Re: [PATCH V5 00/22] IOREQ feature (+ virtio-mmio) on Arm

[Julien Grall <julien@xxxxxxx>]

On 28/01/2021 18:16, Julien Grall wrote:
> Hi Andrew,
>
> On 28/01/2021 18:10, Andrew Cooper wrote:
> > On 28/01/2021 17:44, Julien Grall wrote:
> > > On 28/01/2021 17:24, Stefano Stabellini wrote:
> > > > On Thu, 28 Jan 2021, Julien Grall wrote:
> > > > > On 25/01/2021 19:08, Oleksandr Tyshchenko wrote:
> > > > >    > Patch series [8] was rebased on recent "staging branch"
> > > > > > (5e31789 tools/ocaml/libs/xb: Do not crash after xenbus is
> > > > > > unmapped) and
> > > > > > tested on
> > > > > > Renesas Salvator-X board + H3 ES3.0 SoC (Arm64) with virtio-mmio disk
> > > > > > backend [9]
> > > > > > running in driver domain and unmodified Linux Guest running on
> > > > > > existing
> > > > > > virtio-blk driver (frontend). No issues were observed. Guest domain
> > > > > > 'reboot/destroy'
> > > > > > use-cases work properly. Patch series was only build-tested on x86.
> > > > > I have done basic testing with a Linux guest on x86 and I didn't
> > > > > spot any
> > > > > regression.
> > > > >
> > > > > Unfortunately, I don't have a Windows VM in hand, so I can't confirm
> > > > > if there
> > > > > is no regression there. Can anyone give a try?
> > > > >
> > > > > On a separate topic, Andrew expressed on IRC some concern to expose 
> > > > > the
> > > > > bufioreq interface to other arch than x86. I will let him explain
> > > > > his view
> > > > > here.
> > > > >
> > > > > Given that IOREQ will be a tech preview on Arm (this implies the
> > > > > interface is
> > > > > not stable) on Arm, I think we can defer the discussion past the
> > > > > freeze.
> > > > Yes, I agree that we can defer the discussion.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > > For now, I would suggest to check if a Device Model is trying to
> > > > > create an
> > > > > IOREQ server with bufioreq is enabled (see ioreq_server_create()).
> > > > > This would
> > > > > not alleviate Andrew's concern, however it would at allow us to
> > > > > judge whether
> > > > > the buffering concept is going to be used on Arm (I can see some use
> > > > > for the
> > > > > Virtio doorbell).
> > > > >
> > > > > What do others think?
> > > > Difficult to say. We don't have any uses today but who knows in the
> > > > future.
> > > I have some ideas, but Andrew so far objects on using the existing
> > > bufioreq interface for good reasons. It is using guest_cmpxchg() which
> > > is really expensive.
> > Worse.  Patch 5 needs to switch cmpxchg() to guest_cmpxchg() to avoid
> > reintroducing XSA-295, but doesn't.
> The memory is only shared with the emulator (we don't allow the legacy 
> interface on Arm). So why do you think it is re-introducing XSA-295?
Just for clarification, the swithc to guest_cmpxchg() is done as part of 
patch #13.
Cheers,

--
Julien Grall