Re: [PATCH] drm/scheduler: Fix drm_sched_entity_set_priority()

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On 22/07/2024 16:13, Christian König wrote:
Am 22.07.24 um 16:43 schrieb Tvrtko Ursulin:

On 22/07/2024 15:06, Christian König wrote:
Am 22.07.24 um 15:52 schrieb Tvrtko Ursulin:

On 19/07/2024 16:18, Christian König wrote:
Am 19.07.24 um 15:02 schrieb Christian König:
Am 19.07.24 um 11:47 schrieb Tvrtko Ursulin:
From: Tvrtko Ursulin <tvrtko.ursulin@xxxxxxxxxx>

Long time ago in commit b3ac17667f11 ("drm/scheduler: rework entity
creation") a change was made which prevented priority changes for entities
with only one assigned scheduler.

The commit reduced drm_sched_entity_set_priority() to simply update the
entities priority, but the run queue selection logic in
drm_sched_entity_select_rq() was never able to actually change the
originally assigned run queue.

In practice that only affected amdgpu, being the only driver which can do dynamic priority changes. And that appears was attempted to be rectified there in 2316a86bde49 ("drm/amdgpu: change hw sched list on ctx priority
override").

A few unresolved problems however were that this only fixed
drm_sched_entity_set_priority() *if* drm_sched_entity_modify_sched() was
called first. That was not documented anywhere.

Secondly, this only works if drm_sched_entity_modify_sched() is actually called, which in amdgpu's case today is true only for gfx and compute. Priority changes for other engines with only one scheduler assigned, such
as jpeg and video decode will still not work.

Note that this was also noticed in 981b04d96856 ("drm/sched: improve docs
around drm_sched_entity").

Completely different set of non-obvious confusion was that whereas
drm_sched_entity_init() was not keeping the passed in list of schedulers (courtesy of 8c23056bdc7a ("drm/scheduler: do not keep a copy of sched list")), drm_sched_entity_modify_sched() was disagreeing with that and
would simply assign the single item list.

That incosistency appears to be semi-silently fixed in ac4eb83ab255
("drm/sched: select new rq even if there is only one v3").

What was also not documented is why it was important to not keep the
list of schedulers when there is only one. I suspect it could have
something to do with the fact the passed in array is on stack for many callers with just one scheduler. With more than one scheduler amdgpu is the only caller, and there the container is not on the stack. Keeping a stack backed list in the entity would obviously be undefined behaviour
*if* the list was kept.

Amdgpu however did only stop passing in stack backed container for the more than one scheduler case in 977f7e1068be ("drm/amdgpu: allocate entities on
demand"). Until then I suspect dereferencing freed stack from
drm_sched_entity_select_rq() was still present.

In order to untangle all that and fix priority changes this patch is
bringing back the entity owned container for storing the passed in
scheduler list.

Please don't. That makes the mess just more horrible.

The background of not keeping the array is to intentionally prevent the priority override from working.

The bug is rather that adding drm_sched_entity_modify_sched() messed this up.

To give more background: Amdgpu has two different ways of handling priority:
1. The priority in the DRM scheduler.
2. Different HW rings with different priorities.

Your analysis is correct that drm_sched_entity_init() initially dropped the scheduler list to avoid using a stack allocated list, and that functionality is still used in amdgpu_ctx_init_entity() for example.

Setting the scheduler priority was basically just a workaround because we didn't had the hw priorities at that time. Since that is no longer the case I suggest to just completely drop the drm_sched_entity_set_priority() function instead.

Removing drm_sched_entity_set_priority() is one thing, but we also need to clear up the sched_list container ownership issue. It is neither documented, nor robustly handled in the code. The "num_scheds == 1" special casing throughout IMHO has to go too.

I disagree. Keeping the scheduler list in the entity is only useful for load balancing.

As long as only one scheduler is provided and we don't load balance the entity doesn't needs the scheduler list in the first place.

Once set_priority is removed then it indeed it doesn't. But even when it is removed it needs documenting who owns the passed in container. Today drivers are okay to pass a stack array when it is one element, but if they did it with more than one they would be in for a nasty surprise.

Yes, completely agree. But instead of copying the array  I would rather go into the direction to cleanup all callers and make the scheduler list mandatory to stay around as long as the scheduler lives.

The whole thing of one calling convention there and another one at a different place really sucks.

Ok, lets scroll a bit down to formulate a plan.

Another thing if you want to get rid of frontend priority handling is to stop configuring scheduler instances with DRM_SCHED_PRIORITY_COUNT priority levels, to avoid wasting memory on pointless run queues.

I would rather like to completely drop the RR with the runlists altogether and keep only the FIFO approach around. This way priority can be implemented by boosting the score of submissions by a certain degree.

