slow execution dramatically. Inline functions, as a rule, should be quite
small and relatively rare. The cost of a function call, after all, is not
that high; the creation of large numbers of inline functions is a classic
example of premature optimization.
In general, kernel programmers ignore cache effects at their peril. The
classic time/space tradeoff taught in beginning data structures classes
often does not apply to contemporary hardware. Space *is* time, in that a
larger program will run slower than one which is more compact.
* Locking
In May, 2006, the "Devicescape" networking stack was, with great
fanfare, released under the GPL and made available for inclusion in the
mainline kernel. This donation was welcome news; support for wireless
networking in Linux was considered substandard at best, and the Devicescape
stack offered the promise of fixing that situation. Yet, this code did not
actually make it into the mainline until June, 2007 (2.6.22). What
happened?
This code showed a number of signs of having been developed behind
corporate doors. But one large problem in particular was that it was not
designed to work on multiprocessor systems. Before this networking stack
(now called mac80211) could be merged, a locking scheme needed to be
retrofitted onto it.
Once upon a time, Linux kernel code could be developed without thinking
about the concurrency issues presented by multiprocessor systems. Now,
however, this document is being written on a dual-core laptop. Even on
single-processor systems, work being done to improve responsiveness will
raise the level of concurrency within the kernel. The days when kernel
code could be written without thinking about locking are long past.
Any resource (data structures, hardware registers, etc.) which could be
accessed concurrently by more than one thread must be protected by a lock.
New code should be written with this requirement in mind; retrofitting
locking after the fact is a rather more difficult task. Kernel developers
should take the time to understand the available locking primitives well
enough to pick the right tool for the job. Code which shows a lack of
attention to concurrency will have a difficult path into the mainline.
* Regressions
One final hazard worth mentioning is this: it can be tempting to make a
change (which may bring big improvements) which causes something to break
for existing users. This kind of change is called a "regression," and
regressions have become most unwelcome in the mainline kernel. With few
exceptions, changes which cause regressions will be backed out if the
regression cannot be fixed in a timely manner. Far better to avoid the
regression in the first place.
It is often argued that a regression can be justified if it causes things
to work for more people than it creates problems for. Why not make a
change if it brings new functionality to ten systems for each one it
breaks? The best answer to this question was expressed by Linus in July,
2007:
So we don't fix bugs by introducing new problems. That way lies
madness, and nobody ever knows if you actually make any real
progress at all. Is it two steps forwards, one step back, or one
step forward and two steps back?
(http://lwn.net/Articles/243460/).
An especially unwelcome type of regression is any sort of change to the
user-space ABI. Once an interface has been exported to user space, it must
be supported indefinitely. This fact makes the creation of user-space
interfaces particularly challenging: since they cannot be changed in
incompatible ways, they must be done right the first time. For this
reason, a great deal of thought, clear documentation, and wide review for
user-space interfaces is always required.
4.2: CODE CHECKING TOOLS
For now, at least, the writing of error-free code remains an ideal that few
of us can reach. What we can hope to do, though, is to catch and fix as
many of those errors as possible before our code goes into the mainline
kernel. To that end, the kernel developers have put together an impressive
array of tools which can catch a wide variety of obscure problems in an
automated way. Any problem caught by the computer is a problem which will
not afflict a user later on, so it stands to reason that the automated
tools should be used whenever possible.
The first step is simply to heed the warnings produced by the compiler.
Contemporary versions of gcc can detect (and warn about) a large number of
potential errors. Quite often, these warnings point to real problems.
Code submitted for review should, as a rule, not produce any compiler
warnings. When silencing warnings, take care to understand the real cause
and try to avoid "fixes" which make the warning go away without addressing
its cause.
Note that not all compiler warnings are enabled by default. Build the
kernel with "make EXTRA_CFLAGS=-W" to get the full set.
The kernel provides several configuration options which turn on debugging
features; most of these are found in the "kernel hacking" submenu. Several
of these options should be turned on for any kernel used for development or
testing purposes. In particular, you should turn on:
- ENABLE_WARN_DEPRECATED, ENABLE_MUST_CHECK, and FRAME_WARN to get an
extra set of warnings for problems like the use of deprecated interfaces
or ignoring an important return value from a function. The output
generated by these warnings can be verbose, but one need not worry about
warnings from other parts of the kernel.
- DEBUG_OBJECTS will add code to track the lifetime of various objects
created by the kernel and warn when things are done out of order. If
you are adding a subsystem which creates (and exports) complex objects
of its own, consider adding support for the object debugging
infrastructure.
- DEBUG_SLAB can find a variety of memory allocation and use errors; it
should be used on most development kernels.
- DEBUG_SPINLOCK, DEBUG_SPINLOCK_SLEEP, and DEBUG_MUTEXES will find a
number of common locking errors.
There are quite a few other debugging options, some of which will be
discussed below. Some of them have a significant performance impact and
should not be used all of the time. But some time spent learning the
available options will likely be paid back many times over in short order.
One of the heavier debugging tools is the locking checker, or "lockdep."
This tool will track the acquisition and release of every lock (spinlock or
mutex) in the system, the order in which locks are acquired relative to
each other, the current interrupt environment, and more. It can then
ensure that locks are always acquired in the same order, that the same
interrupt assumptions apply in all situations, and so on. In other words,
lockdep can find a number of scenarios in which the system could, on rare
occasion, deadlock. This kind of problem can be painful (for both
developers and users) in a deployed system; lockdep allows them to be found
in an automated manner ahead of time. Code with any sort of non-trivial
locking should be run with lockdep enabled before being submitted for
inclusion.
As a diligent kernel programmer, you will, beyond doubt, check the return
status of any operation (such as a memory allocation) which can fail. The
fact of the matter, though, is that the resulting failure recovery paths
are, probably, completely untested. Untested code tends to be broken code;
you could be much more confident of your code if all those error-handling
paths had been exercised a few times.
The kernel provides a fault injection framework which can do exactly that,
especially where memory allocations are involved. With fault injection
enabled, a configurable percentage of memory allocations will be made to
fail; these failures can be restricted to a specific range of code.
Running with fault injection enabled allows the programmer to see how the
code responds when things go badly. See
Documentation/fault-injection/fault-injection.text for more information on
how to use this facility.
Other kinds of errors can be found with the "sparse" static analysis tool.
With sparse, the programmer can be warned about confusion between
user-space and kernel-space addresses, mixture of big-endian and
small-endian quantities, the passing of integer values where a set of bit
flags is expected, and so on. Sparse must be installed separately (it can
be found at http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/devel/sparse/ if your
distributor does not package it); it can then be run on the code by adding
"C=1" to your make command.
Other kinds of portability errors are best found by compiling your code for
other architectures. If you do not happen to have an S/390 system or a
Blackfin development board handy, you can still perform the compilation
step. A large set of cross compilers for x86 systems can be found at
http://www.kernel.org/pub/tools/crosstool/
Some time spent installing and using these compilers will help avoid
embarrassment later.
4.3: DOCUMENTATION
Documentation has often been more the exception than the rule with kernel
development. Even so, adequate documentation will help to ease the merging
of new code into the kernel, make life easier for other developers, and
will be helpful for your users. In many cases, the addition of
documentation has become essentially mandatory.
The first piece of documentation for any patch is its associated
changelog. Log entries should describe the problem being solved, the form
of the solution, the people who worked on the patch, any relevant
effects on performance, and anything else that might be needed to
understand the patch.
Any code which adds a new user-space interface - including new sysfs or
/proc files - should include documentation of that interface which enables
user-space developers to know what they are working with. See
Documentation/ABI/README for a description of how this documentation should
be formatted and what information needs to be provided.
The file Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt describes all of the kernel's
boot-time parameters. Any patch which adds new parameters should add the
appropriate entries to this file.
Any new configuration options must be accompanied by help text which
clearly explains the options and when the user might want to select them.
Internal API information for many subsystems is documented by way of
specially-formatted comments; these comments can be extracted and formatted
in a number of ways by the "kernel-doc" script. If you are working within
a subsystem which has kerneldoc comments, you should maintain them and add
them, as appropriate, for externally-available functions. Even in areas
which have not been so documented, there is no harm in adding kerneldoc
comments for the future; indeed, this can be a useful activity for
beginning kernel developers. The format of these comments, along with some
information on how to create kerneldoc templates can be found in the file
Documentation/kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt.
Anybody who reads through a significant amount of existing kernel code will
note that, often, comments are most notable by their absence. Once again,
the expectations for new code are higher than they were in the past;
merging uncommented code will be harder. That said, there is little desire
for verbosely-commented code. The code should, itself, be readable, with
comments explaining the more subtle aspects.
Certain things should always be commented. Uses of memory barriers should
be accompanied by a line explaining why the barrier is necessary. The
locking rules for data structures generally need to be explained somewhere.
Major data structures need comprehensive documentation in general.
Non-obvious dependencies between separate bits of code should be pointed
out. Anything which might tempt a code janitor to make an incorrect
"cleanup" needs a comment saying why it is done the way it is. And so on.
4.4: INTERNAL API CHANGES
The binary interface provided by the kernel to user space cannot be broken
except under the most severe circumstances. The kernel's internal
programming interfaces, instead, are highly fluid and can be changed when
the need arises. If you find yourself having to work around a kernel API,
or simply not using a specific functionality because it does not meet your
needs, that may be a sign that the API needs to change. As a kernel
developer, you are empowered to make such changes.
There are, of course, some catches. API changes can be made, but they need
to be well justified. So any patch making an internal API change should be
accompanied by a description of what the change is and why it is
necessary. This kind of change should also be broken out into a separate
patch, rather than buried within a larger patch.
The other catch is that a developer who changes an internal API is
generally charged with the task of fixing any code within the kernel tree
which is broken by the change. For a widely-used function, this duty can
lead to literally hundreds or thousands of changes - many of which are
likely to conflict with work being done by other developers. Needless to
say, this can be a large job, so it is best to be sure that the
justification is solid.
When making an incompatible API change, one should, whenever possible,
ensure that code which has not been updated is caught by the compiler.
This will help you to be sure that you have found all in-tree uses of that
interface. It will also alert developers of out-of-tree code that there is
a change that they need to respond to. Supporting out-of-tree code is not
something that kernel developers need to be worried about, but we also do
not have to make life harder for out-of-tree developers than it it needs to
be.

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5: POSTING PATCHES
Sooner or later, the time comes when your work is ready to be presented to
the community for review and, eventually, inclusion into the mainline
kernel. Unsurprisingly, the kernel development community has evolved a set
of conventions and procedures which are used in the posting of patches;
following them will make life much easier for everybody involved. This
document will attempt to cover these expectations in reasonable detail;
more information can also be found in the files SubmittingPatches,
SubmittingDrivers, and SubmitChecklist in the kernel documentation
directory.
5.1: WHEN TO POST
There is a constant temptation to avoid posting patches before they are
completely "ready." For simple patches, that is not a problem. If the
work being done is complex, though, there is a lot to be gained by getting
feedback from the community before the work is complete. So you should
consider posting in-progress work, or even making a git tree available so
that interested developers can catch up with your work at any time.
When posting code which is not yet considered ready for inclusion, it is a
good idea to say so in the posting itself. Also mention any major work
which remains to be done and any known problems. Fewer people will look at
patches which are known to be half-baked, but those who do will come in
with the idea that they can help you drive the work in the right direction.
5.2: BEFORE CREATING PATCHES
There are a number of things which should be done before you consider
sending patches to the development community. These include:
- Test the code to the extent that you can. Make use of the kernel's
debugging tools, ensure that the kernel will build with all reasonable
combinations of configuration options, use cross-compilers to build for
different architectures, etc.
- Make sure your code is compliant with the kernel coding style
guidelines.
- Does your change have performance implications? If so, you should run
benchmarks showing what the impact (or benefit) of your change is; a
summary of the results should be included with the patch.
- Be sure that you have the right to post the code. If this work was done
for an employer, the employer likely has a right to the work and must be
agreeable with its release under the GPL.
As a general rule, putting in some extra thought before posting code almost
always pays back the effort in short order.
5.3: PATCH PREPARATION
The preparation of patches for posting can be a surprising amount of work,
but, once again, attempting to save time here is not generally advisable
even in the short term.
Patches must be prepared against a specific version of the kernel. As a
general rule, a patch should be based on the current mainline as found in
Linus's git tree. It may become necessary to make versions against -mm,
linux-next, or a subsystem tree, though, to facilitate wider testing and
review. Depending on the area of your patch and what is going on
elsewhere, basing a patch against these other trees can require a
significant amount of work resolving conflicts and dealing with API
changes.
Only the most simple changes should be formatted as a single patch;
everything else should be made as a logical series of changes. Splitting
up patches is a bit of an art; some developers spend a long time figuring
out how to do it in the way that the community expects. There are a few
rules of thumb, however, which can help considerably:
- The patch series you post will almost certainly not be the series of
changes found in your working revision control system. Instead, the
changes you have made need to be considered in their final form, then
split apart in ways which make sense. The developers are interested in
discrete, self-contained changes, not the path you took to get to those
changes.
- Each logically independent change should be formatted as a separate
patch. These changes can be small ("add a field to this structure") or
large (adding a significant new driver, for example), but they should be
conceptually small and amenable to a one-line description. Each patch
should make a specific change which can be reviewed on its own and
verified to do what it says it does.
- As a way of restating the guideline above: do not mix different types of
changes in the same patch. If a single patch fixes a critical security
bug, rearranges a few structures, and reformats the code, there is a
good chance that it will be passed over and the important fix will be
lost.
- Each patch should yield a kernel which builds and runs properly; if your
patch series is interrupted in the middle, the result should still be a
working kernel. Partial application of a patch series is a common
scenario when the "git bisect" tool is used to find regressions; if the
result is a broken kernel, you will make life harder for developers and
users who are engaging in the noble work of tracking down problems.
- Do not overdo it, though. One developer recently posted a set of edits
to a single file as 500 separate patches - an act which did not make him
the most popular person on the kernel mailing list. A single patch can
be reasonably large as long as it still contains a single *logical*
change.
- It can be tempting to add a whole new infrastructure with a series of
patches, but to leave that infrastructure unused until the final patch
in the series enables the whole thing. This temptation should be
avoided if possible; if that series adds regressions, bisection will
finger the last patch as the one which caused the problem, even though
the real bug is elsewhere. Whenever possible, a patch which adds new
code should make that code active immediately.
Working to create the perfect patch series can be a frustrating process
which takes quite a bit of time and thought after the "real work" has been
done. When done properly, though, it is time well spent.
5.4: PATCH FORMATTING
So now you have a perfect series of patches for posting, but the work is
not done quite yet. Each patch needs to be formatted into a message which
quickly and clearly communicates its purpose to the rest of the world. To
that end, each patch will be composed of the following:
- An optional "From" line naming the author of the patch. This line is
only necessary if you are passing on somebody else's patch via email,
but it never hurts to add it when in doubt.
- A one-line description of what the patch does. This message should be
enough for a reader who sees it with no other context to figure out the
scope of the patch; it is the line that will show up in the "short form"
changelogs. This message is usually formatted with the relevant
subsystem name first, followed by the purpose of the patch. For
example:
gpio: fix build on CONFIG_GPIO_SYSFS=n
- A blank line followed by a detailed description of the contents of the
patch. This description can be as long as is required; it should say
what the patch does and why it should be applied to the kernel.
- One or more tag lines, with, at a minimum, one Signed-off-by: line from
the author of the patch. Tags will be described in more detail below.
The above three items should, normally, be the text used when committing
the change to a revision control system. They are followed by:
- The patch itself, in the unified ("-u") patch format. Using the "-p"
option to diff will associate function names with changes, making the
resulting patch easier for others to read.
You should avoid including changes to irrelevant files (those generated by
the build process, for example, or editor backup files) in the patch. The
file "dontdiff" in the Documentation directory can help in this regard;
pass it to diff with the "-X" option.
The tags mentioned above are used to describe how various developers have
been associated with the development of this patch. They are described in
detail in the SubmittingPatches document; what follows here is a brief
summary. Each of these lines has the format:
tag: Full Name <email address> optional-other-stuff
The tags in common use are:
- Signed-off-by: this is a developer's certification that he or she has
the right to submit the patch for inclusion into the kernel. It is an
agreement to the Developer's Certificate of Origin, the full text of
which can be found in Documentation/SubmittingPatches. Code without a
proper signoff cannot be merged into the mainline.
- Acked-by: indicates an agreement by another developer (often a
maintainer of the relevant code) that the patch is appropriate for
inclusion into the kernel.
- Tested-by: states that the named person has tested the patch and found
it to work.
- Reviewed-by: the named developer has reviewed the patch for correctness;
see the reviewer's statement in Documentation/SubmittingPatches for more
detail.
- Reported-by: names a user who reported a problem which is fixed by this
patch; this tag is used to give credit to the (often underappreciated)
people who test our code and let us know when things do not work
correctly.
- Cc: the named person received a copy of the patch and had the
opportunity to comment on it.
Be careful in the addition of tags to your patches: only Cc: is appropriate
for addition without the explicit permission of the person named.
5.5: SENDING THE PATCH
Before you mail your patches, there are a couple of other things you should
take care of:
- Are you sure that your mailer will not corrupt the patches? Patches
which have had gratuitous white-space changes or line wrapping performed
by the mail client will not apply at the other end, and often will not
be examined in any detail. If there is any doubt at all, mail the patch
to yourself and convince yourself that it shows up intact.
Documentation/email-clients.txt has some helpful hints on making
specific mail clients work for sending patches.
- Are you sure your patch is free of silly mistakes? You should always
run patches through scripts/checkpatch.pl and address the complaints it
comes up with. Please bear in mind that checkpatch.pl, while being the
embodiment of a fair amount of thought about what kernel patches should
look like, is not smarter than you. If fixing a checkpatch.pl complaint
would make the code worse, don't do it.
Patches should always be sent as plain text. Please do not send them as
attachments; that makes it much harder for reviewers to quote sections of
the patch in their replies. Instead, just put the patch directly into your
message.
When mailing patches, it is important to send copies to anybody who might
be interested in it. Unlike some other projects, the kernel encourages
people to err on the side of sending too many copies; don't assume that the
relevant people will see your posting on the mailing lists. In particular,
copies should go to:
- The maintainer(s) of the affected subsystem(s). As described earlier,
the MAINTAINERS file is the first place to look for these people.
- Other developers who have been working in the same area - especially
those who might be working there now. Using git to see who else has
modified the files you are working on can be helpful.
- If you are responding to a bug report or a feature request, copy the
original poster as well.
- Send a copy to the relevant mailing list, or, if nothing else applies,
the linux-kernel list.
- If you are fixing a bug, think about whether the fix should go into the
next stable update. If so, stable@kernel.org should get a copy of the
patch. Also add a "Cc: stable@kernel.org" to the tags within the patch
itself; that will cause the stable team to get a notification when your
fix goes into the mainline.
When selecting recipients for a patch, it is good to have an idea of who
you think will eventually accept the patch and get it merged. While it
is possible to send patches directly to Linus Torvalds and have him merge
them, things are not normally done that way. Linus is busy, and there are
subsystem maintainers who watch over specific parts of the kernel. Usually
you will be wanting that maintainer to merge your patches. If there is no
obvious maintainer, Andrew Morton is often the patch target of last resort.
Patches need good subject lines. The canonical format for a patch line is
something like:
[PATCH nn/mm] subsys: one-line description of the patch
where "nn" is the ordinal number of the patch, "mm" is the total number of
patches in the series, and "subsys" is the name of the affected subsystem.
Clearly, nn/mm can be omitted for a single, standalone patch.
If you have a significant series of patches, it is customary to send an
introductory description as part zero. This convention is not universally
followed though; if you use it, remember that information in the
introduction does not make it into the kernel changelogs. So please ensure
that the patches, themselves, have complete changelog information.
In general, the second and following parts of a multi-part patch should be
sent as a reply to the first part so that they all thread together at the
receiving end. Tools like git and quilt have commands to mail out a set of
patches with the proper threading. If you have a long series, though, and
are using git, please provide the --no-chain-reply-to option to avoid
creating exceptionally deep nesting.

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6: FOLLOWTHROUGH
At this point, you have followed the guidelines given so far and, with the
addition of your own engineering skills, have posted a perfect series of
patches. One of the biggest mistakes that even experienced kernel
developers can make is to conclude that their work is now done. In truth,
posting patches indicates a transition into the next stage of the process,
with, possibly, quite a bit of work yet to be done.
It is a rare patch which is so good at its first posting that there is no
room for improvement. The kernel development process recognizes this fact,
and, as a result, is heavily oriented toward the improvement of posted
code. You, as the author of that code, will be expected to work with the
kernel community to ensure that your code is up to the kernel's quality
standards. A failure to participate in this process is quite likely to
prevent the inclusion of your patches into the mainline.
6.1: WORKING WITH REVIEWERS
A patch of any significance will result in a number of comments from other
developers as they review the code. Working with reviewers can be, for
many developers, the most intimidating part of the kernel development
process. Life can be made much easier, though, if you keep a few things in
mind:
- If you have explained your patch well, reviewers will understand its
value and why you went to the trouble of writing it. But that value
will not keep them from asking a fundamental question: what will it be
like to maintain a kernel with this code in it five or ten years later?
Many of the changes you may be asked to make - from coding style tweaks
to substantial rewrites - come from the understanding that Linux will
still be around and under development a decade from now.
- Code review is hard work, and it is a relatively thankless occupation;
people remember who wrote kernel code, but there is little lasting fame
for those who reviewed it. So reviewers can get grumpy, especially when
they see the same mistakes being made over and over again. If you get a
review which seems angry, insulting, or outright offensive, resist the
impulse to respond in kind. Code review is about the code, not about
the people, and code reviewers are not attacking you personally.
- Similarly, code reviewers are not trying to promote their employers'
agendas at the expense of your own. Kernel developers often expect to
be working on the kernel years from now, but they understand that their
employer could change. They truly are, almost without exception,
working toward the creation of the best kernel they can; they are not
trying to create discomfort for their employers' competitors.
What all of this comes down to is that, when reviewers send you comments,
you need to pay attention to the technical observations that they are
making. Do not let their form of expression or your own pride keep that
from happening. When you get review comments on a patch, take the time to
understand what the reviewer is trying to say. If possible, fix the things
that the reviewer is asking you to fix. And respond back to the reviewer:
thank them, and describe how you will answer their questions.
Note that you do not have to agree with every change suggested by
reviewers. If you believe that the reviewer has misunderstood your code,
explain what is really going on. If you have a technical objection to a
suggested change, describe it and justify your solution to the problem. If
your explanations make sense, the reviewer will accept them. Should your
explanation not prove persuasive, though, especially if others start to
agree with the reviewer, take some time to think things over again. It can
be easy to become blinded by your own solution to a problem to the point
that you don't realize that something is fundamentally wrong or, perhaps,
you're not even solving the right problem.
One fatal mistake is to ignore review comments in the hope that they will
go away. They will not go away. If you repost code without having
responded to the comments you got the time before, you're likely to find
that your patches go nowhere.
Speaking of reposting code: please bear in mind that reviewers are not
going to remember all the details of the code you posted the last time
around. So it is always a good idea to remind reviewers of previously
raised issues and how you dealt with them; the patch changelog is a good
place for this kind of information. Reviewers should not have to search
through list archives to familiarize themselves with what was said last
time; if you help them get a running start, they will be in a better mood
when they revisit your code.
What if you've tried to do everything right and things still aren't going
anywhere? Most technical disagreements can be resolved through discussion,
but there are times when somebody simply has to make a decision. If you
honestly believe that this decision is going against you wrongly, you can
always try appealing to a higher power. As of this writing, that higher
power tends to be Andrew Morton. Andrew has a great deal of respect in the
kernel development community; he can often unjam a situation which seems to
be hopelessly blocked. Appealing to Andrew should not be done lightly,
though, and not before all other alternatives have been explored. And bear
in mind, of course, that he may not agree with you either.
6.2: WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
If a patch is considered to be a good thing to add to the kernel, and once
most of the review issues have been resolved, the next step is usually
entry into a subsystem maintainer's tree. How that works varies from one
subsystem to the next; each maintainer has his or her own way of doing
things. In particular, there may be more than one tree - one, perhaps,
dedicated to patches planned for the next merge window, and another for
longer-term work.
For patches applying to areas for which there is no obvious subsystem tree
(memory management patches, for example), the default tree often ends up
being -mm. Patches which affect multiple subsystems can also end up going
through the -mm tree.
Inclusion into a subsystem tree can bring a higher level of visibility to a
patch. Now other developers working with that tree will get the patch by
default. Subsystem trees typically feed into -mm and linux-next as well,
making their contents visible to the development community as a whole. At
this point, there's a good chance that you will get more comments from a
new set of reviewers; these comments need to be answered as in the previous
round.
What may also happen at this point, depending on the nature of your patch,
is that conflicts with work being done by others turn up. In the worst
case, heavy patch conflicts can result in some work being put on the back
burner so that the remaining patches can be worked into shape and merged.
Other times, conflict resolution will involve working with the other
developers and, possibly, moving some patches between trees to ensure that
everything applies cleanly. This work can be a pain, but count your
blessings: before the advent of the linux-next tree, these conflicts often
only turned up during the merge window and had to be addressed in a hurry.
Now they can be resolved at leisure, before the merge window opens.
Some day, if all goes well, you'll log on and see that your patch has been
merged into the mainline kernel. Congratulations! Once the celebration is
complete (and you have added yourself to the MAINTAINERS file), though, it
is worth remembering an important little fact: the job still is not done.
Merging into the mainline brings its own challenges.
To begin with, the visibility of your patch has increased yet again. There
may be a new round of comments from developers who had not been aware of
the patch before. It may be tempting to ignore them, since there is no
longer any question of your code being merged. Resist that temptation,
though; you still need to be responsive to developers who have questions or
suggestions.
More importantly, though: inclusion into the mainline puts your code into
the hands of a much larger group of testers. Even if you have contributed
a driver for hardware which is not yet available, you will be surprised by
how many people will build your code into their kernels. And, of course,
where there are testers, there will be bug reports.
The worst sort of bug reports are regressions. If your patch causes a
regression, you'll find an uncomfortable number of eyes upon you;
regressions need to be fixed as soon as possible. If you are unwilling or
unable to fix the regression (and nobody else does it for you), your patch
will almost certainly be removed during the stabilization period. Beyond
negating all of the work you have done to get your patch into the mainline,
having a patch pulled as the result of a failure to fix a regression could
well make it harder for you to get work merged in the future.
After any regressions have been dealt with, there may be other, ordinary
bugs to deal with. The stabilization period is your best opportunity to
fix these bugs and ensure that your code's debut in a mainline kernel
release is as solid as possible. So, please, answer bug reports, and fix
the problems if at all possible. That's what the stabilization period is
for; you can start creating cool new patches once any problems with the old
ones have been taken care of.
And don't forget that there are other milestones which may also create bug
reports: the next mainline stable release, when prominent distributors pick
up a version of the kernel containing your patch, etc. Continuing to
respond to these reports is a matter of basic pride in your work. If that
is insufficient motivation, though, it's also worth considering that the
development community remembers developers who lose interest in their code
after it's merged. The next time you post a patch, they will be evaluating
it with the assumption that you will not be around to maintain it
afterward.
6.3: OTHER THINGS THAT CAN HAPPEN
One day, you may open your mail client and see that somebody has mailed you
a patch to your code. That is one of the advantages of having your code
out there in the open, after all. If you agree with the patch, you can
either forward it on to the subsystem maintainer (be sure to include a
proper From: line so that the attribution is correct, and add a signoff of
your own), or send an Acked-by: response back and let the original poster
send it upward.
If you disagree with the patch, send a polite response explaining why. If
possible, tell the author what changes need to be made to make the patch
acceptable to you. There is a certain resistance to merging patches which
are opposed by the author and maintainer of the code, but it only goes so
far. If you are seen as needlessly blocking good work, those patches will
eventually flow around you and get into the mainline anyway. In the Linux
kernel, nobody has absolute veto power over any code. Except maybe Linus.
On very rare occasion, you may see something completely different: another
developer posts a different solution to your problem. At that point,
chances are that one of the two patches will not be merged, and "mine was
here first" is not considered to be a compelling technical argument. If
somebody else's patch displaces yours and gets into the mainline, there is
really only one way to respond: be pleased that your problem got solved and
get on with your work. Having one's work shoved aside in this manner can
be hurtful and discouraging, but the community will remember your reaction
long after they have forgotten whose patch actually got merged.

