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Subject: Re: [virtio-dev] [PATCH] [RFC RESEND] vdec: Add virtio video decode device specification


Hi Tomasz,

On Mittwoch, 9. Oktober 2019 05:55:45 CEST Tomasz Figa wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 8, 2019 at 12:09 AM Dmitry Morozov
> 
> <dmitry.morozov@opensynergy.com> wrote:
> > Hi Tomasz,
> > 
> > On Montag, 7. Oktober 2019 16:14:13 CEST Tomasz Figa wrote:
> > > Hi Dmitry,
> > > 
> > > On Mon, Oct 7, 2019 at 11:01 PM Dmitry Morozov
> > > 
> > > <dmitry.morozov@opensynergy.com> wrote:
> > > > Hello,
> > > > 
> > > > We at OpenSynergy are also working on an abstract paravirtualized
> > > > video
> > > > streaming device that operates input and/or output data buffers and
> > > > can be
> > > > used as a generic video decoder/encoder/input/output device.
> > > > 
> > > > We would be glad to share our thoughts and contribute to the
> > > > discussion.
> > > > Please see some comments regarding buffer allocation inline.
> > > > 
> > > > Best regards,
> > > > Dmitry.
> > > > 
> > > > On Samstag, 5. Oktober 2019 08:08:12 CEST Tomasz Figa wrote:
> > > > > Hi Gerd,
> > > > > 
> > > > > On Mon, Sep 23, 2019 at 5:56 PM Gerd Hoffmann <kraxel@redhat.com> 
wrote:
> > > > > >   Hi,
> > > > > >   
> > > > > > > Our prototype implementation uses [4], which allows the
> > > > > > > virtio-vdec
> > > > > > > device to use buffers allocated by virtio-gpu device.
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > [4] https://lkml.org/lkml/2019/9/12/157
> > > > > 
> > > > > First of all, thanks for taking a look at this RFC and for valuable
> > > > > feedback. Sorry for the late reply.
> > > > > 
> > > > > For reference, Keiichi is working with me and David Stevens on
> > > > > accelerated video support for virtual machines and integration with
> > > > > other virtual devices, like virtio-gpu for rendering or our
> > > > > currently-downstream virtio-wayland for display (I believe there is
> > > > > ongoing work to solve this problem in upstream too).
> > > > > 
> > > > > > Well.  I think before even discussing the protocol details we need
> > > > > > a
> > > > > > reasonable plan for buffer handling.  I think using virtio-gpu
> > > > > > buffers
> > > > > > should be an optional optimization and not a requirement.  Also
> > > > > > the
> > > > > > motivation for that should be clear (Let the host decoder write
> > > > > > directly
> > > > > > to virtio-gpu resources, to display video without copying around
> > > > > > the
> > > > > > decoded framebuffers from one device to another).
> > > > > 
> > > > > Just to make sure we're on the same page, what would the buffers
> > > > > come
> > > > > from if we don't use this optimization?
> > > > > 
> > > > > I can imagine a setup like this;
> > > > > 
> > > > >  1) host device allocates host memory appropriate for usage with
> > > > >  host
> > > > > 
> > > > > video decoder,
> > > > > 
> > > > >  2) guest driver allocates arbitrary guest pages for storage
> > > > > 
> > > > > accessible to the guest software,
> > > > > 
> > > > >  3) guest userspace writes input for the decoder to guest pages,
> > > > >  4) guest driver passes the list of pages for the input and output
> > > > > 
> > > > > buffers to the host device
> > > > > 
> > > > >  5) host device copies data from input guest pages to host buffer
> > > > >  6) host device runs the decoding
> > > > >  7) host device copies decoded frame to output guest pages
> > > > >  8) guest userspace can access decoded frame from those pages; back
> > > > >  to 3
> > > > > 
> > > > > Is that something you have in mind?
> > > > 
> > > > While GPU side allocations can be useful (especially in case of
> > > > decoder),
> > > > it could be more practical to stick to driver side allocations. This
> > > > is
> > > > also due to the fact that paravirtualized encoders and cameras are not
> > > > necessarily require a GPU device.
> > > > 
> > > > Also, the v4l2 framework already features convenient helpers for CMA
> > > > and
> > > > SG
> > > > allocations. The buffers can be used in the same manner as in
> > > > virtio-gpu:
> > > > buffers are first attached to an already allocated buffer/resource
> > > > descriptor and then are made available for processing by the device
> > > > using
> > > > a dedicated command from the driver.
> > > 
