DesignWare controllers synthesised with the Multiple SAR feature (e.g.
Marvell CN20K) only acknowledge traffic to the primary slave address
(IC_SAR) when IC_ENABLE[19] (SAR_EN) is set. The slave enable path
writes only IC_ENABLE[0], so on such controllers the target never ACKs
its address and a remote master cannot reach it.

Set SAR_EN together with ENABLE when entering slave mode. The bit is
reserved (and ignored) on single-SAR controllers, so existing users are
unaffected.

Signed-off-by: Umesh Kumar <ukumar@marvell.com>
Acked-by: Mika Westerberg <mika.westerberg@linux.intel.com>
---
Changes in v2:
 - No functional change; dropped the RFC tag.
 - Added Mika's Acked-by.

 drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-designware-common.c | 9 ++++++++-
 drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-designware-core.h   | 6 ++++++
 2 files changed, 14 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-designware-common.c b/drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-designware-common.c
index 4dc57fd56170..b6f3d71cf268 100644
--- a/drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-designware-common.c
+++ b/drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-designware-common.c
@@ -374,7 +374,14 @@ static void i2c_dw_configure_mode(struct dw_i2c_dev *dev, int mode)
 		regmap_write(dev->map, DW_IC_CON, dev->slave_cfg);
 		regmap_write(dev->map, DW_IC_SAR, dev->slave->addr);
 		regmap_write(dev->map, DW_IC_INTR_MASK, DW_IC_INTR_SLAVE_MASK);
-		__i2c_dw_enable(dev);
+		/*
+		 * Controllers synthesised with the Multiple SAR feature only
+		 * acknowledge traffic to IC_SAR when SAR_EN is set; a plain
+		 * enable is not enough. The bit is reserved (ignored) on
+		 * single-SAR controllers.
+		 */
+		regmap_write(dev->map, DW_IC_ENABLE,
+			     DW_IC_ENABLE_ENABLE | DW_IC_ENABLE_SAR_EN);
 		break;
 	default:
 		WARN(1, "Invalid mode %d\n", mode);
diff --git a/drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-designware-core.h b/drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-designware-core.h
index 9d8d104cc391..35eaf2d7404f 100644
--- a/drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-designware-core.h
+++ b/drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-designware-core.h
@@ -125,6 +125,12 @@
 
 #define DW_IC_ENABLE_ENABLE			BIT(0)
 #define DW_IC_ENABLE_ABORT			BIT(1)
+/*
+ * On controllers synthesised with the Multiple SAR feature (e.g. Marvell
+ * CN20K), the primary slave address register (IC_SAR) only acknowledges bus
+ * traffic when this bit is set. It is reserved on single-SAR controllers.
+ */
+#define DW_IC_ENABLE_SAR_EN			BIT(19)
 
 #define DW_IC_STATUS_ACTIVITY			BIT(0)
 #define DW_IC_STATUS_TFE			BIT(2)
-- 
2.43.0

On Wed, Aug 12, 2026 at 09:10:17AM +0530, Umesh Kumar wrote:
> DesignWare controllers synthesised with the Multiple SAR feature (e.g.
> Marvell CN20K) only acknowledge traffic to the primary slave address
> (IC_SAR) when IC_ENABLE[19] (SAR_EN) is set. The slave enable path
> writes only IC_ENABLE[0], so on such controllers the target never ACKs
> its address and a remote master cannot reach it.
> 
> Set SAR_EN together with ENABLE when entering slave mode. The bit is
> reserved (and ignored) on single-SAR controllers, so existing users are
> unaffected.

In the commit message and in the code comment below, can we refer to Synopsys
DataBook for I²C where this bit is described? Or is it Marvell custom bit?

-- 
With Best Regards,
Andy Shevchenko