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7: ADVANCED TOPICS
At this point, hopefully, you have a handle on how the development process
works. There is still more to learn, however! This section will cover a
number of topics which can be helpful for developers wanting to become a
regular part of the Linux kernel development process.
7.1: MANAGING PATCHES WITH GIT
The use of distributed version control for the kernel began in early 2002,
when Linus first started playing with the proprietary BitKeeper
application. While BitKeeper was controversial, the approach to software
version management it embodied most certainly was not. Distributed version
control enabled an immediate acceleration of the kernel development
project. In current times, there are several free alternatives to
BitKeeper. For better or for worse, the kernel project has settled on git
as its tool of choice.
Managing patches with git can make life much easier for the developer,
especially as the volume of those patches grows. Git also has its rough
edges and poses certain hazards; it is a young and powerful tool which is
still being civilized by its developers. This document will not attempt to
teach the reader how to use git; that would be sufficient material for a
long document in its own right. Instead, the focus here will be on how git
fits into the kernel development process in particular. Developers who
wish to come up to speed with git will find more information at:
http://git.or.cz/
http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/user-manual.html
and on various tutorials found on the web.
The first order of business is to read the above sites and get a solid
understanding of how git works before trying to use it to make patches
available to others. A git-using developer should be able to obtain a copy
of the mainline repository, explore the revision history, commit changes to
the tree, use branches, etc. An understanding of git's tools for the
rewriting of history (such as rebase) is also useful. Git comes with its
own terminology and concepts; a new user of git should know about refs,
remote branches, the index, fast-forward merges, pushes and pulls, detached
heads, etc. It can all be a little intimidating at the outset, but the
concepts are not that hard to grasp with a bit of study.
Using git to generate patches for submission by email can be a good
exercise while coming up to speed.
When you are ready to start putting up git trees for others to look at, you
will, of course, need a server that can be pulled from. Setting up such a
server with git-daemon is relatively straightforward if you have a system
which is accessible to the Internet. Otherwise, free, public hosting sites
(Github, for example) are starting to appear on the net. Established
developers can get an account on kernel.org, but those are not easy to come
by; see http://kernel.org/faq/ for more information.
The normal git workflow involves the use of a lot of branches. Each line
of development can be separated into a separate "topic branch" and
maintained independently. Branches in git are cheap, there is no reason to
not make free use of them. And, in any case, you should not do your
development in any branch which you intend to ask others to pull from.
Publicly-available branches should be created with care; merge in patches
from development branches when they are in complete form and ready to go -
not before.
Git provides some powerful tools which can allow you to rewrite your
development history. An inconvenient patch (one which breaks bisection,
say, or which has some other sort of obvious bug) can be fixed in place or
made to disappear from the history entirely. A patch series can be
rewritten as if it had been written on top of today's mainline, even though
you have been working on it for months. Changes can be transparently
shifted from one branch to another. And so on. Judicious use of git's
ability to revise history can help in the creation of clean patch sets with
fewer problems.
Excessive use of this capability can lead to other problems, though, beyond
a simple obsession for the creation of the perfect project history.
Rewriting history will rewrite the changes contained in that history,
turning a tested (hopefully) kernel tree into an untested one. But, beyond
that, developers cannot easily collaborate if they do not have a shared
view of the project history; if you rewrite history which other developers
have pulled into their repositories, you will make life much more difficult
for those developers. So a simple rule of thumb applies here: history
which has been exported to others should generally be seen as immutable
thereafter.
So, once you push a set of changes to your publicly-available server, those
changes should not be rewritten. Git will attempt to enforce this rule if
you try to push changes which do not result in a fast-forward merge
(i.e. changes which do not share the same history). It is possible to
override this check, and there may be times when it is necessary to rewrite
an exported tree. Moving changesets between trees to avoid conflicts in
linux-next is one example. But such actions should be rare. This is one
of the reasons why development should be done in private branches (which
can be rewritten if necessary) and only moved into public branches when
it's in a reasonably advanced state.
As the mainline (or other tree upon which a set of changes is based)
advances, it is tempting to merge with that tree to stay on the leading
edge. For a private branch, rebasing can be an easy way to keep up with
another tree, but rebasing is not an option once a tree is exported to the
world. Once that happens, a full merge must be done. Merging occasionally
makes good sense, but overly frequent merges can clutter the history
needlessly. Suggested technique in this case is to merge infrequently, and
generally only at specific release points (such as a mainline -rc
release). If you are nervous about specific changes, you can always
perform test merges in a private branch. The git "rerere" tool can be
useful in such situations; it remembers how merge conflicts were resolved
so that you don't have to do the same work twice.
One of the biggest recurring complaints about tools like git is this: the
mass movement of patches from one repository to another makes it easy to
slip in ill-advised changes which go into the mainline below the review
radar. Kernel developers tend to get unhappy when they see that kind of
thing happening; putting up a git tree with unreviewed or off-topic patches
can affect your ability to get trees pulled in the future. Quoting Linus:
You can send me patches, but for me to pull a git patch from you, I
need to know that you know what you're doing, and I need to be able
to trust things *without* then having to go and check every
individual change by hand.
(http://lwn.net/Articles/224135/).
To avoid this kind of situation, ensure that all patches within a given
branch stick closely to the associated topic; a "driver fixes" branch
should not be making changes to the core memory management code. And, most
importantly, do not use a git tree to bypass the review process. Post an
occasional summary of the tree to the relevant list, and, when the time is
right, request that the tree be included in linux-next.
If and when others start to send patches for inclusion into your tree,
don't forget to review them. Also ensure that you maintain the correct
authorship information; the git "am" tool does its best in this regard, but
you may have to add a "From:" line to the patch if it has been relayed to
you via a third party.
When requesting a pull, be sure to give all the relevant information: where
your tree is, what branch to pull, and what changes will result from the
pull. The git request-pull command can be helpful in this regard; it will
format the request as other developers expect, and will also check to be
sure that you have remembered to push those changes to the public server.
7.2: REVIEWING PATCHES
Some readers will certainly object to putting this section with "advanced
topics" on the grounds that even beginning kernel developers should be
reviewing patches. It is certainly true that there is no better way to
learn how to program in the kernel environment than by looking at code
posted by others. In addition, reviewers are forever in short supply; by
looking at code you can make a significant contribution to the process as a
whole.
Reviewing code can be an intimidating prospect, especially for a new kernel
developer who may well feel nervous about questioning code - in public -
which has been posted by those with more experience. Even code written by
the most experienced developers can be improved, though. Perhaps the best
piece of advice for reviewers (all reviewers) is this: phrase review
comments as questions rather than criticisms. Asking "how does the lock
get released in this path?" will always work better than stating "the
locking here is wrong."
Different developers will review code from different points of view. Some
are mostly concerned with coding style and whether code lines have trailing
white space. Others will focus primarily on whether the change implemented
by the patch as a whole is a good thing for the kernel or not. Yet others
will check for problematic locking, excessive stack usage, possible
security issues, duplication of code found elsewhere, adequate
documentation, adverse effects on performance, user-space ABI changes, etc.
All types of review, if they lead to better code going into the kernel, are
welcome and worthwhile.

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8: FOR MORE INFORMATION
There are numerous sources of information on Linux kernel development and
related topics. First among those will always be the Documentation
directory found in the kernel source distribution. The top-level HOWTO
file is an important starting point; SubmittingPatches and
SubmittingDrivers are also something which all kernel developers should
read. Many internal kernel APIs are documented using the kerneldoc
mechanism; "make htmldocs" or "make pdfdocs" can be used to generate those
documents in HTML or PDF format (though the version of TeX shipped by some
distributions runs into internal limits and fails to process the documents
properly).
Various web sites discuss kernel development at all levels of detail. Your
author would like to humbly suggest http://lwn.net/ as a source;
information on many specific kernel topics can be found via the LWN kernel
index at:
http://lwn.net/Kernel/Index/
Beyond that, a valuable resource for kernel developers is:
http://kernelnewbies.org/
Information about the linux-next tree gathers at:
http://linux.f-seidel.de/linux-next/pmwiki/
And, of course, one should not forget http://kernel.org/, the definitive
location for kernel release information.
There are a number of books on kernel development:
Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition (Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro
Rubini, and Greg Kroah-Hartman). Online at
http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/.
Linux Kernel Development (Robert Love).
Understanding the Linux Kernel (Daniel Bovet and Marco Cesati).
All of these books suffer from a common fault, though: they tend to be
somewhat obsolete by the time they hit the shelves, and they have been on
the shelves for a while now. Still, there is quite a bit of good
information to be found there.
Documentation for git can be found at:
http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/
http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/user-manual.html
9: CONCLUSION
Congratulations to anybody who has made it through this long-winded
document. Hopefully it has provided a helpful understanding of how the
Linux kernel is developed and how you can participate in that process.
In the end, it's the participation that matters. Any open source software
project is no more than the sum of what its contributors put into it. The
Linux kernel has progressed as quickly and as well as it has because it has
been helped by an impressively large group of developers, all of whom are
working to make it better. The kernel is a premier example of what can be
done when thousands of people work together toward a common goal.
The kernel can always benefit from a larger developer base, though. There
is always more work to do. But, just as importantly, most other
participants in the Linux ecosystem can benefit through contributing to the
kernel. Getting code into the mainline is the key to higher code quality,
lower maintenance and distribution costs, a higher level of influence over
the direction of kernel development, and more. It is a situation where
everybody involved wins. Fire up your editor and come join us; you will be
more than welcome.

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@ -2571,6 +2571,9 @@ Your cooperation is appreciated.
160 = /dev/usb/legousbtower0 1st USB Legotower device
...
175 = /dev/usb/legousbtower15 16th USB Legotower device
176 = /dev/usb/usbtmc1 First USB TMC device
...
192 = /dev/usb/usbtmc16 16th USB TMC device
240 = /dev/usb/dabusb0 First daubusb device
...
243 = /dev/usb/dabusb3 Fourth dabusb device

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*.aux
*.bin
*.cpio
*.css
*.csp
*.dsp
*.dvi
*.elf
*.eps
*.fw.gen.S
*.fw
*.gen.S
*.gif
*.grep
*.grp
@ -30,6 +32,7 @@
*.s
*.sgml
*.so
*.so.dbg
*.symtypes
*.tab.c
*.tab.h
@ -38,24 +41,17 @@
*.xml
*_MODULES
*_vga16.c
*cscope*
*~
*.9
*.9.gz
.*
.cscope
.gitignore
.mailmap
.mm
53c700_d.h
53c8xx_d.h*
COPYING
CREDITS
CVS
ChangeSet
Image
Kerntypes
MODS.txt
Module.markers
Module.symvers
PENDING
SCCS
@ -73,7 +69,9 @@ autoconf.h*
bbootsect
bin2c
binkernel.spec
binoffset
bootsect
bounds.h
bsetup
btfixupprep
build
@ -89,39 +87,36 @@ config_data.h*
config_data.gz*
conmakehash
consolemap_deftbl.c*
cpustr.h
crc32table.h*
cscope.*
defkeymap.c*
defkeymap.c
devlist.h*
docproc
dummy_sym.c*
elf2ecoff
elfconfig.h*
filelist
fixdep
fore200e_mkfirm
fore200e_pca_fw.c*
gconf
gen-devlist
gen-kdb_cmds.c*
gen_crc32table
gen_init_cpio
genksyms
gentbl
*_gray256.c
ihex2fw
ikconfig.h*
initramfs_data.cpio
initramfs_data.cpio.gz
initramfs_list
kallsyms
kconfig
kconfig.tk
keywords.c*
keywords.c
ksym.c*
ksym.h*
kxgettext
lkc_defs.h
lex.c*
lex.c
lex.*.c
logo_*.c
logo_*_clut224.c
@ -130,7 +125,6 @@ lxdialog
mach-types
mach-types.h
machtypes.h
make_times_h
map
maui_boot.h
mconf
@ -138,6 +132,7 @@ miboot*
mk_elfconfig
mkboot
mkbugboot
mkcpustr
mkdep
mkprep
mktables
@ -145,11 +140,12 @@ mktree
modpost
modules.order
modversions.h*
ncscope.*
offset.h
offsets.h
oui.c*
parse.c*
parse.h*
parse.c
parse.h
patches*
pca200e.bin
pca200e_ecd.bin2
@ -157,7 +153,7 @@ piggy.gz
piggyback
pnmtologo
ppc_defs.h*
promcon_tbl.c*
promcon_tbl.c
pss_boot.h
qconf
raid6altivec*.c
@ -168,27 +164,38 @@ series
setup
setup.bin
setup.elf
sim710_d.h*
sImage
sm_tbl*
split-include
syscalltab.h
tags
tftpboot.img
timeconst.h
times.h*
tkparse
trix_boot.h
utsrelease.h*
vdso-syms.lds
vdso.lds
vdso32-int80-syms.lds
vdso32-syms.lds
vdso32-syscall-syms.lds
vdso32-sysenter-syms.lds
vdso32.lds
vdso32.so.dbg
vdso64.lds
vdso64.so.dbg
version.h*
vmlinux
vmlinux-*
vmlinux.aout
vmlinux*.lds*
vmlinux*.scr
vmlinux.lds
vsyscall.lds
vsyscall_32.lds
wanxlfw.inc
uImage
unifdef
wakeup.bin
wakeup.elf
wakeup.lds
zImage*
zconf.hash.c

View File

@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ graphics devices. These would include:
Intel 915GM
Intel 945G
Intel 945GM
Intel 945GME
Intel 965G
Intel 965GM

View File

@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ are either given on the kernel command line or as module parameters, e.g.:
video=uvesafb:1024x768-32,mtrr:3,ywrap (compiled into the kernel)
# modprobe uvesafb mode=1024x768-32 mtrr=3 scroll=ywrap (module)
# modprobe uvesafb mode_option=1024x768-32 mtrr=3 scroll=ywrap (module)
Accepted options:
@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ vtotal:n
<mode> The mode you want to set, in the standard modedb format. Refer to
modedb.txt for a detailed description. When uvesafb is compiled as
a module, the mode string should be provided as a value of the
'mode' option.
'mode_option' option.
vbemode:x
Force the use of VBE mode x. The mode will only be set if it's