> > > First of all, thanks a lot for your input. This is a relatively new
> > > area of virtualization and we definitely need to collect various
> > > possible perspectives in the discussion.
> > > 
> > > From Chrome OS point of view, there are several aspects for which the
> > > guest side allocation doesn't really work well:
> > > 1) host-side hardware has a lot of specific low level allocation
> > > requirements, like alignments, paddings, address space limitations and
> > > so on, which is not something that can be (easily) taught to the guest
> > > OS,
> > 
> > I couldn't agree more. There are some changes by Greg to add support for
> > querying GPU buffer metadata. Probably those changes could be integrated
> > with 'a framework for cross-device buffer sharing' (something that Greg
> > mentioned earlier in the thread and that would totally make sense).
> 
> Did you mean one of Gerd's proposals?
> 
> I think we need some clarification there, as it's not clear to me
> whether the framework is host-side, guest-side or both. The approach I
> suggested would rely on a host-side framework and guest-side wouldn't
> need any special handling for sharing, because the memory would behave
> as on bare metal.
> 
> However allocation would still need some special API to express high
> level buffer parameters and delegate the exact allocation requirements
> to the host. Currently virtio-gpu already has such interface and also
> has a DRM driver, which were the 2 main reasons for us to use it as
> the allocator in Chrome OS. (minigbm/cros_gralloc are implemented on
> top of the Linux DRM API)
>
Yes, it was about Gerd's proposals. To be honest, I was considering guest 
allocations only. The operation flow in that case might look in more or less 
the same way: the driver (GPU, Codec/Camera) first allocates a resource 
descriptor on the host side. Than the driver uses the framework from above (so 
support on both sides might be required) to request buffer metadata and does 
allocations on the guest side accordingly. Then it attaches backing storage to 
the host resource.
> > > 2) allocation system is designed to be centralized, like Android
> > > gralloc, because there is almost never a case when a buffer is to be
> > > used only with 1 specific device. 99% of the cases are pipelines like
> > > decoder -> GPU/display, camera -> encoder + GPU/display, GPU ->
> > > encoder and so on, which means that allocations need to take into
> > > account multiple hardware constraints.
> > > 3) protected content decoding: the memory for decoded video frames
> > > must not be accessible to the guest at all
> > 
> > This looks like a valid use case. Would it also be possible for instance
> > to
> > allocate mem from a secure ION heap on the guest and then to provide the
> > sgt to the device? We don't necessarily need to map that sgt for guest
> > access.
> Could you elaborate on how that would work? Would the secure ION heap
> implementation use some protocol to request the allocation from the
> host?
> 
> Another aspect is that on Chrome OS we don't support pre-reserved
> carveout heaps, so we need this memory to be allocated by the host
> dynamically.
>
My take on this (for a decoder) would be to allocate memory for output buffers 
from a secure ION heap, import in the v4l2 driver, and then to provide those 
to the device using virtio. The device side then uses the dmabuf framework to 
make the buffers accessible for the hardware. I'm not sure about that, it's 
just an idea.
> > Best regards,
> > Dmitry.
> > 
> > > That said, the common desktop Linux model bases on allocating from the
> > > producer device (which is why videobuf2 has allocation capability) and
> > > we definitely need to consider this model, even if we just think about
> > > Linux V4L2 compliance. That's why I'm suggesting the unified memory
> > > handling based on guest physical addresses, which would handle both
> > > guest-allocated and host-allocated memory.
> > > 
> > > Best regards,
> > > Tomasz
> > > 
> > > > > > Referencing virtio-gpu buffers needs a better plan than just
> > > > > > re-using
> > > > > > virtio-gpu resource handles.  The handles are device-specific. 
> > > > > > What
> > > > > > if
> > > > > > there are multiple virtio-gpu devices present in the guest?
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > I think we need a framework for cross-device buffer sharing.  One
