From: Michael Kelley mhklinux@outlook.com
The Hyper-V host provides guest VMs with a range of MMIO addresses that guest VMBus drivers can use. The VMBus driver in Linux manages that MMIO space, and allocates portions to drivers upon request. As part of managing that MMIO space in a Generation 2 VM, the VMBus driver must reserve the portion of the MMIO space that Hyper-V has designated for the synthetic frame buffer, and not allocate this space to VMBus drivers other than graphics framebuffer drivers. The synthetic frame buffer MMIO area is described by the screen_info data structure that is passed to the Linux kernel at boot time, so the VMBus driver must access screen_info for Generation 2 VMs. (In Generation 1 VMs, the framebuffer MMIO space is communicated to the guest via a PCI pseudo-device, and access to screen_info is not needed.)
In commit a07b50d80ab6 ("hyperv: avoid dependency on screen_info") the VMBus driver's access to screen_info is restricted to when CONFIG_SYSFB is enabled. CONFIG_SYSFB is typically enabled in kernels built for Hyper-V by virtue of having at least one of CONFIG_FB_EFI, CONFIG_FB_VESA, or CONFIG_SYSFB_SIMPLEFB enabled, so the restriction doesn't usually affect anything. But it's valid to have none of these enabled, in which case CONFIG_SYSFB is not enabled, and the VMBus driver is unable to properly reserve the framebuffer MMIO space for graphics framebuffer drivers. The framebuffer MMIO space may be assigned to some other VMBus driver, with undefined results. As an example, if a VM is using a PCI pass-thru NVMe controller to host the OS disk, the PCI NVMe controller is probed before any graphic devices, and the NVMe controller is assigned a portion of the framebuffer MMIO space. Hyper-V reports an error to Linux during the probe, and the OS disk fails to get setup. Then Linux fails to boot in the VM.
Fix this by having CONFIG_HYPERV always select SYSFB. Then the VMBus driver in a Gen 2 VM can always reserve the MMIO space for the graphics framebuffer driver, and prevent the undefined behavior.
Fixes: a07b50d80ab6 ("hyperv: avoid dependency on screen_info") Signed-off-by: Michael Kelley mhklinux@outlook.com --- drivers/hv/Kconfig | 1 + 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
diff --git a/drivers/hv/Kconfig b/drivers/hv/Kconfig index eefa0b559b73..e3b07f390c03 100644 --- a/drivers/hv/Kconfig +++ b/drivers/hv/Kconfig @@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ config HYPERV select PARAVIRT select X86_HV_CALLBACK_VECTOR if X86 select OF_EARLY_FLATTREE if OF + select SYSFB help Select this option to run Linux as a Hyper-V client operating system.
Hi,
Thanks for your patch.
FYI: kernel test robot notices the stable kernel rule is not satisfied.
The check is based on https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/process/stable-kernel-rules.html#opti...
Rule: add the tag "Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org" in the sign-off area to have the patch automatically included in the stable tree. Subject: [PATCH 1/1] Drivers: hv: Always select CONFIG_SYSFB for Hyper-V guests Link: https://lore.kernel.org/stable/20250516235820.15356-1-mhklinux%40outlook.com
From: Michael Kelley mhklinux@outlook.com
The Hyper-V host provides guest VMs with a range of MMIO addresses that guest VMBus drivers can use. The VMBus driver in Linux manages that MMIO space, and allocates portions to drivers upon request. As part of managing that MMIO space in a Generation 2 VM, the VMBus driver must reserve the portion of the MMIO space that Hyper-V has designated for the synthetic frame buffer, and not allocate this space to VMBus drivers other than graphics framebuffer drivers. The synthetic frame buffer MMIO area is described by the screen_info data structure that is passed to the Linux kernel at boot time, so the VMBus driver must access screen_info for Generation 2 VMs. (In Generation 1 VMs, the framebuffer MMIO space is communicated to the guest via a PCI pseudo-device, and access to screen_info is not needed.)
