The list-based DMA engine has the following behaviour:
* When the DMA engine is in the init state, you can write the first
descriptor address to the QCU TxDP register and it will work.
* Then when it hits the end of the list (ie, it either hits a NULL
link pointer, OR it hits a descriptor with VEOL set) the QCU
stops, and the TxDP points to the last descriptor that was transmitted.
* Then when you want to transmit a new frame, you can then either:
+ write the head of the new list into TxDP, or
+ you write the head of the new list into the link pointer of the
last completed descriptor (ie, where TxDP points), then kick
TxE to restart transmission on that QCU>
* The hardware then will re-read the descriptor to pick up the link
pointer and then jump to that.
Now, the quirks:
* If you write a TxDP when there's been no previous TxDP (ie, it's 0),
it works.
* If you write a TxDP in any other instance, the TxDP write may actually
fail. Thus, when you start transmission, it will re-read the last
transmitted descriptor to get the link pointer, NOT just start a new
transmission.
So the correct thing to do here is:
* ALWAYS use the holding descriptor (ie, the last transmitted descriptor
that we've kept safe) and use the link pointer in _THAT_ to transmit
the next frame.
* NEVER write to the TxDP after you've done the initial write.
* .. also, don't do this whilst you're also resetting the NIC.
With this in mind, the following patch does basically the above.
* Since this encapsulates Sam's issues with the QCU behaviour w/ TDMA,
kill the TDMA special case and replace it with the above.
* Add a new TXQ flag - PUTRUNNING - which indicates that we've started
DMA.
* Clear that flag when DMA has been shutdown.
* Ensure that we're not restarting DMA with PUTRUNNING enabled.
* Fix the link pointer logic during TXQ drain - we should always ensure
the link pointer does point to something if there's a list of frames.
Having it be NULL as an indication that DMA has finished or during
a reset causes trouble.
Now, given all of this, i want to nuke axq_link from orbit. There's now HAL
methods to get and set the link pointer of a descriptor, so what we
should do instead is to update the right link pointer.
* If there's a holding descriptor and an empty TXQ list, set the
link pointer of said holding descriptor to the new frame.
* If there's a non-empty TXQ list, set the link pointer of the
last descriptor in the list to the new frame.
* Nuke axq_link from orbit.
Note:
* The AR9380 doesn't need this. FIFO TX writes are atomic. As long as
we don't append to a list of frames that we've already passed to the
hardware, all of the above doesn't apply. The holding descriptor stuff
is still needed to ensure the hardware can re-read a completed
descriptor to move onto the next one, but we restart DMA by pushing in
a new FIFO entry into the TX QCU. That doesn't require any real
gymnastics.
Tested:
* AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, AR5416, AR9380 - STA mode.
doesn't match the actual hardware queue this frame is queued to.
I'm trying to ensure that the holding buffers are actually being queued
to the same TX queue as the holding buffer that they end up on.
I'm pretty sure this is all correct so if this complains, it'll be due
to some kind of subtle broken-ness that needs fixing.
This is only done for legacy hardware, not EDMA hardware.
Tested:
* AR5416 STA mode, very lightly
PS-POLL support.
This implements PS-POLL awareness i nthe
* Implement frame "leaking", which allows for a software queue
to be scheduled even though it's asleep
* Track whether a frame has been leaked or not
* Leak out a single non-AMPDU frame when transmitting aggregates
* Queue BAR frames if the node is asleep
* Direct-dispatch the rest of control and management frames.
This allows for things like re-association to occur (which involves
sending probe req/resp as well as assoc request/response) when
the node is asleep and then tries reassociating.
* Limit how many frames can set in the software node queue whilst
the node is asleep. net80211 is already buffering frames for us
so this is mostly just paranoia.
* Add a PS-POLL method which leaks out a frame if there's something
in the software queue, else it calls net80211's ps-poll routine.
Since the ath PS-POLL routine marks the node as having a single frame
to leak, either a software queued frame would leak, OR the next queued
frame would leak. The next queued frame could be something from the
net80211 power save queue, OR it could be a NULL frame from net80211.
TODO:
* Don't transmit further BAR frames (eg via a timeout) if the node is
currently asleep. Otherwise we may end up exhausting management frames
due to the lots of queued BAR frames.
I may just undo this bit later on and direct-dispatch BAR frames
even if the node is asleep.
* It would be nice to burst out a single A-MPDU frame if both ends
support this. I may end adding a FreeBSD IE soon to negotiate
this power save behaviour.
* I should make STAs timeout of power save mode if they've been in power
save for more than a handful of seconds. This way cards that get
"stuck" in power save mode don't stay there for the "inactivity" timeout
in net80211.
* Move the queue depth check into the driver layer (ath_start / ath_transmit)
rather than doing it in the TX path.
* There could be some naughty corner cases with ps-poll leaking.
Specifically, if net80211 generates a NULL data frame whilst another
transmitter sends a normal data frame out net80211 output / transmit,
we need to ensure that the NULL data frame goes out first.