> > > > > > possible option would be to have some kind of buffer registry,
> > > > > > where
> > > > > > buffers can be registered for cross-device sharing and get a
> > > > > > unique
> > > > > > id (a uuid maybe?).  Drivers would typically register buffers on
> > > > > > dma-buf export.
> > > > > 
> > > > > This approach could possibly let us handle this transparently to
> > > > > importers, which would work for guest kernel subsystems that rely on
> > > > > the ability to handle buffers like native memory (e.g. having a
> > > > > sgtable or DMA address) for them.
> > > > > 
> > > > > How about allocating guest physical addresses for memory
> > > > > corresponding
> > > > > to those buffers? On the virtio-gpu example, that could work like
> > > > > 
> > > > > this:
> > > > >  - by default a virtio-gpu buffer has only a resource handle,
> > > > >  - VIRTIO_GPU_RESOURCE_EXPORT command could be called to have the
> > > > > 
> > > > > virtio-gpu device export the buffer to a host framework (inside the
> > > > > VMM) that would allocate guest page addresses for it, which the
> > > > > command would return in a response to the guest,
> > > > > 
> > > > >  - virtio-gpu driver could then create a regular DMA-buf object for
> > > > > 
> > > > > such memory, because it's just backed by pages (even though they may
> > > > > not be accessible to the guest; just like in the case of TrustZone
> > > > > memory protection on bare metal systems),
> > > > > 
> > > > >  - any consumer would be able to handle such buffer like a regular
> > > > > 
> > > > > guest memory, passing low-level scatter-gather tables to the host as
> > > > > buffer descriptors - this would nicely integrate with the basic case
> > > > > without buffer sharing, as described above.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Another interesting side effect of the above approach would be the
> > > > > ease of integration with virtio-iommu. If the virtio master device
> > > > > is
> > > > > put behind a virtio-iommu, the guest page addresses become the input
> > > > > to iommu page tables and IOVA addresses go to the host via the
> > > > > virtio
> > > > > master device protocol, inside the low-level scatter-gather tables.
> > > > > 
> > > > > What do you think?
> 
> I was recently thinking about emulating real devices, like a USB
> camera (via an emulated USB host controller) and realized that this
> approach would also make it possible for such hardware to share
> buffers with virtio (or paravirtualized in general) devices in a
> zero-copy manner, because the memory would be described as on a native
> system, using a scatter-gather list of DMA addresses.
> 
> Best regards,
> Tomasz
> 
> > > > > Best regards,
> > > > > Tomasz
> > > > > 
> > > > > > Another option would be to pass around both buffer handle and
> > > > > > buffer
> > > > > > owner, i.e. instead of "u32 handle" have something like this:
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > struct buffer_reference {
> > > > > > 
> > > > > >         enum device_type; /* pci, virtio-mmio, ... */
> > > > > >         union device_address {
> > > > > >         
> > > > > >                 struct pci_address pci_addr;
> > > > > >                 u64 virtio_mmio_addr;
> > > > > >                 [ ... ]
> > > > > >         
> > > > > >         };
> > > > > >         u64 device_buffer_handle; /* device-specific, virtio-gpu
> > > > > >         could
> > > > > >         use
> > > > > >         resource ids here */>
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > };
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > cheers,
> > > > > > 
> > > > > >   Gerd
> > > > > 
> > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------
> > > > > -
> > > > > To unsubscribe, e-mail: virtio-dev-unsubscribe@lists.oasis-open.org
> > > > > For additional commands, e-mail:
> > > > > virtio-dev-help@lists.oasis-open.org
> > 
> > --
> > 
> > Dmitry Morozov
> > Senior Software Engineer
> > 
> > OpenSynergy GmbH
> > Rotherstr. 20, 10245 Berlin
> > 
> > Phone:    +49 30 60 98 54 0 - 910
> > Fax:      +49 30 60 98 54 0 - 99
-- 

Dmitry Morozov
Senior Software Engineer

OpenSynergy GmbH
Rotherstr. 20, 10245 Berlin

Phone:    +49 30 60 98 54 0 - 910
Fax:      +49 30 60 98 54 0 - 99




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