In commit a07b50d80ab6 ("hyperv: avoid dependency on screen_info") the VMBus driver's access to screen_info is restricted to when CONFIG_SYSFB is enabled. CONFIG_SYSFB is typically enabled in kernels built for Hyper-V by virtue of having at least one of CONFIG_FB_EFI, CONFIG_FB_VESA, or CONFIG_SYSFB_SIMPLEFB enabled, so the restriction doesn't usually affect anything. But it's valid to have none of these enabled, in which case CONFIG_SYSFB is not enabled, and the VMBus driver is unable to properly reserve the framebuffer MMIO space for graphics framebuffer drivers. The framebuffer MMIO space may be assigned to some other VMBus driver, with undefined results. As an example, if a VM is using a PCI pass-thru NVMe controller to host the OS disk, the PCI NVMe controller is probed before any graphic devices, and the NVMe controller is assigned a portion of the framebuffer MMIO space. Hyper-V reports an error to Linux during the probe, and the OS disk fails to get setup. Then Linux fails to boot in the VM.
Fix this by having CONFIG_HYPERV always select SYSFB. Then the VMBus driver in a Gen 2 VM can always reserve the MMIO space for the graphics framebuffer driver, and prevent the undefined behavior.
One question: Shouldn't the SYSFB be selected by actual graphics framebuffer driver which is expected to use it. With this patch this option will be enabled irrespective if there is any user for it or not, wondering if we can better optimize it for such systems.
- Saurabh
<Snip>
From: Saurabh Singh Sengar ssengar@microsoft.com Sent: Friday, May 16, 2025 9:38 PM
From: Michael Kelley mhklinux@outlook.com
The Hyper-V host provides guest VMs with a range of MMIO addresses that guest VMBus drivers can use. The VMBus driver in Linux manages that MMIO space, and allocates portions to drivers upon request. As part of managing that MMIO space in a Generation 2 VM, the VMBus driver must reserve the portion of the MMIO space that Hyper-V has designated for the synthetic frame buffer, and not allocate this space to VMBus drivers other than graphics framebuffer drivers. The synthetic frame buffer MMIO area is described by the screen_info data structure that is passed to the Linux kernel at boot time, so the VMBus driver must access screen_info for Generation 2 VMs. (In Generation 1 VMs, the framebuffer MMIO space is communicated to the guest via a PCI pseudo-device, and access to screen_info is not needed.)
In commit a07b50d80ab6 ("hyperv: avoid dependency on screen_info") the VMBus driver's access to screen_info is restricted to when CONFIG_SYSFB is enabled. CONFIG_SYSFB is typically enabled in kernels built for Hyper-V by virtue of having at least one of CONFIG_FB_EFI, CONFIG_FB_VESA, or CONFIG_SYSFB_SIMPLEFB enabled, so the restriction doesn't usually affect anything. But it's valid to have none of these enabled, in which case CONFIG_SYSFB is not enabled, and the VMBus driver is unable to properly reserve the framebuffer MMIO space for graphics framebuffer drivers. The framebuffer MMIO space may be assigned to some other VMBus driver, with undefined results. As an example, if a VM is using a PCI pass-thru NVMe controller to host the OS disk, the PCI NVMe controller is probed before any graphic devices, and the NVMe controller is assigned a portion of the framebuffer MMIO space. Hyper-V reports an error to Linux during the probe, and the OS disk fails to get setup. Then Linux fails to boot in the VM.
Fix this by having CONFIG_HYPERV always select SYSFB. Then the VMBus driver in a Gen 2 VM can always reserve the MMIO space for the graphics framebuffer driver, and prevent the undefined behavior.
One question: Shouldn't the SYSFB be selected by actual graphics framebuffer driver which is expected to use it. With this patch this option will be enabled irrespective if there is any user for it or not, wondering if we can better optimize it for such systems.
That approach doesn't work. For a cloud-based server, it might make sense to build a kernel image without either of the Hyper-V graphics framebuffer drivers (DRM_HYPERV or HYPERV_FB) since in that case the Linux console is the serial console. But the problem could still occur where a PCI pass-thru NVMe controller tries to use the MMIO space that Hyper-V intends for the framebuffer. That problem is directly tied to CONFIG_SYSFB because it's the VMBus driver that must treat the framebuffer MMIO space as special. The absence or presence of a framebuffer driver isn't the key factor, though we've been (incorrectly) relying on the presence of a framebuffer driver to set CONFIG_SYSFB.
