Subject: Re: [PATCH v6 2/4] PCI: host-common: Add link down handling for Root Ports

From: Brian Norris <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2025 13:25:12 -0700

Hi,

I've been testing this out with various endpoints (both upstream and
not...), and I have a question that intersects with this area:

On Tue, Jul 15, 2025 at 07:51:05PM +0530, Manivannan Sadhasivam via B4 Relay wrote:
> From: Manivannan Sadhasivam <[email-masked]>
> 
> The PCI link, when down, needs to be recovered to bring it back. But on
> some platforms, that cannot be done in a generic way as link recovery
> procedure is platform specific. So add a new API
> pci_host_handle_link_down() that could be called by the host bridge drivers
> for a specific Root Port when the link goes down.
> 
> The API accepts the 'pci_dev' corresponding to the Root Port which observed
> the link down event. If CONFIG_PCIEAER is enabled, the API calls
> pcie_do_recovery() function with 'pci_channel_io_frozen' as the state. This
> will result in the execution of the AER Fatal error handling code. Since
> the link down recovery is pretty much the same as AER Fatal error handling,
> pcie_do_recovery() helper is reused here. First, the AER error_detected()
> callback will be triggered for the bridge and then for the downstream
> devices.

I've been trying to understand what exactly the .error_detected()
involvement should be here (and what it actually does, despite the
docs), and especially around its return codes.

Specifically, I'm trying to see what's supposed to happen with
PCI_ERS_RESULT_CAN_RECOVER. I see that for pci_channel_io_frozen, almost
all endpoint drivers return PCI_ERS_RESULT_NEED_RESET, but if drivers
actually return PCI_ERS_RESULT_CAN_RECOVER, it's unclear what should
happen.

Today, we don't actually respect it; pcie_do_recovery() just calls
reset_subordinates() (pci_host_reset_root_port()) unconditionally. The
only thing that return code affects is whether we call
report_mmio_enabled() vs report_slot_reset() afterward. This seems odd.

It also doesn't totally match the docs:

https://docs.kernel.org/PCI/pcieaer-howto.html#non-correctable-non-fatal-and-fatal-errors
https://docs.kernel.org/PCI/pci-error-recovery.html

e.g., "PCI_ERS_RESULT_CAN_RECOVER
Driver returns this if it thinks it might be able to recover the HW by
just banging IOs or if it wants to be given a chance to extract some
diagnostic information (see mmio_enable, below)."

I've seen drivers that think they want to handle stuff on their own --
for example, if they have a handle to an external PMIC, they may try to
reset things that way -- and so they return PCI_ERS_RESULT_CAN_RECOVER
even for io_frozen. I'm not convinced that's a great idea, but I'm also
not sure what to say about the docs.

On the flip side: it's not clear
PCI_ERS_RESULT_NEED_RESET+pci_channel_io_normal works as documented
either. An endpoint might think it's requesting a slot reset, but
pcie_do_recovery() will ignore that and skip reset_subordinates()
(pci_host_reset_root_port()).

All in all, the docs sound like endpoints _should_ have control over
whether we exercise a full port/slot reset for all types of errors. But
in practice, we do not actually give it that control. i.e., your commit
message is correct, and the docs are not.

I have half a mind to suggest the appended change, so the behavior
matches (some of) the docs a little better [1].

Brian

> Finally, pci_host_reset_root_port() will be called for the Root
> Port, which will reset the Root Port using 'reset_root_port' callback to
> recover the link. Once that's done, resume message will be broadcasted to
> the bridge and the downstream devices, indicating successful link recovery.
> 
> But if CONFIG_PCIEAER is not enabled in the kernel, only
> pci_host_reset_root_port() API will be called, which will in turn call
> pci_bus_error_reset() to just reset the Root Port as there is no way we
> could inform the drivers about link recovery.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Manivannan Sadhasivam <[email-masked]>
> Signed-off-by: Manivannan Sadhasivam <[email-masked]>

[1]

--- a/drivers/pci/pcie/err.c
+++ b/drivers/pci/pcie/err.c
@@ -219,13 +219,10 @@ pci_ers_result_t pcie_do_recovery(struct pci_dev *dev,
 	pci_dbg(bridge, "broadcast error_detected message\n");
 	if (state == pci_channel_io_frozen) {
 		pci_walk_bridge(bridge, report_frozen_detected, &status);
-		if (reset_subordinates(bridge) != PCI_ERS_RESULT_RECOVERED) {
-			pci_warn(bridge, "subordinate device reset failed\n");
-			goto failed;
-		}
 	} else {
 		pci_walk_bridge(bridge, report_normal_detected, &status);
 	}
+	pci_dbg(bridge, "error_detected result: %d\n", status);
 
 	if (status == PCI_ERS_RESULT_CAN_RECOVER) {
 		status = PCI_ERS_RESULT_RECOVERED;
@@ -234,6 +231,11 @@ pci_ers_result_t pcie_do_recovery(struct pci_dev *dev,
 	}
 
 	if (status == PCI_ERS_RESULT_NEED_RESET) {
+		if (reset_subordinates(bridge) != PCI_ERS_RESULT_RECOVERED) {
+			pci_warn(bridge, "subordinate device reset failed\n");
+			goto failed;
+		}
+
 		status = PCI_ERS_RESULT_RECOVERED;
 		pci_dbg(bridge, "broadcast slot_reset message\n");
 		pci_walk_bridge(bridge, report_slot_reset, &status);