[dpdk-dev] [PATCH] net/vdev_netvsc: print warning if Mellanox devices are not configured

[Stephen Hemminger]

On Fri, 24 May 2019 18:38:53 +0200
Thomas Monjalon <thomas at monjalon.net> wrote:

> 24/05/2019 18:07, Stephen Hemminger:
> > On Fri, 24 May 2019 14:26:40 +0100
> > Ferruh Yigit <ferruh.yigit at intel.com> wrote:
> >   
> > > On 5/23/2019 11:01 PM, Stephen Hemminger wrote:  
> > > > Several users have run into problems where the MLX drivers were not
> > > > enabled in their build. And then trying to run their DPDK
> > > > application on Azure. What happens is that all packets
> > > > go over the slow path, and failsafe repeatedly probes for never
> > > > existing sub-device.
> > > > 
> > > > Both Mellanox drivers should be checked. MLX4 for current versions,
> > > > and MLX5 for future upgrades. This code is only called if Hyper-V/Azure
> > > > is detected.
> > > > 
> > > > Signed-off-by: Stephen Hemminger <sthemmin at microsoft.com>
> > > > ---
> > > >  drivers/net/vdev_netvsc/vdev_netvsc.c | 7 +++++++
> > > >  1 file changed, 7 insertions(+)
> > > > 
> > > > diff --git a/drivers/net/vdev_netvsc/vdev_netvsc.c b/drivers/net/vdev_netvsc/vdev_netvsc.c
> > > > index 801f54c96e01..64f9dbf66e18 100644
> > > > --- a/drivers/net/vdev_netvsc/vdev_netvsc.c
> > > > +++ b/drivers/net/vdev_netvsc/vdev_netvsc.c
> > > > @@ -812,6 +812,13 @@ vdev_netvsc_scan_callback(__rte_unused void *arg)
> > > >  	struct rte_devargs *devargs;
> > > >  	struct rte_bus *vbus = rte_bus_find_by_name("vdev");
> > > >  
> > > > +#ifndef RTE_LIBRTE_MLX4_PMD
> > > > +	DRV_LOG(WARNING, "Mellanox MLX4 not configured.");
> > > > +#endif
> > > > +#ifndef RTE_LIBRTE_MLX5_PMD
> > > > +	DRV_LOG(WARNING, "Mellanox MLX5 not configured.");
> > > > +#endif    
> > > 
> > > Is it OK a virtual PMD being this much aware of another PMD?
> > > Can it be an option to add this check into build system? And if there is direct
> > > dependency perhaps even don't compile the 'vdev_netvsc' when none mlx PMD is
> > > enabled.  
> > 
> > vdev_netvsc is not a device, it is really just a hack to start other
> > device drivers on Hyper-V/Azure.  If the build system supported dependencies
> > (like Linux kbuild) this would not be necessary. Meson only does dynamic dependencies
> > so that doesn't help.
> > 
> > This is a warning and not fatal only because application will still at
> > least run, and somebody may want to run with SR-IOV with Intel NIC's on Hyper-V.
> > 
> > 
> > The warning is just to give users better immediate feedback rather than
> > trying to diagnose poor performance or mystery device not found messages.  
> 
> 
> It really looks strange to me.
> What you need is to fail at compilation if requested PMD is not built.
> I would advise to work on a script to configure meson.

None of the people that ran into this were using meson build.
For example, VPP doesn't use meson.