You mean larger refactoring of the scheduler removing the 1:N between drm_sched and drm_sched_rq?

Yes, exactly that.


And final thing is to check whether the locking in drm_sched_entity_modify_sched() is okay. Because according to kerneldoc:

 * Note that this must be called under the same common lock for @entity as  * drm_sched_job_arm() and drm_sched_entity_push_job(), or the driver needs to  * guarantee through some other means that this is never called while new jobs
 * can be pushed to @entity.

I don't see that is the case. Priority override is under amdgpu_ctx_mgr->lock, while job arm and push appear not. I also cannot spot anything else preventing amdgpu_sched_ioctl() running in parallel to everything else.

Yeah that's certainly incorrect as well. drm_sched_entity_modify_sched() should grab entity->rq_lock instead.

Ah cool. Well not cool, but good problem has been identified. Are you going to work in it or should I? Once we agree the correct fix for all this I am happy to write more patches if you are too busy.

Absolutely.

Absolutely good and absolutely me, or absolutely you? :)

These are the TODO points and their opens:

- Adjust amdgpu_ctx_set_entity_priority() to call drm_sched_entity_modify_sched() regardless of the hw_type - to fix priority changes on a single sched other than gfx or compute.

- Document sched_list array lifetime must align with the entity and adjust the callers.

Open:

Do you still oppose keeping sched_list for num_scheds == 1? If so do you propose drm_sched_entity_modify_sched() keeps disagreeing with drm_sched_entity_init() on this detail? And keep the "one shot single sched_list" quirk in? Why is that nicer than simply keeping the list and remove that quirk? Once lifetime rules are clear it IMO is okay to always keep the list.

- Remove drm_sched_entity_set_priority().

Open:

Should we at this point also modify amdgpu_device_init_schedulers() to stop initialising schedulers with DRM_SCHED_PRIORITY_COUNT run queues?

Once drm_sched_entity_set_priority() is gone there is little point. Unless there are some non-obvious games with the kernel priority or something.

In general scheduler priorities were meant to be used for things like kernel queues which would always have higher priority than user space submissions and using them for userspace turned out to be not such a good idea.

Out of curiousity what were the problems? I cannot think of anything fundamental since there are priorities at the backend level after all, just fewer levels.

A higher level queue can starve lower level queues to the point that they never get a chance to get anything running.

Oh that.. well I call that implementation details. :) Because nowhere in the uapi is I think guaranteed execution ordering needs to be strictly in descending priority. This potentially goes back to what you said above that a potential larger rewrite might be beneficial. Implementing some smarter scheduling. Although the issue will be it is just frontend scheduling after all. So a bit questionable to invest in making it too smart.

+1 and we have a bug report complaining that RR is in at least one situation better than FIFO. So it is actually quite hard to remove.

On the other hand FIFO has some really nice properties as well. E.g. try to run >100 glxgears instances (on weaker hw) and just visually compare the result differences between RR and FIFO. FIFO is baby smooth and RR is basically stuttering all the time.

I think this goes more back to what I was suggesting during early xe days, that potentially drm scheduler should be split into dependency handling part and the scheduler part. Drivers with 1:1 entity:scheduler and full hardware/firmware scheduling do not really need neither fifo or rr.

Yeah that's my thinking as well and I also suggested that multiple times in discussions with Sima and others.


This basically means that userspace gets a chance to submit infinity fences with all the bad consequences.


I mean one problem unrelated to this discussion is this:

void drm_sched_entity_select_rq(struct drm_sched_entity *entity)
{
    struct dma_fence *fence;
    struct drm_gpu_scheduler *sched;
    struct drm_sched_rq *rq;

    /* queue non-empty, stay on the same engine */
    if (spsc_queue_count(&entity->job_queue))
        return;

Which makes it look like the entity with a constant trickle of jobs will never actually manage to change it's run queue. Neither today, nor after the potential drm_sched_entity_set_priority() removal.

That's intentional and based on how the scheduler load balancing works.

I see that it is intentional but if it can silently prevent priority changes (even hw priority) it is not very solid. Unless I am missing something here.

IIRC the GSoC student who implemented this (with me as mentor) actually documented that behavior somewhere.

And to be honest it kind of makes sense because switching priorities would otherwise be disruptive, e.g. you have a moment were you need to drain all previous submissions with the old priority before you can do new ones with the new priority.

Hmmm I don't see how it makes sense. Perhaps a test case for AMDGPU_SCHED_OP_*_PRIORITY_OVERRIDE is missing to show how it doesn't work. Or at least how easy it can be defeated with callers none the wiser.

For context I am kind of interested because I wired up amdgpu to the DRM cgroup controller and use priority override to de-prioritize certain cgroups and it kind of works. But again, it will not be great if a client with a constant trickle of submissions can just defeat it.

Regards,

Tvrtko




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