View File

@ -0,0 +1,870 @@
#
#
# These data are based on the CRTC parameters in
#
# VIA Integration Graphics Chip
# (C) 2004 VIA Technologies Inc.
#
#
# 640x480, 60 Hz, Non-Interlaced (25.175 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 640 480
# Scan Frequency 31.469 kHz 59.94 Hz
# Sync Width 3.813 us 0.064 ms
# 12 chars 2 lines
# Front Porch 0.636 us 0.318 ms
# 2 chars 10 lines
# Back Porch 1.907 us 1.048 ms
# 6 chars 33 lines
# Active Time 25.422 us 15.253 ms
# 80 chars 480 lines
# Blank Time 6.356 us 1.430 ms
# 20 chars 45 lines
# Polarity negative negative
#
mode "640x480-60"
# D: 25.175 MHz, H: 31.469 kHz, V: 59.94 Hz
geometry 640 480 640 480 32
timings 39722 48 16 33 10 96 2 endmode mode "480x640-60"
# D: 24.823 MHz, H: 39.780 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 480 640 480 640 32 timings 39722 72 24 19 1 48 3 endmode
#
# 640x480, 75 Hz, Non-Interlaced (31.50 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 640 480
# Scan Frequency 37.500 kHz 75.00 Hz
# Sync Width 2.032 us 0.080 ms
# 8 chars 3 lines
# Front Porch 0.508 us 0.027 ms
# 2 chars 1 lines
# Back Porch 3.810 us 0.427 ms
# 15 chars 16 lines
# Active Time 20.317 us 12.800 ms
# 80 chars 480 lines
# Blank Time 6.349 us 0.533 ms
# 25 chars 20 lines
# Polarity negative negative
#
mode "640x480-75"
# D: 31.50 MHz, H: 37.500 kHz, V: 75.00 Hz
geometry 640 480 640 480 32 timings 31747 120 16 16 1 64 3 endmode
#
# 640x480, 85 Hz, Non-Interlaced (36.000 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 640 480
# Scan Frequency 43.269 kHz 85.00 Hz
# Sync Width 1.556 us 0.069 ms
# 7 chars 3 lines
# Front Porch 1.556 us 0.023 ms
# 7 chars 1 lines
# Back Porch 2.222 us 0.578 ms
# 10 chars 25 lines
# Active Time 17.778 us 11.093 ms
# 80 chars 480 lines
# Blank Time 5.333 us 0.670 ms
# 24 chars 29 lines
# Polarity negative negative
#
mode "640x480-85"
# D: 36.000 MHz, H: 43.269 kHz, V: 85.00 Hz
geometry 640 480 640 480 32 timings 27777 80 56 25 1 56 3 endmode
#
# 640x480, 100 Hz, Non-Interlaced (43.163 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 640 480
# Scan Frequency 50.900 kHz 100.00 Hz
# Sync Width 1.483 us 0.058 ms
# 8 chars 3 lines
# Front Porch 0.927 us 0.019 ms
# 5 chars 1 lines
# Back Porch 2.409 us 0.475 ms
# 13 chars 25 lines
# Active Time 14.827 us 9.430 ms
# 80 chars 480 lines
# Blank Time 4.819 us 0.570 ms
# 26 chars 29 lines
# Polarity positive positive
#
mode "640x480-100"
# D: 43.163 MHz, H: 50.900 kHz, V: 100.00 Hz
geometry 640 480 640 480 32 timings 23168 104 40 25 1 64 3 endmode
#
# 640x480, 120 Hz, Non-Interlaced (52.406 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 640 480
# Scan Frequency 61.800 kHz 120.00 Hz
# Sync Width 1.221 us 0.048 ms
# 8 chars 3 lines
# Front Porch 0.763 us 0.016 ms
# 5 chars 1 lines
# Back Porch 1.984 us 0.496 ms
# 13 chars 31 lines
# Active Time 12.212 us 7.767 ms
# 80 chars 480 lines
# Blank Time 3.969 us 0.566 ms
# 26 chars 35 lines
# Polarity positive positive
#
mode "640x480-120"
# D: 52.406 MHz, H: 61.800 kHz, V: 120.00 Hz
geometry 640 480 640 480 32 timings 19081 104 40 31 1 64 3 endmode
#
# 720x480, 60 Hz, Non-Interlaced (26.880 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 720 480
# Scan Frequency 30.000 kHz 60.241 Hz
# Sync Width 2.679 us 0.099 ms
# 9 chars 3 lines
# Front Porch 0.595 us 0.033 ms
# 2 chars 1 lines
# Back Porch 3.274 us 0.462 ms
# 11 chars 14 lines
# Active Time 26.786 us 16.000 ms
# 90 chars 480 lines
# Blank Time 6.548 us 0.600 ms
# 22 chars 18 lines
# Polarity positive positive
#
mode "720x480-60"
# D: 26.880 MHz, H: 30.000 kHz, V: 60.24 Hz
geometry 720 480 720 480 32 timings 37202 88 16 14 1 72 3 endmode
#
# 800x480, 60 Hz, Non-Interlaced (29.581 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 800 480
# Scan Frequency 29.892 kHz 60.00 Hz
# Sync Width 2.704 us 100.604 us
# 10 chars 3 lines
# Front Porch 0.541 us 33.535 us
# 2 chars 1 lines
# Back Porch 3.245 us 435.949 us
# 12 chars 13 lines
# Active Time 27.044 us 16.097 ms
# 100 chars 480 lines
# Blank Time 6.491 us 0.570 ms
# 24 chars 17 lines
# Polarity positive positive
#
mode "800x480-60"
# D: 29.500 MHz, H: 29.738 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 800 480 800 480 32 timings 33805 96 24 10 3 72 7 endmode
#
# 720x576, 60 Hz, Non-Interlaced (32.668 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 720 576
# Scan Frequency 35.820 kHz 60.00 Hz
# Sync Width 2.204 us 0.083 ms
# 9 chars 3 lines
# Front Porch 0.735 us 0.027 ms
# 3 chars 1 lines
# Back Porch 2.939 us 0.459 ms
# 12 chars 17 lines
# Active Time 22.040 us 16.080 ms
# 90 chars 476 lines
# Blank Time 5.877 us 0.586 ms
# 24 chars 21 lines
# Polarity positive positive
#
mode "720x576-60"
# D: 32.668 MHz, H: 35.820 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 720 576 720 576 32 timings 30611 96 24 17 1 72 3 endmode
#
# 800x600, 60 Hz, Non-Interlaced (40.00 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 800 600
# Scan Frequency 37.879 kHz 60.32 Hz
# Sync Width 3.200 us 0.106 ms
# 16 chars 4 lines
# Front Porch 1.000 us 0.026 ms
# 5 chars 1 lines
# Back Porch 2.200 us 0.607 ms
# 11 chars 23 lines
# Active Time 20.000 us 15.840 ms
# 100 chars 600 lines
# Blank Time 6.400 us 0.739 ms
# 32 chars 28 lines
# Polarity positive positive
#
mode "800x600-60"
# D: 40.00 MHz, H: 37.879 kHz, V: 60.32 Hz
geometry 800 600 800 600 32
timings 25000 88 40 23 1 128 4 hsync high vsync high endmode
#
# 800x600, 75 Hz, Non-Interlaced (49.50 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 800 600
# Scan Frequency 46.875 kHz 75.00 Hz
# Sync Width 1.616 us 0.064 ms
# 10 chars 3 lines
# Front Porch 0.323 us 0.021 ms
# 2 chars 1 lines
# Back Porch 3.232 us 0.448 ms
# 20 chars 21 lines
# Active Time 16.162 us 12.800 ms
# 100 chars 600 lines
# Blank Time 5.172 us 0.533 ms
# 32 chars 25 lines
# Polarity positive positive
#
mode "800x600-75"
# D: 49.50 MHz, H: 46.875 kHz, V: 75.00 Hz
geometry 800 600 800 600 32
timings 20203 160 16 21 1 80 3 hsync high vsync high endmode
#
# 800x600, 85 Hz, Non-Interlaced (56.25 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 800 600
# Scan Frequency 53.674 kHz 85.061 Hz
# Sync Width 1.138 us 0.056 ms
# 8 chars 3 lines
# Front Porch 0.569 us 0.019 ms
# 4 chars 1 lines
# Back Porch 2.702 us 0.503 ms
# 19 chars 27 lines
# Active Time 14.222 us 11.179 ms
# 100 chars 600 lines
# Blank Time 4.409 us 0.578 ms
# 31 chars 31 lines
# Polarity positive positive
#
mode "800x600-85"
# D: 56.25 MHz, H: 53.674 kHz, V: 85.061 Hz
geometry 800 600 800 600 32
timings 17777 152 32 27 1 64 3 hsync high vsync high endmode
#
# 800x600, 100 Hz, Non-Interlaced (67.50 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 800 600
# Scan Frequency 62.500 kHz 100.00 Hz
# Sync Width 0.948 us 0.064 ms
# 8 chars 4 lines
# Front Porch 0.000 us 0.112 ms
# 0 chars 7 lines
# Back Porch 3.200 us 0.224 ms
# 27 chars 14 lines
# Active Time 11.852 us 9.600 ms
# 100 chars 600 lines
# Blank Time 4.148 us 0.400 ms
# 35 chars 25 lines
# Polarity positive positive
#
mode "800x600-100"
# D: 67.50 MHz, H: 62.500 kHz, V: 100.00 Hz
geometry 800 600 800 600 32
timings 14667 216 0 14 7 64 4 hsync high vsync high endmode
#
# 800x600, 120 Hz, Non-Interlaced (83.950 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 800 600
# Scan Frequency 77.160 kHz 120.00 Hz
# Sync Width 1.048 us 0.039 ms
# 11 chars 3 lines
# Front Porch 0.667 us 0.013 ms
# 7 chars 1 lines
# Back Porch 1.715 us 0.507 ms
# 18 chars 39 lines
# Active Time 9.529 us 7.776 ms
# 100 chars 600 lines
# Blank Time 3.431 us 0.557 ms
# 36 chars 43 lines
# Polarity positive positive
#
mode "800x600-120"
# D: 83.950 MHz, H: 77.160 kHz, V: 120.00 Hz
geometry 800 600 800 600 32
timings 11912 144 56 39 1 88 3 hsync high vsync high endmode
#
# 848x480, 60 Hz, Non-Interlaced (31.490 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 848 480
# Scan Frequency 29.820 kHz 60.00 Hz
# Sync Width 2.795 us 0.099 ms
# 11 chars 3 lines
# Front Porch 0.508 us 0.033 ms
# 2 chars 1 lines
# Back Porch 3.303 us 0.429 ms
# 13 chars 13 lines
# Active Time 26.929 us 16.097 ms
# 106 chars 480 lines
# Blank Time 6.605 us 0.570 ms
# 26 chars 17 lines
# Polarity positive positive
#
mode "848x480-60"
# D: 31.500 MHz, H: 29.830 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 848 480 848 480 32
timings 31746 104 24 12 3 80 5 hsync high vsync high endmode
#
# 856x480, 60 Hz, Non-Interlaced (31.728 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 856 480
# Scan Frequency 29.820 kHz 60.00 Hz
# Sync Width 2.774 us 0.099 ms
# 11 chars 3 lines
# Front Porch 0.504 us 0.033 ms
# 2 chars 1 lines
# Back Porch 3.728 us 0.429 ms
# 13 chars 13 lines
# Active Time 26.979 us 16.097 ms
# 107 chars 480 lines
# Blank Time 6.556 us 0.570 ms
# 26 chars 17 lines
# Polarity positive positive
#
mode "856x480-60"
# D: 31.728 MHz, H: 29.820 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 856 480 856 480 32
timings 31518 104 16 13 1 88 3
hsync high vsync high endmode mode "960x600-60"
# D: 45.250 MHz, H: 37.212 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 960 600 960 600 32 timings 22099 128 32 15 3 96 6 endmode
#
# 1000x600, 60 Hz, Non-Interlaced (48.068 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 1000 600
# Scan Frequency 37.320 kHz 60.00 Hz
# Sync Width 2.164 us 0.080 ms
# 13 chars 3 lines
# Front Porch 0.832 us 0.027 ms
# 5 chars 1 lines
# Back Porch 2.996 us 0.483 ms
# 18 chars 18 lines
# Active Time 20.804 us 16.077 ms
# 125 chars 600 lines
# Blank Time 5.991 us 0.589 ms
# 36 chars 22 lines
# Polarity negative positive
#
mode "1000x600-60"
# D: 48.068 MHz, H: 37.320 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 1000 600 1000 600 32
timings 20834 144 40 18 1 104 3 endmode mode "1024x576-60"
# D: 46.996 MHz, H: 35.820 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 1024 576 1024 576 32
timings 21278 144 40 17 1 104 3 endmode mode "1024x600-60"
# D: 48.964 MHz, H: 37.320 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 1024 600 1024 600 32
timings 20461 144 40 18 1 104 3 endmode mode "1088x612-60"
# D: 52.952 MHz, H: 38.040 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 1088 612 1088 612 32 timings 18877 152 48 16 3 104 5 endmode
#
# 1024x512, 60 Hz, Non-Interlaced (41.291 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 1024 512
# Scan Frequency 31.860 kHz 60.00 Hz
# Sync Width 2.519 us 0.094 ms
# 13 chars 3 lines
# Front Porch 0.775 us 0.031 ms
# 4 chars 1 lines
# Back Porch 3.294 us 0.465 ms
# 17 chars 15 lines
# Active Time 24.800 us 16.070 ms
# 128 chars 512 lines
# Blank Time 6.587 us 0.596 ms
# 34 chars 19 lines
# Polarity positive positive
#
mode "1024x512-60"
# D: 41.291 MHz, H: 31.860 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 1024 512 1024 512 32
timings 24218 126 32 15 1 104 3 hsync high vsync high endmode
#
# 1024x600, 60 Hz, Non-Interlaced (48.875 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 1024 768
# Scan Frequency 37.252 kHz 60.00 Hz
# Sync Width 2.128 us 80.532us
# 13 chars 3 lines
# Front Porch 0.818 us 26.844 us
# 5 chars 1 lines
# Back Porch 2.946 us 483.192 us
# 18 chars 18 lines
# Active Time 20.951 us 16.697 ms
# 128 chars 622 lines
# Blank Time 5.893 us 0.591 ms
# 36 chars 22 lines
# Polarity negative positive
#
#mode "1024x600-60"
# # D: 48.875 MHz, H: 37.252 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
# geometry 1024 600 1024 600 32
# timings 20460 144 40 18 1 104 3
# endmode
#
# 1024x768, 60 Hz, Non-Interlaced (65.00 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 1024 768
# Scan Frequency 48.363 kHz 60.00 Hz
# Sync Width 2.092 us 0.124 ms
# 17 chars 6 lines
# Front Porch 0.369 us 0.062 ms
# 3 chars 3 lines
# Back Porch 2.462 us 0.601 ms
# 20 chars 29 lines
# Active Time 15.754 us 15.880 ms
# 128 chars 768 lines
# Blank Time 4.923 us 0.786 ms
# 40 chars 38 lines
# Polarity negative negative
#
mode "1024x768-60"
# D: 65.00 MHz, H: 48.363 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 1024 768 1024 768 32 timings 15385 160 24 29 3 136 6 endmode
#
# 1024x768, 75 Hz, Non-Interlaced (78.75 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 1024 768
# Scan Frequency 60.023 kHz 75.03 Hz
# Sync Width 1.219 us 0.050 ms
# 12 chars 3 lines
# Front Porch 0.203 us 0.017 ms
# 2 chars 1 lines
# Back Porch 2.235 us 0.466 ms
# 22 chars 28 lines
# Active Time 13.003 us 12.795 ms
# 128 chars 768 lines
# Blank Time 3.657 us 0.533 ms
# 36 chars 32 lines
# Polarity positive positive
#
mode "1024x768-75"
# D: 78.75 MHz, H: 60.023 kHz, V: 75.03 Hz
geometry 1024 768 1024 768 32
timings 12699 176 16 28 1 96 3 hsync high vsync high endmode
#
# 1024x768, 85 Hz, Non-Interlaced (94.50 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 1024 768
# Scan Frequency 68.677 kHz 85.00 Hz
# Sync Width 1.016 us 0.044 ms
# 12 chars 3 lines
# Front Porch 0.508 us 0.015 ms
# 6 chars 1 lines
# Back Porch 2.201 us 0.524 ms
# 26 chars 36 lines
# Active Time 10.836 us 11.183 ms
# 128 chars 768 lines
# Blank Time 3.725 us 0.582 ms
# 44 chars 40 lines
# Polarity positive positive
#
mode "1024x768-85"
# D: 94.50 MHz, H: 68.677 kHz, V: 85.00 Hz
geometry 1024 768 1024 768 32
timings 10582 208 48 36 1 96 3 hsync high vsync high endmode
#
# 1024x768, 100 Hz, Non-Interlaced (110.0 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 1024 768
# Scan Frequency 79.023 kHz 99.78 Hz
# Sync Width 0.800 us 0.101 ms
# 11 chars 8 lines
# Front Porch 0.000 us 0.000 ms
# 0 chars 0 lines
# Back Porch 2.545 us 0.202 ms
# 35 chars 16 lines
# Active Time 9.309 us 9.719 ms
# 128 chars 768 lines
# Blank Time 3.345 us 0.304 ms
# 46 chars 24 lines
# Polarity negative negative
#
mode "1024x768-100"
# D: 113.3 MHz, H: 79.023 kHz, V: 99.78 Hz
geometry 1024 768 1024 768 32
timings 8825 280 0 16 0 88 8 endmode mode "1152x720-60"
# D: 66.750 MHz, H: 44.859 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 1152 720 1152 720 32 timings 14981 168 56 19 3 112 6 endmode
#
# 1152x864, 75 Hz, Non-Interlaced (110.0 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 1152 864
# Scan Frequency 75.137 kHz 74.99 Hz
# Sync Width 1.309 us 0.106 ms
# 18 chars 8 lines
# Front Porch 0.245 us 0.599 ms
# 3 chars 45 lines
# Back Porch 1.282 us 1.132 ms
# 18 chars 85 lines
# Active Time 10.473 us 11.499 ms
# 144 chars 864 lines
# Blank Time 2.836 us 1.837 ms
# 39 chars 138 lines
# Polarity positive positive
#
mode "1152x864-75"
# D: 110.0 MHz, H: 75.137 kHz, V: 74.99 Hz
geometry 1152 864 1152 864 32
timings 9259 144 24 85 45 144 8
hsync high vsync high endmode mode "1200x720-60"
# D: 70.184 MHz, H: 44.760 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 1200 720 1200 720 32
timings 14253 184 28 22 1 128 3 endmode mode "1280x600-60"
# D: 61.503 MHz, H: 37.320 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 1280 600 1280 600 32
timings 16260 184 28 18 1 128 3 endmode mode "1280x720-50"
# D: 60.466 MHz, H: 37.050 kHz, V: 50.00 Hz
geometry 1280 720 1280 720 32
timings 16538 176 48 17 1 128 3 endmode mode "1280x768-50"
# D: 65.178 MHz, H: 39.550 kHz, V: 50.00 Hz
geometry 1280 768 1280 768 32 timings 15342 184 28 19 1 128 3 endmode
#
# 1280x768, 60 Hz, Non-Interlaced (80.136 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 1280 768
# Scan Frequency 47.700 kHz 60.00 Hz
# Sync Width 1.697 us 0.063 ms
# 17 chars 3 lines
# Front Porch 0.799 us 0.021 ms
# 8 chars 1 lines
# Back Porch 2.496 us 0.483 ms
# 25 chars 23 lines
# Active Time 15.973 us 16.101 ms
# 160 chars 768 lines
# Blank Time 4.992 us 0.566 ms
# 50 chars 27 lines
# Polarity positive positive
#
mode "1280x768-60"
# D: 80.13 MHz, H: 47.700 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 1280 768 1280 768 32
timings 12480 200 48 23 1 126 3 hsync high vsync high endmode
#
# 1280x800, 60 Hz, Non-Interlaced (83.375 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 1280 800
# Scan Frequency 49.628 kHz 60.00 Hz
# Sync Width 1.631 us 60.450 us
# 17 chars 3 lines
# Front Porch 0.768 us 20.15 us
# 8 chars 1 lines
# Back Porch 2.399 us 0.483 ms
# 25 chars 24 lines
# Active Time 15.352 us 16.120 ms
# 160 chars 800 lines
# Blank Time 4.798 us 0.564 ms
# 50 chars 28 lines
# Polarity negtive positive
#
mode "1280x800-60"
# D: 83.500 MHz, H: 49.702 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 1280 800 1280 800 32 timings 11994 200 72 22 3 128 6 endmode
#
# 1280x960, 60 Hz, Non-Interlaced (108.00 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 1280 960
# Scan Frequency 60.000 kHz 60.00 Hz
# Sync Width 1.037 us 0.050 ms
# 14 chars 3 lines
# Front Porch 0.889 us 0.017 ms
# 12 chars 1 lines
# Back Porch 2.889 us 0.600 ms
# 39 chars 36 lines
# Active Time 11.852 us 16.000 ms
# 160 chars 960 lines
# Blank Time 4.815 us 0.667 ms
# 65 chars 40 lines
# Polarity positive positive
#
mode "1280x960-60"
# D: 108.00 MHz, H: 60.000 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 1280 960 1280 960 32
timings 9259 312 96 36 1 112 3 hsync high vsync high endmode
#
# 1280x1024, 60 Hz, Non-Interlaced (108.00 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 1280 1024
# Scan Frequency 63.981 kHz 60.02 Hz
# Sync Width 1.037 us 0.047 ms
# 14 chars 3 lines
# Front Porch 0.444 us 0.015 ms
# 6 chars 1 lines
# Back Porch 2.297 us 0.594 ms
# 31 chars 38 lines
# Active Time 11.852 us 16.005 ms
# 160 chars 1024 lines
# Blank Time 3.778 us 0.656 ms
# 51 chars 42 lines
# Polarity positive positive
#
mode "1280x1024-60"
# D: 108.00 MHz, H: 63.981 kHz, V: 60.02 Hz
geometry 1280 1024 1280 1024 32
timings 9260 248 48 38 1 112 3 hsync high vsync high endmode
#
# 1280x1024, 75 Hz, Non-Interlaced (135.00 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 1280 1024
# Scan Frequency 79.976 kHz 75.02 Hz
# Sync Width 1.067 us 0.038 ms
# 18 chars 3 lines
# Front Porch 0.119 us 0.012 ms
# 2 chars 1 lines
# Back Porch 1.837 us 0.475 ms
# 31 chars 38 lines
# Active Time 9.481 us 12.804 ms
# 160 chars 1024 lines
# Blank Time 3.022 us 0.525 ms
# 51 chars 42 lines
# Polarity positive positive
#
mode "1280x1024-75"
# D: 135.00 MHz, H: 79.976 kHz, V: 75.02 Hz
geometry 1280 1024 1280 1024 32
timings 7408 248 16 38 1 144 3 hsync high vsync high endmode
#
# 1280x1024, 85 Hz, Non-Interlaced (157.50 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 1280 1024
# Scan Frequency 91.146 kHz 85.02 Hz
# Sync Width 1.016 us 0.033 ms
# 20 chars 3 lines
# Front Porch 0.406 us 0.011 ms
# 8 chars 1 lines
# Back Porch 1.422 us 0.483 ms
# 28 chars 44 lines
# Active Time 8.127 us 11.235 ms
# 160 chars 1024 lines
# Blank Time 2.844 us 0.527 ms
# 56 chars 48 lines
# Polarity positive positive
#
mode "1280x1024-85"
# D: 157.50 MHz, H: 91.146 kHz, V: 85.02 Hz
geometry 1280 1024 1280 1024 32
timings 6349 224 64 44 1 160 3
hsync high vsync high endmode mode "1440x900-60"
# D: 106.500 MHz, H: 55.935 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 1440 900 1440 900 32
timings 9390 232 80 25 3 152 6
hsync high vsync high endmode mode "1440x900-75"
# D: 136.750 MHz, H: 70.635 kHz, V: 75.00 Hz
geometry 1440 900 1440 900 32
timings 7315 248 96 33 3 152 6 hsync high vsync high endmode
#
# 1440x1050, 60 Hz, Non-Interlaced (125.10 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 1440 1050
# Scan Frequency 65.220 kHz 60.00 Hz
# Sync Width 1.204 us 0.046 ms
# 19 chars 3 lines
# Front Porch 0.760 us 0.015 ms
# 12 chars 1 lines
# Back Porch 1.964 us 0.495 ms
# 31 chars 33 lines
# Active Time 11.405 us 16.099 ms
# 180 chars 1050 lines
# Blank Time 3.928 us 0.567 ms
# 62 chars 37 lines
# Polarity positive positive
#
mode "1440x1050-60"
# D: 125.10 MHz, H: 65.220 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 1440 1050 1440 1050 32
timings 7993 248 96 33 1 152 3
hsync high vsync high endmode mode "1600x900-60"
# D: 118.250 MHz, H: 55.990 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 1600 900 1600 900 32
timings 8415 256 88 26 3 168 5 endmode mode "1600x1024-60"
# D: 136.358 MHz, H: 63.600 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 1600 1024 1600 1024 32 timings 7315 272 104 32 1 168 3 endmode
#
# 1600x1200, 60 Hz, Non-Interlaced (156.00 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 1600 1200
# Scan Frequency 76.200 kHz 60.00 Hz
# Sync Width 1.026 us 0.105 ms
# 20 chars 8 lines
# Front Porch 0.205 us 0.131 ms
# 4 chars 10 lines
# Back Porch 1.636 us 0.682 ms
# 32 chars 52 lines
# Active Time 10.256 us 15.748 ms
# 200 chars 1200 lines
# Blank Time 2.872 us 0.866 ms
# 56 chars 66 lines
# Polarity negative negative
#
mode "1600x1200-60"
# D: 156.00 MHz, H: 76.200 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 1600 1200 1600 1200 32 timings 6172 256 32 52 10 160 8 endmode
#
# 1600x1200, 75 Hz, Non-Interlaced (202.50 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 1600 1200
# Scan Frequency 93.750 kHz 75.00 Hz
# Sync Width 0.948 us 0.032 ms
# 24 chars 3 lines
# Front Porch 0.316 us 0.011 ms
# 8 chars 1 lines
# Back Porch 1.501 us 0.491 ms
# 38 chars 46 lines
# Active Time 7.901 us 12.800 ms
# 200 chars 1200 lines
# Blank Time 2.765 us 0.533 ms
# 70 chars 50 lines
# Polarity positive positive
#
mode "1600x1200-75"
# D: 202.50 MHz, H: 93.750 kHz, V: 75.00 Hz
geometry 1600 1200 1600 1200 32
timings 4938 304 64 46 1 192 3
hsync high vsync high endmode mode "1680x1050-60"
# D: 146.250 MHz, H: 65.290 kHz, V: 59.954 Hz
geometry 1680 1050 1680 1050 32
timings 6814 280 104 30 3 176 6
hsync high vsync high endmode mode "1680x1050-75"
# D: 187.000 MHz, H: 82.306 kHz, V: 74.892 Hz
geometry 1680 1050 1680 1050 32
timings 5348 296 120 40 3 176 6
hsync high vsync high endmode mode "1792x1344-60"
# D: 202.975 MHz, H: 83.460 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 1792 1344 1792 1344 32
timings 4902 320 128 43 1 192 3
hsync high vsync high endmode mode "1856x1392-60"
# D: 218.571 MHz, H: 86.460 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 1856 1392 1856 1392 32
timings 4577 336 136 45 1 200 3
hsync high vsync high endmode mode "1920x1200-60"
# D: 193.250 MHz, H: 74.556 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 1920 1200 1920 1200 32
timings 5173 336 136 36 3 200 6
hsync high vsync high endmode mode "1920x1440-60"
# D: 234.000 MHz, H:90.000 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 1920 1440 1920 1440 32
timings 4274 344 128 56 1 208 3
hsync high vsync high endmode mode "1920x1440-75"
# D: 297.000 MHz, H:112.500 kHz, V: 75.00 Hz
geometry 1920 1440 1920 1440 32
timings 3367 352 144 56 1 224 3
hsync high vsync high endmode mode "2048x1536-60"
# D: 267.250 MHz, H: 95.446 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 2048 1536 2048 1536 32
timings 3742 376 152 49 3 224 4 hsync high vsync high endmode
#
# 1280x720, 60 Hz, Non-Interlaced (74.481 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 1280 720
# Scan Frequency 44.760 kHz 60.00 Hz
# Sync Width 1.826 us 67.024 ms
# 17 chars 3 lines
# Front Porch 0.752 us 22.341 ms
# 7 chars 1 lines
# Back Porch 2.578 us 491.510 ms
# 24 chars 22 lines
# Active Time 17.186 us 16.086 ms
# 160 chars 720 lines
# Blank Time 5.156 us 0.581 ms
# 48 chars 26 lines
# Polarity negative negative
#
mode "1280x720-60"
# D: 74.481 MHz, H: 44.760 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 1280 720 1280 720 32 timings 13426 192 64 22 1 136 3 endmode
#
# 1920x1080, 60 Hz, Non-Interlaced (172.798 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 1920 1080
# Scan Frequency 67.080 kHz 60.00 Hz
# Sync Width 1.204 us 44.723 ms
# 26 chars 3 lines
# Front Porch 0.694 us 14.908 ms
# 15 chars 1 lines
# Back Porch 1.898 us 506.857 ms
# 41 chars 34 lines
# Active Time 11.111 us 16.100 ms
# 240 chars 1080 lines
# Blank Time 3.796 us 0.566 ms
# 82 chars 38 lines
# Polarity negative negative
#
mode "1920x1080-60"
# D: 74.481 MHz, H: 67.080 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 1920 1080 1920 1080 32 timings 5787 328 120 34 1 208 3 endmode
#
# 1400x1050, 60 Hz, Non-Interlaced (122.61 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 1400 1050
# Scan Frequency 65.218 kHz 59.99 Hz
# Sync Width 1.037 us 0.047 ms
# 19 chars 3 lines
# Front Porch 0.444 us 0.015 ms
# 11 chars 1 lines
# Back Porch 1.185 us 0.188 ms
# 30 chars 33 lines
# Active Time 12.963 us 16.411 ms
# 175 chars 1050 lines
# Blank Time 2.667 us 0.250 ms
# 60 chars 37 lines
# Polarity negative positive
#
mode "1400x1050-60"
# D: 122.750 MHz, H: 65.317 kHz, V: 59.99 Hz
geometry 1400 1050 1408 1050 32
timings 8214 232 88 32 3 144 4 endmode mode "1400x1050-75"
# D: 156.000 MHz, H: 82.278 kHz, V: 74.867 Hz
geometry 1400 1050 1408 1050 32 timings 6410 248 104 42 3 144 4 endmode
#
# 1366x768, 60 Hz, Non-Interlaced (85.86 MHz dotclock)
#
# Horizontal Vertical
# Resolution 1366 768
# Scan Frequency 47.700 kHz 60.00 Hz
# Sync Width 1.677 us 0.063 ms
# 18 chars 3 lines
# Front Porch 0.839 us 0.021 ms
# 9 chars 1 lines
# Back Porch 2.516 us 0.482 ms
# 27 chars 23 lines
# Active Time 15.933 us 16.101 ms
# 171 chars 768 lines
# Blank Time 5.031 us 0.566 ms
# 54 chars 27 lines
# Polarity negative positive
#
mode "1360x768-60"
# D: 84.750 MHz, H: 47.720 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 1360 768 1360 768 32
timings 11799 208 72 22 3 136 5 endmode mode "1366x768-60"
# D: 85.86 MHz, H: 47.700 kHz, V: 60.00 Hz
geometry 1366 768 1366 768 32
timings 11647 216 72 23 1 144 3 endmode mode "1366x768-50"
# D: 69,924 MHz, H: 39.550 kHz, V: 50.00 Hz
geometry 1366 768 1366 768 32 timings 14301 200 56 19 1 144 3 endmode

View File

@ -0,0 +1,214 @@
VIA Integration Graphic Chip Console Framebuffer Driver
[Platform]
-----------------------
The console framebuffer driver is for graphics chips of
VIA UniChrome Family(CLE266, PM800 / CN400 / CN300,
P4M800CE / P4M800Pro / CN700 / VN800,
CX700 / VX700, K8M890, P4M890,
CN896 / P4M900, VX800)
[Driver features]
------------------------
Device: CRT, LCD, DVI
Support viafb_mode:
CRT:
640x480(60, 75, 85, 100, 120 Hz), 720x480(60 Hz),
720x576(60 Hz), 800x600(60, 75, 85, 100, 120 Hz),
848x480(60 Hz), 856x480(60 Hz), 1024x512(60 Hz),
1024x768(60, 75, 85, 100 Hz), 1152x864(75 Hz),
1280x768(60 Hz), 1280x960(60 Hz), 1280x1024(60, 75, 85 Hz),
1440x1050(60 Hz), 1600x1200(60, 75 Hz), 1280x720(60 Hz),
1920x1080(60 Hz), 1400x1050(60 Hz), 800x480(60 Hz)
color depth: 8 bpp, 16 bpp, 32 bpp supports.
Support 2D hardware accelerator.
[Using the viafb module]
-- -- --------------------
Start viafb with default settings:
#modprobe viafb
Start viafb with with user options:
#modprobe viafb viafb_mode=800x600 viafb_bpp=16 viafb_refresh=60
viafb_active_dev=CRT+DVI viafb_dvi_port=DVP1
viafb_mode1=1024x768 viafb_bpp=16 viafb_refresh1=60
viafb_SAMM_ON=1
viafb_mode:
640x480 (default)
720x480
800x600
1024x768
......
viafb_bpp:
8, 16, 32 (default:32)
viafb_refresh:
60, 75, 85, 100, 120 (default:60)
viafb_lcd_dsp_method:
0 : expansion (default)
1 : centering
viafb_lcd_mode:
0 : LCD panel with LSB data format input (default)
1 : LCD panel with MSB data format input
viafb_lcd_panel_id:
0 : Resolution: 640x480, Channel: single, Dithering: Enable
1 : Resolution: 800x600, Channel: single, Dithering: Enable
2 : Resolution: 1024x768, Channel: single, Dithering: Enable (default)
3 : Resolution: 1280x768, Channel: single, Dithering: Enable
4 : Resolution: 1280x1024, Channel: dual, Dithering: Enable
5 : Resolution: 1400x1050, Channel: dual, Dithering: Enable
6 : Resolution: 1600x1200, Channel: dual, Dithering: Enable
8 : Resolution: 800x480, Channel: single, Dithering: Enable
9 : Resolution: 1024x768, Channel: dual, Dithering: Enable
10: Resolution: 1024x768, Channel: single, Dithering: Disable
11: Resolution: 1024x768, Channel: dual, Dithering: Disable
12: Resolution: 1280x768, Channel: single, Dithering: Disable
13: Resolution: 1280x1024, Channel: dual, Dithering: Disable
14: Resolution: 1400x1050, Channel: dual, Dithering: Disable
15: Resolution: 1600x1200, Channel: dual, Dithering: Disable
16: Resolution: 1366x768, Channel: single, Dithering: Disable
17: Resolution: 1024x600, Channel: single, Dithering: Enable
18: Resolution: 1280x768, Channel: dual, Dithering: Enable
19: Resolution: 1280x800, Channel: single, Dithering: Enable
viafb_accel:
0 : No 2D Hardware Acceleration
1 : 2D Hardware Acceleration (default)
viafb_SAMM_ON:
0 : viafb_SAMM_ON disable (default)
1 : viafb_SAMM_ON enable
viafb_mode1: (secondary display device)
640x480 (default)
720x480
800x600
1024x768
... ...
viafb_bpp1: (secondary display device)
8, 16, 32 (default:32)
viafb_refresh1: (secondary display device)
60, 75, 85, 100, 120 (default:60)
viafb_active_dev:
This option is used to specify active devices.(CRT, DVI, CRT+LCD...)
DVI stands for DVI or HDMI, E.g., If you want to enable HDMI,
set viafb_active_dev=DVI. In SAMM case, the previous of
viafb_active_dev is primary device, and the following is
secondary device.
For example:
To enable one device, such as DVI only, we can use:
modprobe viafb viafb_active_dev=DVI
To enable two devices, such as CRT+DVI:
modprobe viafb viafb_active_dev=CRT+DVI;
For DuoView case, we can use:
modprobe viafb viafb_active_dev=CRT+DVI
OR
modprobe viafb viafb_active_dev=DVI+CRT...
For SAMM case:
If CRT is primary and DVI is secondary, we should use:
modprobe viafb viafb_active_dev=CRT+DVI viafb_SAMM_ON=1...
If DVI is primary and CRT is secondary, we should use:
modprobe viafb viafb_active_dev=DVI+CRT viafb_SAMM_ON=1...
viafb_display_hardware_layout:
This option is used to specify display hardware layout for CX700 chip.
1 : LCD only
2 : DVI only
3 : LCD+DVI (default)
4 : LCD1+LCD2 (internal + internal)
16: LCD1+ExternalLCD2 (internal + external)
viafb_second_size:
This option is used to set second device memory size(MB) in SAMM case.
The minimal size is 16.
viafb_platform_epia_dvi:
This option is used to enable DVI on EPIA - M
0 : No DVI on EPIA - M (default)
1 : DVI on EPIA - M
viafb_bus_width:
When using 24 - Bit Bus Width Digital Interface,
this option should be set.
12: 12-Bit LVDS or 12-Bit TMDS (default)
24: 24-Bit LVDS or 24-Bit TMDS
viafb_device_lcd_dualedge:
When using Dual Edge Panel, this option should be set.
0 : No Dual Edge Panel (default)
1 : Dual Edge Panel
viafb_video_dev:
This option is used to specify video output devices(CRT, DVI, LCD) for
duoview case.
For example:
To output video on DVI, we should use:
modprobe viafb viafb_video_dev=DVI...
viafb_lcd_port:
This option is used to specify LCD output port,
available values are "DVP0" "DVP1" "DFP_HIGHLOW" "DFP_HIGH" "DFP_LOW".
for external LCD + external DVI on CX700(External LCD is on DVP0),
we should use:
modprobe viafb viafb_lcd_port=DVP0...
Notes:
1. CRT may not display properly for DuoView CRT & DVI display at
the "640x480" PAL mode with DVI overscan enabled.
2. SAMM stands for single adapter multi monitors. It is different from
multi-head since SAMM support multi monitor at driver layers, thus fbcon
layer doesn't even know about it; SAMM's second screen doesn't have a
device node file, thus a user mode application can't access it directly.
When SAMM is enabled, viafb_mode and viafb_mode1, viafb_bpp and
viafb_bpp1, viafb_refresh and viafb_refresh1 can be different.
3. When console is depending on viafbinfo1, dynamically change resolution
and bpp, need to call VIAFB specified ioctl interface VIAFB_SET_DEVICE
instead of calling common ioctl function FBIOPUT_VSCREENINFO since
viafb doesn't support multi-head well, or it will cause screen crush.
4. VX800 2D accelerator hasn't been supported in this driver yet. When
using driver on VX800, the driver will disable the acceleration
function as default.
[Configure viafb with "fbset" tool]
-----------------------------------
"fbset" is an inbox utility of Linux.
1. Inquire current viafb information, type,
# fbset -i
2. Set various resolutions and viafb_refresh rates,
# fbset <resolution-vertical_sync>
example,
# fbset "1024x768-75"
or
# fbset -g 1024 768 1024 768 32
Check the file "/etc/fb.modes" to find display modes available.
3. Set the color depth,
# fbset -depth <value>
example,
# fbset -depth 16
[Bootup with viafb]:
--------------------
Add the following line to your grub.conf:
append = "video=viafb:viafb_mode=1024x768,viafb_bpp=32,viafb_refresh=85"

View File

@ -294,6 +294,15 @@ Who: Jiri Slaby <jirislaby@gmail.com>
---------------------------
What: print_fn_descriptor_symbol()
When: October 2009
Why: The %pF vsprintf format provides the same functionality in a
simpler way. print_fn_descriptor_symbol() is deprecated but
still present to give out-of-tree modules time to change.
Who: Bjorn Helgaas <bjorn.helgaas@hp.com>
---------------------------
What: /sys/o2cb symlink
When: January 2010
Why: /sys/fs/o2cb is the proper location for this information - /sys/o2cb

