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| author | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2026-08-24 08:46:03 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2026-08-24 08:46:03 -0700 |
| commit | cf9610f9116d55c5a66ef9f1faecacabd93a9322 (patch) | |
| tree | 757a3d280760c654767631cab5ad8af2d86d1848 /Documentation/driver-api/virtio/virtio.rst | |
| download | linux-stable-cf9610f9116d55c5a66ef9f1faecacabd93a9322.tar.gz linux-stable-cf9610f9116d55c5a66ef9f1faecacabd93a9322.zip | |
Merge tag 'pinctrl-v7.3-1' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/linusw/linux-pinctrlgrafted
Pull pin control updates from Linus Walleij:
"Core changes:
- Use the non-blocking mux_state_try_select() in the generic MUX pin
control back-end
- Free pin maps on pinctrl_generic_to_map() failure in the core
helpers
New hardware pin control:
- Qualcomm Maili TLMM SoC, PMG1110 PMIC, and Eliza LPASS LPI TLMM SoC
(this is for the low power audio, LPASS = Low Power Audio SubSystem
portions)
- Upboard support on top of the Intel pin controller
- Apple T6030 and T6031 support (just compatible strings)
- Samsung Exynos 8855 SoC
- Mediatek MT6858 SoC
- Rockchip RK3308B and RV1106 SoCs
- Airoha EN7523 and AN7563 SoCs
Improvements:
- Qualcomm TLMM GPIOs are unconditionally marked as wakeup capable
- Qualcomm improvements on top of the Qualcomm PDC (power domain
controller) irqchip improvements from tglx:s tree
- Qualcomm IPQ806x and IPQ9650 non-urgent pin grop fixups
- The NPCM8xx driver has been put into shape fixing many pin and
group definitions
- Some non-urgent Tegra 264 pin assignments are fixed up
- Some non-urgent fixups to Airoha AN7581 and AN7583 registers and
pin assignments, missing features etc"
* tag 'pinctrl-v7.3-1' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/linusw/linux-pinctrl: (130 commits)
dt-bindings: pinctrl: Convert TI DA850 pupd to DT schema
pinctrl: meson: sync some modify from A4
pinctrl: meson: a4: Add input enable pin configuration
pinctrl: realtek: rtd1625: remove unused group name spdif_sel
pinctrl: realtek: rtd1625: fix base_bit for VE4 GPIO 13
dt-bindings: pinctrl: microchip,pic32mzda-pinctrl: Convert to DT schema
Revert "Merge branch 'ib-rsk7204' into devel"
pinctrl: rockchip: Add RV1106 pinctrl support
dt-bindings: pinctrl: rockchip: Add RV1106 compatible
pinctrl: rockchip: Decode drive strength in the get function
pinctrl: fix PINCTRL_GENERIC_MUX not always being selectable
pinctrl: airoha: add support of an7563 SoC
dt-bindings: pinctrl: airoha: add support of an7563 pin controller
pinctrl: airoha: try to find chip scu node by phandle first
pinctrl: airoha: add support of en7523 SoC
dt-bindings: pinctrl: airoha: add support of en7523 pin controller
pinctrl: airoha: an7583: add support for olt pinmux
pinctrl: airoha: an7583: add support for pon_alt pinmux
pinctrl: airoha: an7583: add support for npu_uart pinmux
dt-bindings: pinctrl: airoha: an7583: add missed features
...