Michael
On Sat, May 17, 2025 at 01:34:20PM +0000, Michael Kelley wrote:
From: Saurabh Singh Sengar ssengar@microsoft.com Sent: Friday, May 16, 2025 9:38 PM
From: Michael Kelley mhklinux@outlook.com
The Hyper-V host provides guest VMs with a range of MMIO addresses that guest VMBus drivers can use. The VMBus driver in Linux manages that MMIO space, and allocates portions to drivers upon request. As part of managing that MMIO space in a Generation 2 VM, the VMBus driver must reserve the portion of the MMIO space that Hyper-V has designated for the synthetic frame buffer, and not allocate this space to VMBus drivers other than graphics framebuffer drivers. The synthetic frame buffer MMIO area is described by the screen_info data structure that is passed to the Linux kernel at boot time, so the VMBus driver must access screen_info for Generation 2 VMs. (In Generation 1 VMs, the framebuffer MMIO space is communicated to the guest via a PCI pseudo-device, and access to screen_info is not needed.)
In commit a07b50d80ab6 ("hyperv: avoid dependency on screen_info") the VMBus driver's access to screen_info is restricted to when CONFIG_SYSFB is enabled. CONFIG_SYSFB is typically enabled in kernels built for Hyper-V by virtue of having at least one of CONFIG_FB_EFI, CONFIG_FB_VESA, or CONFIG_SYSFB_SIMPLEFB enabled, so the restriction doesn't usually affect anything. But it's valid to have none of these enabled, in which case CONFIG_SYSFB is not enabled, and the VMBus driver is unable to properly reserve the framebuffer MMIO space for graphics framebuffer drivers. The framebuffer MMIO space may be assigned to some other VMBus driver, with undefined results. As an example, if a VM is using a PCI pass-thru NVMe controller to host the OS disk, the PCI NVMe controller is probed before any graphic devices, and the NVMe controller is assigned a portion of the framebuffer MMIO space. Hyper-V reports an error to Linux during the probe, and the OS disk fails to get setup. Then Linux fails to boot in the VM.
Fix this by having CONFIG_HYPERV always select SYSFB. Then the VMBus driver in a Gen 2 VM can always reserve the MMIO space for the graphics framebuffer driver, and prevent the undefined behavior.
One question: Shouldn't the SYSFB be selected by actual graphics framebuffer driver which is expected to use it. With this patch this option will be enabled irrespective if there is any user for it or not, wondering if we can better optimize it for such systems.
That approach doesn't work. For a cloud-based server, it might make sense to build a kernel image without either of the Hyper-V graphics framebuffer drivers (DRM_HYPERV or HYPERV_FB) since in that case the Linux console is the serial console. But the problem could still occur where a PCI pass-thru NVMe controller tries to use the MMIO space that Hyper-V intends for the framebuffer. That problem is directly tied to CONFIG_SYSFB because it's the VMBus driver that must treat the framebuffer MMIO space as special. The absence or presence of a framebuffer driver isn't the key factor, though we've been (incorrectly) relying on the presence of a framebuffer driver to set CONFIG_SYSFB.
Thank you for the clarification. I was concerned because SYSFB is not currently enabled in the OpenHCL kernel, and our goal is to keep the OpenHCL configuration as minimal as possible. I haven’t yet looked into the details to determine whether this might have any impact on the kernel binary size or runtime memory usage. I trust this won't affect negatively.
OpenHCL Config Ref: https://github.com/microsoft/OHCL-Linux-Kernel/blob/product/hcl-main/6.12/Mi...
- Saurabh
From: Saurabh Singh Sengar ssengar@linux.microsoft.com Sent: Saturday, May 17, 2025 9:14 AM
On Sat, May 17, 2025 at 01:34:20PM +0000, Michael Kelley wrote:
From: Saurabh Singh Sengar ssengar@microsoft.com Sent: Friday, May 16, 2025 9:38 PM
From: Michael Kelley mhklinux@outlook.com
The Hyper-V host provides guest VMs with a range of MMIO addresses that guest VMBus drivers can use. The VMBus driver in Linux manages that MMIO space, and allocates portions to drivers upon request. As part of managing that MMIO space in a Generation 2 VM, the VMBus driver must reserve the portion of the MMIO space that Hyper-V has designated for the synthetic frame buffer, and not allocate this space to VMBus drivers other than graphics framebuffer drivers. The synthetic frame buffer MMIO area is described by the screen_info data structure that is passed to the Linux kernel at boot time, so the VMBus driver must access screen_info for Generation 2 VMs. (In Generation 1 VMs, the framebuffer MMIO space is communicated to the guest via a PCI pseudo-device, and access to screen_info is not needed.)
