From: Jerry Lv Jerry.Lv@axis.com
[ Upstream commit f16d9fb6cf03fdbdefa41a8b32ba1e57afb7ae3d ]
Multiple applications may access the battery gauge at the same time, so the gauge may be busy and EBUSY will be returned. The driver will set a flag to record the EBUSY state, and this flag will be kept until the next periodic update. When this flag is set, bq27xxx_battery_get_property() will just return ENODEV until the flag is updated.
Even if the gauge was busy during the last accessing attempt, returning ENODEV is not ideal, and can cause confusion in the applications layer.
Instead, retry accessing the I2C to update the flag is as expected, for the gauge typically recovers from busy state within a few milliseconds. If still failed to access the gauge, the real error code would be returned instead of ENODEV (as suggested by Pali Rohár).
Reviewed-by: Pali Rohár pali@kernel.org Signed-off-by: Jerry Lv Jerry.Lv@axis.com Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20250415-foo-fix-v2-1-5b45a395e4cc@axis.com Signed-off-by: Sebastian Reichel sebastian.reichel@collabora.com Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin sashal@kernel.org ---
Based on my thorough analysis of the commit and examination of the kernel source code, here is my assessment: **YES** This commit should be backported to stable kernel trees for the following extensive reasons: ## Primary Analysis ### 1. **Significant User-Facing Bug Fix** The commit fixes a substantial functional issue where the bq27xxx battery driver incorrectly returns `-ENODEV` (device not found) when the battery gauge is merely temporarily busy with `-EBUSY`. This causes: - **Application Confusion**: Battery monitoring applications and power management daemons interpret `-ENODEV` as "battery removed/missing" rather than "device temporarily busy" - **Persistent Wrong State**: The incorrect ENODEV state persists until the next periodic update (potentially 5+ seconds), during which all battery properties appear unavailable - **User Experience Impact**: Users may see incorrect "no battery detected" warnings or lose power management functionality ### 2. **Technical Correctness Improvement** The changes fix semantically incorrect error handling: **In bq27xxx_battery.c (line 2066):** - **Before**: `return -ENODEV;` when `di->cache.flags < 0` - **After**: `return di->cache.flags;` (returns actual error code like `-EBUSY`, `-EIO`) This change ensures applications receive the correct error code and can make informed decisions about retry logic or user notifications. **In bq27xxx_battery_i2c.c:** - Adds bounded retry mechanism (max 3 attempts) for `-EBUSY` conditions - Uses appropriate 10ms delay between retries - Falls back to returning the actual error if retries fail ### 3. **Low Risk Assessment** The changes are well-contained and follow established kernel patterns: - **Bounded Retries**: Maximum 3 retries with 10ms delays prevent infinite loops - **Existing Patterns**: Similar retry mechanisms exist in other I2C drivers throughout the kernel - **Fallback Safety**: If retries fail, the real error code is properly propagated - **No ABI Changes**: The power supply interface remains the same; only error semantics improve ### 4. **Alignment with Stable Tree Criteria** This commit meets all stable tree requirements: - **Important Bug Fix**: Resolves user-impacting functional issue - **Small and Contained**: Changes are minimal and localized to one driver - **No Architectural Changes**: Uses existing error handling patterns - **Clear Side Effects**: Improved error reporting with bounded retry behavior - **Subsystem Confined**: Limited to power supply bq27xxx driver ### 5. **Comparison with Historical Precedents** Looking at the provided similar commits, this change aligns with accepted backport patterns: - Similar to "Fix bq27xxx_battery_update() race condition" (Status: YES) - fixes driver robustness - Similar to "make status more robust" (Status: YES) - improves reliability - Unlike "fix reporting critical level" (Status: NO) which was a flag precedence fix ### 6. **Real-World Impact** This fix addresses a common scenario in embedded systems and laptops where: - Multiple applications access battery information simultaneously - I2C bus contention can cause temporary EBUSY conditions - Battery monitoring is critical for power management decisions - Users expect consistent battery status reporting ## Conclusion This commit represents exactly the type of important bug fix that stable trees are designed to include: it resolves a significant user-facing issue with minimal risk, follows established patterns, and improves the robustness of a critical hardware interface. The semantic correction from ENODEV to proper error codes, combined with sensible retry logic, makes this a clear candidate for backporting.
drivers/power/supply/bq27xxx_battery.c | 2 +- drivers/power/supply/bq27xxx_battery_i2c.c | 13 ++++++++++++- 2 files changed, 13 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/drivers/power/supply/bq27xxx_battery.c b/drivers/power/supply/bq27xxx_battery.c index be2aac8fbf430..b8131f823654d 100644 --- a/drivers/power/supply/bq27xxx_battery.c +++ b/drivers/power/supply/bq27xxx_battery.c @@ -2000,7 +2000,7 @@ static int bq27xxx_battery_get_property(struct power_supply *psy, mutex_unlock(&di->lock);
if (psp != POWER_SUPPLY_PROP_PRESENT && di->cache.flags < 0) - return -ENODEV; + return di->cache.flags;
switch (psp) { case POWER_SUPPLY_PROP_STATUS: diff --git a/drivers/power/supply/bq27xxx_battery_i2c.c b/drivers/power/supply/bq27xxx_battery_i2c.c index 6fbae8fc2e501..d0c8edadec4bc 100644 --- a/drivers/power/supply/bq27xxx_battery_i2c.c +++ b/drivers/power/supply/bq27xxx_battery_i2c.c @@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ * Andrew F. Davis afd@ti.com */
+#include <linux/delay.h> #include <linux/i2c.h> #include <linux/interrupt.h> #include <linux/module.h> @@ -32,6 +33,7 @@ static int bq27xxx_battery_i2c_read(struct bq27xxx_device_info *di, u8 reg, struct i2c_msg msg[2]; u8 data[2]; int ret; + int retry = 0;
if (!client->adapter) return -ENODEV; @@ -48,7 +50,16 @@ static int bq27xxx_battery_i2c_read(struct bq27xxx_device_info *di, u8 reg, else msg[1].len = 2;
- ret = i2c_transfer(client->adapter, msg, ARRAY_SIZE(msg)); + do { + ret = i2c_transfer(client->adapter, msg, ARRAY_SIZE(msg)); + if (ret == -EBUSY && ++retry < 3) { + /* sleep 10 milliseconds when busy */ + usleep_range(10000, 11000); + continue; + } + break; + } while (1); + if (ret < 0) return ret;