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/driver-api/virtio/virtio.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/driver-api/virtio/virtio.rst | 145 |
1 files changed, 145 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/driver-api/virtio/virtio.rst b/Documentation/driver-api/virtio/virtio.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7947b4ca6 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/driver-api/virtio/virtio.rst @@ -0,0 +1,145 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 + +.. _virtio: + +=============== +Virtio on Linux +=============== + +Introduction +============ + +Virtio is an open standard that defines a protocol for communication +between drivers and devices of different types, see Chapter 5 ("Device +Types") of the virtio spec (`[1]`_). Originally developed as a standard +for paravirtualized devices implemented by a hypervisor, it can be used +to interface any compliant device (real or emulated) with a driver. + +For illustrative purposes, this document will focus on the common case +of a Linux kernel running in a virtual machine and using paravirtualized +devices provided by the hypervisor, which exposes them as virtio devices +via standard mechanisms such as PCI. + + +Device - Driver communication: virtqueues +========================================= + +Although the virtio devices are really an abstraction layer in the +hypervisor, they're exposed to the guest as if they are physical devices +using a specific transport method -- PCI, MMIO or CCW -- that is +orthogonal to the device itself. The virtio spec defines these transport +methods in detail, including device discovery, capabilities and +interrupt handling. + +The communication between the driver in the guest OS and the device in +the hypervisor is done through shared memory (that's what makes virtio +devices so efficient) using specialized data structures called +virtqueues, which are actually ring buffers [#f1]_ of buffer descriptors +similar to the ones used in a network device: + +.. kernel-doc:: include/uapi/linux/virtio_ring.h + :identifiers: struct vring_desc + +All the buffers the descriptors point to are allocated by the guest and +used by the host either for reading or for writing but not for both. + +Refer to Chapter 2.5 ("Virtqueues") of the virtio spec (`[1]`_) for the +reference definitions of virtqueues and "Virtqueues and virtio ring: How +the data travels" blog post (`[2]`_) for an illustrated overview of how +the host device and the guest driver communicate. + +The :c:type:`vring_virtqueue` struct models a virtqueue, including the +ring buffers and management data. Embedded in this struct is the +:c:type:`virtqueue` struct, which is the data structure that's +ultimately used by virtio drivers: + +.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/virtio.h + :identifiers: struct virtqueue + +The callback function pointed by this struct is triggered when the +device has consumed the buffers provided by the driver. More +specifically, the trigger will be an interrupt issued by the hypervisor +(see vring_interrupt()). Interrupt request handlers are registered for +a virtqueue during the virtqueue setup process (transport-specific). + +.. kernel-doc:: drivers/virtio/virtio_ring.c + :identifiers: vring_interrupt + + +Device discovery and probing +============================ + +In the kernel, the virtio core contains the virtio bus driver and +transport-specific drivers like `virtio-pci` and `virtio-mmio`. Then +there are individual virtio drivers for specific device types that are +registered to the virtio bus driver. + +How a virtio device is found and configured by the kernel depends on how +the hypervisor defines it. Taking the `QEMU virtio-console +<https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu/-/blob/master/hw/char/virtio-console.c>`__ +device as an example. When using PCI as a transport method, the device +will present itself on the PCI bus with vendor 0x1af4 (Red Hat, Inc.) +and device id 0x1003 (virtio console), as defined in the spec, so the +kernel will detect it as it would do with any other PCI device. + +During the PCI enumeration process, if a device is found to match the +virtio-pci driver (according to the virtio-pci device table, any PCI +device with vendor id = 0x1af4):: + + /* Qumranet donated their vendor ID for devices 0x1000 thru 0x10FF. */ + static const struct pci_device_id virtio_pci_id_table[] = { + { PCI_DEVICE(PCI_VENDOR_ID_REDHAT_QUMRANET, PCI_ANY_ID) }, + { 0 } + }; + +then the virtio-pci driver is probed and, if the probing goes well, the +device is registered to the virtio bus:: + + static int virtio_pci_probe(struct pci_dev *pci_dev, + const struct pci_device_id *id) + { + ... + + if (force_legacy) { + rc = virtio_pci_legacy_probe(vp_dev); + /* Also try modern mode if we can't map BAR0 (no IO space). */ + if (rc == -ENODEV || rc == -ENOMEM) + rc = virtio_pci_modern_probe(vp_dev); + if (rc) + goto err_probe; + } else { + rc = virtio_pci_modern_probe(vp_dev); + if (rc == -ENODEV) + rc = virtio_pci_legacy_probe(vp_dev); + if (rc) + goto err_probe; + } + + ... + + rc = register_virtio_device(&vp_dev->vdev); + +When the device is registered to the virtio bus the kernel will look +for a driver in the bus that can handle the device and call that +driver's ``probe`` method. + +At this point, the virtqueues will be allocated and configured by +calling the appropriate ``virtio_find`` helper function, such as +virtio_find_single_vq() or virtio_find_vqs(), which will end up calling +a transport-specific ``find_vqs`` method. + + +References +========== + +_`[1]` Virtio Spec v1.2: +https://docs.oasis-open.org/virtio/virtio/v1.2/virtio-v1.2.html + +.. Check for later versions of the spec as well. + +_`[2]` Virtqueues and virtio ring: How the data travels +https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/virtqueues-and-virtio-ring-how-data-travels + +.. rubric:: Footnotes + +.. [#f1] that's why they may be also referred to as virtrings. |
