slow snd_rawmidi_drain() for VirMidi devcies

Takashi Iwai tiwai at suse.de
Wed Jan 5 21:20:18 CET 2022


On Wed, 05 Jan 2022 20:53:33 +0100,
Stefan Sauer wrote:
> 
> From 6b97042bc91ebee267cbb05e6b937cbab5502f61 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
> From: Stefan Sauer <ensonic at google.com>
> Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2022 20:44:57 +0100
> Subject: [PATCH] ALSA: seq: virmidi: Add a drain operation
> 
> If a driver does not supply a drain operation for outputs, a default code
> path will execute msleep(50). Especially for a virtual midi device
> this severely limits the throughput.
> 
> This implementation for the virtual midi driver simply flushes the output
> workqueue.

Your signed-off-by is missing.  Could you resubmit with it?


thanks,

Takashi

> ---
>  sound/core/seq/seq_virmidi.c | 11 +++++++++++
>  1 file changed, 11 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/sound/core/seq/seq_virmidi.c b/sound/core/seq/seq_virmidi.c
> index 4abc38c70cae..1d708dc20443 100644
> --- a/sound/core/seq/seq_virmidi.c
> +++ b/sound/core/seq/seq_virmidi.c
> @@ -262,6 +262,16 @@ static int snd_virmidi_output_close(struct
> snd_rawmidi_substream *substream)
>   return 0;
>  }
>  
> +/*
> + * drain output work queue
> + */
> +static void snd_virmidi_output_drain(struct snd_rawmidi_substream *substream)
> +{
> + struct snd_virmidi *vmidi = substream->runtime->private_data;
> +
> + flush_work(&vmidi->output_work);
> +}
> +
>  /*
>   * subscribe callback - allow output to rawmidi device
>   */
> @@ -336,6 +346,7 @@ static const struct snd_rawmidi_ops snd_virmidi_output_ops
> = {
>   .open = snd_virmidi_output_open,
>   .close = snd_virmidi_output_close,
>   .trigger = snd_virmidi_output_trigger,
> + .drain = snd_virmidi_output_drain,
>  };
>  
>  /*
> --
> 2.34.1
> 
> Am Mi., 5. Jan. 2022 um 15:13 Uhr schrieb Takashi Iwai <tiwai at suse.de>:
> >
> > On Wed, 05 Jan 2022 14:39:05 +0100,
> > Stefan Sauer wrote:
> > >
> > > -   28,78%     0,00%  rawmidi_alsa  [snd_rawmidi]         [k]
> > > snd_rawmidi_drain_output
> > >    - snd_rawmidi_drain_output
> > >       - 26,59% msleep
> > >            schedule_timeout
> > >            schedule
> > >          + __schedule
> > >       + 2,13% schedule_timeout
> > >
> > > Seems to be because of:
> > > https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/sound/core/rawmidi.c#L244
> > > if (substream->ops->drain)
> > >   substream->ops->drain(substream);
> > > else
> > >   msleep(50);
> > >
> > > It see what fileops have no drain impl:
> > > https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/sound/core/rawmidi.c#L1708
> > > and I see
> > > 
> https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/sound/core/seq/seq_virmidi.c#L329
> > > that define no drain op. Not which ones are actually used here :/
> > >
> > > The docs confirm teh 50 ms wait though:
> > > 
> https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/Documentation/sound/kernel-api/writing-an-alsa-driver.rst#drain-callback
> > >
> > > would it make sense to have a dummy drain function for the seq_virmidi
> output
> > > ops?
> >
> > Yes, a proper drain implementation is definitely better.
> > I guess just calling flush_work(&vmidi->output_work) there would
> > suffice.
> >
> >
> > thanks,
> >
> > Takashi
> >
> > >
> > > Stefan
> > >
> > > Am Di., 4. Jan. 2022 um 16:54 Uhr schrieb Takashi Iwai <tiwai at suse.de>:
> > >
> > >     On Sat, 01 Jan 2022 12:49:13 +0100,
> > >     Stefan Sauer wrote:
> > >     >
> > >     > hi,
> > >     >
> > >     > I've tried to link BitwigStudio to the webapp cables.gl over
> virmidi.