In commit a07b50d80ab6 ("hyperv: avoid dependency on screen_info") the VMBus driver's access to screen_info is restricted to when CONFIG_SYSFB is enabled. CONFIG_SYSFB is typically enabled in kernels built for Hyper-V by virtue of having at least one of CONFIG_FB_EFI, CONFIG_FB_VESA, or CONFIG_SYSFB_SIMPLEFB enabled, so the restriction doesn't usually affect anything. But it's valid to have none of these enabled, in which case CONFIG_SYSFB is not enabled, and the VMBus driver is unable to properly reserve the framebuffer MMIO space for graphics framebuffer drivers. The framebuffer MMIO space may be assigned to some other VMBus driver, with undefined results. As an example, if a VM is using a PCI pass-thru NVMe controller to host the OS disk, the PCI NVMe controller is probed before any graphic devices, and the NVMe controller is assigned a portion of the framebuffer MMIO space. Hyper-V reports an error to Linux during the probe, and the OS disk fails to get setup. Then Linux fails to boot in the VM.
Fix this by having CONFIG_HYPERV always select SYSFB. Then the VMBus driver in a Gen 2 VM can always reserve the MMIO space for the graphics framebuffer driver, and prevent the undefined behavior.
One question: Shouldn't the SYSFB be selected by actual graphics framebuffer driver which is expected to use it. With this patch this option will be enabled irrespective if there is any user for it or not, wondering if we can better optimize it for such systems.
That approach doesn't work. For a cloud-based server, it might make sense to build a kernel image without either of the Hyper-V graphics framebuffer drivers (DRM_HYPERV or HYPERV_FB) since in that case the Linux console is the serial console. But the problem could still occur where a PCI pass-thru NVMe controller tries to use the MMIO space that Hyper-V intends for the framebuffer. That problem is directly tied to CONFIG_SYSFB because it's the VMBus driver that must treat the framebuffer MMIO space as special. The absence or presence of a framebuffer driver isn't the key factor, though we've been (incorrectly) relying on the presence of a framebuffer driver to set CONFIG_SYSFB.
Thank you for the clarification. I was concerned because SYSFB is not currently enabled in the OpenHCL kernel, and our goal is to keep the OpenHCL configuration as minimal as possible. I haven't yet looked into the details to determine whether this might have any impact on the kernel binary size or runtime memory usage. I trust this won't affect negatively.
OpenHCL Config Ref: https://github.com/microsoft/OHCL-Linux-Kernel/blob/product/hcl-main/6.12/Mi...
Good point.
The OpenHCL code tree has commit a07b50d80ab6 that restricts the screen_info to being available only when CONFIG_SYSFB is enabled. But since OpenHCL in VTL2 gets its firmware info via OF instead of ACPI, I'm unsure what the Hyper-V host tells it about available MMIO space, and whether that space includes MMIO space for a framebuffer. If it doesn't, then OpenHCL won't have the problem I describe above, and it won't need CONFIG_SYSFB. This patch could be modified to do
select SYSFB if !HYPERV_VTL_MODE
Can you find out what MMIO space Hyper-V provides to VTL2 via OF? It would make sense if no framebuffer is provided. And maybe screen_info itself is not set up when VTL2 is loaded, which would also make adding CONFIG_SYSFB pointless for VTL2.
Michael
On Sat, May 17, 2025 at 06:47:22PM +0000, Michael Kelley wrote:
From: Saurabh Singh Sengar ssengar@linux.microsoft.com Sent: Saturday, May 17, 2025 9:14 AM
On Sat, May 17, 2025 at 01:34:20PM +0000, Michael Kelley wrote:
From: Saurabh Singh Sengar ssengar@microsoft.com Sent: Friday, May 16, 2025 9:38 PM
From: Michael Kelley mhklinux@outlook.com
The Hyper-V host provides guest VMs with a range of MMIO addresses that guest VMBus drivers can use. The VMBus driver in Linux manages that MMIO space, and allocates portions to drivers upon request. As part of managing that MMIO space in a Generation 2 VM, the VMBus driver must reserve the portion of the MMIO space that Hyper-V has designated for the synthetic frame buffer, and not allocate this space to VMBus drivers other than graphics framebuffer drivers. The synthetic frame buffer MMIO area is described by the screen_info data structure that is passed to the Linux kernel at boot time, so the VMBus driver must access screen_info for Generation 2 VMs. (In Generation 1 VMs, the framebuffer MMIO space is communicated to the guest via a PCI pseudo-device, and access to screen_info is not needed.)
