Re: [PATCH] arm_mpam: Warn when firmware leaves PARTIDs disabled

From: Ben Horgan

Date: Fri Oct 30 2026 - 11:02:51 EST


Hi Ping,

On 27/10/2026 08:35, Ping Li wrote:
> MPAMF_IDR.HAS_ENDIS indicates the MSC supports the MPAMCFG_EN_FLAGS
> PARTID enable/disable feature. Firmware is required to enable all
> PARTIDs at boot before handing over to software that is unaware of
> these registers. A PARTID left disabled silently ignores all resctrl
> schemata changes, as its traffic is treated as having no resources.
>
> Debugging an IP that implements HAS_ENDIS but had no visible effect
> from resctrl took a while to root cause. The fix belongs in firmware,

I can see how this would be frustrating. In general, we can't rely on firmware to do the reset
correctly e.g. after a kexec. Hence, I'd rather enable all the PARTID as part of the mpam driver
initialization in the same way that we set all the controls to be non-throttling.

I do have a preliminary patch but there seems to be some contradictions in the specification so I
haven't posted it yet.

There are three points of confusion I'm aware of. Firstly, R-CSLHH says the enabled status is not
affected by narrowing and so just applies to the reqPARTID but the descriptions of MPAMCFG_EN and
MPAMCFG_EN_FLAGS indicate that it effects the intPARTID. Secondly, what happens if MPAMCFG_EN.PARTID
and PARTID_SEL are different? Thirdly, is ENDIS RIS-sensitive or a global setting for the MSC.

For the last one, the conclusion seems to be that it is a global insensitive setting but this is
still not fully reflected in the specification.

I'm not aware of how other ENDIS implementations behave. I have asked for internal clarification on
the points above but perhaps you could raise it with support@xxxxxxx so that the architects are
aware this affects your design.

Thanks,

Ben

> but warn during probe so this misconfiguration is reported loudly
> instead of silently.
>
> Signed-off-by: Ping Li <leeonion.muyu@xxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> drivers/resctrl/mpam_devices.c | 16 ++++++++++++++++
> drivers/resctrl/mpam_internal.h | 2 ++
> 2 files changed, 18 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/drivers/resctrl/mpam_devices.c b/drivers/resctrl/mpam_devices.c
> index 48adc49b833c..f03aa40faa0a 100644
> --- a/drivers/resctrl/mpam_devices.c
> +++ b/drivers/resctrl/mpam_devices.c
> @@ -1159,6 +1159,7 @@ static int mpam_msc_hw_probe(struct mpam_msc *msc)
> {
> int ret;
> u64 idr;
> + u32 en_flags;
> u16 partid_max;
> u8 ris_idx, pmg_max;
> struct mpam_msc_ris *ris;
> @@ -1199,6 +1200,21 @@ static int mpam_msc_hw_probe(struct mpam_msc *msc)
> ret = mpam_msc_read_idr(msc, &idr);
> if (ret)
> return ret;
> +
> + /*
> + * Firmware must enable all PARTIDs before handing the
> + * system to software that is unaware of EN_FLAGS, so
> + * a disabled PARTID here means resctrl schemata
> + * changes silently have no effect.
> + */
> + if (FIELD_GET(MPAMF_IDR_HAS_ENDIS, idr)) {
> + u32 en_mask = GENMASK(FIELD_GET(MPAMF_IDR_PARTID_MAX, idr) % 32, 0);
> +
> + ret = __mpam_read_reg(msc, MPAMCFG_EN_FLAGS, &en_flags);
> + if (!ret && (en_flags & en_mask) != en_mask)
> + dev_err_once(dev,
> + "firmware left PARTIDs disabled, schemata changes will not take effect\n");
> + }
> }
>
> partid_max = FIELD_GET(MPAMF_IDR_PARTID_MAX, idr);
> diff --git a/drivers/resctrl/mpam_internal.h b/drivers/resctrl/mpam_internal.h
> index 1f86cc158100..008dc4e10f38 100644
> --- a/drivers/resctrl/mpam_internal.h
> +++ b/drivers/resctrl/mpam_internal.h
> @@ -574,6 +574,7 @@ int mpam_fb_check_shared_buffer_size(struct mpam_msc *msc);
> #define MPAMCFG_MBW_MIN 0x0200 /* min mem-bw config */
> #define MPAMCFG_MBW_MAX 0x0208 /* max mem-bw config */
> #define MPAMCFG_MBW_WINWD 0x0220 /* mem-bw accounting window config */
> +#define MPAMCFG_EN_FLAGS 0x0320 /* partid enable flags config */
> #define MPAMCFG_MBW_PBM 0x2000 /* mem-bw portion bitmap config */
> #define MPAMCFG_PRI 0x0400 /* priority partitioning config */
> #define MPAMCFG_MBW_PROP 0x0500 /* mem-bw stride config */
> @@ -608,6 +609,7 @@ int mpam_fb_check_shared_buffer_size(struct mpam_msc *msc);
> #define MPAMF_IDR_HAS_RIS BIT(32)
> #define MPAMF_IDR_HAS_EXTD_ESR BIT(38)
> #define MPAMF_IDR_HAS_ESR BIT(39)
> +#define MPAMF_IDR_HAS_ENDIS BIT(42)
> #define MPAMF_IDR_RIS_MAX GENMASK(59, 56)
>
> /* MPAMF_MSMON_IDR - MPAM performance monitoring ID register */