> > >     > Unfortunately Bitwig Studio only supports rawmidi. What I discovered
> is
> > >     > that there is a strange slowness when sending data to virmidi caused
> > >     > by snd_rawmidi_drain().
> > >     >
> > >     > I've posted two tiny, self-contained c apps to:
> > >     > https://gist.github.com/ensonic/c7588b87fa6c1fa94a8f753b1e0aa394
> > >     > See some examples below. 2 observations:
> > >     > * snd_rawmidi_type() is *not* reporting virmidi as VIRTUAL
> > >     > * snd_rawmidi_drain() takes about 60ms! on virtual vs. less that 0.1
> ms
> > >     on
> > >     > usb midi (I checked all my hw midi and the worst was avg=1ms on
> physical
> > >     > midi image unitor8)
> > >     >
> > >     > When comparing the implementations:
> > >     >
> > >     
> https://github.com/alsa-project/alsa-lib/blob/master/src/rawmidi/rawmidi_virt.c#L173
> > >     >
> > >     
> https://github.com/alsa-project/alsa-lib/blob/master/src/rawmidi/rawmidi_hw.c#L164
> > >     > I see that the hw one results in an IOCTL which I can see when
> striking
> > >     the
> > >     > code and I wonder if this is the root cause? Why is rawmidi_virt.c
> not
> > >     used
> > >     > for virmidi?
> > >     > >From poking at snd_rawmidi_open_conf() I have not yet figured where
> > >     this is
> > >     > decided ....
> > >     >
> > >     > Stefan
> > >     >
> > >     > > amidi -l
> > >     > Dir Device    Name
> > >     > IO  hw:0,0,0  Scarlett 18i20 USB MIDI 1
> > >     > IO  hw:3,0,0  nanoKEY2 nanoKEY2 _ KEYBOARD
> > >     > IO  hw:5,0,0  nanoKONTROL nanoKONTROL _ SLIDE
> > >     > IO  hw:10,0    Virtual Raw MIDI (16 subdevices)
> > >     > IO  hw:11,0    Virtual Raw MIDI (16 subdevices)
> > >     >
> > >     > # using direct i/o to virmidi - all good
> > >     > > ./rawmidi_oss /dev/midi11 0
> > >     > Using device '/dev/midi11' without draining
> > >     > write took min=  0.0015 ms, avg=  0.0016 ms, max=  0.0110 ms
> > >     > > ./rawmidi_oss /dev/midi11 1
> > >     > Using device '/dev/midi11' with draining
> > >     > write took min=  0.0015 ms, avg=  0.0017 ms, max=  0.0101 ms
> > >     > drain took min=  0.0001 ms, avg=  0.0001 ms, max=  0.0008 ms
> > >     >
> > >     > # using snd_rawmidi to virmidi - slow drain operations
> > >     > > ./rawmidi_alsa hw:11,0 0
> > >     > Using device 'hw:11,0' without draining
> > >     > SND_RAWMIDI_TYPE_HW
> > >     > write took min=  0.0010 ms, avg=  0.0011 ms, max=  0.0056 ms
> > >     > > ./rawmidi_alsa hw:11,0 1
> > >     > Using device 'hw:11,0' with draining
> > >     > SND_RAWMIDI_TYPE_HW
> > >     > write took min=  0.0016 ms, avg=  0.0040 ms, max=  0.0077 ms
> > >     > drain took min= 55.9951 ms, avg= 60.4330 ms, max= 64.0653 ms
> > >     >
> > >     > # using snd_rawmidi to usb hw - all good
> > >     > > ./rawmidi_alsa hw:3,0 0
> > >     > Using device 'hw:3,0' without draining
> > >     > SND_RAWMIDI_TYPE_HW
> > >     > write took min=  0.0012 ms, avg=  0.0015 ms, max=  0.0121 ms
> > >     > > ./rawmidi_alsa hw:3,0 1
> > >     > Using device 'hw:3,0' with draining
> > >     > SND_RAWMIDI_TYPE_HW
> > >     > write took min=  0.0024 ms, avg=  0.0032 ms, max=  0.0110 ms
> > >     > drain took min=  0.0293 ms, avg=  0.0636 ms, max=  0.2277 ms
> > >  
> > >     This kind of thing needs profiling.  You can try perf or whatever
> > >     available, and identify which call takes long.  My wild guess is
> > >     something about snd_seq_sync_output_queue(), maybe poll syscall takes
> > >     unexpected long.
> > >
> > >     thanks,
> > >  
> > >     Takashi
> > >
> > >
> 
> 


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