First working DFU capable u-boot

[Werner Almesberger]

Harald Welte wrote:
> JFYI: I've just committed (svn REv. 1107) the first 'mostly working but
> still lots of known bugs' version of the DFU capable u-boot.

Yipeee, thanks !!

Regarding bug #209:

To avoid race conditions, I'd propose the following scheme. Assumes that
- there are no other interrupts doing serious I/O during a DFU interrupt,
- DFU runs only from interrupts,
- if not ready, DFU can drop/ignore requests,
- foreground polls input frequenty,
- user input can polled, i.e., we don't need to call any "sleep until
  data is ready" sort of function.


Shared:

extern volatile enum { DFU_NONE, DFU_REQ, DFU_ACK } dfu_req = DFU_NONE;


Foreground (menu, etc.):

int getchar(void)
{
	while (!have_char_input()) { /* quick poll */
		cli();
		if (dfu_req != DFU_REQ)
			sti();
		else {
			dfu_req = DFU_ACK;
			sti();
			while (dfu_req == DFU_ACK);
		}
	}
	return obtain_char();
}


Background (DFU interrupt):

void dfu_interrupt(void)
{
	...
	if (enter_dfu_mode()) {
		if (dfu_req == DFU_NORMAL)
			dfu_req = DFU_REQ;
	}
	else {
		/* already in DFU mode */
		if (dfu_req != DFU_ACK)
			drop_interrupt_and_packet();
		else {
			/* do work */
			dfu_req = DFU_NORMAL; /* when done with DFU */
		}
	}
}


Special:
- the code above already handles attempts to enter DFU mode twice
  (not sure if this can happen)

All this is rough pseudo-code. I think something like this would
avoid pretty much all possible races, without putting too heavy
requirements on instrumentation. (I.e., it's more like RCUs than
semaphores.)

- Werner

-- 
  _________________________________________________________________________
 / Werner Almesberger, Buenos Aires, Argentina     werner at almesberger.net /
/_http://www.almesberger.net/____________________________________________/