arch/arm/src/imxrt: Fix FlexCAN TX timeout aborting live mailboxes.

[dakejahl]

Summary

Three defects in the i.MX RT FlexCAN transmit path, all found while chasing an error-passive storm on an ARK FMU-v6XRT.

imxrt_txtimeout_work() aborts the wrong mailboxes. It aborts mailbox RXMBCOUNT + mbi while the deadline it consulted belongs to RXMBCOUNT + 1 + mbi, so every abort lands one mailbox low; mbi == 0 writes CAN_TXMB_ABORT into the buffer reserved for the ERR005829 workaround and the highest TX mailbox is never aborted at all. Its expiry test is now.tv_sec > d.tv_sec || now.tv_usec > d.tv_usec, which declares any deadline crossing a second boundary expired, and the now it compares against is a struct timespec cast to a struct timeval. The walk runs to TXMBCOUNT, which counts the reserved mailbox too, so the last iteration addresses one mailbox past the ring and mb_address[] one past its end — in bounds today only because txmb[] is never written that far. And imxrt_txdone() cancels the watchdog but leaves txmb[].deadline set, so a retired mailbox looks expired forever and the next expiry on any other mailbox aborts whatever frame has since been loaded there.

Since imxrt_txmb_next() only hands out a mailbox above every pending one, a mailbox left in DATAORREMOTE also pins the allocator at TOTALMBCOUNT and transmit never recovers.

imxrt_transmit() stores the deadline before it knows the frame is going out. The early return for an already-expired deadline then leaves that deadline on a mailbox holding no frame, and the next watchdog expiry counts a transmit timeout that did not happen and aborts a mailbox the allocator may since have handed to a live frame.

MCR[MAXMB] is OR-ed in rather than assigned. MAXMB resets to 0x0f, so the OR can only raise it: every configuration with fewer than 16 mailboxes runs with MAXMB = 15 and FlexCAN arbitrates over mailboxes the driver never initialised — with the classic payload layout MB14 and MB15 hold power-on contents, and with a 64-byte CAN FD layout they are past the end of the mailbox RAM region. s32k1xx_flexcan.c already carries this fix; the same two lines go here.

The same timeval cast, the same OR-ed expiry test and the same unwritten deadline are in kinetis_flexcan.c, s32k1xx_flexcan.c and s32k3xx_flexcan.c, and the MAXMB one in kinetis and s32k3xx. Those drivers index priv->tx[mbi] directly, so the mailbox off-by-one is imxrt's alone. Left untouched here because there is no hardware to test them on — happy to extend the PR if a maintainer prefers.

Impact

• Is new feature added? NO
• Is existing feature changed? YES — a transmit deadline now expires when it is actually due, and aborts the mailbox that owns it.
• Impact on user? YES — SocketCAN on i.MX RT no longer loses the interface to one expired frame. No API change.
• Impact on build? NO
• Impact on hardware? YES — i.MX RT boards using SocketCAN.
• Impact on documentation? NO
• Impact on security? NO
• Impact on compatibility? NO

Testing

ARK FMU-v6XRT (i.MX RT1176), ark_fmu-v6xrt_default, arm-none-eabi-gcc 13.2.1. Two 1 Mbit/s DroneCAN buses with a GNSS node on each, driven by the PX4 uavcan driver. ECR, ESR1 and MCR read over SWD without halting the core.

TX timeout fix, one bus at 736 offered frames/s (9% utilisation):

before:  0 frames/s transmitted, ECR[TXERRCNT] pinned at 128,
         ESR1[FLTCONF] error passive, still dead after a reboot
after:   734 frames/s, 0.1% loss, TXERRCNT 0, error active

MAXMB fix, MCR read back on both instances:

before:  0x0063180f   (MAXMB 15, 14 mailboxes configured)
after:   0x0063180d   (MAXMB 13)

No regression at 8-channel ESC RawCommand to both buses at 400 Hz plus RawIMU back — 705 offered frames/s per bus, 31% utilisation, 120 s: 0 error episodes, TXERRCNT 0, 0 transmit timeouts, 0.00% loss on both interfaces.

The deadline-store fix is structural; its window is too narrow to provoke deliberately, and it is covered by the same run showing no timeouts.

[github-actions]

MemBrowse Memory Report

No memory changes detected for:

• arduino-mega2560
• esp32-devkitc
• hifive1-revb
• mirtoo
• qemu-armv8a
• qemu-intel64
• rx65n-rsk2mb
• s698pm-dkit
• stm32-nucleo-f103rb

[dakejahl]

@PetervdPerk-NXP FYI

The same timeval cast, the same OR-ed expiry test and the same unwritten deadline are in kinetis_flexcan.c, s32k1xx_flexcan.c and s32k3xx_flexcan.c