View File

@ -0,0 +1,393 @@
Miscellaneous Device control operations for the autofs4 kernel module
====================================================================
The problem
===========
There is a problem with active restarts in autofs (that is to say
restarting autofs when there are busy mounts).
During normal operation autofs uses a file descriptor opened on the
directory that is being managed in order to be able to issue control
operations. Using a file descriptor gives ioctl operations access to
autofs specific information stored in the super block. The operations
are things such as setting an autofs mount catatonic, setting the
expire timeout and requesting expire checks. As is explained below,
certain types of autofs triggered mounts can end up covering an autofs
mount itself which prevents us being able to use open(2) to obtain a
file descriptor for these operations if we don't already have one open.
Currently autofs uses "umount -l" (lazy umount) to clear active mounts
at restart. While using lazy umount works for most cases, anything that
needs to walk back up the mount tree to construct a path, such as
getcwd(2) and the proc file system /proc/<pid>/cwd, no longer works
because the point from which the path is constructed has been detached
from the mount tree.
The actual problem with autofs is that it can't reconnect to existing
mounts. Immediately one thinks of just adding the ability to remount
autofs file systems would solve it, but alas, that can't work. This is
because autofs direct mounts and the implementation of "on demand mount
and expire" of nested mount trees have the file system mounted directly
on top of the mount trigger directory dentry.
For example, there are two types of automount maps, direct (in the kernel
module source you will see a third type called an offset, which is just
a direct mount in disguise) and indirect.
Here is a master map with direct and indirect map entries:
/- /etc/auto.direct
/test /etc/auto.indirect
and the corresponding map files:
/etc/auto.direct:
/automount/dparse/g6 budgie:/autofs/export1
/automount/dparse/g1 shark:/autofs/export1
and so on.
/etc/auto.indirect:
g1 shark:/autofs/export1
g6 budgie:/autofs/export1
and so on.
For the above indirect map an autofs file system is mounted on /test and
mounts are triggered for each sub-directory key by the inode lookup
operation. So we see a mount of shark:/autofs/export1 on /test/g1, for
example.
The way that direct mounts are handled is by making an autofs mount on
each full path, such as /automount/dparse/g1, and using it as a mount
trigger. So when we walk on the path we mount shark:/autofs/export1 "on
top of this mount point". Since these are always directories we can
use the follow_link inode operation to trigger the mount.
But, each entry in direct and indirect maps can have offsets (making
them multi-mount map entries).
For example, an indirect mount map entry could also be:
g1 \
/ shark:/autofs/export5/testing/test \
/s1 shark:/autofs/export/testing/test/s1 \
/s2 shark:/autofs/export5/testing/test/s2 \
/s1/ss1 shark:/autofs/export1 \
/s2/ss2 shark:/autofs/export2
and a similarly a direct mount map entry could also be:
/automount/dparse/g1 \
/ shark:/autofs/export5/testing/test \
/s1 shark:/autofs/export/testing/test/s1 \
/s2 shark:/autofs/export5/testing/test/s2 \
/s1/ss1 shark:/autofs/export2 \
/s2/ss2 shark:/autofs/export2
One of the issues with version 4 of autofs was that, when mounting an
entry with a large number of offsets, possibly with nesting, we needed
to mount and umount all of the offsets as a single unit. Not really a
problem, except for people with a large number of offsets in map entries.
This mechanism is used for the well known "hosts" map and we have seen
cases (in 2.4) where the available number of mounts are exhausted or
where the number of privileged ports available is exhausted.
In version 5 we mount only as we go down the tree of offsets and
similarly for expiring them which resolves the above problem. There is
somewhat more detail to the implementation but it isn't needed for the
sake of the problem explanation. The one important detail is that these
offsets are implemented using the same mechanism as the direct mounts
above and so the mount points can be covered by a mount.
The current autofs implementation uses an ioctl file descriptor opened
on the mount point for control operations. The references held by the
descriptor are accounted for in checks made to determine if a mount is
in use and is also used to access autofs file system information held
in the mount super block. So the use of a file handle needs to be
retained.
The Solution
============
To be able to restart autofs leaving existing direct, indirect and
offset mounts in place we need to be able to obtain a file handle
for these potentially covered autofs mount points. Rather than just
implement an isolated operation it was decided to re-implement the
existing ioctl interface and add new operations to provide this
functionality.
In addition, to be able to reconstruct a mount tree that has busy mounts,
the uid and gid of the last user that triggered the mount needs to be
available because these can be used as macro substitution variables in
autofs maps. They are recorded at mount request time and an operation
has been added to retrieve them.
Since we're re-implementing the control interface, a couple of other
problems with the existing interface have been addressed. First, when
a mount or expire operation completes a status is returned to the
kernel by either a "send ready" or a "send fail" operation. The
"send fail" operation of the ioctl interface could only ever send
ENOENT so the re-implementation allows user space to send an actual
status. Another expensive operation in user space, for those using
very large maps, is discovering if a mount is present. Usually this
involves scanning /proc/mounts and since it needs to be done quite
often it can introduce significant overhead when there are many entries
in the mount table. An operation to lookup the mount status of a mount
point dentry (covered or not) has also been added.
Current kernel development policy recommends avoiding the use of the
ioctl mechanism in favor of systems such as Netlink. An implementation
using this system was attempted to evaluate its suitability and it was
found to be inadequate, in this case. The Generic Netlink system was
used for this as raw Netlink would lead to a significant increase in
complexity. There's no question that the Generic Netlink system is an
elegant solution for common case ioctl functions but it's not a complete
replacement probably because it's primary purpose in life is to be a
message bus implementation rather than specifically an ioctl replacement.
While it would be possible to work around this there is one concern
that lead to the decision to not use it. This is that the autofs
expire in the daemon has become far to complex because umount
candidates are enumerated, almost for no other reason than to "count"
the number of times to call the expire ioctl. This involves scanning
the mount table which has proved to be a big overhead for users with
large maps. The best way to improve this is try and get back to the
way the expire was done long ago. That is, when an expire request is
issued for a mount (file handle) we should continually call back to
the daemon until we can't umount any more mounts, then return the
appropriate status to the daemon. At the moment we just expire one
mount at a time. A Generic Netlink implementation would exclude this
possibility for future development due to the requirements of the
message bus architecture.
autofs4 Miscellaneous Device mount control interface
====================================================
The control interface is opening a device node, typically /dev/autofs.
All the ioctls use a common structure to pass the needed parameter
information and return operation results:
struct autofs_dev_ioctl {
__u32 ver_major;
__u32 ver_minor;
__u32 size; /* total size of data passed in
* including this struct */
__s32 ioctlfd; /* automount command fd */
__u32 arg1; /* Command parameters */
__u32 arg2;
char path[0];
};
The ioctlfd field is a mount point file descriptor of an autofs mount
point. It is returned by the open call and is used by all calls except
the check for whether a given path is a mount point, where it may
optionally be used to check a specific mount corresponding to a given
mount point file descriptor, and when requesting the uid and gid of the
last successful mount on a directory within the autofs file system.
The fields arg1 and arg2 are used to communicate parameters and results of
calls made as described below.
The path field is used to pass a path where it is needed and the size field
is used account for the increased structure length when translating the
structure sent from user space.
This structure can be initialized before setting specific fields by using
the void function call init_autofs_dev_ioctl(struct autofs_dev_ioctl *).
All of the ioctls perform a copy of this structure from user space to
kernel space and return -EINVAL if the size parameter is smaller than
the structure size itself, -ENOMEM if the kernel memory allocation fails
or -EFAULT if the copy itself fails. Other checks include a version check
of the compiled in user space version against the module version and a
mismatch results in a -EINVAL return. If the size field is greater than
the structure size then a path is assumed to be present and is checked to
ensure it begins with a "/" and is NULL terminated, otherwise -EINVAL is
returned. Following these checks, for all ioctl commands except
AUTOFS_DEV_IOCTL_VERSION_CMD, AUTOFS_DEV_IOCTL_OPENMOUNT_CMD and
AUTOFS_DEV_IOCTL_CLOSEMOUNT_CMD the ioctlfd is validated and if it is
not a valid descriptor or doesn't correspond to an autofs mount point
an error of -EBADF, -ENOTTY or -EINVAL (not an autofs descriptor) is
returned.
The ioctls
==========
An example of an implementation which uses this interface can be seen
in autofs version 5.0.4 and later in file lib/dev-ioctl-lib.c of the
distribution tar available for download from kernel.org in directory
/pub/linux/daemons/autofs/v5.
The device node ioctl operations implemented by this interface are:
AUTOFS_DEV_IOCTL_VERSION
------------------------
Get the major and minor version of the autofs4 device ioctl kernel module
implementation. It requires an initialized struct autofs_dev_ioctl as an
input parameter and sets the version information in the passed in structure.
It returns 0 on success or the error -EINVAL if a version mismatch is
detected.
AUTOFS_DEV_IOCTL_PROTOVER_CMD and AUTOFS_DEV_IOCTL_PROTOSUBVER_CMD
------------------------------------------------------------------
Get the major and minor version of the autofs4 protocol version understood
by loaded module. This call requires an initialized struct autofs_dev_ioctl
with the ioctlfd field set to a valid autofs mount point descriptor
and sets the requested version number in structure field arg1. These
commands return 0 on success or one of the negative error codes if
validation fails.
AUTOFS_DEV_IOCTL_OPENMOUNT and AUTOFS_DEV_IOCTL_CLOSEMOUNT
----------------------------------------------------------
Obtain and release a file descriptor for an autofs managed mount point
path. The open call requires an initialized struct autofs_dev_ioctl with
the the path field set and the size field adjusted appropriately as well
as the arg1 field set to the device number of the autofs mount. The
device number can be obtained from the mount options shown in
/proc/mounts. The close call requires an initialized struct
autofs_dev_ioct with the ioctlfd field set to the descriptor obtained
from the open call. The release of the file descriptor can also be done
with close(2) so any open descriptors will also be closed at process exit.
The close call is included in the implemented operations largely for
completeness and to provide for a consistent user space implementation.
AUTOFS_DEV_IOCTL_READY_CMD and AUTOFS_DEV_IOCTL_FAIL_CMD
--------------------------------------------------------
Return mount and expire result status from user space to the kernel.
Both of these calls require an initialized struct autofs_dev_ioctl
with the ioctlfd field set to the descriptor obtained from the open
call and the arg1 field set to the wait queue token number, received
by user space in the foregoing mount or expire request. The arg2 field
is set to the status to be returned. For the ready call this is always
0 and for the fail call it is set to the errno of the operation.
AUTOFS_DEV_IOCTL_SETPIPEFD_CMD
------------------------------
Set the pipe file descriptor used for kernel communication to the daemon.
Normally this is set at mount time using an option but when reconnecting
to a existing mount we need to use this to tell the autofs mount about
the new kernel pipe descriptor. In order to protect mounts against
incorrectly setting the pipe descriptor we also require that the autofs
mount be catatonic (see next call).
The call requires an initialized struct autofs_dev_ioctl with the
ioctlfd field set to the descriptor obtained from the open call and
the arg1 field set to descriptor of the pipe. On success the call
also sets the process group id used to identify the controlling process
(eg. the owning automount(8) daemon) to the process group of the caller.
AUTOFS_DEV_IOCTL_CATATONIC_CMD
------------------------------
Make the autofs mount point catatonic. The autofs mount will no longer
issue mount requests, the kernel communication pipe descriptor is released
and any remaining waits in the queue released.
The call requires an initialized struct autofs_dev_ioctl with the
ioctlfd field set to the descriptor obtained from the open call.
AUTOFS_DEV_IOCTL_TIMEOUT_CMD
----------------------------
Set the expire timeout for mounts withing an autofs mount point.
The call requires an initialized struct autofs_dev_ioctl with the
ioctlfd field set to the descriptor obtained from the open call.
AUTOFS_DEV_IOCTL_REQUESTER_CMD
------------------------------
Return the uid and gid of the last process to successfully trigger a the
mount on the given path dentry.
The call requires an initialized struct autofs_dev_ioctl with the path
field set to the mount point in question and the size field adjusted
appropriately as well as the arg1 field set to the device number of the
containing autofs mount. Upon return the struct field arg1 contains the
uid and arg2 the gid.
When reconstructing an autofs mount tree with active mounts we need to
re-connect to mounts that may have used the original process uid and
gid (or string variations of them) for mount lookups within the map entry.
This call provides the ability to obtain this uid and gid so they may be
used by user space for the mount map lookups.
AUTOFS_DEV_IOCTL_EXPIRE_CMD
---------------------------
Issue an expire request to the kernel for an autofs mount. Typically
this ioctl is called until no further expire candidates are found.
The call requires an initialized struct autofs_dev_ioctl with the
ioctlfd field set to the descriptor obtained from the open call. In
addition an immediate expire, independent of the mount timeout, can be
requested by setting the arg1 field to 1. If no expire candidates can
be found the ioctl returns -1 with errno set to EAGAIN.
This call causes the kernel module to check the mount corresponding
to the given ioctlfd for mounts that can be expired, issues an expire
request back to the daemon and waits for completion.
AUTOFS_DEV_IOCTL_ASKUMOUNT_CMD
------------------------------
Checks if an autofs mount point is in use.
The call requires an initialized struct autofs_dev_ioctl with the
ioctlfd field set to the descriptor obtained from the open call and
it returns the result in the arg1 field, 1 for busy and 0 otherwise.
AUTOFS_DEV_IOCTL_ISMOUNTPOINT_CMD
---------------------------------
Check if the given path is a mountpoint.
The call requires an initialized struct autofs_dev_ioctl. There are two
possible variations. Both use the path field set to the path of the mount
point to check and the size field adjusted appropriately. One uses the
ioctlfd field to identify a specific mount point to check while the other
variation uses the path and optionaly arg1 set to an autofs mount type.
The call returns 1 if this is a mount point and sets arg1 to the device
number of the mount and field arg2 to the relevant super block magic
number (described below) or 0 if it isn't a mountpoint. In both cases
the the device number (as returned by new_encode_dev()) is returned
in field arg1.
If supplied with a file descriptor we're looking for a specific mount,
not necessarily at the top of the mounted stack. In this case the path
the descriptor corresponds to is considered a mountpoint if it is itself
a mountpoint or contains a mount, such as a multi-mount without a root
mount. In this case we return 1 if the descriptor corresponds to a mount
point and and also returns the super magic of the covering mount if there
is one or 0 if it isn't a mountpoint.
If a path is supplied (and the ioctlfd field is set to -1) then the path
is looked up and is checked to see if it is the root of a mount. If a
type is also given we are looking for a particular autofs mount and if
a match isn't found a fail is returned. If the the located path is the
root of a mount 1 is returned along with the super magic of the mount
or 0 otherwise.

View File

@ -96,6 +96,11 @@ errors=remount-ro(*) Remount the filesystem read-only on an error.
errors=continue Keep going on a filesystem error.
errors=panic Panic and halt the machine if an error occurs.
data_err=ignore(*) Just print an error message if an error occurs
in a file data buffer in ordered mode.
data_err=abort Abort the journal if an error occurs in a file
data buffer in ordered mode.
grpid Give objects the same group ID as their creator.
bsdgroups
@ -193,6 +198,5 @@ kernel source: <file:fs/ext3/>
programs: http://e2fsprogs.sourceforge.net/
http://ext2resize.sourceforge.net
useful links: http://www.zip.com.au/~akpm/linux/ext3/ext3-usage.html
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-fs7/
useful links: http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-fs7/
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-fs8/

View File

@ -2,19 +2,24 @@
Ext4 Filesystem
===============
This is a development version of the ext4 filesystem, an advanced level
of the ext3 filesystem which incorporates scalability and reliability
enhancements for supporting large filesystems (64 bit) in keeping with
increasing disk capacities and state-of-the-art feature requirements.
Ext4 is an an advanced level of the ext3 filesystem which incorporates
scalability and reliability enhancements for supporting large filesystems
(64 bit) in keeping with increasing disk capacities and state-of-the-art
feature requirements.
Mailing list: linux-ext4@vger.kernel.org
Mailing list: linux-ext4@vger.kernel.org
Web site: http://ext4.wiki.kernel.org
1. Quick usage instructions:
===========================
Note: More extensive information for getting started with ext4 can be
found at the ext4 wiki site at the URL:
http://ext4.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Ext4_Howto
- Compile and install the latest version of e2fsprogs (as of this
writing version 1.41) from:
writing version 1.41.3) from:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=2406
@ -36,11 +41,9 @@ Mailing list: linux-ext4@vger.kernel.org
# mke2fs -t ext4 /dev/hda1
Or configure an existing ext3 filesystem to support extents and set
the test_fs flag to indicate that it's ok for an in-development
filesystem to touch this filesystem:
Or to configure an existing ext3 filesystem to support extents:
# tune2fs -O extents -E test_fs /dev/hda1
# tune2fs -O extents /dev/hda1
If the filesystem was created with 128 byte inodes, it can be
converted to use 256 byte for greater efficiency via:
@ -104,8 +107,8 @@ exist yet so I'm not sure they're in the near-term roadmap.
The big performance win will come with mballoc, delalloc and flex_bg
grouping of bitmaps and inode tables. Some test results available here:
- http://www.bullopensource.org/ext4/20080530/ffsb-write-2.6.26-rc2.html
- http://www.bullopensource.org/ext4/20080530/ffsb-readwrite-2.6.26-rc2.html
- http://www.bullopensource.org/ext4/20080818-ffsb/ffsb-write-2.6.27-rc1.html
- http://www.bullopensource.org/ext4/20080818-ffsb/ffsb-readwrite-2.6.27-rc1.html
3. Options
==========
@ -214,9 +217,6 @@ noreservation
bsddf (*) Make 'df' act like BSD.
minixdf Make 'df' act like Minix.
check=none Don't do extra checking of bitmaps on mount.
nocheck
debug Extra debugging information is sent to syslog.
errors=remount-ro(*) Remount the filesystem read-only on an error.
@ -253,8 +253,6 @@ nobh (a) cache disk block mapping information
"nobh" option tries to avoid associating buffer
heads (supported only for "writeback" mode).
mballoc (*) Use the multiple block allocator for block allocation
nomballoc disabled multiple block allocator for block allocation.
stripe=n Number of filesystem blocks that mballoc will try
to use for allocation size and alignment. For RAID5/6
systems this should be the number of data

View File

@ -169,7 +169,7 @@ They depend on various facilities being available:
3.1) Booting from a floppy using syslinux
When building kernels, an easy way to create a boot floppy that uses
syslinux is to use the zdisk or bzdisk make targets which use
syslinux is to use the zdisk or bzdisk make targets which use zimage
and bzimage images respectively. Both targets accept the
FDARGS parameter which can be used to set the kernel command line.

View File

@ -1321,6 +1321,18 @@ debugging information is displayed on console.
NMI switch that most IA32 servers have fires unknown NMI up, for example.
If a system hangs up, try pressing the NMI switch.
panic_on_unrecovered_nmi
------------------------
The default Linux behaviour on an NMI of either memory or unknown is to continue
operation. For many environments such as scientific computing it is preferable
that the box is taken out and the error dealt with than an uncorrected
parity/ECC error get propogated.
A small number of systems do generate NMI's for bizarre random reasons such as
power management so the default is off. That sysctl works like the existing
panic controls already in that directory.
nmi_watchdog
------------
@ -1372,15 +1384,18 @@ causes the kernel to prefer to reclaim dentries and inodes.
dirty_background_ratio
----------------------
Contains, as a percentage of total system memory, the number of pages at which
the pdflush background writeback daemon will start writing out dirty data.
Contains, as a percentage of the dirtyable system memory (free pages + mapped
pages + file cache, not including locked pages and HugePages), the number of
pages at which the pdflush background writeback daemon will start writing out
dirty data.
dirty_ratio
-----------------
Contains, as a percentage of total system memory, the number of pages at which
a process which is generating disk writes will itself start writing out dirty
data.
Contains, as a percentage of the dirtyable system memory (free pages + mapped
pages + file cache, not including locked pages and HugePages), the number of
pages at which a process which is generating disk writes will itself start
writing out dirty data.
dirty_writeback_centisecs
-------------------------
@ -2400,24 +2415,29 @@ will be dumped when the <pid> process is dumped. coredump_filter is a bitmask
of memory types. If a bit of the bitmask is set, memory segments of the
corresponding memory type are dumped, otherwise they are not dumped.
The following 4 memory types are supported:
The following 7 memory types are supported:
- (bit 0) anonymous private memory
- (bit 1) anonymous shared memory
- (bit 2) file-backed private memory
- (bit 3) file-backed shared memory
- (bit 4) ELF header pages in file-backed private memory areas (it is
effective only if the bit 2 is cleared)
- (bit 5) hugetlb private memory
- (bit 6) hugetlb shared memory
Note that MMIO pages such as frame buffer are never dumped and vDSO pages
are always dumped regardless of the bitmask status.
Default value of coredump_filter is 0x3; this means all anonymous memory
segments are dumped.
Note bit 0-4 doesn't effect any hugetlb memory. hugetlb memory are only
effected by bit 5-6.
Default value of coredump_filter is 0x23; this means all anonymous memory
segments and hugetlb private memory are dumped.
If you don't want to dump all shared memory segments attached to pid 1234,
write 1 to the process's proc file.
write 0x21 to the process's proc file.
$ echo 0x1 > /proc/1234/coredump_filter
$ echo 0x21 > /proc/1234/coredump_filter
When a new process is created, the process inherits the bitmask status from its
parent. It is useful to set up coredump_filter before the program runs.

View File

@ -263,7 +263,7 @@ User Mode Linux, like so:
sleep(999999999);
}
EOF
gcc -static hello2.c -o init
gcc -static hello.c -o init
echo init | cpio -o -H newc | gzip > test.cpio.gz
# Testing external initramfs using the initrd loading mechanism.
qemu -kernel /boot/vmlinuz -initrd test.cpio.gz /dev/zero

View File

@ -86,6 +86,15 @@ norm_unmount (*) commit on unmount; the journal is committed
fast_unmount do not commit on unmount; this option makes
unmount faster, but the next mount slower
because of the need to replay the journal.
bulk_read read more in one go to take advantage of flash
media that read faster sequentially
no_bulk_read (*) do not bulk-read
no_chk_data_crc skip checking of CRCs on data nodes in order to
improve read performance. Use this option only
if the flash media is highly reliable. The effect
of this option is that corruption of the contents
of a file can go unnoticed.
chk_data_crc (*) do not skip checking CRCs on data nodes
Quick usage instructions

View File

@ -240,6 +240,10 @@ signal, or (b) something wrongly believes it's safe to remove drivers
needed to manage a signal that's in active use. That is, requesting a
GPIO can serve as a kind of lock.
Some platforms may also use knowledge about what GPIOs are active for
power management, such as by powering down unused chip sectors and, more
easily, gating off unused clocks.
These two calls are optional because not not all current Linux platforms
offer such functionality in their GPIO support; a valid implementation
could return success for all gpio_request() calls. Unlike the other calls,
@ -264,7 +268,7 @@ map between them using calls like:
/* map GPIO numbers to IRQ numbers */
int gpio_to_irq(unsigned gpio);
/* map IRQ numbers to GPIO numbers */
/* map IRQ numbers to GPIO numbers (avoid using this) */
int irq_to_gpio(unsigned irq);
Those return either the corresponding number in the other namespace, or
@ -284,7 +288,8 @@ system wakeup capabilities.
Non-error values returned from irq_to_gpio() would most commonly be used
with gpio_get_value(), for example to initialize or update driver state
when the IRQ is edge-triggered.
when the IRQ is edge-triggered. Note that some platforms don't support
this reverse mapping, so you should avoid using it.
Emulating Open Drain Signals

View File

@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
Kernel driver adt7470
=====================
Supported chips:
* Analog Devices ADT7470
Prefix: 'adt7470'
Addresses scanned: I2C 0x2C, 0x2E, 0x2F
Datasheet: Publicly available at the Analog Devices website
Author: Darrick J. Wong
Description
-----------
This driver implements support for the Analog Devices ADT7470 chip. There may
be other chips that implement this interface.
The ADT7470 uses the 2-wire interface compatible with the SMBus 2.0
specification. Using an analog to digital converter it measures up to ten (10)
external temperatures. It has four (4) 16-bit counters for measuring fan speed.
There are four (4) PWM outputs that can be used to control fan speed.
A sophisticated control system for the PWM outputs is designed into the ADT7470
that allows fan speed to be adjusted automatically based on any of the ten
temperature sensors. Each PWM output is individually adjustable and
programmable. Once configured, the ADT7470 will adjust the PWM outputs in
response to the measured temperatures with further host intervention. This
feature can also be disabled for manual control of the PWM's.
Each of the measured inputs (temperature, fan speed) has corresponding high/low
limit values. The ADT7470 will signal an ALARM if any measured value exceeds
either limit.
The ADT7470 DOES NOT sample all inputs continuously. A single pin on the
ADT7470 is connected to a multitude of thermal diodes, but the chip must be
instructed explicitly to read the multitude of diodes. If you want to use
automatic fan control mode, you must manually read any of the temperature
sensors or the fan control algorithm will not run. The chip WILL NOT DO THIS
AUTOMATICALLY; this must be done from userspace. This may be a bug in the chip
design, given that many other AD chips take care of this. The driver will not
read the registers more often than once every 5 seconds. Further,
configuration data is only read once per minute.
Special Features
----------------
The ADT7470 has a 8-bit ADC and is capable of measuring temperatures with 1
degC resolution.
The Analog Devices datasheet is very detailed and describes a procedure for
determining an optimal configuration for the automatic PWM control.
Configuration Notes
-------------------
Besides standard interfaces driver adds the following:
* PWM Control
* pwm#_auto_point1_pwm and pwm#_auto_point1_temp and
* pwm#_auto_point2_pwm and pwm#_auto_point2_temp -
point1: Set the pwm speed at a lower temperature bound.
point2: Set the pwm speed at a higher temperature bound.
The ADT7470 will scale the pwm between the lower and higher pwm speed when
the temperature is between the two temperature boundaries. PWM values range
from 0 (off) to 255 (full speed). Fan speed will be set to maximum when the
temperature sensor associated with the PWM control exceeds
pwm#_auto_point2_temp.
Notes
-----
As stated above, the temperature inputs must be read periodically from
userspace in order for the automatic pwm algorithm to run.

View File

@ -136,10 +136,10 @@ once-only alarms.
The IT87xx only updates its values each 1.5 seconds; reading it more often
will do no harm, but will return 'old' values.
To change sensor N to a thermistor, 'echo 2 > tempN_type' where N is 1, 2,
To change sensor N to a thermistor, 'echo 4 > tempN_type' where N is 1, 2,
or 3. To change sensor N to a thermal diode, 'echo 3 > tempN_type'.
Give 0 for unused sensor. Any other value is invalid. To configure this at
startup, consult lm_sensors's /etc/sensors.conf. (2 = thermistor;
startup, consult lm_sensors's /etc/sensors.conf. (4 = thermistor;
3 = thermal diode)

View File

@ -163,16 +163,6 @@ configured individually according to the following options.
* pwm#_auto_pwm_min - this specifies the PWM value for temp#_auto_temp_off
temperature. (PWM value from 0 to 255)
* pwm#_auto_pwm_freq - select base frequency of PWM output. You can select
in range of 10.0 to 94.0 Hz in .1 Hz units.
(Values 100 to 940).
The pwm#_auto_pwm_freq can be set to one of the following 8 values. Setting the
frequency to a value not on this list, will result in the next higher frequency
being selected. The actual device frequency may vary slightly from this
specification as designed by the manufacturer. Consult the datasheet for more
details. (PWM Frequency values: 100, 150, 230, 300, 380, 470, 620, 940)
* pwm#_auto_pwm_minctl - this flags selects for temp#_auto_temp_off temperature
the bahaviour of fans. Write 1 to let fans spinning at
pwm#_auto_pwm_min or write 0 to let them off.

