Problems with the demo CD and qemu

[Adam Lackorzynski]

On Fri Feb 11, 2005 at 20:05:31 +0100, Cedric Roux wrote:
> ethernet card (ne2k-pci) sends an IRQ (number 9).
> The IRQ thread passes wait_for_irq_message_hw then calls do_IRQ.
> do_IRQ does its stuff, then calls irq_exit.
> 
> In irq_exit, we have a softirq pending (don't ask me why, that's just
> the way it is), so we call do_softirq.
> 
> We then enter net_tx_action.
> 
> I then pass the details. To be short, we enter the TCP/IP stack,
> do some stuff, then go back into the ethernet driver code,
> in ei_start_xmit (8390.c).
> 
> This function calls disable_irq_nosync, which calls
> desc->handler->disable, which is in fact do_l4lx_irq_dev_disable.
> 
> This one will call switch_to_irq_idle_loop.
> 
> I don't exactly know what happens next (lack of time), but if
> I remove the call to switch_to_irq_idle_loop (and of course
> the corresponding call to switch_to_irq_thread) in
> do_l4lx_irq_dev_disable (respectively do_l4lx_irq_dev_enable)
> everything works fine (well, I don't get crashes when I do
> my telnet anymore).

Thanks for this ample explanation.
 
> My questions are:
>   1 - why to call this switch_to_irq_idle_loop? what's
>       the purpose of it?

The purpose is to prevent that interrupts get through. The tricky part
here has been IRQ probing. I guess I need to reevaluate this issue...

>   2 - if I remove this call, do I get a wrong system or
>       is it ok? what do I lose if it is ok (speed?)?

Should be ok if it works on your system.

>   3 - a comment in switch_to_irq_idle_loop says:
>                 /* Looks like interrupts are disabled multiple times in 2.6 */
>       shouldn't you use a counter in switch_to_irq_thread and
>       only do the switch if it's back to zero? (I mean, imagine 2
>       calls to switch_to_irq_idle_loop followed by 1 call to
>       switch_to_irq_thread, should it really come back from idle
>       at this point?)

That's not what I would expect from the hardware, disable just disables
it, no matter how ofter you do it.


> (By the way, the l4linux kernel won't compile with 4k stacks,

It compiled for me as of today but I had to fix some small issues to
make it actually work (but I only tested this slightly). Should hit CVS
by tomorrow.

> you never call irq_ctx_init, maybe you should call it in
> init_IRQ?)

No, l4linux has always worked more like the 4k-IRQ way, not as the old
way in 8k-stacks.


Adam
-- 
Adam                 adam at os.inf.tu-dresden.de
  Lackorzynski         http://os.inf.tu-dresden.de/~adam/