In commit a07b50d80ab6 ("hyperv: avoid dependency on screen_info") the VMBus driver's access to screen_info is restricted to when CONFIG_SYSFB is enabled. CONFIG_SYSFB is typically enabled in kernels built for Hyper-V by virtue of having at least one of CONFIG_FB_EFI, CONFIG_FB_VESA, or CONFIG_SYSFB_SIMPLEFB enabled, so the restriction doesn't usually affect anything. But it's valid to have none of these enabled, in which case CONFIG_SYSFB is not enabled, and the VMBus driver is unable to properly reserve the framebuffer MMIO space for graphics framebuffer drivers. The framebuffer MMIO space may be assigned to some other VMBus driver, with undefined results. As an example, if a VM is using a PCI pass-thru NVMe controller to host the OS disk, the PCI NVMe controller is probed before any graphic devices, and the NVMe controller is assigned a portion of the framebuffer MMIO space. Hyper-V reports an error to Linux during the probe, and the OS disk fails to get setup. Then Linux fails to boot in the VM.
Fix this by having CONFIG_HYPERV always select SYSFB. Then the VMBus driver in a Gen 2 VM can always reserve the MMIO space for the graphics framebuffer driver, and prevent the undefined behavior.
One question: Shouldn't the SYSFB be selected by actual graphics framebuffer driver which is expected to use it. With this patch this option will be enabled irrespective if there is any user for it or not, wondering if we can better optimize it for such systems.
That approach doesn't work. For a cloud-based server, it might make sense to build a kernel image without either of the Hyper-V graphics framebuffer drivers (DRM_HYPERV or HYPERV_FB) since in that case the Linux console is the serial console. But the problem could still occur where a PCI pass-thru NVMe controller tries to use the MMIO space that Hyper-V intends for the framebuffer. That problem is directly tied to CONFIG_SYSFB because it's the VMBus driver that must treat the framebuffer MMIO space as special. The absence or presence of a framebuffer driver isn't the key factor, though we've been (incorrectly) relying on the presence of a framebuffer driver to set CONFIG_SYSFB.
Thank you for the clarification. I was concerned because SYSFB is not currently enabled in the OpenHCL kernel, and our goal is to keep the OpenHCL configuration as minimal as possible. I haven't yet looked into the details to determine whether this might have any impact on the kernel binary size or runtime memory usage. I trust this won't affect negatively.
OpenHCL Config Ref: https://github.com/microsoft/OHCL-Linux-Kernel/blob/product/hcl-main/6.12/Mi...
Good point.
The OpenHCL code tree has commit a07b50d80ab6 that restricts the screen_info to being available only when CONFIG_SYSFB is enabled. But since OpenHCL in VTL2 gets its firmware info via OF instead of ACPI, I'm unsure what the Hyper-V host tells it about available MMIO space, and whether that space includes MMIO space for a framebuffer. If it doesn't, then OpenHCL won't have the problem I describe above, and it won't need CONFIG_SYSFB. This patch could be modified to do
select SYSFB if !HYPERV_VTL_MODE
I am worried that this is not very scalable, there could be more such Hyper-V systems in future.
Can you find out what MMIO space Hyper-V provides to VTL2 via OF? It would make sense if no framebuffer is provided. And maybe screen_info itself is not set up when VTL2 is loaded, which would also make adding CONFIG_SYSFB pointless for VTL2.
I can only see below address range passed for MMIO to VMBus driver: ranges = <0x0f 0xf0000000 0x0f 0xf0000000 0x10000000>;
I don't think we have any use of scrren_info or framebuffer in OpenHCL.