View File

@ -65,11 +65,10 @@ The LM87 has four pins which can serve one of two possible functions,
depending on the hardware configuration.
Some functions share pins, so not all functions are available at the same
time. Which are depends on the hardware setup. This driver assumes that
the BIOS configured the chip correctly. In that respect, it differs from
the original driver (from lm_sensors for Linux 2.4), which would force the
LM87 to an arbitrary, compile-time chosen mode, regardless of the actual
chipset wiring.
time. Which are depends on the hardware setup. This driver normally
assumes that firmware configured the chip correctly. Where this is not
the case, platform code must set the I2C client's platform_data to point
to a u8 value to be written to the channel register.
For reference, here is the list of exclusive functions:
- in0+in5 (default) or temp3

View File

@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ Supported chips:
Prefix: 'lm99'
Addresses scanned: I2C 0x4c and 0x4d
Datasheet: Publicly available at the National Semiconductor website
http://www.national.com/pf/LM/LM89.html
http://www.national.com/mpf/LM/LM89.html
* National Semiconductor LM99
Prefix: 'lm99'
Addresses scanned: I2C 0x4c and 0x4d
@ -21,18 +21,32 @@ Supported chips:
Prefix: 'lm86'
Addresses scanned: I2C 0x4c
Datasheet: Publicly available at the National Semiconductor website
http://www.national.com/pf/LM/LM86.html
http://www.national.com/mpf/LM/LM86.html
* Analog Devices ADM1032
Prefix: 'adm1032'
Addresses scanned: I2C 0x4c and 0x4d
Datasheet: Publicly available at the Analog Devices website
http://www.analog.com/en/prod/0,2877,ADM1032,00.html
Datasheet: Publicly available at the ON Semiconductor website
http://www.onsemi.com/PowerSolutions/product.do?id=ADM1032
* Analog Devices ADT7461
Prefix: 'adt7461'
Addresses scanned: I2C 0x4c and 0x4d
Datasheet: Publicly available at the Analog Devices website
http://www.analog.com/en/prod/0,2877,ADT7461,00.html
Note: Only if in ADM1032 compatibility mode
Datasheet: Publicly available at the ON Semiconductor website
http://www.onsemi.com/PowerSolutions/product.do?id=ADT7461
* Maxim MAX6646
Prefix: 'max6646'
Addresses scanned: I2C 0x4d
Datasheet: Publicly available at the Maxim website
http://www.maxim-ic.com/quick_view2.cfm/qv_pk/3497
* Maxim MAX6647
Prefix: 'max6646'
Addresses scanned: I2C 0x4e
Datasheet: Publicly available at the Maxim website
http://www.maxim-ic.com/quick_view2.cfm/qv_pk/3497
* Maxim MAX6649
Prefix: 'max6646'
Addresses scanned: I2C 0x4c
Datasheet: Publicly available at the Maxim website
http://www.maxim-ic.com/quick_view2.cfm/qv_pk/3497
* Maxim MAX6657
Prefix: 'max6657'
Addresses scanned: I2C 0x4c
@ -70,25 +84,21 @@ Description
The LM90 is a digital temperature sensor. It senses its own temperature as
well as the temperature of up to one external diode. It is compatible
with many other devices such as the LM86, the LM89, the LM99, the ADM1032,
the MAX6657, MAX6658, MAX6659, MAX6680 and the MAX6681 all of which are
supported by this driver.
with many other devices, many of which are supported by this driver.
Note that there is no easy way to differentiate between the MAX6657,
MAX6658 and MAX6659 variants. The extra address and features of the
MAX6659 are not supported by this driver. The MAX6680 and MAX6681 only
differ in their pinout, therefore they obviously can't (and don't need to)
be distinguished. Additionally, the ADT7461 is supported if found in
ADM1032 compatibility mode.
be distinguished.
The specificity of this family of chipsets over the ADM1021/LM84
family is that it features critical limits with hysteresis, and an
increased resolution of the remote temperature measurement.
The different chipsets of the family are not strictly identical, although
very similar. This driver doesn't handle any specific feature for now,
with the exception of SMBus PEC. For reference, here comes a non-exhaustive
list of specific features:
very similar. For reference, here comes a non-exhaustive list of specific
features:
LM90:
* Filter and alert configuration register at 0xBF.
@ -114,9 +124,11 @@ ADT7461:
* Lower resolution for remote temperature
MAX6657 and MAX6658:
* Better local resolution
* Remote sensor type selection
MAX6659:
* Better local resolution
* Selectable address
* Second critical temperature limit
* Remote sensor type selection
@ -127,7 +139,8 @@ MAX6680 and MAX6681:
All temperature values are given in degrees Celsius. Resolution
is 1.0 degree for the local temperature, 0.125 degree for the remote
temperature.
temperature, except for the MAX6657, MAX6658 and MAX6659 which have a
resolution of 0.125 degree for both temperatures.
Each sensor has its own high and low limits, plus a critical limit.
Additionally, there is a relative hysteresis value common to both critical

View File

@ -5,12 +5,7 @@ Supported chips:
* National Semiconductor PC87360, PC87363, PC87364, PC87365 and PC87366
Prefixes: 'pc87360', 'pc87363', 'pc87364', 'pc87365', 'pc87366'
Addresses scanned: none, address read from Super I/O config space
Datasheets:
http://www.national.com/pf/PC/PC87360.html
http://www.national.com/pf/PC/PC87363.html
http://www.national.com/pf/PC/PC87364.html
http://www.national.com/pf/PC/PC87365.html
http://www.national.com/pf/PC/PC87366.html
Datasheets: No longer available
Authors: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>

View File

@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ Supported chips:
* National Semiconductor PC87427
Prefix: 'pc87427'
Addresses scanned: none, address read from Super I/O config space
Datasheet: http://www.winbond.com.tw/E-WINBONDHTM/partner/apc_007.html
Datasheet: No longer available
Author: Jean Delvare <khali@linux-fr.org>

View File

@ -353,7 +353,7 @@ in6=255
# PWM
Additional info about PWM on the AS99127F (may apply to other Asus
* Additional info about PWM on the AS99127F (may apply to other Asus
chips as well) by Jean Delvare as of 2004-04-09:
AS99127F revision 2 seems to have two PWM registers at 0x59 and 0x5A,
@ -396,7 +396,7 @@ Please contact us if you can figure out how it is supposed to work. As
long as we don't know more, the w83781d driver doesn't handle PWM on
AS99127F chips at all.
Additional info about PWM on the AS99127F rev.1 by Hector Martin:
* Additional info about PWM on the AS99127F rev.1 by Hector Martin:
I've been fiddling around with the (in)famous 0x59 register and
found out the following values do work as a form of coarse pwm:
@ -418,3 +418,36 @@ change.
My mobo is an ASUS A7V266-E. This behavior is similar to what I got
with speedfan under Windows, where 0-15% would be off, 15-2x% (can't
remember the exact value) would be 70% and higher would be full on.
* Additional info about PWM on the AS99127F rev.1 from lm-sensors
ticket #2350:
I conducted some experiment on Asus P3B-F motherboard with AS99127F
(Ver. 1).
I confirm that 0x59 register control the CPU_Fan Header on this
motherboard, and 0x5a register control PWR_Fan.
In order to reduce the dependency of specific fan, the measurement is
conducted with a digital scope without fan connected. I found out that
P3B-F actually output variable DC voltage on fan header center pin,
looks like PWM is filtered on this motherboard.
Here are some of measurements:
0x80 20 mV
0x81 20 mV
0x82 232 mV
0x83 1.2 V
0x84 2.31 V
0x85 3.44 V
0x86 4.62 V
0x87 5.81 V
0x88 7.01 V
9x89 8.22 V
0x8a 9.42 V
0x8b 10.6 V
0x8c 11.9 V
0x8d 12.4 V
0x8e 12.4 V
0x8f 12.4 V

View File

@ -58,29 +58,35 @@ internal state that allows no clean access (Bank with ID register is not
currently selected). If you know the address of the chip, use a 'force'
parameter; this will put it into a more well-behaved state first.
The driver implements three temperature sensors, five fan rotation speed
sensors, and ten voltage sensors.
The driver implements three temperature sensors, ten voltage sensors,
five fan rotation speed sensors and manual PWM control of each fan.
Temperatures are measured in degrees Celsius and measurement resolution is 1
degC for temp1 and 0.5 degC for temp2 and temp3. An alarm is triggered when
the temperature gets higher than the Overtemperature Shutdown value; it stays
on until the temperature falls below the Hysteresis value.
Voltage sensors (also known as IN sensors) report their values in millivolts.
An alarm is triggered if the voltage has crossed a programmable minimum
or maximum limit.
Fan rotation speeds are reported in RPM (rotations per minute). An alarm is
triggered if the rotation speed has dropped below a programmable limit. Fan
readings can be divided by a programmable divider (1, 2, 4, 8, 16,
32, 64 or 128 for all fans) to give the readings more range or accuracy.
Voltage sensors (also known as IN sensors) report their values in millivolts.
An alarm is triggered if the voltage has crossed a programmable minimum
or maximum limit.
Each fan controlled is controlled by PWM. The PWM duty cycle can be read and
set for each fan separately. Valid values range from 0 (stop) to 255 (full).
PWM 1-3 support Thermal Cruise mode, in which the PWMs are automatically
regulated to keep respectively temp 1-3 at a certain target temperature.
See below for the description of the sysfs-interface.
The w83791d has a global bit used to enable beeping from the speaker when an
alarm is triggered as well as a bitmask to enable or disable the beep for
specific alarms. You need both the global beep enable bit and the
corresponding beep bit to be on for a triggered alarm to sound a beep.
The sysfs interface to the gloabal enable is via the sysfs beep_enable file.
The sysfs interface to the global enable is via the sysfs beep_enable file.
This file is used for both legacy and new code.
The sysfs interface to the beep bitmask has migrated from the original legacy
@ -105,6 +111,27 @@ going forward.
The driver reads the hardware chip values at most once every three seconds.
User mode code requesting values more often will receive cached values.
/sys files
----------
The sysfs-interface is documented in the 'sysfs-interface' file. Only
chip-specific options are documented here.
pwm[1-3]_enable - this file controls mode of fan/temperature control for
fan 1-3. Fan/PWM 4-5 only support manual mode.
* 1 Manual mode
* 2 Thermal Cruise mode
* 3 Fan Speed Cruise mode (no further support)
temp[1-3]_target - defines the target temperature for Thermal Cruise mode.
Unit: millidegree Celsius
RW
temp[1-3]_tolerance - temperature tolerance for Thermal Cruise mode.
Specifies an interval around the target temperature
in which the fan speed is not changed.
Unit: millidegree Celsius
RW
Alarms bitmap vs. beep_mask bitmask
------------------------------------
For legacy code using the alarms and beep_mask files:
@ -132,7 +159,3 @@ tart2 : alarms: 0x020000 beep_mask: 0x080000 <== mismatch
tart3 : alarms: 0x040000 beep_mask: 0x100000 <== mismatch
case_open : alarms: 0x001000 beep_mask: 0x001000
global_enable: alarms: -------- beep_mask: 0x800000 (modified via beep_enable)
W83791D TODO:
---------------
Provide a patch for smart-fan control (still need appropriate motherboard/fans)

View File

@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
Currently, kvm module in EXPERIMENTAL stage on IA64. This means that
interfaces are not stable enough to use. So, plase had better don't run
critical applications in virtual machine. We will try our best to make it
strong in future versions!
Currently, kvm module is in EXPERIMENTAL stage on IA64. This means that
interfaces are not stable enough to use. So, please don't run critical
applications in virtual machine.
We will try our best to improve it in future versions!
Guide: How to boot up guests on kvm/ia64
This guide is to describe how to enable kvm support for IA-64 systems.

View File

@ -92,6 +92,7 @@ Code Seq# Include File Comments
'J' 00-1F drivers/scsi/gdth_ioctl.h
'K' all linux/kd.h
'L' 00-1F linux/loop.h
'L' 20-2F driver/usb/misc/vstusb.h
'L' E0-FF linux/ppdd.h encrypted disk device driver
<http://linux01.gwdg.de/~alatham/ppdd.html>
'M' all linux/soundcard.h
@ -110,6 +111,8 @@ Code Seq# Include File Comments
'W' 00-1F linux/wanrouter.h conflict!
'X' all linux/xfs_fs.h
'Y' all linux/cyclades.h
'[' 00-07 linux/usb/usbtmc.h USB Test and Measurement Devices
<mailto:gregkh@suse.de>
'a' all ATM on linux
<http://lrcwww.epfl.ch/linux-atm/magic.html>
'b' 00-FF bit3 vme host bridge

View File

@ -101,6 +101,7 @@ parameter is applicable:
X86-64 X86-64 architecture is enabled.
More X86-64 boot options can be found in
Documentation/x86_64/boot-options.txt .
X86 Either 32bit or 64bit x86 (same as X86-32+X86-64)
In addition, the following text indicates that the option:
@ -690,7 +691,7 @@ and is between 256 and 4096 characters. It is defined in the file
See Documentation/block/as-iosched.txt and
Documentation/block/deadline-iosched.txt for details.
elfcorehdr= [X86-32, X86_64]
elfcorehdr= [IA64,PPC,SH,X86-32,X86_64]
Specifies physical address of start of kernel core
image elf header. Generally kexec loader will
pass this option to capture kernel.
@ -796,6 +797,9 @@ and is between 256 and 4096 characters. It is defined in the file
Defaults to the default architecture's huge page size
if not specified.
hlt [BUGS=ARM,SH]
i8042.debug [HW] Toggle i8042 debug mode
i8042.direct [HW] Put keyboard port into non-translated mode
i8042.dumbkbd [HW] Pretend that controller can only read data from
keyboard and cannot control its state
@ -1210,6 +1214,10 @@ and is between 256 and 4096 characters. It is defined in the file
mem=nopentium [BUGS=X86-32] Disable usage of 4MB pages for kernel
memory.
memchunk=nn[KMG]
[KNL,SH] Allow user to override the default size for
per-device physically contiguous DMA buffers.
memmap=exactmap [KNL,X86-32,X86_64] Enable setting of an exact
E820 memory map, as specified by the user.
Such memmap=exactmap lines can be constructed based on
@ -1392,6 +1400,8 @@ and is between 256 and 4096 characters. It is defined in the file
nodisconnect [HW,SCSI,M68K] Disables SCSI disconnects.
nodsp [SH] Disable hardware DSP at boot time.
noefi [X86-32,X86-64] Disable EFI runtime services support.
noexec [IA-64]
@ -1408,13 +1418,15 @@ and is between 256 and 4096 characters. It is defined in the file
noexec32=off: disable non-executable mappings
read implies executable mappings
nofpu [SH] Disable hardware FPU at boot time.
nofxsr [BUGS=X86-32] Disables x86 floating point extended
register save and restore. The kernel will only save
legacy floating-point registers on task switch.
noclflush [BUGS=X86] Don't use the CLFLUSH instruction
nohlt [BUGS=ARM]
nohlt [BUGS=ARM,SH]
no-hlt [BUGS=X86-32] Tells the kernel that the hlt
instruction doesn't work correctly and not to
@ -1577,7 +1589,7 @@ and is between 256 and 4096 characters. It is defined in the file
See also Documentation/paride.txt.
pci=option[,option...] [PCI] various PCI subsystem options:
off [X86-32] don't probe for the PCI bus
off [X86] don't probe for the PCI bus
bios [X86-32] force use of PCI BIOS, don't access
the hardware directly. Use this if your machine
has a non-standard PCI host bridge.
@ -1585,9 +1597,9 @@ and is between 256 and 4096 characters. It is defined in the file
hardware access methods are allowed. Use this
if you experience crashes upon bootup and you
suspect they are caused by the BIOS.
conf1 [X86-32] Force use of PCI Configuration
conf1 [X86] Force use of PCI Configuration
Mechanism 1.
conf2 [X86-32] Force use of PCI Configuration
conf2 [X86] Force use of PCI Configuration
Mechanism 2.
noaer [PCIE] If the PCIEAER kernel config parameter is
enabled, this kernel boot option can be used to
@ -1607,37 +1619,37 @@ and is between 256 and 4096 characters. It is defined in the file
this option if the kernel is unable to allocate
IRQs or discover secondary PCI buses on your
motherboard.
rom [X86-32] Assign address space to expansion ROMs.
rom [X86] Assign address space to expansion ROMs.
Use with caution as certain devices share
address decoders between ROMs and other
resources.
norom [X86-32,X86_64] Do not assign address space to
norom [X86] Do not assign address space to
expansion ROMs that do not already have
BIOS assigned address ranges.
irqmask=0xMMMM [X86-32] Set a bit mask of IRQs allowed to be
irqmask=0xMMMM [X86] Set a bit mask of IRQs allowed to be
assigned automatically to PCI devices. You can
make the kernel exclude IRQs of your ISA cards
this way.
pirqaddr=0xAAAAA [X86-32] Specify the physical address
pirqaddr=0xAAAAA [X86] Specify the physical address
of the PIRQ table (normally generated
by the BIOS) if it is outside the
F0000h-100000h range.
lastbus=N [X86-32] Scan all buses thru bus #N. Can be
lastbus=N [X86] Scan all buses thru bus #N. Can be
useful if the kernel is unable to find your
secondary buses and you want to tell it
explicitly which ones they are.
assign-busses [X86-32] Always assign all PCI bus
assign-busses [X86] Always assign all PCI bus
numbers ourselves, overriding
whatever the firmware may have done.
usepirqmask [X86-32] Honor the possible IRQ mask stored
usepirqmask [X86] Honor the possible IRQ mask stored
in the BIOS $PIR table. This is needed on
some systems with broken BIOSes, notably
some HP Pavilion N5400 and Omnibook XE3
notebooks. This will have no effect if ACPI
IRQ routing is enabled.
noacpi [X86-32] Do not use ACPI for IRQ routing
noacpi [X86] Do not use ACPI for IRQ routing
or for PCI scanning.
use_crs [X86-32] Use _CRS for PCI resource
use_crs [X86] Use _CRS for PCI resource
allocation.
routeirq Do IRQ routing for all PCI devices.
This is normally done in pci_enable_device(),
@ -1666,6 +1678,12 @@ and is between 256 and 4096 characters. It is defined in the file
reserved for the CardBus bridge's memory
window. The default value is 64 megabytes.
pcie_aspm= [PCIE] Forcibly enable or disable PCIe Active State Power
Management.
off Disable ASPM.
force Enable ASPM even on devices that claim not to support it.
WARNING: Forcing ASPM on may cause system lockups.
pcmv= [HW,PCMCIA] BadgePAD 4
pd. [PARIDE]
@ -1713,6 +1731,11 @@ and is between 256 and 4096 characters. It is defined in the file
autoconfiguration.
Ranges are in pairs (memory base and size).
dynamic_printk
Enables pr_debug()/dev_dbg() calls if
CONFIG_DYNAMIC_PRINTK_DEBUG has been enabled. These can also
be switched on/off via <debugfs>/dynamic_printk/modules
print-fatal-signals=
[KNL] debug: print fatal signals
print-fatal-signals=1: print segfault info to
@ -2247,6 +2270,25 @@ and is between 256 and 4096 characters. It is defined in the file
autosuspended. Devices for which the delay is set
to a negative value won't be autosuspended at all.
usbcore.usbfs_snoop=
[USB] Set to log all usbfs traffic (default 0 = off).
usbcore.blinkenlights=
[USB] Set to cycle leds on hubs (default 0 = off).
usbcore.old_scheme_first=
[USB] Start with the old device initialization
scheme (default 0 = off).
usbcore.use_both_schemes=
[USB] Try the other device initialization scheme
if the first one fails (default 1 = enabled).
usbcore.initial_descriptor_timeout=
[USB] Specifies timeout for the initial 64-byte
USB_REQ_GET_DESCRIPTOR request in milliseconds
(default 5000 = 5.0 seconds).
usbhid.mousepoll=
[USBHID] The interval which mice are to be polled at.

View File

@ -118,6 +118,10 @@ the name of the kobject, call kobject_rename():
int kobject_rename(struct kobject *kobj, const char *new_name);
Note kobject_rename does perform any locking or have a solid notion of
what names are valid so the provide must provide their own sanity checking
and serialization.
There is a function called kobject_set_name() but that is legacy cruft and
is being removed. If your code needs to call this function, it is
incorrect and needs to be fixed.

View File

@ -50,10 +50,12 @@ Connecting a function (probe) to a marker is done by providing a probe (function
to call) for the specific marker through marker_probe_register() and can be
activated by calling marker_arm(). Marker deactivation can be done by calling
marker_disarm() as many times as marker_arm() has been called. Removing a probe
is done through marker_probe_unregister(); it will disarm the probe and make
sure there is no caller left using the probe when it returns. Probe removal is
preempt-safe because preemption is disabled around the probe call. See the
"Probe example" section below for a sample probe module.
is done through marker_probe_unregister(); it will disarm the probe.
marker_synchronize_unregister() must be called before the end of the module exit
function to make sure there is no caller left using the probe. This, and the
fact that preemption is disabled around the probe call, make sure that probe
removal and module unload are safe. See the "Probe example" section below for a
sample probe module.
The marker mechanism supports inserting multiple instances of the same marker.
Markers can be put in inline functions, inlined static functions, and

