On 04 Mar 10:00, Jason Gunthorpe wrote:
On Mon, Mar 03, 2025 at 05:53:58PM -0800, Jakub Kicinski wrote:
On Thu, 27 Feb 2025 20:26:28 -0400 Jason Gunthorpe wrote:
> v5:
> - Move hunks between patches to make more sense
> - Rename ucmd_buffer to fwctl_ucmd_buffer
> - Update comments and commit messages
> - Copyright to 2025
> - Drop bxnt WIP patches
> - Allow a NULL ops->info
> - Decode more op codes for mlx5 and the sub-operation for
> MLX5_CMD_OP_ACCESS_REG/_USER
Did you address my feedback? I asked for the mlx5 support to only be
enabled in RDMA is in use. Saeed who wrote the mlx5 parts of this
patchset clearly admitted on v4:
When I said fwctl is not needed for netdev, I meant that it will not be used
for netdev object configuration and as I said before FW will block that
anyways. fwctl in mlx5 is not only for RDMA, So I don't know how to address
your comment.
Not to mention that fwctl is a very great tool to debug netdev problems.
I never agreed to that formulation. I suggested that perhaps runtime
configurations where netdev is the only driver using the HW could be
disabled (ie a netdev exclusion, not a rdma inclusion).
However, there is not agreement on this from Saeed who is responsible
for mlx5:
https://lore.kernel.org/all/Z7z0ADkimCkhr7Xz@x130/
I also surveyed other stakeholders on a netdev-exclusion proposal and
did not hear support. You need to convince people this is a good idea.
However, I would agree fwctl should not accept any fwctl drivers for
simple networking devices. However, "smart nics" and RDMA capable
devices are in-scope.
I could also probably agree to using kconfig to disable fwctl drivers
on kernels that statically compile out rdma, vdpa, nvme and related,
though I agree with Saeed that it seems to lack technical merit.
Greg, I've been asking for this interface to be scoped to when RDMA
(/CXL/storage) is in enabled on these NICs since pretty much the first
RFC.
You only started asking for this more limited approach in v4. All your
previous arguments were that fwctl should be entirely killed for any
networking HW.
Jason
