Subject: [PATCH v2] xen/arm: register clocks used by the hypervisor

From: [email-masked] (Julien Grall)
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2016 14:10:52 +0100

On 06/07/16 02:34, Michael Turquette wrote:
> Hi!

Hello Michael,

> Quoting Dirk Behme (2016-06-30 03:32:32)
>> Some clocks might be used by the Xen hypervisor and not by the Linux
>> kernel. If these are not registered by the Linux kernel, they might be
>> disabled by clk_disable_unused() as the kernel doesn't know that they
>> are used. The clock of the serial console handled by Xen is one
>> example for this. It might be disabled by clk_disable_unused() which
>> stops the whole serial output, even from Xen, then.
>
> This whole thread had me confused until I realized that it all boiled
> down to some nomenclature issues (for me).
>
> This code does not _register_ any clocks. It simply gets them and
> enables them, which is what every other clk consumer in the Linux kernel
> does. More details below.
>
>>
>> Up to now, the workaround for this has been to use the Linux kernel
>> command line parameter 'clk_ignore_unused'. See Xen bug
>>
>> http://bugs.xenproject.org/xen/bug/45
>
> clk_ignore_unused is a band-aid, not a proper medical solution. Setting
> that flag will not turn clocks on for you, nor will it guarantee that
> those clocks are never turned off in the future. It looks like you
> figured this out correctly in the patch below but it is worth repeating.
>
> Also the new CLK_IS_CRITICAL flag might be of interest to you, but that
> flag only exists as a way to enable clocks that must be enabled for the
> system to function (hence, "critical") AND when those same clocks do not
> have an accompanying Linux driver to consume them and enable them.

I don't think we want the kernel to enable the clock for the hypervisor. 
We want to tell the kernel "don't touch at all to this clock, it does 
not belong to you".

Regards,

-- 
Julien Grall