Create a section that specifies how to deal with DRM device resets for kernel and userspace drivers. Signed-off-by: André Almeida <andrealmeid@xxxxxxxxxx> --- Changes: - Due to substantial changes in the content, dropped Pekka's Acked-by - Grammar fixes (Randy) - Add paragraph about disabling device resets - Add note about integrating reset tracking in drm/sched - Add note that KMD should return failure for contexts affected by resets and UMD should check for this - Add note about lack of consensus around what to do about non-robust apps v5: https://lore.kernel.org/dri-devel/20230627132323.115440-1-andrealmeid@xxxxxxxxxx/ --- Documentation/gpu/drm-uapi.rst | 77 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 77 insertions(+) diff --git a/Documentation/gpu/drm-uapi.rst b/Documentation/gpu/drm-uapi.rst index 65fb3036a580..6bfaf7d4c074 100644 --- a/Documentation/gpu/drm-uapi.rst +++ b/Documentation/gpu/drm-uapi.rst @@ -285,6 +285,83 @@ for GPU1 and GPU2 from different vendors, and a third handler for mmapped regular files. Threads cause additional pain with signal handling as well. +Device reset +============ + +The GPU stack is really complex and is prone to errors, from hardware bugs, +faulty applications and everything in between the many layers. Some errors +require resetting the device in order to make the device usable again. This +section describes the expectations for DRM and usermode drivers when a +device resets and how to propagate the reset status. + +Device resets can not be disabled without tainting the kernel, which can lead to +hanging the entire kernel through shrinkers/mmu_notifiers. Userspace role in +device resets is to propagate the message to the application and apply any +special policy for blocking guilty applications, if any. Corollary is that +debugging a hung GPU context require hardware support to be able to preempt such +a GPU context while it's stopped. + +Kernel Mode Driver +------------------ + +The KMD is responsible for checking if the device needs a reset, and to perform +it as needed. Usually a hang is detected when a job gets stuck executing. KMD +should keep track of resets, because userspace can query any time about the +reset status for a specific context. This is needed to propagate to the rest of +the stack that a reset has happened. Currently, this is implemented by each +driver separately, with no common DRM interface. Ideally this should be properly +integrated at DRM scheduler to provide a common ground for all drivers. After a +reset, KMD should reject new command submissions for affected contexts. + +User Mode Driver +---------------- + +After command submission, UMD should check if the submission was accepted or +rejected. After a reset, KMD should reject submissions, and UMD can issue an +ioclt to the KMD to check the reset status, and this can be checked more often +if the UMD requires it. After detecting a reset, UMD will then proceed to report +it to the application using the appropriate API error code, as explained in the +section below about robustness. + +Robustness +---------- + +The only way to try to keep an application working after a reset is if it +complies with the robustness aspects of the graphical API that it is using. + +Graphical APIs provide ways to applications to deal with device resets. However, +there is no guarantee that the app will use such features correctly, and a +userspace that doesn't support robust interfaces (like an non-robust +OpenGL context or API without any robustness support like libva) leave the +robustness handling entirely to the userspace driver. There is no strong +community consensus on what the userspace driver should do in that case, +since all reasonable approaches have some clear downsides. + +OpenGL +~~~~~~ + +Apps using OpenGL should use the available robust interfaces, like the +extension ``GL_ARB_robustness`` (or ``GL_EXT_robustness`` for OpenGL ES). This +interface tells if a reset has happened, and if so, all the context state is +considered lost and the app proceeds by creating new ones. There's no consensus +on what to do to if robustness is not in use. + +Vulkan +~~~~~~ + +Apps using Vulkan should check for ``VK_ERROR_DEVICE_LOST`` for submissions. +This error code means, among other things, that a device reset has happened and +it needs to recreate the contexts to keep going. + +Reporting causes of resets +-------------------------- + +Apart from propagating the reset through the stack so apps can recover, it's +really useful for driver developers to learn more about what caused the reset in +the first place. DRM devices should make use of devcoredump to store relevant +information about the reset, so this information can be added to user bug +reports. + .. _drm_driver_ioctl: IOCTL Support on Device Nodes -- 2.41.0
