Subject: Re: MSI interrupts and disable_irq

From: Manfred Spraul <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 11:30:07 +0200

Jeff Garzik wrote:
>
> I think the scenario you outline is an illustration of the approach's 
> fragility:  disable_irq() is a heavy hammer that originated with INTx, 
> and it relies on a chip-specific disable method (kernel/irq/manage.c) 
> that practically guarantees behavior will vary across MSI/INTx/etc.
>
I checked the code: IRQ_DISABLE is implemented in software, i.e. 
handle_level_irq() only calls handle_IRQ_event() [and then the nic irq 
handler] if IRQ_DISABLE is not set.
OTHO: The last trace looks as if nv_do_nic_poll() is interrupted by an irq.

Perhaps something corrupts dev->irq? The irq is requested with
    request_irq(np->pci_dev->irq, handler, IRQF_SHARED, dev->name, dev)
and disabled with
    disable_irq_lockdep(dev->irq);

Someone around with a MSI capable board? The forcedeth driver does
    dev->irq = pci_dev->irq
in nv_probe(), especially before pci_enable_msi().
Does pci_enable_msi() change pci_dev->irq? Then we would disable the 
wrong interrupt....

--
    Manfred