LDC changes for porting VCC driver into upstream kernel

This set of patches is part of an effort to port VCC (Virtual Channel Concentrator) and VDS (Virtual Disk Server) kernel modules from UEK4 (Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel 4) to the upstream kernel. UEK4 is one of the kernels used to develop Oracle's virtualization solutions.

The virtualization solutions typically involve the formation of domains, with one of them (primary domain) managing the other ones (guest domains). Each domain typically runs an OS.

VCC & VDS enable the virtualization of serial console and storage respectively, on SPARC processors. VCC provides access to the guest domain's serial console. VDS provides the ability to allocate storage to the guest domain.

Both VCC & VDS depend on some core functionalities in the linux kernel for SPARC. The functionalities include LDC (Logical Domain Channels), MDESC (Machine Descriptor) and VIO (Virtual IO protocol).

In order for VCC & VDS to be ported over to the kernel upstream, it requires that gaps in these core functionalities, between UEK4 & upstream, be bridged.

This set of patches focusses on bridging gaps in LDC functionality. Changes to MDESC, VIO and ultimately VCC & VDS would follow.

Jag Raman (5):
sparc64: expand LDC interface
sparc64: enhance ldc_abort to print message
sparc64: ensure LDC channel is ready before communication
sparc64: skip control packet while processing LDC RX queue
sparc64: print debug messages when reading from LDC channel

 arch/sparc/include/asm/ldc.h |   13 +++
 arch/sparc/kernel/ldc.c      |  178 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----------
 2 files changed, 148 insertions(+), 43 deletions(-)

Ping?

Jag

From: Jag Raman <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2017 13:18:39 -0400

Sorry I've been busy at a conference over the past week or so, I'll try to get to reviewing these changes soon.