This is one of those things that should occur inside the VAP/ic TX lock.
Grr, more investigations to do..
Tested:
* STA: AR5416, AR9280
* AP: AR5416, AR9280, AR9160
* Move the node sleep/wake state under the TX lock rather than the
node lock. Let's leave the node lock protecting rate control only
for now.
* When reassociating, various state needs to be cleared. For example,
the aggregate session needs to be torn down, including any pending
aggregation negotiation and BAR TX waiting.
* .. and we need to do a "cleanup" pass since frames in the hardware
TX queue need to be transmitted.
Modify ath_tx_tid_cleanup() to be called with the TX lock held and push
frames into a completion list. This allows for the cleanup to be
done atomically for all TIDs in a node rather than grabbing and
releasing the TX lock each time.
a non-loss reset.
When the drain functions are called, the holding descriptor and link pointers
are NULLed out.
But when the processq function is called during a non-loss reset, this
doesn't occur. So the next time a DMA occurs, it's chained to a descriptor
that no longer exists and the hardware gets angry.
Tested:
* AR5416, STA mode; use sysctl dev.ath.X.forcebstuck=1 to force a non-loss
reset.
TODO:
* Further AR9380 testing just to check that the behaviour for the EDMA
chips is sane.
PR: kern/178477
of "right".)
Flip back on the "always continue TX DMA using the holding descriptor"
code - by always setting ATH_BUF_BUSY and never setting axq_link to NULL.
Since the holding descriptor is accessed via txq->axq_link and _that_
is done behind the TXQ lock rather than the TX path lock, the holding
descriptor stuff itself needs to be behind the TXQ lock.
So, do the mental gymnastics needed to do this.
I've not seen any of the hardware failures that I was seeing when
I last tried to do this.
Tested:
* AR5416, STA mode
I'm not sure why this is failing. The holding descriptor should be being
re-read when starting DMA of the next frame. Obviously something here
isn't totally correct.
I'll review the TX queue handling and see if I can figure out why this
is failing. I'll then re-revert this patch out and use the holding
descriptor again.
but partly to just tidy up things.
The problem here - there are too many TX buffers in the queue! By the
time one needs to transmit an EAPOL frame (for this PR, it's the response
to the group rekey notification from the AP) there are no ath_buf entries
free and the EAPOL frame doesn't go out.
Now, the problem!
* Enforcing the TX buffer limitation _before_ we dequeue the frame?
Bad idea. Because..
* .. it means I can't check whether the mbuf has M_EAPOL set.
The solution(s):
* De-queue the frame first
* Don't bother doing the TX buffer minimum free check until after
we know whether it's an EAPOL frame or not.
* If it's an EAPOL frame, allocate the buffer from the mgmt pool
rather than the default pool.
Whilst I'm here:
* Add a tweak to limit how many buffers a single node can acquire.
* Don't enforce that for EAPOL frames.
* .. set that to default to 1/4 of the available buffers, or 32,
whichever is more sane.
This doesn't fix issues due to a sleeping node or a very poor performing
node; but this doesn't make it worse.
Tested:
* AR5416 STA, TX'ing 100+ mbit UDP to an AP, but only 50mbit being received
(thus the TX queue fills up.)
* .. with CCMP / WPA2 encryption configured
* .. and the group rekey time set to 10 seconds, just to elicit the
behaviour very quickly.
PR: kern/138379
just "when the queue is busy."
After talking with the MAC team, it turns out that the linked list
implementation sometimes will not accept a TxDP update and will
instead re-read the link pointer. So even if the hardware has
finished transmitting a chain and has hit EOL/VEOL, it may still
re-read the link pointer to begin transmitting again.
So, always set ATH_BUF_BUSY on the last buffer in the chain (to
mark the last descriptor as the holding descriptor) and never
blank the axq_link pointer.
Tested:
* AR5416, STA mode
TODO:
* much more thorough testing with the pre-11n NICs, just to verify
that they behave the same way.
* test TDMA on the 11n and non-11n hardware.
The QCA9565 is a 1x1 2.4GHz 11n chip with integrated on-chip bluetooth.
The AR9300 HAL already has support for this chip; it just wasn't
included in the probe/attach path.
Tested:
* This commit brought to you over a QCA9565 wifi connection from
FreeBSD.
* .. ie, basic STA, pings, no iperf or antenna diversity checking just yet.
* That lock isn't actually held during reset - just the whole TX/RX path
is paused. So, remove the assertion.
* Log the TX queue status - how many hardware frames are active in the
MAC and whether the queue is active.
the pause/resume code to not be called completely symmetrically.
I'll chase down the root cause of that soon; this at least works around
the bug and tells me when it happens.
is compiled in or not.
This fixes issues with people running -HEAD but who build modules
without doing a "make buildkernel KERNCONF=XXX", thus picking up
opt_*.h. The resulting module wouldn't have 11n enabled and the
chainmask configuration would just be plain wrong.