View File

@ -0,0 +1,714 @@
Introduction
============
Having looked at the linux mtd/nand driver and more specific at nand_ecc.c
I felt there was room for optimisation. I bashed the code for a few hours
performing tricks like table lookup removing superfluous code etc.
After that the speed was increased by 35-40%.
Still I was not too happy as I felt there was additional room for improvement.
Bad! I was hooked.
I decided to annotate my steps in this file. Perhaps it is useful to someone
or someone learns something from it.
The problem
===========
NAND flash (at least SLC one) typically has sectors of 256 bytes.
However NAND flash is not extremely reliable so some error detection
(and sometimes correction) is needed.
This is done by means of a Hamming code. I'll try to explain it in
laymans terms (and apologies to all the pro's in the field in case I do
not use the right terminology, my coding theory class was almost 30
years ago, and I must admit it was not one of my favourites).
As I said before the ecc calculation is performed on sectors of 256
bytes. This is done by calculating several parity bits over the rows and
columns. The parity used is even parity which means that the parity bit = 1
if the data over which the parity is calculated is 1 and the parity bit = 0
if the data over which the parity is calculated is 0. So the total
number of bits over the data over which the parity is calculated + the
parity bit is even. (see wikipedia if you can't follow this).
Parity is often calculated by means of an exclusive or operation,
sometimes also referred to as xor. In C the operator for xor is ^
Back to ecc.
Let's give a small figure:
byte 0: bit7 bit6 bit5 bit4 bit3 bit2 bit1 bit0 rp0 rp2 rp4 ... rp14
byte 1: bit7 bit6 bit5 bit4 bit3 bit2 bit1 bit0 rp1 rp2 rp4 ... rp14
byte 2: bit7 bit6 bit5 bit4 bit3 bit2 bit1 bit0 rp0 rp3 rp4 ... rp14
byte 3: bit7 bit6 bit5 bit4 bit3 bit2 bit1 bit0 rp1 rp3 rp4 ... rp14
byte 4: bit7 bit6 bit5 bit4 bit3 bit2 bit1 bit0 rp0 rp2 rp5 ... rp14
....
byte 254: bit7 bit6 bit5 bit4 bit3 bit2 bit1 bit0 rp0 rp3 rp5 ... rp15
byte 255: bit7 bit6 bit5 bit4 bit3 bit2 bit1 bit0 rp1 rp3 rp5 ... rp15
cp1 cp0 cp1 cp0 cp1 cp0 cp1 cp0
cp3 cp3 cp2 cp2 cp3 cp3 cp2 cp2
cp5 cp5 cp5 cp5 cp4 cp4 cp4 cp4
This figure represents a sector of 256 bytes.
cp is my abbreviaton for column parity, rp for row parity.
Let's start to explain column parity.
cp0 is the parity that belongs to all bit0, bit2, bit4, bit6.
so the sum of all bit0, bit2, bit4 and bit6 values + cp0 itself is even.
Similarly cp1 is the sum of all bit1, bit3, bit5 and bit7.
cp2 is the parity over bit0, bit1, bit4 and bit5
cp3 is the parity over bit2, bit3, bit6 and bit7.
cp4 is the parity over bit0, bit1, bit2 and bit3.
cp5 is the parity over bit4, bit5, bit6 and bit7.
Note that each of cp0 .. cp5 is exactly one bit.
Row parity actually works almost the same.
rp0 is the parity of all even bytes (0, 2, 4, 6, ... 252, 254)
rp1 is the parity of all odd bytes (1, 3, 5, 7, ..., 253, 255)
rp2 is the parity of all bytes 0, 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, ...
(so handle two bytes, then skip 2 bytes).
rp3 is covers the half rp2 does not cover (bytes 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, ...)
for rp4 the rule is cover 4 bytes, skip 4 bytes, cover 4 bytes, skip 4 etc.
so rp4 calculates parity over bytes 0, 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 11, 16, ...)
and rp5 covers the other half, so bytes 4, 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 15, 20, ..
The story now becomes quite boring. I guess you get the idea.
rp6 covers 8 bytes then skips 8 etc
rp7 skips 8 bytes then covers 8 etc
rp8 covers 16 bytes then skips 16 etc
rp9 skips 16 bytes then covers 16 etc
rp10 covers 32 bytes then skips 32 etc
rp11 skips 32 bytes then covers 32 etc
rp12 covers 64 bytes then skips 64 etc
rp13 skips 64 bytes then covers 64 etc
rp14 covers 128 bytes then skips 128
rp15 skips 128 bytes then covers 128
In the end the parity bits are grouped together in three bytes as
follows:
ECC Bit 7 Bit 6 Bit 5 Bit 4 Bit 3 Bit 2 Bit 1 Bit 0
ECC 0 rp07 rp06 rp05 rp04 rp03 rp02 rp01 rp00
ECC 1 rp15 rp14 rp13 rp12 rp11 rp10 rp09 rp08
ECC 2 cp5 cp4 cp3 cp2 cp1 cp0 1 1
I detected after writing this that ST application note AN1823
(http://www.st.com/stonline/books/pdf/docs/10123.pdf) gives a much
nicer picture.(but they use line parity as term where I use row parity)
Oh well, I'm graphically challenged, so suffer with me for a moment :-)
And I could not reuse the ST picture anyway for copyright reasons.
Attempt 0
=========
Implementing the parity calculation is pretty simple.
In C pseudocode:
for (i = 0; i < 256; i++)
{
if (i & 0x01)
rp1 = bit7 ^ bit6 ^ bit5 ^ bit4 ^ bit3 ^ bit2 ^ bit1 ^ bit0 ^ rp1;
else
rp0 = bit7 ^ bit6 ^ bit5 ^ bit4 ^ bit3 ^ bit2 ^ bit1 ^ bit0 ^ rp1;
if (i & 0x02)
rp3 = bit7 ^ bit6 ^ bit5 ^ bit4 ^ bit3 ^ bit2 ^ bit1 ^ bit0 ^ rp3;
else
rp2 = bit7 ^ bit6 ^ bit5 ^ bit4 ^ bit3 ^ bit2 ^ bit1 ^ bit0 ^ rp2;
if (i & 0x04)
rp5 = bit7 ^ bit6 ^ bit5 ^ bit4 ^ bit3 ^ bit2 ^ bit1 ^ bit0 ^ rp5;
else
rp4 = bit7 ^ bit6 ^ bit5 ^ bit4 ^ bit3 ^ bit2 ^ bit1 ^ bit0 ^ rp4;
if (i & 0x08)
rp7 = bit7 ^ bit6 ^ bit5 ^ bit4 ^ bit3 ^ bit2 ^ bit1 ^ bit0 ^ rp7;
else
rp6 = bit7 ^ bit6 ^ bit5 ^ bit4 ^ bit3 ^ bit2 ^ bit1 ^ bit0 ^ rp6;
if (i & 0x10)
rp9 = bit7 ^ bit6 ^ bit5 ^ bit4 ^ bit3 ^ bit2 ^ bit1 ^ bit0 ^ rp9;
else
rp8 = bit7 ^ bit6 ^ bit5 ^ bit4 ^ bit3 ^ bit2 ^ bit1 ^ bit0 ^ rp8;
if (i & 0x20)
rp11 = bit7 ^ bit6 ^ bit5 ^ bit4 ^ bit3 ^ bit2 ^ bit1 ^ bit0 ^ rp11;
else
rp10 = bit7 ^ bit6 ^ bit5 ^ bit4 ^ bit3 ^ bit2 ^ bit1 ^ bit0 ^ rp10;
if (i & 0x40)
rp13 = bit7 ^ bit6 ^ bit5 ^ bit4 ^ bit3 ^ bit2 ^ bit1 ^ bit0 ^ rp13;
else
rp12 = bit7 ^ bit6 ^ bit5 ^ bit4 ^ bit3 ^ bit2 ^ bit1 ^ bit0 ^ rp12;
if (i & 0x80)
rp15 = bit7 ^ bit6 ^ bit5 ^ bit4 ^ bit3 ^ bit2 ^ bit1 ^ bit0 ^ rp15;
else
rp14 = bit7 ^ bit6 ^ bit5 ^ bit4 ^ bit3 ^ bit2 ^ bit1 ^ bit0 ^ rp14;
cp0 = bit6 ^ bit4 ^ bit2 ^ bit0 ^ cp0;
cp1 = bit7 ^ bit5 ^ bit3 ^ bit1 ^ cp1;
cp2 = bit5 ^ bit4 ^ bit1 ^ bit0 ^ cp2;
cp3 = bit7 ^ bit6 ^ bit3 ^ bit2 ^ cp3
cp4 = bit3 ^ bit2 ^ bit1 ^ bit0 ^ cp4
cp5 = bit7 ^ bit6 ^ bit5 ^ bit4 ^ cp5
}
Analysis 0
==========
C does have bitwise operators but not really operators to do the above
efficiently (and most hardware has no such instructions either).
Therefore without implementing this it was clear that the code above was
not going to bring me a Nobel prize :-)
Fortunately the exclusive or operation is commutative, so we can combine
the values in any order. So instead of calculating all the bits
individually, let us try to rearrange things.
For the column parity this is easy. We can just xor the bytes and in the
end filter out the relevant bits. This is pretty nice as it will bring
all cp calculation out of the if loop.
Similarly we can first xor the bytes for the various rows.
This leads to:
Attempt 1
=========
const char parity[256] = {
0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0,
1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1,
1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1,
0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0,
1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1,
0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0,
0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0,
1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1,
1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1,
0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0,
0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0,
1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1,
0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0,
1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1,
1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1,
0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0
};
void ecc1(const unsigned char *buf, unsigned char *code)
{
int i;
const unsigned char *bp = buf;
unsigned char cur;
unsigned char rp0, rp1, rp2, rp3, rp4, rp5, rp6, rp7;
unsigned char rp8, rp9, rp10, rp11, rp12, rp13, rp14, rp15;
unsigned char par;
par = 0;
rp0 = 0; rp1 = 0; rp2 = 0; rp3 = 0;
rp4 = 0; rp5 = 0; rp6 = 0; rp7 = 0;
rp8 = 0; rp9 = 0; rp10 = 0; rp11 = 0;
rp12 = 0; rp13 = 0; rp14 = 0; rp15 = 0;
for (i = 0; i < 256; i++)
{
cur = *bp++;
par ^= cur;
if (i & 0x01) rp1 ^= cur; else rp0 ^= cur;
if (i & 0x02) rp3 ^= cur; else rp2 ^= cur;
if (i & 0x04) rp5 ^= cur; else rp4 ^= cur;
if (i & 0x08) rp7 ^= cur; else rp6 ^= cur;
if (i & 0x10) rp9 ^= cur; else rp8 ^= cur;
if (i & 0x20) rp11 ^= cur; else rp10 ^= cur;
if (i & 0x40) rp13 ^= cur; else rp12 ^= cur;
if (i & 0x80) rp15 ^= cur; else rp14 ^= cur;
}
code[0] =
(parity[rp7] << 7) |
(parity[rp6] << 6) |
(parity[rp5] << 5) |
(parity[rp4] << 4) |
(parity[rp3] << 3) |
(parity[rp2] << 2) |
(parity[rp1] << 1) |
(parity[rp0]);
code[1] =
(parity[rp15] << 7) |
(parity[rp14] << 6) |
(parity[rp13] << 5) |
(parity[rp12] << 4) |
(parity[rp11] << 3) |
(parity[rp10] << 2) |
(parity[rp9] << 1) |
(parity[rp8]);
code[2] =
(parity[par & 0xf0] << 7) |
(parity[par & 0x0f] << 6) |
(parity[par & 0xcc] << 5) |
(parity[par & 0x33] << 4) |
(parity[par & 0xaa] << 3) |
(parity[par & 0x55] << 2);
code[0] = ~code[0];
code[1] = ~code[1];
code[2] = ~code[2];
}
Still pretty straightforward. The last three invert statements are there to
give a checksum of 0xff 0xff 0xff for an empty flash. In an empty flash
all data is 0xff, so the checksum then matches.
I also introduced the parity lookup. I expected this to be the fastest
way to calculate the parity, but I will investigate alternatives later
on.
Analysis 1
==========
The code works, but is not terribly efficient. On my system it took
almost 4 times as much time as the linux driver code. But hey, if it was
*that* easy this would have been done long before.
No pain. no gain.
Fortunately there is plenty of room for improvement.
In step 1 we moved from bit-wise calculation to byte-wise calculation.
However in C we can also use the unsigned long data type and virtually
every modern microprocessor supports 32 bit operations, so why not try
to write our code in such a way that we process data in 32 bit chunks.
Of course this means some modification as the row parity is byte by
byte. A quick analysis:
for the column parity we use the par variable. When extending to 32 bits
we can in the end easily calculate p0 and p1 from it.
(because par now consists of 4 bytes, contributing to rp1, rp0, rp1, rp0
respectively)
also rp2 and rp3 can be easily retrieved from par as rp3 covers the
first two bytes and rp2 the last two bytes.
Note that of course now the loop is executed only 64 times (256/4).
And note that care must taken wrt byte ordering. The way bytes are
ordered in a long is machine dependent, and might affect us.
Anyway, if there is an issue: this code is developed on x86 (to be
precise: a DELL PC with a D920 Intel CPU)
And of course the performance might depend on alignment, but I expect
that the I/O buffers in the nand driver are aligned properly (and
otherwise that should be fixed to get maximum performance).
Let's give it a try...
Attempt 2
=========
extern const char parity[256];
void ecc2(const unsigned char *buf, unsigned char *code)
{
int i;
const unsigned long *bp = (unsigned long *)buf;
unsigned long cur;
unsigned long rp0, rp1, rp2, rp3, rp4, rp5, rp6, rp7;
unsigned long rp8, rp9, rp10, rp11, rp12, rp13, rp14, rp15;
unsigned long par;
par = 0;
rp0 = 0; rp1 = 0; rp2 = 0; rp3 = 0;
rp4 = 0; rp5 = 0; rp6 = 0; rp7 = 0;
rp8 = 0; rp9 = 0; rp10 = 0; rp11 = 0;
rp12 = 0; rp13 = 0; rp14 = 0; rp15 = 0;
for (i = 0; i < 64; i++)
{
cur = *bp++;
par ^= cur;
if (i & 0x01) rp5 ^= cur; else rp4 ^= cur;
if (i & 0x02) rp7 ^= cur; else rp6 ^= cur;
if (i & 0x04) rp9 ^= cur; else rp8 ^= cur;
if (i & 0x08) rp11 ^= cur; else rp10 ^= cur;
if (i & 0x10) rp13 ^= cur; else rp12 ^= cur;
if (i & 0x20) rp15 ^= cur; else rp14 ^= cur;
}
/*
we need to adapt the code generation for the fact that rp vars are now
long; also the column parity calculation needs to be changed.
we'll bring rp4 to 15 back to single byte entities by shifting and
xoring
*/
rp4 ^= (rp4 >> 16); rp4 ^= (rp4 >> 8); rp4 &= 0xff;
rp5 ^= (rp5 >> 16); rp5 ^= (rp5 >> 8); rp5 &= 0xff;
rp6 ^= (rp6 >> 16); rp6 ^= (rp6 >> 8); rp6 &= 0xff;
rp7 ^= (rp7 >> 16); rp7 ^= (rp7 >> 8); rp7 &= 0xff;
rp8 ^= (rp8 >> 16); rp8 ^= (rp8 >> 8); rp8 &= 0xff;
rp9 ^= (rp9 >> 16); rp9 ^= (rp9 >> 8); rp9 &= 0xff;
rp10 ^= (rp10 >> 16); rp10 ^= (rp10 >> 8); rp10 &= 0xff;
rp11 ^= (rp11 >> 16); rp11 ^= (rp11 >> 8); rp11 &= 0xff;
rp12 ^= (rp12 >> 16); rp12 ^= (rp12 >> 8); rp12 &= 0xff;
rp13 ^= (rp13 >> 16); rp13 ^= (rp13 >> 8); rp13 &= 0xff;
rp14 ^= (rp14 >> 16); rp14 ^= (rp14 >> 8); rp14 &= 0xff;
rp15 ^= (rp15 >> 16); rp15 ^= (rp15 >> 8); rp15 &= 0xff;
rp3 = (par >> 16); rp3 ^= (rp3 >> 8); rp3 &= 0xff;
rp2 = par & 0xffff; rp2 ^= (rp2 >> 8); rp2 &= 0xff;
par ^= (par >> 16);
rp1 = (par >> 8); rp1 &= 0xff;
rp0 = (par & 0xff);
par ^= (par >> 8); par &= 0xff;
code[0] =
(parity[rp7] << 7) |
(parity[rp6] << 6) |
(parity[rp5] << 5) |
(parity[rp4] << 4) |
(parity[rp3] << 3) |
(parity[rp2] << 2) |
(parity[rp1] << 1) |
(parity[rp0]);
code[1] =
(parity[rp15] << 7) |
(parity[rp14] << 6) |
(parity[rp13] << 5) |
(parity[rp12] << 4) |
(parity[rp11] << 3) |
(parity[rp10] << 2) |
(parity[rp9] << 1) |
(parity[rp8]);
code[2] =
(parity[par & 0xf0] << 7) |
(parity[par & 0x0f] << 6) |
(parity[par & 0xcc] << 5) |
(parity[par & 0x33] << 4) |
(parity[par & 0xaa] << 3) |
(parity[par & 0x55] << 2);
code[0] = ~code[0];
code[1] = ~code[1];
code[2] = ~code[2];
}
The parity array is not shown any more. Note also that for these
examples I kinda deviated from my regular programming style by allowing
multiple statements on a line, not using { } in then and else blocks
with only a single statement and by using operators like ^=
Analysis 2
==========
The code (of course) works, and hurray: we are a little bit faster than
the linux driver code (about 15%). But wait, don't cheer too quickly.
THere is more to be gained.
If we look at e.g. rp14 and rp15 we see that we either xor our data with
rp14 or with rp15. However we also have par which goes over all data.
This means there is no need to calculate rp14 as it can be calculated from
rp15 through rp14 = par ^ rp15;
(or if desired we can avoid calculating rp15 and calculate it from
rp14). That is why some places refer to inverse parity.
Of course the same thing holds for rp4/5, rp6/7, rp8/9, rp10/11 and rp12/13.
Effectively this means we can eliminate the else clause from the if
statements. Also we can optimise the calculation in the end a little bit
by going from long to byte first. Actually we can even avoid the table
lookups
Attempt 3
=========
Odd replaced:
if (i & 0x01) rp5 ^= cur; else rp4 ^= cur;
if (i & 0x02) rp7 ^= cur; else rp6 ^= cur;
if (i & 0x04) rp9 ^= cur; else rp8 ^= cur;
if (i & 0x08) rp11 ^= cur; else rp10 ^= cur;
if (i & 0x10) rp13 ^= cur; else rp12 ^= cur;
if (i & 0x20) rp15 ^= cur; else rp14 ^= cur;
with
if (i & 0x01) rp5 ^= cur;
if (i & 0x02) rp7 ^= cur;
if (i & 0x04) rp9 ^= cur;
if (i & 0x08) rp11 ^= cur;
if (i & 0x10) rp13 ^= cur;
if (i & 0x20) rp15 ^= cur;
and outside the loop added:
rp4 = par ^ rp5;
rp6 = par ^ rp7;
rp8 = par ^ rp9;
rp10 = par ^ rp11;
rp12 = par ^ rp13;
rp14 = par ^ rp15;
And after that the code takes about 30% more time, although the number of
statements is reduced. This is also reflected in the assembly code.
Analysis 3
==========
Very weird. Guess it has to do with caching or instruction parallellism
or so. I also tried on an eeePC (Celeron, clocked at 900 Mhz). Interesting
observation was that this one is only 30% slower (according to time)
executing the code as my 3Ghz D920 processor.
Well, it was expected not to be easy so maybe instead move to a
different track: let's move back to the code from attempt2 and do some
loop unrolling. This will eliminate a few if statements. I'll try
different amounts of unrolling to see what works best.
Attempt 4
=========
Unrolled the loop 1, 2, 3 and 4 times.
For 4 the code starts with:
for (i = 0; i < 4; i++)
{
cur = *bp++;
par ^= cur;
rp4 ^= cur;
rp6 ^= cur;
rp8 ^= cur;
rp10 ^= cur;
if (i & 0x1) rp13 ^= cur; else rp12 ^= cur;
if (i & 0x2) rp15 ^= cur; else rp14 ^= cur;
cur = *bp++;
par ^= cur;
rp5 ^= cur;
rp6 ^= cur;
...
Analysis 4
==========
Unrolling once gains about 15%
Unrolling twice keeps the gain at about 15%
Unrolling three times gives a gain of 30% compared to attempt 2.
Unrolling four times gives a marginal improvement compared to unrolling
three times.
I decided to proceed with a four time unrolled loop anyway. It was my gut
feeling that in the next steps I would obtain additional gain from it.
The next step was triggered by the fact that par contains the xor of all
bytes and rp4 and rp5 each contain the xor of half of the bytes.
So in effect par = rp4 ^ rp5. But as xor is commutative we can also say
that rp5 = par ^ rp4. So no need to keep both rp4 and rp5 around. We can
eliminate rp5 (or rp4, but I already foresaw another optimisation).
The same holds for rp6/7, rp8/9, rp10/11 rp12/13 and rp14/15.
Attempt 5
=========
Effectively so all odd digit rp assignments in the loop were removed.
This included the else clause of the if statements.
Of course after the loop we need to correct things by adding code like:
rp5 = par ^ rp4;
Also the initial assignments (rp5 = 0; etc) could be removed.
Along the line I also removed the initialisation of rp0/1/2/3.
Analysis 5
==========
Measurements showed this was a good move. The run-time roughly halved
compared with attempt 4 with 4 times unrolled, and we only require 1/3rd
of the processor time compared to the current code in the linux kernel.
However, still I thought there was more. I didn't like all the if
statements. Why not keep a running parity and only keep the last if
statement. Time for yet another version!
Attempt 6
=========
THe code within the for loop was changed to:
for (i = 0; i < 4; i++)
{
cur = *bp++; tmppar = cur; rp4 ^= cur;
cur = *bp++; tmppar ^= cur; rp6 ^= tmppar;
cur = *bp++; tmppar ^= cur; rp4 ^= cur;
cur = *bp++; tmppar ^= cur; rp8 ^= tmppar;
cur = *bp++; tmppar ^= cur; rp4 ^= cur; rp6 ^= cur;
cur = *bp++; tmppar ^= cur; rp6 ^= cur;
cur = *bp++; tmppar ^= cur; rp4 ^= cur;
cur = *bp++; tmppar ^= cur; rp10 ^= tmppar;
cur = *bp++; tmppar ^= cur; rp4 ^= cur; rp6 ^= cur; rp8 ^= cur;
cur = *bp++; tmppar ^= cur; rp6 ^= cur; rp8 ^= cur;
cur = *bp++; tmppar ^= cur; rp4 ^= cur; rp8 ^= cur;
cur = *bp++; tmppar ^= cur; rp8 ^= cur;
cur = *bp++; tmppar ^= cur; rp4 ^= cur; rp6 ^= cur;
cur = *bp++; tmppar ^= cur; rp6 ^= cur;
cur = *bp++; tmppar ^= cur; rp4 ^= cur;
cur = *bp++; tmppar ^= cur;
par ^= tmppar;
if ((i & 0x1) == 0) rp12 ^= tmppar;
if ((i & 0x2) == 0) rp14 ^= tmppar;
}
As you can see tmppar is used to accumulate the parity within a for
iteration. In the last 3 statements is is added to par and, if needed,
to rp12 and rp14.
While making the changes I also found that I could exploit that tmppar
contains the running parity for this iteration. So instead of having:
rp4 ^= cur; rp6 = cur;
I removed the rp6 = cur; statement and did rp6 ^= tmppar; on next
statement. A similar change was done for rp8 and rp10
Analysis 6
==========
Measuring this code again showed big gain. When executing the original
linux code 1 million times, this took about 1 second on my system.
(using time to measure the performance). After this iteration I was back
to 0.075 sec. Actually I had to decide to start measuring over 10
million interations in order not to loose too much accuracy. This one
definitely seemed to be the jackpot!
There is a little bit more room for improvement though. There are three
places with statements:
rp4 ^= cur; rp6 ^= cur;
It seems more efficient to also maintain a variable rp4_6 in the while
loop; This eliminates 3 statements per loop. Of course after the loop we
need to correct by adding:
rp4 ^= rp4_6;
rp6 ^= rp4_6
Furthermore there are 4 sequential assingments to rp8. This can be
encoded slightly more efficient by saving tmppar before those 4 lines
and later do rp8 = rp8 ^ tmppar ^ notrp8;
(where notrp8 is the value of rp8 before those 4 lines).
Again a use of the commutative property of xor.
Time for a new test!
Attempt 7
=========
The new code now looks like:
for (i = 0; i < 4; i++)
{
cur = *bp++; tmppar = cur; rp4 ^= cur;
cur = *bp++; tmppar ^= cur; rp6 ^= tmppar;
cur = *bp++; tmppar ^= cur; rp4 ^= cur;
cur = *bp++; tmppar ^= cur; rp8 ^= tmppar;
cur = *bp++; tmppar ^= cur; rp4_6 ^= cur;
cur = *bp++; tmppar ^= cur; rp6 ^= cur;
cur = *bp++; tmppar ^= cur; rp4 ^= cur;
cur = *bp++; tmppar ^= cur; rp10 ^= tmppar;
notrp8 = tmppar;
cur = *bp++; tmppar ^= cur; rp4_6 ^= cur;
cur = *bp++; tmppar ^= cur; rp6 ^= cur;
cur = *bp++; tmppar ^= cur; rp4 ^= cur;
cur = *bp++; tmppar ^= cur;
rp8 = rp8 ^ tmppar ^ notrp8;
cur = *bp++; tmppar ^= cur; rp4_6 ^= cur;
cur = *bp++; tmppar ^= cur; rp6 ^= cur;
cur = *bp++; tmppar ^= cur; rp4 ^= cur;
cur = *bp++; tmppar ^= cur;
par ^= tmppar;
if ((i & 0x1) == 0) rp12 ^= tmppar;
if ((i & 0x2) == 0) rp14 ^= tmppar;
}
rp4 ^= rp4_6;
rp6 ^= rp4_6;
Not a big change, but every penny counts :-)
Analysis 7
==========
Acutally this made things worse. Not very much, but I don't want to move
into the wrong direction. Maybe something to investigate later. Could
have to do with caching again.
Guess that is what there is to win within the loop. Maybe unrolling one
more time will help. I'll keep the optimisations from 7 for now.
Attempt 8
=========
Unrolled the loop one more time.
Analysis 8
==========
This makes things worse. Let's stick with attempt 6 and continue from there.
Although it seems that the code within the loop cannot be optimised
further there is still room to optimize the generation of the ecc codes.
We can simply calcualate the total parity. If this is 0 then rp4 = rp5
etc. If the parity is 1, then rp4 = !rp5;
But if rp4 = rp5 we do not need rp5 etc. We can just write the even bits
in the result byte and then do something like
code[0] |= (code[0] << 1);
Lets test this.
Attempt 9
=========
Changed the code but again this slightly degrades performance. Tried all
kind of other things, like having dedicated parity arrays to avoid the
shift after parity[rp7] << 7; No gain.
Change the lookup using the parity array by using shift operators (e.g.
replace parity[rp7] << 7 with:
rp7 ^= (rp7 << 4);
rp7 ^= (rp7 << 2);
rp7 ^= (rp7 << 1);
rp7 &= 0x80;
No gain.
The only marginal change was inverting the parity bits, so we can remove
the last three invert statements.
Ah well, pity this does not deliver more. Then again 10 million
iterations using the linux driver code takes between 13 and 13.5
seconds, whereas my code now takes about 0.73 seconds for those 10
million iterations. So basically I've improved the performance by a
factor 18 on my system. Not that bad. Of course on different hardware
you will get different results. No warranties!
But of course there is no such thing as a free lunch. The codesize almost
tripled (from 562 bytes to 1434 bytes). Then again, it is not that much.
Correcting errors
=================
For correcting errors I again used the ST application note as a starter,
but I also peeked at the existing code.
The algorithm itself is pretty straightforward. Just xor the given and
the calculated ecc. If all bytes are 0 there is no problem. If 11 bits
are 1 we have one correctable bit error. If there is 1 bit 1, we have an
error in the given ecc code.
It proved to be fastest to do some table lookups. Performance gain
introduced by this is about a factor 2 on my system when a repair had to
be done, and 1% or so if no repair had to be done.
Code size increased from 330 bytes to 686 bytes for this function.
(gcc 4.2, -O3)
Conclusion
==========
The gain when calculating the ecc is tremendous. Om my development hardware
a speedup of a factor of 18 for ecc calculation was achieved. On a test on an
embedded system with a MIPS core a factor 7 was obtained.
On a test with a Linksys NSLU2 (ARMv5TE processor) the speedup was a factor
5 (big endian mode, gcc 4.1.2, -O3)
For correction not much gain could be obtained (as bitflips are rare). Then
again there are also much less cycles spent there.
It seems there is not much more gain possible in this, at least when
programmed in C. Of course it might be possible to squeeze something more
out of it with an assembler program, but due to pipeline behaviour etc
this is very tricky (at least for intel hw).
Author: Frans Meulenbroeks
Copyright (C) 2008 Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV.

View File

@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ NOTE
----
This document was contributed by Cirrus Logic for kernel 2.2.5. This version
has been updated for 2.3.48 by Andrew Morton <andrewm@uow.edu.au>
has been updated for 2.3.48 by Andrew Morton.
Cirrus make a copy of this driver available at their website, as
described below. In general, you should use the driver version which
@ -690,7 +690,7 @@ latest drivers and technical publications.
6.4 Current maintainer
In February 2000 the maintenance of this driver was assumed by Andrew
Morton <akpm@zip.com.au>
Morton.
6.5 Kernel module parameters

View File

@ -146,8 +146,8 @@ WARNING:
When polling a connected pipe socket for writability, there is an
intrinsic race condition whereby writability might be lost between the
polling and the writing system calls. In this case, the socket will
block until write because possible again, unless non-blocking mode
becomes enabled.
block until write becomes possible again, unless non-blocking mode
is enabled.
The pipe protocol provides two socket options at the SOL_PNPIPE level:

View File

@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
Documentation/networking/vortex.txt
Andrew Morton <andrewm@uow.edu.au>
Andrew Morton
30 April 2000
@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ The driver was written by Donald Becker <becker@scyld.com>
Don is no longer the prime maintainer of this version of the driver.
Please report problems to one or more of:
Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Andrew Morton
Netdev mailing list <netdev@vger.kernel.org>
Linux kernel mailing list <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
@ -305,11 +305,6 @@ Donald's wake-on-LAN page:
ftp://ftp.3com.com/pub/nic/3c90x/3c90xx2.exe
Driver updates and a detailed changelog for the modifications which
were made for the 2.3/2,4 series kernel is available at
http://www.zip.com.au/~akpm/linux/#3c59x-bc
Autonegotiation notes
---------------------

View File

@ -54,3 +54,21 @@ used to run with "radeonfb" (it's an ATI Radeon mobility). It turns out
that "radeonfb" simply cannot resume that device - it tries to set the
PLL's, and it just _hangs_. Using the regular VGA console and letting X
resume it instead works fine.
NOTE
====
pm_trace uses the system's Real Time Clock (RTC) to save the magic number.
Reason for this is that the RTC is the only reliably available piece of
hardware during resume operations where a value can be set that will
survive a reboot.
Consequence is that after a resume (even if it is successful) your system
clock will have a value corresponding to the magic mumber instead of the
correct date/time! It is therefore advisable to use a program like ntp-date
or rdate to reset the correct date/time from an external time source when
using this trace option.
As the clock keeps ticking it is also essential that the reboot is done
quickly after the resume failure. The trace option does not use the seconds
or the low order bits of the minutes of the RTC, but a too long delay will
corrupt the magic value.

View File

@ -409,7 +409,7 @@ i. Function reordering so that inline functions are defined before they
megaraid_mbox_prepare_pthru, megaraid_mbox_prepare_epthru,
megaraid_busywait_mbox
- Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>, 08.19.2004
- Andrew Morton, 08.19.2004
linux-scsi mailing list
"Something else to clean up after inclusion: every instance of an
@ -471,13 +471,13 @@ vi. Add support for 64-bit applications. Current drivers assume only
vii. Move the function declarations for the management module from
megaraid_mm.h to megaraid_mm.c
- Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>, 08.19.2004
- Andrew Morton, 08.19.2004
linux-scsi mailing list
viii. Change default values for MEGARAID_NEWGEN, MEGARAID_MM, and
MEGARAID_MAILBOX to 'n' in Kconfig.megaraid
- Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>, 08.19.2004
- Andrew Morton, 08.19.2004
linux-scsi mailing list
ix. replace udelay with msleep

View File

@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ Each slave device attached to the PXA must provide slave specific configuration
information via the structure "pxa2xx_spi_chip" found in
"arch/arm/mach-pxa/include/mach/pxa2xx_spi.h". The pxa2xx_spi master controller driver
will uses the configuration whenever the driver communicates with the slave
device.
device. All fields are optional.
struct pxa2xx_spi_chip {
u8 tx_threshold;
@ -112,14 +112,17 @@ used to configure the SSP hardware fifo. These fields are critical to the
performance of pxa2xx_spi driver and misconfiguration will result in rx
fifo overruns (especially in PIO mode transfers). Good default values are
.tx_threshold = 12,
.rx_threshold = 4,
.tx_threshold = 8,
.rx_threshold = 8,
The range is 1 to 16 where zero indicates "use default".
The "pxa2xx_spi_chip.dma_burst_size" field is used to configure PXA2xx DMA
engine and is related the "spi_device.bits_per_word" field. Read and understand
the PXA2xx "Developer Manual" sections on the DMA controller and SSP Controllers
to determine the correct value. An SSP configured for byte-wide transfers would
use a value of 8.
use a value of 8. The driver will determine a reasonable default if
dma_burst_size == 0.
The "pxa2xx_spi_chip.timeout" fields is used to efficiently handle
trailing bytes in the SSP receiver fifo. The correct value for this field is
@ -137,7 +140,13 @@ function for asserting/deasserting a slave device chip select. If the field is
NULL, the pxa2xx_spi master controller driver assumes that the SSP port is
configured to use SSPFRM instead.
NSSP SALVE SAMPLE
NOTE: the SPI driver cannot control the chip select if SSPFRM is used, so the
chipselect is dropped after each spi_transfer. Most devices need chip select
asserted around the complete message. Use SSPFRM as a GPIO (through cs_control)
to accomodate these chips.
NSSP SLAVE SAMPLE
-----------------
The pxa2xx_spi_chip structure is passed to the pxa2xx_spi driver in the
"spi_board_info.controller_data" field. Below is a sample configuration using
@ -206,18 +215,21 @@ static void __init streetracer_init(void)
DMA and PIO I/O Support
-----------------------
The pxa2xx_spi driver support both DMA and interrupt driven PIO message
transfers. The driver defaults to PIO mode and DMA transfers must enabled by
setting the "enable_dma" flag in the "pxa2xx_spi_master" structure and
ensuring that the "pxa2xx_spi_chip.dma_burst_size" field is non-zero. The DMA
mode support both coherent and stream based DMA mappings.
The pxa2xx_spi driver supports both DMA and interrupt driven PIO message
transfers. The driver defaults to PIO mode and DMA transfers must be enabled
by setting the "enable_dma" flag in the "pxa2xx_spi_master" structure. The DMA
mode supports both coherent and stream based DMA mappings.
The following logic is used to determine the type of I/O to be used on
a per "spi_transfer" basis:
if !enable_dma or dma_burst_size == 0 then
if !enable_dma then
always use PIO transfers
if spi_message.len > 8191 then
print "rate limited" warning
use PIO transfers
if spi_message.is_dma_mapped and rx_dma_buf != 0 and tx_dma_buf != 0 then
use coherent DMA mode

View File

@ -369,4 +369,5 @@ can be ORed together:
2 - A module was force loaded by insmod -f.
Set by modutils >= 2.4.9 and module-init-tools.
4 - Unsafe SMP processors: SMP with CPUs not designed for SMP.
64 - A module from drivers/staging was loaded.

View File

@ -95,7 +95,9 @@ On all - write a character to /proc/sysrq-trigger. e.g.:
'p' - Will dump the current registers and flags to your console.
'q' - Will dump a list of all running timers.
'q' - Will dump per CPU lists of all armed hrtimers (but NOT regular
timer_list timers) and detailed information about all
clockevent devices.
'r' - Turns off keyboard raw mode and sets it to XLATE.

View File

@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
Using the Linux Kernel Tracepoints
Mathieu Desnoyers
This document introduces Linux Kernel Tracepoints and their use. It provides
examples of how to insert tracepoints in the kernel and connect probe functions
to them and provides some examples of probe functions.
* Purpose of tracepoints
A tracepoint placed in code provides a hook to call a function (probe) that you
can provide at runtime. A tracepoint can be "on" (a probe is connected to it) or
"off" (no probe is attached). When a tracepoint is "off" it has no effect,
except for adding a tiny time penalty (checking a condition for a branch) and
space penalty (adding a few bytes for the function call at the end of the
instrumented function and adds a data structure in a separate section). When a
tracepoint is "on", the function you provide is called each time the tracepoint
is executed, in the execution context of the caller. When the function provided
ends its execution, it returns to the caller (continuing from the tracepoint
site).
You can put tracepoints at important locations in the code. They are
lightweight hooks that can pass an arbitrary number of parameters,
which prototypes are described in a tracepoint declaration placed in a header
file.
They can be used for tracing and performance accounting.
* Usage
Two elements are required for tracepoints :
- A tracepoint definition, placed in a header file.
- The tracepoint statement, in C code.
In order to use tracepoints, you should include linux/tracepoint.h.
In include/trace/subsys.h :
#include <linux/tracepoint.h>
DEFINE_TRACE(subsys_eventname,
TPPTOTO(int firstarg, struct task_struct *p),
TPARGS(firstarg, p));
In subsys/file.c (where the tracing statement must be added) :
#include <trace/subsys.h>
void somefct(void)
{
...
trace_subsys_eventname(arg, task);
...
}
Where :
- subsys_eventname is an identifier unique to your event
- subsys is the name of your subsystem.
- eventname is the name of the event to trace.
- TPPTOTO(int firstarg, struct task_struct *p) is the prototype of the function
called by this tracepoint.
- TPARGS(firstarg, p) are the parameters names, same as found in the prototype.
Connecting a function (probe) to a tracepoint is done by providing a probe
(function to call) for the specific tracepoint through
register_trace_subsys_eventname(). Removing a probe is done through
unregister_trace_subsys_eventname(); it will remove the probe sure there is no
caller left using the probe when it returns. Probe removal is preempt-safe
because preemption is disabled around the probe call. See the "Probe example"
section below for a sample probe module.
The tracepoint mechanism supports inserting multiple instances of the same
tracepoint, but a single definition must be made of a given tracepoint name over
all the kernel to make sure no type conflict will occur. Name mangling of the
tracepoints is done using the prototypes to make sure typing is correct.
Verification of probe type correctness is done at the registration site by the
compiler. Tracepoints can be put in inline functions, inlined static functions,
and unrolled loops as well as regular functions.
The naming scheme "subsys_event" is suggested here as a convention intended
to limit collisions. Tracepoint names are global to the kernel: they are
considered as being the same whether they are in the core kernel image or in
modules.
* Probe / tracepoint example
See the example provided in samples/tracepoints/src
Compile them with your kernel.
Run, as root :
modprobe tracepoint-example (insmod order is not important)
modprobe tracepoint-probe-example
cat /proc/tracepoint-example (returns an expected error)
rmmod tracepoint-example tracepoint-probe-example
dmesg

View File

@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ $ mount -t debugfs debugfs /debug
$ echo mmiotrace > /debug/tracing/current_tracer
$ cat /debug/tracing/trace_pipe > mydump.txt &
Start X or whatever.
$ echo "X is up" > /debug/tracing/marker
$ echo "X is up" > /debug/tracing/trace_marker
$ echo none > /debug/tracing/current_tracer
Check for lost events.
@ -59,9 +59,8 @@ The 'cat' process should stay running (sleeping) in the background.
Load the driver you want to trace and use it. Mmiotrace will only catch MMIO
accesses to areas that are ioremapped while mmiotrace is active.
[Unimplemented feature:]
During tracing you can place comments (markers) into the trace by
$ echo "X is up" > /debug/tracing/marker
$ echo "X is up" > /debug/tracing/trace_marker
This makes it easier to see which part of the (huge) trace corresponds to
which action. It is recommended to place descriptive markers about what you
do.