- Saurabh
From: Saurabh Singh Sengar ssengar@linux.microsoft.com Sent: Monday, May 19, 2025 9:55 AM
On Sat, May 17, 2025 at 06:47:22PM +0000, Michael Kelley wrote:
From: Saurabh Singh Sengar ssengar@linux.microsoft.com Sent: Saturday, May 17, 2025 9:14 AM
On Sat, May 17, 2025 at 01:34:20PM +0000, Michael Kelley wrote:
From: Saurabh Singh Sengar ssengar@microsoft.com Sent: Friday, May 16, 2025 9:38 PM
From: Michael Kelley mhklinux@outlook.com
The Hyper-V host provides guest VMs with a range of MMIO addresses that guest VMBus drivers can use. The VMBus driver in Linux manages that MMIO space, and allocates portions to drivers upon request. As part of managing that MMIO space in a Generation 2 VM, the VMBus driver must reserve the portion of the MMIO space that Hyper-V has designated for the synthetic frame buffer, and not allocate this space to VMBus drivers other than graphics framebuffer drivers. The synthetic frame buffer MMIO area is described by the screen_info data structure that is passed to the Linux kernel at boot time, so the VMBus driver must access screen_info for Generation 2 VMs. (In Generation 1 VMs, the framebuffer MMIO space is communicated to the guest via a PCI pseudo-device, and access to screen_info is not needed.)
In commit a07b50d80ab6 ("hyperv: avoid dependency on screen_info") the VMBus driver's access to screen_info is restricted to when CONFIG_SYSFB is enabled. CONFIG_SYSFB is typically enabled in kernels built for Hyper-V by virtue of having at least one of CONFIG_FB_EFI, CONFIG_FB_VESA, or CONFIG_SYSFB_SIMPLEFB enabled, so the restriction doesn't usually affect anything. But it's valid to have none of these enabled, in which case CONFIG_SYSFB is not enabled, and the VMBus driver is unable to properly reserve the framebuffer MMIO space for graphics framebuffer drivers. The framebuffer MMIO space may be assigned to some other VMBus driver, with undefined results. As an example, if a VM is using a PCI pass-thru NVMe controller to host the OS disk, the PCI NVMe controller is probed before any graphic devices, and the NVMe controller is assigned a portion of the framebuffer MMIO space. Hyper-V reports an error to Linux during the probe, and the OS disk fails to get setup. Then Linux fails to boot in the VM.
Fix this by having CONFIG_HYPERV always select SYSFB. Then the VMBus driver in a Gen 2 VM can always reserve the MMIO space for the graphics framebuffer driver, and prevent the undefined behavior.
One question: Shouldn't the SYSFB be selected by actual graphics framebuffer driver which is expected to use it. With this patch this option will be enabled irrespective if there is any user for it or not, wondering if we can better optimize it for such systems.
That approach doesn't work. For a cloud-based server, it might make sense to build a kernel image without either of the Hyper-V graphics framebuffer drivers (DRM_HYPERV or HYPERV_FB) since in that case the Linux console is the serial console. But the problem could still occur where a PCI pass-thru NVMe controller tries to use the MMIO space that Hyper-V intends for the framebuffer. That problem is directly tied to CONFIG_SYSFB because it's the VMBus driver that must treat the framebuffer MMIO space as special. The absence or presence of a framebuffer driver isn't the key factor, though we've been (incorrectly) relying on the presence of a framebuffer driver to set CONFIG_SYSFB.
Thank you for the clarification. I was concerned because SYSFB is not currently enabled in the OpenHCL kernel, and our goal is to keep the OpenHCL configuration as minimal as possible. I haven't yet looked into the details to determine whether this might have any impact on the kernel binary size or runtime memory usage. I trust this won't affect negatively.
OpenHCL Config Ref: https://github.com/microsoft/OHCL-Linux-Kernel/blob/product/hcl-main/6.12/Mi...
Good point.
The OpenHCL code tree has commit a07b50d80ab6 that restricts the screen_info to being available only when CONFIG_SYSFB is enabled. But since OpenHCL in VTL2 gets its firmware info via OF instead of ACPI, I'm unsure what the Hyper-V host tells it about available MMIO space, and whether that space includes MMIO space for a framebuffer. If it doesn't, then OpenHCL won't have the problem I describe above, and it won't need CONFIG_SYSFB. This patch could be modified to do
select SYSFB if !HYPERV_VTL_MODE
I am worried that this is not very scalable, there could be more such Hyper-V systems in future.
I could see scalability being a problem if there were 20 more such Hyper-V systems in the future. But if there are just 2 or 3 more, that seems like it would be manageable.
Regardless, I'm OK with doing this with or without the "if !HYPERV_VTL_MODE". I don't think we should just drop this entirely. When playing around with various framebuffers drivers a few weeks back, I personally encountered the problem of having built a kernel that wouldn't boot in an Azure VM with an NVMe OS disk. I couldn't figure out why probing the NVMe controller failed. It took me an hour to sort out what was happening, and I was familiar with the Hyper-V PCI driver. I'd like to prevent such a problem from happening to someone else.