* Add ah_ratesArray[] to the ar5416 HAL state - this stores the maximum
values permissable per rate.
* Since different chip EEPROM formats store this value in a different place,
store the HT40 power detector increment value in the ar5416 HAL state.
* Modify the target power setup code to store the maximum values in the
ar5416 HAL state rather than using a local variable.
* Add ar5416RateToRateTable() - to convert a hardware rate code to the
ratesArray enum / index.
* Add ar5416GetTxRatePower() - which goes through the gymnastics required
to correctly calculate the target TX power:
+ Add the power detector increment for ht40;
+ Take the power offset into account for AR9280 and later;
+ Offset the TX power correctly when doing open-loop TX power control;
+ Enforce the per-rate maximum value allowable.
Note - setting a TPC value of 0x0 in the TX descriptor on (at least)
the AR9160 resulted in the TX power being very high indeed. This didn't
happen on the AR9220. I'm guessing it's a chip bug that was fixed at
some point. So for now, just assume the AR5416/AR5418 and AR9130 are
also suspect and clamp the minimum value here at 1.
Tested:
* AR5416, AR9160, AR9220 hostap, verified using (2GHz) spectrum analyser
* Looked at target TX power in TX descriptor (using athalq) as well as TX
power on the spectrum analyser.
TODO:
* The TX descriptor code sets the target TX power to 0 for AR9285 chips.
I'm not yet sure why. Disable this for TPC and ensure that the TPC
TX power is set.
* AR9280, AR9285, AR9227, AR9287 testing!
* 5GHz testing!
Quirks:
* The per-packet TPC code is only exercised when the tpc sysctl is set
to 1. (dev.ath.X.tpc=1.) This needs to be done before you bring the
interface up.
* When TPC is enabled, setting the TX power doesn't end up with a call
through to the HAL to update the maximum TX power. So ensure that
you set the TPC sysctl before you bring the interface up and configure
a lower TX power or the hardware will be clamped by the lower TX
power (at least until the next channel change.)
Thanks to Qualcomm Atheros for all the hardware, and Sam Leffler for use
of his spectrum analyser to verify the TX channel power.
ath_tx_rate_fill_rcflags(). Include setting up the TX power cap in the
rate scenario setup code being passed to the HAL.
Other things:
* add a tx power cap field in ath_rc.
* Add a three-stream flag in ath_rc.
* Delete the LDPC flag from ath_rc - it's not a per-rate flag, it's a
global flag for the transmission.
directly referencing ni->ni_txpower.
This provides the hardware with a slightly more accurate idea of
the maximum TX power to be using.
This is part of a series to get per-packet TPC to work (better).
Tested:
* AR5416, hostap mode
is configured for higher rates (lower than max) but higher TX power
is configured for the lower rates, above the configured cap, to improve
long distance behaviour.
* Add the rest of the missing GPIO output mux types;
* Add in a new debug category;
* And a new MCI btcoex configuration option in ath_hal.ah_config
Obtained from: Qualcomm Atheros
buffers (ie, >4GB on amd64.)
The underlying problem was that PREREAD doesn't sync the mbuf
with the DMA memory (ie, bounce buffer), so the bounce buffer may
have had stale information. Thus it was always considering the
buffer completed and things just went off the rails.
This change does the following:
* Make ath_rx_pkt() always consume the mbuf somehow; it no longer
passes error mbufs (eg CRC errors, crypt errors, etc) back up
to the RX path to recycle. This means that a new mbuf is always
allocated each time, but it's cleaner.
* Push the RX buffer map/unmap to occur in the RX path, not
ath_rx_pkt(). Thus, ath_rx_pkt() now assumes (a) it has to consume
the mbuf somehow, and (b) that it's already been unmapped and
synced.
* For the legacy path, the descriptor isn't mapped, it comes out of
coherent, DMA memory anyway. So leave it there.
* For the EDMA path, the RX descriptor has to be cleared before
its passed to the hardware, so that when we check with
a POSTREAD sync, we actually get either a blank (not finished)
or a filled out descriptor (finished.) Otherwise we get stale
data in the DMA memory.
* .. so, for EDMA RX path, we need PREREAD|PREWRITE to sync the
data -> DMA memory, then POSTREAD|POSTWRITE to finish syncing
the DMA memory -> data.
* Whilst we're here, make sure that in EDMA buffer setup (ie,
bzero'ing the descriptor part) is done before the mbuf is
map/synched.
NOTE: there's been a lot of commits besides this one with regards to
tidying up the busdma handling in ath(4). Please check the recent
commit history.
Discussed with and thanks to: scottl
Tested:
* AR5416 (non-EDMA) on i386, with the DMA tag for the driver
set to 2^^30, not 2^^32, STA
* AR9580 (EDMA) on i386, as above, STA
* User - tested AR9380 on amd64 with 32GB RAM.
PR: kern/177530