View File

@ -52,6 +52,11 @@ Therefore no guarantee is made that the URBs have been unlinked when
the call returns. They may be unlinked later but will be unlinked in
finite time.
usb_scuttle_anchored_urbs()
---------------------------
All URBs of an anchor are unanchored en masse.
usb_wait_anchor_empty_timeout()
-------------------------------
@ -59,4 +64,16 @@ This function waits for all URBs associated with an anchor to finish
or a timeout, whichever comes first. Its return value will tell you
whether the timeout was reached.
usb_anchor_empty()
------------------
Returns true if no URBs are associated with an anchor. Locking
is the caller's responsibility.
usb_get_from_anchor()
---------------------
Returns the oldest anchored URB of an anchor. The URB is unanchored
and returned with a reference. As you may mix URBs to several
destinations in one anchor you have no guarantee the chronologically
first submitted URB is returned.

View File

@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
USB 7-Segment Numeric Display
Manufactured by Delcom Engineering
Device Information
------------------
USB VENDOR_ID 0x0fc5
USB PRODUCT_ID 0x1227
Both the 6 character and 8 character displays have PRODUCT_ID,
and according to Delcom Engineering no queryable information
can be obtained from the device to tell them apart.
Device Modes
------------
By default, the driver assumes the display is only 6 characters
The mode for 6 characters is:
MSB 0x06; LSB 0x3f
For the 8 character display:
MSB 0x08; LSB 0xff
The device can accept "text" either in raw, hex, or ascii textmode.
raw controls each segment manually,
hex expects a value between 0-15 per character,
ascii expects a value between '0'-'9' and 'A'-'F'.
The default is ascii.
Device Operation
----------------
1. Turn on the device:
echo 1 > /sys/bus/usb/.../powered
2. Set the device's mode:
echo $mode_msb > /sys/bus/usb/.../mode_msb
echo $mode_lsb > /sys/bus/usb/.../mode_lsb
3. Set the textmode:
echo $textmode > /sys/bus/usb/.../textmode
4. set the text (for example):
echo "123ABC" > /sys/bus/usb/.../text (ascii)
echo "A1B2" > /sys/bus/usb/.../text (ascii)
echo -ne "\x01\x02\x03" > /sys/bus/usb/.../text (hex)
5. Set the decimal places.
The device has either 6 or 8 decimal points.
to set the nth decimal place calculate 10 ** n
and echo it in to /sys/bus/usb/.../decimals
To set multiple decimals points sum up each power.
For example, to set the 0th and 3rd decimal place
echo 1001 > /sys/bus/usb/.../decimals

View File

@ -350,12 +350,12 @@ without holding the mutex.
There also are a couple of utility routines drivers can use:
usb_autopm_enable() sets pm_usage_cnt to 1 and then calls
usb_autopm_set_interface(), which will attempt an autoresume.
usb_autopm_disable() sets pm_usage_cnt to 0 and then calls
usb_autopm_enable() sets pm_usage_cnt to 0 and then calls
usb_autopm_set_interface(), which will attempt an autosuspend.
usb_autopm_disable() sets pm_usage_cnt to 1 and then calls
usb_autopm_set_interface(), which will attempt an autoresume.
The conventional usage pattern is that a driver calls
usb_autopm_get_interface() in its open routine and
usb_autopm_put_interface() in its close or release routine. But

View File

@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
0 -> Unknown board (au0828)
1 -> Hauppauge HVR950Q (au0828) [2040:7200,2040:7210,2040:7217,2040:721b,2040:721f,2040:7280,0fd9:0008]
1 -> Hauppauge HVR950Q (au0828) [2040:7200,2040:7210,2040:7217,2040:721b,2040:721e,2040:721f,2040:7280,0fd9:0008]
2 -> Hauppauge HVR850 (au0828) [2040:7240]
3 -> DViCO FusionHDTV USB (au0828) [0fe9:d620]
4 -> Hauppauge HVR950Q rev xxF8 (au0828) [2040:7201,2040:7211,2040:7281]

View File

@ -75,3 +75,4 @@ tuner=73 - Samsung TCPG 6121P30A
tuner=75 - Philips TEA5761 FM Radio
tuner=76 - Xceive 5000 tuner
tuner=77 - TCL tuner MF02GIP-5N-E
tuner=78 - Philips FMD1216MEX MK3 Hybrid Tuner

View File

@ -0,0 +1,615 @@
This document describes the Linux memory management "Unevictable LRU"
infrastructure and the use of this infrastructure to manage several types
of "unevictable" pages. The document attempts to provide the overall
rationale behind this mechanism and the rationale for some of the design
decisions that drove the implementation. The latter design rationale is
discussed in the context of an implementation description. Admittedly, one
can obtain the implementation details--the "what does it do?"--by reading the
code. One hopes that the descriptions below add value by provide the answer
to "why does it do that?".
Unevictable LRU Infrastructure:
The Unevictable LRU adds an additional LRU list to track unevictable pages
and to hide these pages from vmscan. This mechanism is based on a patch by
Larry Woodman of Red Hat to address several scalability problems with page
reclaim in Linux. The problems have been observed at customer sites on large
memory x86_64 systems. For example, a non-numal x86_64 platform with 128GB
of main memory will have over 32 million 4k pages in a single zone. When a
large fraction of these pages are not evictable for any reason [see below],
vmscan will spend a lot of time scanning the LRU lists looking for the small
fraction of pages that are evictable. This can result in a situation where
all cpus are spending 100% of their time in vmscan for hours or days on end,
with the system completely unresponsive.
The Unevictable LRU infrastructure addresses the following classes of
unevictable pages:
+ page owned by ramfs
+ page mapped into SHM_LOCKed shared memory regions
+ page mapped into VM_LOCKED [mlock()ed] vmas
The infrastructure might be able to handle other conditions that make pages
unevictable, either by definition or by circumstance, in the future.
The Unevictable LRU List
The Unevictable LRU infrastructure consists of an additional, per-zone, LRU list
called the "unevictable" list and an associated page flag, PG_unevictable, to
indicate that the page is being managed on the unevictable list. The
PG_unevictable flag is analogous to, and mutually exclusive with, the PG_active
flag in that it indicates on which LRU list a page resides when PG_lru is set.
The unevictable LRU list is source configurable based on the UNEVICTABLE_LRU
Kconfig option.
The Unevictable LRU infrastructure maintains unevictable pages on an additional
LRU list for a few reasons:
1) We get to "treat unevictable pages just like we treat other pages in the
system, which means we get to use the same code to manipulate them, the
same code to isolate them (for migrate, etc.), the same code to keep track
of the statistics, etc..." [Rik van Riel]
2) We want to be able to migrate unevictable pages between nodes--for memory
defragmentation, workload management and memory hotplug. The linux kernel
can only migrate pages that it can successfully isolate from the lru lists.
If we were to maintain pages elsewise than on an lru-like list, where they
can be found by isolate_lru_page(), we would prevent their migration, unless
we reworked migration code to find the unevictable pages.
The unevictable LRU list does not differentiate between file backed and swap
backed [anon] pages. This differentiation is only important while the pages
are, in fact, evictable.
The unevictable LRU list benefits from the "arrayification" of the per-zone
LRU lists and statistics originally proposed and posted by Christoph Lameter.
The unevictable list does not use the lru pagevec mechanism. Rather,
unevictable pages are placed directly on the page's zone's unevictable
list under the zone lru_lock. The reason for this is to prevent stranding
of pages on the unevictable list when one task has the page isolated from the
lru and other tasks are changing the "evictability" state of the page.
Unevictable LRU and Memory Controller Interaction
The memory controller data structure automatically gets a per zone unevictable
lru list as a result of the "arrayification" of the per-zone LRU lists. The
memory controller tracks the movement of pages to and from the unevictable list.
When a memory control group comes under memory pressure, the controller will
not attempt to reclaim pages on the unevictable list. This has a couple of
effects. Because the pages are "hidden" from reclaim on the unevictable list,
the reclaim process can be more efficient, dealing only with pages that have
a chance of being reclaimed. On the other hand, if too many of the pages
charged to the control group are unevictable, the evictable portion of the
working set of the tasks in the control group may not fit into the available
memory. This can cause the control group to thrash or to oom-kill tasks.
Unevictable LRU: Detecting Unevictable Pages
The function page_evictable(page, vma) in vmscan.c determines whether a
page is evictable or not. For ramfs pages and pages in SHM_LOCKed regions,
page_evictable() tests a new address space flag, AS_UNEVICTABLE, in the page's
address space using a wrapper function. Wrapper functions are used to set,
clear and test the flag to reduce the requirement for #ifdef's throughout the
source code. AS_UNEVICTABLE is set on ramfs inode/mapping when it is created.
This flag remains for the life of the inode.
For shared memory regions, AS_UNEVICTABLE is set when an application
successfully SHM_LOCKs the region and is removed when the region is
SHM_UNLOCKed. Note that shmctl(SHM_LOCK, ...) does not populate the page
tables for the region as does, for example, mlock(). So, we make no special
effort to push any pages in the SHM_LOCKed region to the unevictable list.
Vmscan will do this when/if it encounters the pages during reclaim. On
SHM_UNLOCK, shmctl() scans the pages in the region and "rescues" them from the
unevictable list if no other condition keeps them unevictable. If a SHM_LOCKed
region is destroyed, the pages are also "rescued" from the unevictable list in
the process of freeing them.
page_evictable() detects mlock()ed pages by testing an additional page flag,
PG_mlocked via the PageMlocked() wrapper. If the page is NOT mlocked, and a
non-NULL vma is supplied, page_evictable() will check whether the vma is
VM_LOCKED via is_mlocked_vma(). is_mlocked_vma() will SetPageMlocked() and
update the appropriate statistics if the vma is VM_LOCKED. This method allows
efficient "culling" of pages in the fault path that are being faulted in to
VM_LOCKED vmas.
Unevictable Pages and Vmscan [shrink_*_list()]
If unevictable pages are culled in the fault path, or moved to the unevictable
list at mlock() or mmap() time, vmscan will never encounter the pages until
they have become evictable again, for example, via munlock() and have been
"rescued" from the unevictable list. However, there may be situations where we
decide, for the sake of expediency, to leave a unevictable page on one of the
regular active/inactive LRU lists for vmscan to deal with. Vmscan checks for
such pages in all of the shrink_{active|inactive|page}_list() functions and
will "cull" such pages that it encounters--that is, it diverts those pages to
the unevictable list for the zone being scanned.
There may be situations where a page is mapped into a VM_LOCKED vma, but the
page is not marked as PageMlocked. Such pages will make it all the way to
shrink_page_list() where they will be detected when vmscan walks the reverse
map in try_to_unmap(). If try_to_unmap() returns SWAP_MLOCK, shrink_page_list()
will cull the page at that point.
Note that for anonymous pages, shrink_page_list() attempts to add the page to
the swap cache before it tries to unmap the page. To avoid this unnecessary
consumption of swap space, shrink_page_list() calls try_to_munlock() to check
whether any VM_LOCKED vmas map the page without attempting to unmap the page.
If try_to_munlock() returns SWAP_MLOCK, shrink_page_list() will cull the page
without consuming swap space. try_to_munlock() will be described below.
To "cull" an unevictable page, vmscan simply puts the page back on the lru
list using putback_lru_page()--the inverse operation to isolate_lru_page()--
after dropping the page lock. Because the condition which makes the page
unevictable may change once the page is unlocked, putback_lru_page() will
recheck the unevictable state of a page that it places on the unevictable lru
list. If the page has become unevictable, putback_lru_page() removes it from
the list and retries, including the page_unevictable() test. Because such a
race is a rare event and movement of pages onto the unevictable list should be
rare, these extra evictabilty checks should not occur in the majority of calls
to putback_lru_page().
Mlocked Page: Prior Work
The "Unevictable Mlocked Pages" infrastructure is based on work originally
posted by Nick Piggin in an RFC patch entitled "mm: mlocked pages off LRU".
Nick posted his patch as an alternative to a patch posted by Christoph
Lameter to achieve the same objective--hiding mlocked pages from vmscan.
In Nick's patch, he used one of the struct page lru list link fields as a count
of VM_LOCKED vmas that map the page. This use of the link field for a count
prevented the management of the pages on an LRU list. Thus, mlocked pages were
not migratable as isolate_lru_page() could not find them and the lru list link
field was not available to the migration subsystem. Nick resolved this by
putting mlocked pages back on the lru list before attempting to isolate them,
thus abandoning the count of VM_LOCKED vmas. When Nick's patch was integrated
with the Unevictable LRU work, the count was replaced by walking the reverse
map to determine whether any VM_LOCKED vmas mapped the page. More on this
below.
Mlocked Pages: Basic Management
Mlocked pages--pages mapped into a VM_LOCKED vma--represent one class of
unevictable pages. When such a page has been "noticed" by the memory
management subsystem, the page is marked with the PG_mlocked [PageMlocked()]
flag. A PageMlocked() page will be placed on the unevictable LRU list when
it is added to the LRU. Pages can be "noticed" by memory management in
several places:
1) in the mlock()/mlockall() system call handlers.
2) in the mmap() system call handler when mmap()ing a region with the
MAP_LOCKED flag, or mmap()ing a region in a task that has called
mlockall() with the MCL_FUTURE flag. Both of these conditions result
in the VM_LOCKED flag being set for the vma.
3) in the fault path, if mlocked pages are "culled" in the fault path,
and when a VM_LOCKED stack segment is expanded.
4) as mentioned above, in vmscan:shrink_page_list() with attempting to
reclaim a page in a VM_LOCKED vma--via try_to_unmap() or try_to_munlock().
Mlocked pages become unlocked and rescued from the unevictable list when:
1) mapped in a range unlocked via the munlock()/munlockall() system calls.
2) munmapped() out of the last VM_LOCKED vma that maps the page, including
unmapping at task exit.
3) when the page is truncated from the last VM_LOCKED vma of an mmap()ed file.
4) before a page is COWed in a VM_LOCKED vma.
Mlocked Pages: mlock()/mlockall() System Call Handling
Both [do_]mlock() and [do_]mlockall() system call handlers call mlock_fixup()
for each vma in the range specified by the call. In the case of mlockall(),
this is the entire active address space of the task. Note that mlock_fixup()
is used for both mlock()ing and munlock()ing a range of memory. A call to
mlock() an already VM_LOCKED vma, or to munlock() a vma that is not VM_LOCKED
is treated as a no-op--mlock_fixup() simply returns.
If the vma passes some filtering described in "Mlocked Pages: Filtering Vmas"
below, mlock_fixup() will attempt to merge the vma with its neighbors or split
off a subset of the vma if the range does not cover the entire vma. Once the
vma has been merged or split or neither, mlock_fixup() will call
__mlock_vma_pages_range() to fault in the pages via get_user_pages() and
to mark the pages as mlocked via mlock_vma_page().
Note that the vma being mlocked might be mapped with PROT_NONE. In this case,
get_user_pages() will be unable to fault in the pages. That's OK. If pages
do end up getting faulted into this VM_LOCKED vma, we'll handle them in the
fault path or in vmscan.
Also note that a page returned by get_user_pages() could be truncated or
migrated out from under us, while we're trying to mlock it. To detect
this, __mlock_vma_pages_range() tests the page_mapping after acquiring
the page lock. If the page is still associated with its mapping, we'll
go ahead and call mlock_vma_page(). If the mapping is gone, we just
unlock the page and move on. Worse case, this results in page mapped
in a VM_LOCKED vma remaining on a normal LRU list without being
PageMlocked(). Again, vmscan will detect and cull such pages.
mlock_vma_page(), called with the page locked [N.B., not "mlocked"], will
TestSetPageMlocked() for each page returned by get_user_pages(). We use
TestSetPageMlocked() because the page might already be mlocked by another
task/vma and we don't want to do extra work. We especially do not want to
count an mlocked page more than once in the statistics. If the page was
already mlocked, mlock_vma_page() is done.
If the page was NOT already mlocked, mlock_vma_page() attempts to isolate the
page from the LRU, as it is likely on the appropriate active or inactive list
at that time. If the isolate_lru_page() succeeds, mlock_vma_page() will
putback the page--putback_lru_page()--which will notice that the page is now
mlocked and divert the page to the zone's unevictable LRU list. If
mlock_vma_page() is unable to isolate the page from the LRU, vmscan will handle
it later if/when it attempts to reclaim the page.
Mlocked Pages: Filtering Special Vmas
mlock_fixup() filters several classes of "special" vmas:
1) vmas with VM_IO|VM_PFNMAP set are skipped entirely. The pages behind
these mappings are inherently pinned, so we don't need to mark them as
mlocked. In any case, most of the pages have no struct page in which to
so mark the page. Because of this, get_user_pages() will fail for these
vmas, so there is no sense in attempting to visit them.
2) vmas mapping hugetlbfs page are already effectively pinned into memory.
We don't need nor want to mlock() these pages. However, to preserve the
prior behavior of mlock()--before the unevictable/mlock changes--mlock_fixup()
will call make_pages_present() in the hugetlbfs vma range to allocate the
huge pages and populate the ptes.
3) vmas with VM_DONTEXPAND|VM_RESERVED are generally user space mappings of
kernel pages, such as the vdso page, relay channel pages, etc. These pages
are inherently unevictable and are not managed on the LRU lists.
mlock_fixup() treats these vmas the same as hugetlbfs vmas. It calls
make_pages_present() to populate the ptes.
Note that for all of these special vmas, mlock_fixup() does not set the
VM_LOCKED flag. Therefore, we won't have to deal with them later during
munlock() or munmap()--for example, at task exit. Neither does mlock_fixup()
account these vmas against the task's "locked_vm".
Mlocked Pages: Downgrading the Mmap Semaphore.
mlock_fixup() must be called with the mmap semaphore held for write, because
it may have to merge or split vmas. However, mlocking a large region of
memory can take a long time--especially if vmscan must reclaim pages to
satisfy the regions requirements. Faulting in a large region with the mmap
semaphore held for write can hold off other faults on the address space, in
the case of a multi-threaded task. It can also hold off scans of the task's
address space via /proc. While testing under heavy load, it was observed that
the ps(1) command could be held off for many minutes while a large segment was
mlock()ed down.
To address this issue, and to make the system more responsive during mlock()ing
of large segments, mlock_fixup() downgrades the mmap semaphore to read mode
during the call to __mlock_vma_pages_range(). This works fine. However, the
callers of mlock_fixup() expect the semaphore to be returned in write mode.
So, mlock_fixup() "upgrades" the semphore to write mode. Linux does not
support an atomic upgrade_sem() call, so mlock_fixup() must drop the semaphore
and reacquire it in write mode. In a multi-threaded task, it is possible for
the task memory map to change while the semaphore is dropped. Therefore,
mlock_fixup() looks up the vma at the range start address after reacquiring
the semaphore in write mode and verifies that it still covers the original
range. If not, mlock_fixup() returns an error [-EAGAIN]. All callers of
mlock_fixup() have been changed to deal with this new error condition.
Note: when munlocking a region, all of the pages should already be resident--
unless we have racing threads mlocking() and munlocking() regions. So,
unlocking should not have to wait for page allocations nor faults of any kind.
Therefore mlock_fixup() does not downgrade the semaphore for munlock().
Mlocked Pages: munlock()/munlockall() System Call Handling
The munlock() and munlockall() system calls are handled by the same functions--
do_mlock[all]()--as the mlock() and mlockall() system calls with the unlock
vs lock operation indicated by an argument. So, these system calls are also
handled by mlock_fixup(). Again, if called for an already munlock()ed vma,
mlock_fixup() simply returns. Because of the vma filtering discussed above,
VM_LOCKED will not be set in any "special" vmas. So, these vmas will be
ignored for munlock.
If the vma is VM_LOCKED, mlock_fixup() again attempts to merge or split off
the specified range. The range is then munlocked via the function
__mlock_vma_pages_range()--the same function used to mlock a vma range--
passing a flag to indicate that munlock() is being performed.
Because the vma access protections could have been changed to PROT_NONE after
faulting in and mlocking some pages, get_user_pages() was unreliable for visiting
these pages for munlocking. Because we don't want to leave pages mlocked(),
get_user_pages() was enhanced to accept a flag to ignore the permissions when
fetching the pages--all of which should be resident as a result of previous
mlock()ing.
For munlock(), __mlock_vma_pages_range() unlocks individual pages by calling
munlock_vma_page(). munlock_vma_page() unconditionally clears the PG_mlocked
flag using TestClearPageMlocked(). As with mlock_vma_page(), munlock_vma_page()
use the Test*PageMlocked() function to handle the case where the page might
have already been unlocked by another task. If the page was mlocked,
munlock_vma_page() updates that zone statistics for the number of mlocked
pages. Note, however, that at this point we haven't checked whether the page
is mapped by other VM_LOCKED vmas.
We can't call try_to_munlock(), the function that walks the reverse map to check
for other VM_LOCKED vmas, without first isolating the page from the LRU.
try_to_munlock() is a variant of try_to_unmap() and thus requires that the page
not be on an lru list. [More on these below.] However, the call to
isolate_lru_page() could fail, in which case we couldn't try_to_munlock().
So, we go ahead and clear PG_mlocked up front, as this might be the only chance
we have. If we can successfully isolate the page, we go ahead and
try_to_munlock(), which will restore the PG_mlocked flag and update the zone
page statistics if it finds another vma holding the page mlocked. If we fail
to isolate the page, we'll have left a potentially mlocked page on the LRU.
This is fine, because we'll catch it later when/if vmscan tries to reclaim the
page. This should be relatively rare.
Mlocked Pages: Migrating Them...
A page that is being migrated has been isolated from the lru lists and is
held locked across unmapping of the page, updating the page's mapping
[address_space] entry and copying the contents and state, until the
page table entry has been replaced with an entry that refers to the new
page. Linux supports migration of mlocked pages and other unevictable
pages. This involves simply moving the PageMlocked and PageUnevictable states
from the old page to the new page.
Note that page migration can race with mlocking or munlocking of the same
page. This has been discussed from the mlock/munlock perspective in the
respective sections above. Both processes [migration, m[un]locking], hold
the page locked. This provides the first level of synchronization. Page
migration zeros out the page_mapping of the old page before unlocking it,
so m[un]lock can skip these pages by testing the page mapping under page
lock.
When completing page migration, we place the new and old pages back onto the
lru after dropping the page lock. The "unneeded" page--old page on success,
new page on failure--will be freed when the reference count held by the
migration process is released. To ensure that we don't strand pages on the
unevictable list because of a race between munlock and migration, page
migration uses the putback_lru_page() function to add migrated pages back to
the lru.
Mlocked Pages: mmap(MAP_LOCKED) System Call Handling
In addition the the mlock()/mlockall() system calls, an application can request
that a region of memory be mlocked using the MAP_LOCKED flag with the mmap()
call. Furthermore, any mmap() call or brk() call that expands the heap by a
task that has previously called mlockall() with the MCL_FUTURE flag will result
in the newly mapped memory being mlocked. Before the unevictable/mlock changes,
the kernel simply called make_pages_present() to allocate pages and populate
the page table.
To mlock a range of memory under the unevictable/mlock infrastructure, the
mmap() handler and task address space expansion functions call
mlock_vma_pages_range() specifying the vma and the address range to mlock.
mlock_vma_pages_range() filters vmas like mlock_fixup(), as described above in
"Mlocked Pages: Filtering Vmas". It will clear the VM_LOCKED flag, which will
have already been set by the caller, in filtered vmas. Thus these vma's need
not be visited for munlock when the region is unmapped.
For "normal" vmas, mlock_vma_pages_range() calls __mlock_vma_pages_range() to
fault/allocate the pages and mlock them. Again, like mlock_fixup(),
mlock_vma_pages_range() downgrades the mmap semaphore to read mode before
attempting to fault/allocate and mlock the pages; and "upgrades" the semaphore
back to write mode before returning.
The callers of mlock_vma_pages_range() will have already added the memory
range to be mlocked to the task's "locked_vm". To account for filtered vmas,
mlock_vma_pages_range() returns the number of pages NOT mlocked. All of the
callers then subtract a non-negative return value from the task's locked_vm.
A negative return value represent an error--for example, from get_user_pages()
attempting to fault in a vma with PROT_NONE access. In this case, we leave
the memory range accounted as locked_vm, as the protections could be changed
later and pages allocated into that region.
Mlocked Pages: munmap()/exit()/exec() System Call Handling
When unmapping an mlocked region of memory, whether by an explicit call to
munmap() or via an internal unmap from exit() or exec() processing, we must
munlock the pages if we're removing the last VM_LOCKED vma that maps the pages.
Before the unevictable/mlock changes, mlocking did not mark the pages in any way,
so unmapping them required no processing.
To munlock a range of memory under the unevictable/mlock infrastructure, the
munmap() hander and task address space tear down function call
munlock_vma_pages_all(). The name reflects the observation that one always
specifies the entire vma range when munlock()ing during unmap of a region.
Because of the vma filtering when mlocking() regions, only "normal" vmas that
actually contain mlocked pages will be passed to munlock_vma_pages_all().
munlock_vma_pages_all() clears the VM_LOCKED vma flag and, like mlock_fixup()
for the munlock case, calls __munlock_vma_pages_range() to walk the page table
for the vma's memory range and munlock_vma_page() each resident page mapped by
the vma. This effectively munlocks the page, only if this is the last
VM_LOCKED vma that maps the page.
Mlocked Page: try_to_unmap()
[Note: the code changes represented by this section are really quite small
compared to the text to describe what happening and why, and to discuss the
implications.]
Pages can, of course, be mapped into multiple vmas. Some of these vmas may
have VM_LOCKED flag set. It is possible for a page mapped into one or more
VM_LOCKED vmas not to have the PG_mlocked flag set and therefore reside on one
of the active or inactive LRU lists. This could happen if, for example, a
task in the process of munlock()ing the page could not isolate the page from
the LRU. As a result, vmscan/shrink_page_list() might encounter such a page
as described in "Unevictable Pages and Vmscan [shrink_*_list()]". To
handle this situation, try_to_unmap() has been enhanced to check for VM_LOCKED
vmas while it is walking a page's reverse map.
try_to_unmap() is always called, by either vmscan for reclaim or for page
migration, with the argument page locked and isolated from the LRU. BUG_ON()
assertions enforce this requirement. Separate functions handle anonymous and
mapped file pages, as these types of pages have different reverse map
mechanisms.
try_to_unmap_anon()
To unmap anonymous pages, each vma in the list anchored in the anon_vma must be
visited--at least until a VM_LOCKED vma is encountered. If the page is being
unmapped for migration, VM_LOCKED vmas do not stop the process because mlocked
pages are migratable. However, for reclaim, if the page is mapped into a
VM_LOCKED vma, the scan stops. try_to_unmap() attempts to acquire the mmap
semphore of the mm_struct to which the vma belongs in read mode. If this is
successful, try_to_unmap() will mlock the page via mlock_vma_page()--we
wouldn't have gotten to try_to_unmap() if the page were already mlocked--and
will return SWAP_MLOCK, indicating that the page is unevictable. If the
mmap semaphore cannot be acquired, we are not sure whether the page is really
unevictable or not. In this case, try_to_unmap() will return SWAP_AGAIN.
try_to_unmap_file() -- linear mappings
Unmapping of a mapped file page works the same, except that the scan visits
all vmas that maps the page's index/page offset in the page's mapping's
reverse map priority search tree. It must also visit each vma in the page's
mapping's non-linear list, if the list is non-empty. As for anonymous pages,
on encountering a VM_LOCKED vma for a mapped file page, try_to_unmap() will
attempt to acquire the associated mm_struct's mmap semaphore to mlock the page,
returning SWAP_MLOCK if this is successful, and SWAP_AGAIN, if not.
try_to_unmap_file() -- non-linear mappings
If a page's mapping contains a non-empty non-linear mapping vma list, then
try_to_un{map|lock}() must also visit each vma in that list to determine
whether the page is mapped in a VM_LOCKED vma. Again, the scan must visit
all vmas in the non-linear list to ensure that the pages is not/should not be
mlocked. If a VM_LOCKED vma is found in the list, the scan could terminate.
However, there is no easy way to determine whether the page is actually mapped
in a given vma--either for unmapping or testing whether the VM_LOCKED vma
actually pins the page.
So, try_to_unmap_file() handles non-linear mappings by scanning a certain
number of pages--a "cluster"--in each non-linear vma associated with the page's
mapping, for each file mapped page that vmscan tries to unmap. If this happens
to unmap the page we're trying to unmap, try_to_unmap() will notice this on
return--(page_mapcount(page) == 0)--and return SWAP_SUCCESS. Otherwise, it
will return SWAP_AGAIN, causing vmscan to recirculate this page. We take
advantage of the cluster scan in try_to_unmap_cluster() as follows:
For each non-linear vma, try_to_unmap_cluster() attempts to acquire the mmap
semaphore of the associated mm_struct for read without blocking. If this
attempt is successful and the vma is VM_LOCKED, try_to_unmap_cluster() will
retain the mmap semaphore for the scan; otherwise it drops it here. Then,
for each page in the cluster, if we're holding the mmap semaphore for a locked
vma, try_to_unmap_cluster() calls mlock_vma_page() to mlock the page. This
call is a no-op if the page is already locked, but will mlock any pages in
the non-linear mapping that happen to be unlocked. If one of the pages so
mlocked is the page passed in to try_to_unmap(), try_to_unmap_cluster() will
return SWAP_MLOCK, rather than the default SWAP_AGAIN. This will allow vmscan
to cull the page, rather than recirculating it on the inactive list. Again,
if try_to_unmap_cluster() cannot acquire the vma's mmap sem, it returns
SWAP_AGAIN, indicating that the page is mapped by a VM_LOCKED vma, but
couldn't be mlocked.
Mlocked pages: try_to_munlock() Reverse Map Scan
TODO/FIXME: a better name might be page_mlocked()--analogous to the
page_referenced() reverse map walker--especially if we continue to call this
from shrink_page_list(). See related TODO/FIXME below.
When munlock_vma_page()--see "Mlocked Pages: munlock()/munlockall() System
Call Handling" above--tries to munlock a page, or when shrink_page_list()
encounters an anonymous page that is not yet in the swap cache, they need to
determine whether or not the page is mapped by any VM_LOCKED vma, without
actually attempting to unmap all ptes from the page. For this purpose, the
unevictable/mlock infrastructure introduced a variant of try_to_unmap() called
try_to_munlock().
try_to_munlock() calls the same functions as try_to_unmap() for anonymous and
mapped file pages with an additional argument specifing unlock versus unmap
processing. Again, these functions walk the respective reverse maps looking
for VM_LOCKED vmas. When such a vma is found for anonymous pages and file
pages mapped in linear VMAs, as in the try_to_unmap() case, the functions
attempt to acquire the associated mmap semphore, mlock the page via
mlock_vma_page() and return SWAP_MLOCK. This effectively undoes the
pre-clearing of the page's PG_mlocked done by munlock_vma_page() and informs
shrink_page_list() that the anonymous page should be culled rather than added
to the swap cache in preparation for a try_to_unmap() that will almost
certainly fail.
If try_to_unmap() is unable to acquire a VM_LOCKED vma's associated mmap
semaphore, it will return SWAP_AGAIN. This will allow shrink_page_list()
to recycle the page on the inactive list and hope that it has better luck
with the page next time.
For file pages mapped into non-linear vmas, the try_to_munlock() logic works
slightly differently. On encountering a VM_LOCKED non-linear vma that might
map the page, try_to_munlock() returns SWAP_AGAIN without actually mlocking
the page. munlock_vma_page() will just leave the page unlocked and let
vmscan deal with it--the usual fallback position.
Note that try_to_munlock()'s reverse map walk must visit every vma in a pages'
reverse map to determine that a page is NOT mapped into any VM_LOCKED vma.
However, the scan can terminate when it encounters a VM_LOCKED vma and can
successfully acquire the vma's mmap semphore for read and mlock the page.
Although try_to_munlock() can be called many [very many!] times when
munlock()ing a large region or tearing down a large address space that has been
mlocked via mlockall(), overall this is a fairly rare event. In addition,
although shrink_page_list() calls try_to_munlock() for every anonymous page that
it handles that is not yet in the swap cache, on average anonymous pages will
have very short reverse map lists.
Mlocked Page: Page Reclaim in shrink_*_list()
shrink_active_list() culls any obviously unevictable pages--i.e.,
!page_evictable(page, NULL)--diverting these to the unevictable lru
list. However, shrink_active_list() only sees unevictable pages that
made it onto the active/inactive lru lists. Note that these pages do not
have PageUnevictable set--otherwise, they would be on the unevictable list and
shrink_active_list would never see them.
Some examples of these unevictable pages on the LRU lists are:
1) ramfs pages that have been placed on the lru lists when first allocated.
2) SHM_LOCKed shared memory pages. shmctl(SHM_LOCK) does not attempt to
allocate or fault in the pages in the shared memory region. This happens
when an application accesses the page the first time after SHM_LOCKing
the segment.
3) Mlocked pages that could not be isolated from the lru and moved to the
unevictable list in mlock_vma_page().
3) Pages mapped into multiple VM_LOCKED vmas, but try_to_munlock() couldn't
acquire the vma's mmap semaphore to test the flags and set PageMlocked.
munlock_vma_page() was forced to let the page back on to the normal
LRU list for vmscan to handle.
shrink_inactive_list() also culls any unevictable pages that it finds
on the inactive lists, again diverting them to the appropriate zone's unevictable
lru list. shrink_inactive_list() should only see SHM_LOCKed pages that became
SHM_LOCKed after shrink_active_list() had moved them to the inactive list, or
pages mapped into VM_LOCKED vmas that munlock_vma_page() couldn't isolate from
the lru to recheck via try_to_munlock(). shrink_inactive_list() won't notice
the latter, but will pass on to shrink_page_list().
shrink_page_list() again culls obviously unevictable pages that it could
encounter for similar reason to shrink_inactive_list(). As already discussed,
shrink_page_list() proactively looks for anonymous pages that should have
PG_mlocked set but don't--these would not be detected by page_evictable()--to
avoid adding them to the swap cache unnecessarily. File pages mapped into
VM_LOCKED vmas but without PG_mlocked set will make it all the way to
try_to_unmap(). shrink_page_list() will divert them to the unevictable list when
try_to_unmap() returns SWAP_MLOCK, as discussed above.
TODO/FIXME: If we can enhance the swap cache to reliably remove entries
with page_count(page) > 2, as long as all ptes are mapped to the page and
not the swap entry, we can probably remove the call to try_to_munlock() in
shrink_page_list() and just remove the page from the swap cache when
try_to_unmap() returns SWAP_MLOCK. Currently, remove_exclusive_swap_page()
doesn't seem to allow that.