Can you find out what MMIO space Hyper-V provides to VTL2 via OF? It would make sense if no framebuffer is provided. And maybe screen_info itself is not set up when VTL2 is loaded, which would also make adding CONFIG_SYSFB pointless for VTL2.
I can only see below address range passed for MMIO to VMBus driver: ranges = <0x0f 0xf0000000 0x0f 0xf0000000 0x10000000>;
I'm guessing the above text is what shows up in DT? I'm not sure how to interpret it. In normal guests, Hyper-V offers a "low MMIO" range that is below the 4 GiB line, and a "high MMIO" range that is just before the 64 GiB line. In a normal guest in Azure, I see the MLX driver using 0xfc0000000, which would be just below the 64 GiB line, and in the "high MMIO" range. The "0x0f 0xf0000000" in DT might be physical address 0xff0000000, which is consistent with the "high MMIO" range. I'm not sure how to interpret the second occurrence of "0xf 0xf0000000". I'm guessing the 0x10000000 (256 Mib) is the length of the available range, which would also make sense.
The framebuffer address is always in the "low MMIO" range. So if my interpretation is anywhere close to correct, DT isn't specifying any MMIO space for a framebuffer, and there's no need for CONFIG_SYSFB in a kernel running in VTL2.
What's your preference for how to proceed? Adding CONFIG_SYSFB probably *will* increase the kernel code size, but I don't know by how much. I can do a measurement.
Michael
I don't think we have any use of scrren_info or framebuffer in OpenHCL.
- Saurabh
On Tue, May 20, 2025 at 02:07:48AM +0000, Michael Kelley wrote:
From: Saurabh Singh Sengar ssengar@linux.microsoft.com Sent: Monday, May 19, 2025 9:55 AM
On Sat, May 17, 2025 at 06:47:22PM +0000, Michael Kelley wrote:
From: Saurabh Singh Sengar ssengar@linux.microsoft.com Sent: Saturday, May 17, 2025 9:14 AM
On Sat, May 17, 2025 at 01:34:20PM +0000, Michael Kelley wrote:
From: Saurabh Singh Sengar ssengar@microsoft.com Sent: Friday, May 16, 2025 9:38 PM
> From: Michael Kelley mhklinux@outlook.com > > The Hyper-V host provides guest VMs with a range of MMIO addresses that > guest VMBus drivers can use. The VMBus driver in Linux manages that MMIO > space, and allocates portions to drivers upon request. As part of managing > that MMIO space in a Generation 2 VM, the VMBus driver must reserve the > portion of the MMIO space that Hyper-V has designated for the synthetic > frame buffer, and not allocate this space to VMBus drivers other than graphics > framebuffer drivers. The synthetic frame buffer MMIO area is described by > the screen_info data structure that is passed to the Linux kernel at boot time, > so the VMBus driver must access screen_info for Generation 2 VMs. (In > Generation 1 VMs, the framebuffer MMIO space is communicated to the > guest via a PCI pseudo-device, and access to screen_info is not needed.) > > In commit a07b50d80ab6 ("hyperv: avoid dependency on screen_info") the > VMBus driver's access to screen_info is restricted to when CONFIG_SYSFB is > enabled. CONFIG_SYSFB is typically enabled in kernels built for Hyper-V by > virtue of having at least one of CONFIG_FB_EFI, CONFIG_FB_VESA, or > CONFIG_SYSFB_SIMPLEFB enabled, so the restriction doesn't usually affect > anything. But it's valid to have none of these enabled, in which case > CONFIG_SYSFB is not enabled, and the VMBus driver is unable to properly > reserve the framebuffer MMIO space for graphics framebuffer drivers. The > framebuffer MMIO space may be assigned to some other VMBus driver, with > undefined results. As an example, if a VM is using a PCI pass-thru NVMe > controller to host the OS disk, the PCI NVMe controller is probed before any > graphic devices, and the NVMe controller is assigned a portion of the > framebuffer MMIO space. > Hyper-V reports an error to Linux during the probe, and the OS disk fails to > get setup. Then Linux fails to boot in the VM. > > Fix this by having CONFIG_HYPERV always select SYSFB. Then the VMBus > driver in a Gen 2 VM can always reserve the MMIO space for the graphics > framebuffer driver, and prevent the undefined behavior.
