82 lines
3.1 KiB
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82 lines
3.1 KiB
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.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
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=========================
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LPFC Driver Release Notes
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=========================
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.. important::
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Starting in the 8.0.17 release, the driver began to be targeted strictly
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toward the upstream kernel. As such, we removed #ifdefs for older kernels
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(pre 2.6.10). The 8.0.16 release should be used if the driver is to be
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run on one of the older kernels.
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The proposed modifications to the transport layer for FC remote ports
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and extended attribute support is now part of the upstream kernel
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as of 2.6.12. We no longer need to provide patches for this support,
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nor a *full* version which has old an new kernel support.
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The driver now requires a 2.6.12 (if pre-release, 2.6.12-rc1) or later
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kernel.
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Please heed these dependencies....
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The following information is provided for additional background on the
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history of the driver as we push for upstream acceptance.
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Cable pull and temporary device Loss:
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In older revisions of the lpfc driver, the driver internally queued i/o
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received from the midlayer. In the cases where a cable was pulled, link
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jitter, or a device temporarily loses connectivity (due to its cable
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being removed, a switch rebooting, or a device reboot), the driver could
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hide the disappearance of the device from the midlayer. I/O's issued to
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the LLDD would simply be queued for a short duration, allowing the device
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to reappear or link come back alive, with no inadvertent side effects
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to the system. If the driver did not hide these conditions, i/o would be
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errored by the driver, the mid-layer would exhaust its retries, and the
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device would be taken offline. Manual intervention would be required to
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re-enable the device.
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The community supporting kernel.org has driven an effort to remove
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internal queuing from all LLDDs. The philosophy is that internal
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queuing is unnecessary as the block layer already performs the
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queuing. Removing the queues from the LLDD makes a more predictable
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and more simple LLDD.
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As a potential new addition to kernel.org, the 8.x driver was asked to
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have all internal queuing removed. Emulex complied with this request.
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In explaining the impacts of this change, Emulex has worked with the
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community in modifying the behavior of the SCSI midlayer so that SCSI
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devices can be temporarily suspended while transport events (such as
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those described) can occur.
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The proposed patch was posted to the linux-scsi mailing list. The patch
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is contained in the 2.6.10-rc2 (and later) patch kits. As such, this
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patch is part of the standard 2.6.10 kernel.
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By default, the driver expects the patches for block/unblock interfaces
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to be present in the kernel. No #define needs to be set to enable support.
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Kernel Support
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==============
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This source package is targeted for the upstream kernel only. (See notes
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at the top of this file). It relies on interfaces that are slowing
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migrating into the kernel.org kernel.
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At this time, the driver requires the 2.6.12 (if pre-release, 2.6.12-rc1)
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kernel.
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If a driver is needed for older kernels please utilize the 8.0.16
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driver sources.
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Patches
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=======
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Thankfully, at this time, patches are not needed.
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