View File

@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
00-INDEX
- This file
slaves/
- Drivers that provide support for specific family codes.
masters/
- Individual chips providing 1-wire busses.
w1.generic

View File

@ -16,3 +16,55 @@ which allows to build USB <-> W1 bridges.
DS9490(R) is a USB <-> W1 bus master device
which has 0x81 family ID integrated chip and DS2490
low-level operational chip.
Notes and limitations.
- The weak pullup current is a minimum of 0.9mA and maximum of 6.0mA.
- The 5V strong pullup is supported with a minimum of 5.9mA and a
maximum of 30.4 mA. (From DS2490.pdf)
- While the ds2490 supports a hardware search the code doesn't take
advantage of it (in tested case it only returned first device).
- The hardware will detect when devices are attached to the bus on the
next bus (reset?) operation, however only a message is printed as
the core w1 code doesn't make use of the information. Connecting
one device tends to give multiple new device notifications.
- The number of USB bus transactions could be reduced if w1_reset_send
was added to the API. The name is just a suggestion. It would take
a write buffer and a read buffer (along with sizes) as arguments.
The ds2490 block I/O command supports reset, write buffer, read
buffer, and strong pullup all in one command, instead of the current
1 reset bus, 2 write the match rom command and slave rom id, 3 block
write and read data. The write buffer needs to have the match rom
command and slave rom id prepended to the front of the requested
write buffer, both of which are known to the driver.
- The hardware supports normal, flexible, and overdrive bus
communication speeds, but only the normal is supported.
- The registered w1_bus_master functions don't define error
conditions. If a bus search is in progress and the ds2490 is
removed it can produce a good amount of error output before the bus
search finishes.
- The hardware supports detecting some error conditions, such as
short, alarming presence on reset, and no presence on reset, but the
driver doesn't query those values.
- The ds2490 specification doesn't cover short bulk in reads in
detail, but my observation is if fewer bytes are requested than are
available, the bulk read will return an error and the hardware will
clear the entire bulk in buffer. It would be possible to read the
maximum buffer size to not run into this error condition, only extra
bytes in the buffer is a logic error in the driver. The code should
should match reads and writes as well as data sizes. Reads and
writes are serialized and the status verifies that the chip is idle
(and data is available) before the read is executed, so it should
not happen.
- Running x86_64 2.6.24 UHCI under qemu 0.9.0 under x86_64 2.6.22-rc6
with a OHCI controller, ds2490 running in the guest would operate
normally the first time the module was loaded after qemu attached
the ds2490 hardware, but if the module was unloaded, then reloaded
most of the time one of the bulk out or in, and usually the bulk in
would fail. qemu sets a 50ms timeout and the bulk in would timeout
even when the status shows data available. A bulk out write would
show a successful completion, but the ds2490 status register would
show 0 bytes written. Detaching qemu from the ds2490 hardware and
reattaching would clear the problem. usbmon output in the guest and
host did not explain the problem. My guess is a bug in either qemu
or the host OS and more likely the host OS.
-- 03-06-2008 David Fries <David@Fries.net>

View File

@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
00-INDEX
- This file
w1_therm
- The Maxim/Dallas Semiconductor ds18*20 temperature sensor.

View File

@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
Kernel driver w1_therm
====================
Supported chips:
* Maxim ds18*20 based temperature sensors.
Author: Evgeniy Polyakov <johnpol@2ka.mipt.ru>
Description
-----------
w1_therm provides basic temperature conversion for ds18*20 devices.
supported family codes:
W1_THERM_DS18S20 0x10
W1_THERM_DS1822 0x22
W1_THERM_DS18B20 0x28
Support is provided through the sysfs w1_slave file. Each open and
read sequence will initiate a temperature conversion then provide two
lines of ASCII output. The first line contains the nine hex bytes
read along with a calculated crc value and YES or NO if it matched.
If the crc matched the returned values are retained. The second line
displays the retained values along with a temperature in millidegrees
Centigrade after t=.
Parasite powered devices are limited to one slave performing a
temperature conversion at a time. If none of the devices are parasite
powered it would be possible to convert all the devices at the same
time and then go back to read individual sensors. That isn't
currently supported. The driver also doesn't support reduced
precision (which would also reduce the conversion time).
The module parameter strong_pullup can be set to 0 to disable the
strong pullup or 1 to enable. If enabled the 5V strong pullup will be
enabled when the conversion is taking place provided the master driver
must support the strong pullup (or it falls back to a pullup
resistor). The DS18b20 temperature sensor specification lists a
maximum current draw of 1.5mA and that a 5k pullup resistor is not
sufficient. The strong pullup is designed to provide the additional
current required.

View File

@ -79,10 +79,13 @@ w1 master sysfs interface
<xx-xxxxxxxxxxxxx> - a directory for a found device. The format is family-serial
bus - (standard) symlink to the w1 bus
driver - (standard) symlink to the w1 driver
w1_master_add - Manually register a slave device
w1_master_attempts - the number of times a search was attempted
w1_master_max_slave_count
- the maximum slaves that may be attached to a master
w1_master_name - the name of the device (w1_bus_masterX)
w1_master_pullup - 5V strong pullup 0 enabled, 1 disabled
w1_master_remove - Manually remove a slave device
w1_master_search - the number of searches left to do, -1=continual (default)
w1_master_slave_count
- the number of slaves found
@ -90,7 +93,13 @@ w1_master_slaves - the names of the slaves, one per line
w1_master_timeout - the delay in seconds between searches
If you have a w1 bus that never changes (you don't add or remove devices),
you can set w1_master_search to a positive value to disable searches.
you can set the module parameter search_count to a small positive number
for an initially small number of bus searches. Alternatively it could be
set to zero, then manually add the slave device serial numbers by
w1_master_add device file. The w1_master_add and w1_master_remove files
generally only make sense when searching is disabled, as a search will
redetect manually removed devices that are present and timeout manually
added devices that aren't on the bus.
w1 slave sysfs interface

View File

@ -1198,7 +1198,7 @@ S: Maintained
CPU FREQUENCY DRIVERS
P: Dave Jones
M: davej@codemonkey.org.uk
M: davej@redhat.com
L: cpufreq@vger.kernel.org
W: http://www.codemonkey.org.uk/projects/cpufreq/
T: git kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davej/cpufreq.git
@ -1629,6 +1629,11 @@ P: Christopher Hoover
M: ch@murgatroid.com, ch@hpl.hp.com
S: Maintained
EPSON S1D13XXX FRAMEBUFFER DRIVER
P: Kristoffer Ericson
M: kristoffer.ericson@gmail.com
S: Maintained
ETHEREXPRESS-16 NETWORK DRIVER
P: Philip Blundell
M: philb@gnu.org
@ -2443,7 +2448,14 @@ S: Supported
KERNEL VIRTUAL MACHINE (KVM)
P: Avi Kivity
M: avi@qumranet.com
M: avi@redhat.com
L: kvm@vger.kernel.org
W: http://kvm.qumranet.com
S: Supported
KERNEL VIRTUAL MACHINE (KVM) FOR AMD-V
P: Joerg Roedel
M: joerg.roedel@amd.com
L: kvm@vger.kernel.org
W: http://kvm.qumranet.com
S: Supported
@ -3925,7 +3937,7 @@ M: jbglaw@lug-owl.de
L: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
S: Maintained
STABLE BRANCH:
STABLE BRANCH
P: Greg Kroah-Hartman
M: greg@kroah.com
P: Chris Wright
@ -3933,6 +3945,13 @@ M: chrisw@sous-sol.org
L: stable@kernel.org
S: Maintained
STAGING SUBSYSTEM
P: Greg Kroah-Hartman
M: gregkh@suse.de
L: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
T: quilt kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/gregkh/gregkh-2.6/
S: Maintained
STARFIRE/DURALAN NETWORK DRIVER
P: Ion Badulescu
M: ionut@cs.columbia.edu
@ -4089,7 +4108,7 @@ W: http://tpmdd.sourceforge.net
P: Marcel Selhorst
M: tpm@selhorst.net
W: http://www.prosec.rub.de/tpm/
L: tpmdd-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
L: tpmdd-devel@lists.sourceforge.net (moderated for non-subscribers)
S: Maintained
TRIVIAL PATCHES
@ -4480,6 +4499,13 @@ W: http://kernel.org/~kzak/util-linux-ng/
T: git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/util-linux-ng/util-linux-ng.git
S: Maintained
UVESAFB DRIVER
P: Michal Januszewski
M: spock@gentoo.org
L: linux-fbdev-devel@lists.sourceforge.net (moderated for non-subscribers)
W: http://dev.gentoo.org/~spock/projects/uvesafb/
S: Maintained
VFAT/FAT/MSDOS FILESYSTEM
P: OGAWA Hirofumi
M: hirofumi@mail.parknet.co.jp
@ -4497,6 +4523,14 @@ M: khali@linux-fr.org
L: i2c@lm-sensors.org
S: Maintained
VIA UNICHROME(PRO)/CHROME9 FRAMEBUFFER DRIVER
P: Joseph Chan
M: JosephChan@via.com.tw
P: Scott Fang
M: ScottFang@viatech.com.cn
L: linux-fbdev-devel@lists.sourceforge.net (moderated for non-subscribers)
S: Maintained
VIA VELOCITY NETWORK DRIVER
P: Francois Romieu
M: romieu@fr.zoreil.com
@ -4598,7 +4632,7 @@ WM97XX TOUCHSCREEN DRIVERS
P: Mark Brown
M: broonie@opensource.wolfsonmicro.com
P: Liam Girdwood
M: liam.girdwood@wolfsonmicro.com
M: lrg@slimlogic.co.uk
L: linux-input@vger.kernel.org
T: git git://opensource.wolfsonmicro.com/linux-2.6-touch
W: http://opensource.wolfsonmicro.com/node/7

View File

@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ config OPROFILE_IBS
If unsure, say N.
config HAVE_OPROFILE
def_bool n
bool
config KPROBES
bool "Kprobes"
@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ config KPROBES
If in doubt, say "N".
config HAVE_EFFICIENT_UNALIGNED_ACCESS
def_bool n
bool
help
Some architectures are unable to perform unaligned accesses
without the use of get_unaligned/put_unaligned. Others are
@ -65,13 +65,13 @@ config KRETPROBES
depends on KPROBES && HAVE_KRETPROBES
config HAVE_IOREMAP_PROT
def_bool n
bool
config HAVE_KPROBES
def_bool n
bool
config HAVE_KRETPROBES
def_bool n
bool
#
# An arch should select this if it provides all these things:
@ -89,16 +89,16 @@ config HAVE_KRETPROBES
# signal delivery calls tracehook_signal_handler()
#
config HAVE_ARCH_TRACEHOOK
def_bool n
bool
config HAVE_DMA_ATTRS
def_bool n
bool
config USE_GENERIC_SMP_HELPERS
def_bool n
bool
config HAVE_CLK
def_bool n
bool
help
The <linux/clk.h> calls support software clock gating and
thus are a key power management tool on many systems.

View File

@ -70,6 +70,7 @@ config AUTO_IRQ_AFFINITY
default y
source "init/Kconfig"
source "kernel/Kconfig.freezer"
menu "System setup"
@ -222,8 +223,7 @@ config ALPHA_MIATA
bool "Miata"
help
The Digital PersonalWorkStation (PWS 433a, 433au, 500a, 500au, 600a,
or 600au). There is an Installation HOWTO for this hardware at
<http://eijk.homelinux.org/~stefan/miata.html>.
or 600au).
config ALPHA_MIKASA
bool "Mikasa"

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@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ struct exec
Worse, we have to notice the start address before swapping to use
/sbin/loader, which of course is _not_ a TASO application. */
#define SET_AOUT_PERSONALITY(BFPM, EX) \
set_personality (((BFPM->sh_bang || EX.ah.entry < 0x100000000L \
set_personality (((BFPM->taso || EX.ah.entry < 0x100000000L \
? ADDR_LIMIT_32BIT : 0) | PER_OSF4))
#endif /* __KERNEL__ */

View File

@ -144,9 +144,9 @@ extern int dump_elf_task_fp(elf_fpreg_t *dest, struct task_struct *task);
: amask (AMASK_CIX) ? "ev6" : "ev67"); \
})
#define SET_PERSONALITY(EX, IBCS2) \
#define SET_PERSONALITY(EX) \
set_personality(((EX).e_flags & EF_ALPHA_32BIT) \
? PER_LINUX_32BIT : (IBCS2) ? PER_SVR4 : PER_LINUX)
? PER_LINUX_32BIT : PER_LINUX)
extern int alpha_l1i_cacheshape;
extern int alpha_l1d_cacheshape;

View File

@ -74,12 +74,14 @@ register struct thread_info *__current_thread_info __asm__("$8");
#define TIF_UAC_SIGBUS 7
#define TIF_MEMDIE 8
#define TIF_RESTORE_SIGMASK 9 /* restore signal mask in do_signal */
#define TIF_FREEZE 16 /* is freezing for suspend */
#define _TIF_SYSCALL_TRACE (1<<TIF_SYSCALL_TRACE)
#define _TIF_SIGPENDING (1<<TIF_SIGPENDING)
#define _TIF_NEED_RESCHED (1<<TIF_NEED_RESCHED)
#define _TIF_POLLING_NRFLAG (1<<TIF_POLLING_NRFLAG)
#define _TIF_RESTORE_SIGMASK (1<<TIF_RESTORE_SIGMASK)
#define _TIF_FREEZE (1<<TIF_FREEZE)
/* Work to do on interrupt/exception return. */
#define _TIF_WORK_MASK (_TIF_SIGPENDING | _TIF_NEED_RESCHED)

View File

@ -655,7 +655,7 @@ __marvel_rtc_io(u8 b, unsigned long addr, int write)
case 0x71: /* RTC_PORT(1) */
rtc_access.index = index;
rtc_access.data = BCD_TO_BIN(b);
rtc_access.data = bcd2bin(b);
rtc_access.function = 0x48 + !write; /* GET/PUT_TOY */
#ifdef CONFIG_SMP
@ -668,7 +668,7 @@ __marvel_rtc_io(u8 b, unsigned long addr, int write)
#else
__marvel_access_rtc(&rtc_access);
#endif
ret = BIN_TO_BCD(rtc_access.data);
ret = bin2bcd(rtc_access.data);
break;
default:

View File

@ -41,13 +41,6 @@ mk_iommu_pte(unsigned long paddr)
return (paddr >> (PAGE_SHIFT-1)) | 1;
}
static inline long
calc_npages(long bytes)
{
return (bytes + PAGE_SIZE - 1) >> PAGE_SHIFT;
}
/* Return the minimum of MAX or the first power of two larger
than main memory. */
@ -287,7 +280,7 @@ pci_map_single_1(struct pci_dev *pdev, void *cpu_addr, size_t size,
if (!arena || arena->dma_base + arena->size - 1 > max_dma)
arena = hose->sg_isa;
npages = calc_npages((paddr & ~PAGE_MASK) + size);
npages = iommu_num_pages(paddr, size, PAGE_SIZE);
/* Force allocation to 64KB boundary for ISA bridges. */
if (pdev && pdev == isa_bridge)
@ -387,7 +380,7 @@ pci_unmap_single(struct pci_dev *pdev, dma_addr_t dma_addr, size_t size,
BUG();
}
npages = calc_npages((dma_addr & ~PAGE_MASK) + size);
npages = iommu_num_pages(dma_addr, size, PAGE_SIZE);
spin_lock_irqsave(&arena->lock, flags);
@ -580,7 +573,7 @@ sg_fill(struct device *dev, struct scatterlist *leader, struct scatterlist *end,
contiguous. */
paddr &= ~PAGE_MASK;
npages = calc_npages(paddr + size);
npages = iommu_num_pages(paddr, size, PAGE_SIZE);
dma_ofs = iommu_arena_alloc(dev, arena, npages, 0);
if (dma_ofs < 0) {
/* If we attempted a direct map above but failed, die. */
@ -616,7 +609,7 @@ sg_fill(struct device *dev, struct scatterlist *leader, struct scatterlist *end,
sg++;
}
npages = calc_npages((paddr & ~PAGE_MASK) + size);
npages = iommu_num_pages(paddr, size, PAGE_SIZE);
paddr &= PAGE_MASK;
for (i = 0; i < npages; ++i, paddr += PAGE_SIZE)
@ -775,7 +768,7 @@ pci_unmap_sg(struct pci_dev *pdev, struct scatterlist *sg, int nents,
DBGA(" (%ld) sg [%lx,%lx]\n",
sg - end + nents, addr, size);
npages = calc_npages((addr & ~PAGE_MASK) + size);
npages = iommu_num_pages(addr, size, PAGE_SIZE);
ofs = (addr - arena->dma_base) >> PAGE_SHIFT;
iommu_arena_free(arena, ofs, npages);

View File

@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
#include <linux/cache.h>
#include <linux/profile.h>
#include <linux/bitops.h>
#include <linux/cpu.h>
#include <asm/hwrpb.h>
#include <asm/ptrace.h>

View File

@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ typedef struct irq_swizzle_struct
static irq_swizzle_t *sable_lynx_irq_swizzle;
static void sable_lynx_init_irq(int nr_irqs);
static void sable_lynx_init_irq(int nr_of_irqs);
#if defined(CONFIG_ALPHA_GENERIC) || defined(CONFIG_ALPHA_SABLE)
@ -530,11 +530,11 @@ sable_lynx_srm_device_interrupt(unsigned long vector)
}
static void __init
sable_lynx_init_irq(int nr_irqs)
sable_lynx_init_irq(int nr_of_irqs)
{
long i;
for (i = 0; i < nr_irqs; ++i) {
for (i = 0; i < nr_of_irqs; ++i) {
irq_desc[i].status = IRQ_DISABLED | IRQ_LEVEL;
irq_desc[i].chip = &sable_lynx_irq_type;
}

View File

@ -346,12 +346,12 @@ time_init(void)
year = CMOS_READ(RTC_YEAR);
if (!(CMOS_READ(RTC_CONTROL) & RTC_DM_BINARY) || RTC_ALWAYS_BCD) {
BCD_TO_BIN(sec);
BCD_TO_BIN(min);
BCD_TO_BIN(hour);
BCD_TO_BIN(day);
BCD_TO_BIN(mon);
BCD_TO_BIN(year);
sec = bcd2bin(sec);
min = bcd2bin(min);
hour = bcd2bin(hour);
day = bcd2bin(day);
mon = bcd2bin(mon);
year = bcd2bin(year);
}
/* PC-like is standard; used for year >= 70 */
@ -525,7 +525,7 @@ set_rtc_mmss(unsigned long nowtime)
cmos_minutes = CMOS_READ(RTC_MINUTES);
if (!(save_control & RTC_DM_BINARY) || RTC_ALWAYS_BCD)
BCD_TO_BIN(cmos_minutes);
cmos_minutes = bcd2bin(cmos_minutes);
/*
* since we're only adjusting minutes and seconds,
@ -543,8 +543,8 @@ set_rtc_mmss(unsigned long nowtime)
if (abs(real_minutes - cmos_minutes) < 30) {
if (!(save_control & RTC_DM_BINARY) || RTC_ALWAYS_BCD) {
BIN_TO_BCD(real_seconds);
BIN_TO_BCD(real_minutes);
real_seconds = bin2bcd(real_seconds);
real_minutes = bin2bcd(real_minutes);
}
CMOS_WRITE(real_seconds,RTC_SECONDS);
CMOS_WRITE(real_minutes,RTC_MINUTES);

View File

@ -192,6 +192,8 @@ config VECTORS_BASE
source "init/Kconfig"
source "kernel/Kconfig.freezer"
menu "System Type"
choice

View File

@ -118,9 +118,10 @@ endif
machine-$(CONFIG_ARCH_IXP23XX) := ixp23xx
machine-$(CONFIG_ARCH_OMAP1) := omap1
machine-$(CONFIG_ARCH_OMAP2) := omap2
machine-$(CONFIG_ARCH_OMAP3) := omap2
plat-$(CONFIG_ARCH_OMAP) := omap
machine-$(CONFIG_ARCH_S3C2410) := s3c2410 s3c2400 s3c2412 s3c2440 s3c2442 s3c2443
plat-$(CONFIG_PLAT_S3C24XX) := s3c24xx
plat-$(CONFIG_PLAT_S3C24XX) := s3c24xx s3c
machine-$(CONFIG_ARCH_LH7A40X) := lh7a40x
machine-$(CONFIG_ARCH_VERSATILE) := versatile
machine-$(CONFIG_ARCH_IMX) := imx

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