One question: Shouldn't the SYSFB be selected by actual graphics framebuffer driver which is expected to use it. With this patch this option will be enabled irrespective if there is any user for it or not, wondering if we can better optimize it for such systems.
That approach doesn't work. For a cloud-based server, it might make sense to build a kernel image without either of the Hyper-V graphics framebuffer drivers (DRM_HYPERV or HYPERV_FB) since in that case the Linux console is the serial console. But the problem could still occur where a PCI pass-thru NVMe controller tries to use the MMIO space that Hyper-V intends for the framebuffer. That problem is directly tied to CONFIG_SYSFB because it's the VMBus driver that must treat the framebuffer MMIO space as special. The absence or presence of a framebuffer driver isn't the key factor, though we've been (incorrectly) relying on the presence of a framebuffer driver to set CONFIG_SYSFB.
Thank you for the clarification. I was concerned because SYSFB is not currently enabled in the OpenHCL kernel, and our goal is to keep the OpenHCL configuration as minimal as possible. I haven't yet looked into the details to determine whether this might have any impact on the kernel binary size or runtime memory usage. I trust this won't affect negatively.
OpenHCL Config Ref: https://github.com/microsoft/OHCL-Linux-Kernel/blob/product/hcl-main/6.12/Mi...
Good point.
The OpenHCL code tree has commit a07b50d80ab6 that restricts the screen_info to being available only when CONFIG_SYSFB is enabled. But since OpenHCL in VTL2 gets its firmware info via OF instead of ACPI, I'm unsure what the Hyper-V host tells it about available MMIO space, and whether that space includes MMIO space for a framebuffer. If it doesn't, then OpenHCL won't have the problem I describe above, and it won't need CONFIG_SYSFB. This patch could be modified to do
select SYSFB if !HYPERV_VTL_MODE
I am worried that this is not very scalable, there could be more such Hyper-V systems in future.
I could see scalability being a problem if there were 20 more such Hyper-V systems in the future. But if there are just 2 or 3 more, that seems like it would be manageable.
Regardless, I'm OK with doing this with or without the "if !HYPERV_VTL_MODE". I don't think we should just drop this entirely. When playing around with various framebuffers drivers a few weeks back, I personally encountered the problem of having built a kernel that wouldn't boot in an Azure VM with an NVMe OS disk. I couldn't figure out why probing the NVMe controller failed. It took me an hour to sort out what was happening, and I was familiar with the Hyper-V PCI driver. I'd like to prevent such a problem from happening to someone else.
I agree we want to fix this.
Can you find out what MMIO space Hyper-V provides to VTL2 via OF? It would make sense if no framebuffer is provided. And maybe screen_info itself is not set up when VTL2 is loaded, which would also make adding CONFIG_SYSFB pointless for VTL2.
I can only see below address range passed for MMIO to VMBus driver: ranges = <0x0f 0xf0000000 0x0f 0xf0000000 0x10000000>;
I'm guessing the above text is what shows up in DT? I'm not sure how to interpret it. In normal guests, Hyper-V offers a "low MMIO" range that is below the 4 GiB line, and a "high MMIO" range that is just before the 64 GiB line. In a normal guest in Azure, I see the MLX driver using 0xfc0000000, which would be just below the 64 GiB line, and in the "high MMIO" range. The "0x0f 0xf0000000" in DT might be physical address 0xff0000000, which is consistent with the "high MMIO" range. I'm not sure how to interpret the second occurrence of "0xf 0xf0000000". I'm guessing the 0x10000000 (256 Mib) is the length of the available range, which would also make sense.
The framebuffer address is always in the "low MMIO" range. So if my interpretation is anywhere close to correct, DT isn't specifying any MMIO space for a framebuffer, and there's no need for CONFIG_SYSFB in a kernel running in VTL2.
What's your preference for how to proceed? Adding CONFIG_SYSFB probably *will* increase the kernel code size, but I don't know by how much. I can do a measurement.
My primary preference is to ensure that OpenHCL remains unaffected. And since there are no better alternatives I can think of, I am fine proceeding with !HYPERV_VTL_MODE
with that, Reviewed-by: Saurabh Sengar ssengar@linux.microsoft.com
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