Commit 40f8cf4b authored by Daniel Vetter's avatar Daniel Vetter

drm/fbdev-helper: Explain how to debug console_lock fun

Every new KMS driver writer seems to run into this and wonder how
exactly drm_fb_helper_initial_config can die doing nothing at all.
Set up some big warnings signs around this newbie trap to avoid future
frustration and wasting everyone's time.

v2: Edits from Laurent.

Cc: Carlos Palminha <CARLOS.PALMINHA@synopsys.com>
Cc: Xinliang Liu <xinliang.liu@linaro.org>
Cc: laurent.pinchart@ideasonboard.com
Reviewed-by: default avatarLaurent Pinchart <laurent.pinchart@ideasonboard.com>
Link: http://patchwork.freedesktop.org/patch/msgid/1453449225-10954-1-git-send-email-daniel.vetter@ffwll.chSigned-off-by: default avatarDaniel Vetter <daniel.vetter@intel.com>
parent 70c0616d
......@@ -2091,6 +2091,27 @@ static void drm_setup_crtcs(struct drm_fb_helper *fb_helper)
* drm_fb_helper_fill_fix() are provided as helpers to setup simple default
* values for the fbdev info structure.
*
* HANG DEBUGGING:
*
* When you have fbcon support built-in or already loaded, this function will do
* a full modeset to setup the fbdev console. Due to locking misdesign in the
* VT/fbdev subsystem that entire modeset sequence has to be done while holding
* console_lock. Until console_unlock is called no dmesg lines will be sent out
* to consoles, not even serial console. This means when your driver crashes,
* you will see absolutely nothing else but a system stuck in this function,
* with no further output. Any kind of printk() you place within your own driver
* or in the drm core modeset code will also never show up.
*
* Standard debug practice is to run the fbcon setup without taking the
* console_lock as a hack, to be able to see backtraces and crashes on the
* serial line. This can be done by setting the fb.lockless_register_fb=1 kernel
* cmdline option.
*
* The other option is to just disable fbdev emulation since very likely the
* first modest from userspace will crash in the same way, and is even easier to
* debug. This can be done by setting the drm_kms_helper.fbdev_emulation=0
* kernel cmdline option.
*
* RETURNS:
* Zero if everything went ok, nonzero otherwise.
*/
......
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