> On Tue, 19 Feb 2008 09:02:30 -0500
> Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@polymtl.ca> wrote:
>
> > * Pekka Enberg (
penberg@cs.helsinki.fi) wrote:
> > > On Feb 19, 2008 8:54 AM, Torsten Kaiser <just.for.lkml@googlemail.com> wrote:
> > > > > > [ 5282.056415] ------------[ cut here ]------------
> > > > > > [ 5282.059757] kernel BUG at lib/list_debug.c:33!
> > > > > > [ 5282.062055] invalid opcode: 0000 [1] SMP
> > > > > > [ 5282.062055] CPU 3
> > > > >
> > > > > hm. Your crashes do seem to span multiple subsystems, but it always
> > > > > seems to be around the SLUB code. Could you try the patch below? The
> > > > > SLUB code has a new optimization and i'm not 100% sure about it. [the
> > > > > hack below switches the SLUB optimization off by disabling the CPU
> > > > > feature it relies on.]
> > > > >
> > > > > Ingo
> > > > >
> > > > > ------------->
> > > > > arch/x86/Kconfig | 4 ----
> > > > > 1 file changed, 4 deletions(-)
> > > > >
> > > > > Index: linux/arch/x86/Kconfig
> > > > > ===================================================================
> > > > > --- linux.orig/arch/x86/Kconfig
> > > > > +++ linux/arch/x86/Kconfig
> > > > > @@ -59,10 +59,6 @@ config HAVE_LATENCYTOP_SUPPORT
> > > > > config SEMAPHORE_SLEEPERS
> > > > > def_bool y
> > > > >
> > > > > -config FAST_CMPXCHG_LOCAL
> > > > > - bool
> > > > > - default y
> > > > > -
> > > > > config MMU
> > > > > def_bool y
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > $ grep FAST_CMPXCHG_LOCAL */.config
> > > > linux-2.6.24-rc2-mm1/.config:CONFIG_FAST_CMPXCHG_LOCAL=y
> > > > linux-2.6.24-rc3-mm1/.config:CONFIG_FAST_CMPXCHG_LOCAL=y
> > > > linux-2.6.24-rc3-mm2/.config:CONFIG_FAST_CMPXCHG_LOCAL=y
> > > > linux-2.6.24-rc6-mm1/.config:CONFIG_FAST_CMPXCHG_LOCAL=y
> > > > linux-2.6.24-rc8-mm1/.config:CONFIG_FAST_CMPXCHG_LOCAL=y
> > > > linux-2.6.25-rc1/.config:CONFIG_FAST_CMPXCHG_LOCAL=y
> > > > linux-2.6.25-rc2-mm1/.config:CONFIG_FAST_CMPXCHG_LOCAL=y
> > > > linux-2.6.25-rc2/.config:CONFIG_FAST_CMPXCHG_LOCAL=y
> > > >
> > > > -rc2-mm1 still worked for me.
> > > >
> > > > Did you mean the new SLUB_FASTPATH?
> > > > $ grep "define SLUB_FASTPATH" */mm/slub.c
> > > > linux-2.6.25-rc1/mm/slub.c:#define SLUB_FASTPATH
> > > > linux-2.6.25-rc2-mm1/mm/slub.c:#define SLUB_FASTPATH
> > > > linux-2.6.25-rc2/mm/slub.c:#define SLUB_FASTPATH
> > > >
> > > > The 2.6.24-rc3+ mm-kernels did crash for me, but don't seem to contain this...
> > > >
> > > > On the other hand:
> > > > From the crash in 2.6.25-rc2-mm1:
> > > > [59987.116182] RIP [<ffffffff8029f83d>] kmem_cache_alloc_node+0x6d/0xa0
> > > >
> > > > (gdb) list *0xffffffff8029f83d
> > > > 0xffffffff8029f83d is in kmem_cache_alloc_node (mm/slub.c:1646).
> > > > 1641 if (unlikely(is_end(object) || !node_match(c, node))) {
> > > > 1642 object = __slab_alloc(s, gfpflags,
> > > > node, addr, c);
> > > > 1643 break;
> > > > 1644 }
> > > > 1645 stat(c, ALLOC_FASTPATH);
> > > > 1646 } while (cmpxchg_local(&c->freelist, object, object[c->offset])
> > > > 1647
> > > > != object);
> > > > 1648 #else
> > > > 1649 unsigned long flags;
> > > > 1650
> > > >
> > > > That code is part for SLUB_FASTPATH.
> > > >
> > > > I'm willing to test the patch, but don't know how fast I can find the
> > > > time to do it, so my answer if your patch helps might be delayed until
> > > > the weekend.
> > >
> > > Mathieu, Christoph is on vacation and I'm not at all that familiar
> > > with this cmpxchg_local() optimization, so if you could take a peek at
> > > this bug report to see if you can spot something obviously wrong with
> > > it, I would much appreciate that.
> >
> > Sure,
> >
> > Initial thoughts :
> >
> > I'd like to get the complete config causing this bug. I suspect either :
> >
> > - A race between the lockless algo and an IRQ in a driver allocating
> > memory.
> > - stat(c, ALLOC_FASTPATH); seems to be using a var++, therefore
> > indicating it is not reentrant if IRQs are disabled. Since those are
> > only stats, I guess it's ok, but still weird.
> > - CPU hotplug problem.
> >
http://bugzilla.kernel.org/attachment.cgi?id=14877&action=view shows
> > last sysfs file:
> > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu3/cache/index2/shared_cpu_map
> > -- is this linked to a cpu up/down event ?
> >
> > Since this shows mostly with network card drivers, I think the most
> > plausible cause would be an IRQ nesting over kmem_cache_alloc_node and
> > calling it.
> >
> > Will dig further...
>
> I wonder how SLUB_FASTPATH is supposed to work, since it is affected by
> a classical ABA problem of lockless algo.
>
> cmpxchg_local(&c->freelist, object, object[c->offset]) can succeed,
> while an interrupt came (on this cpu), and several allocations were done,
> and one free was performed at the end of this interruption, so 'object'
> was recycled.
>
> c->freelist can then contain the previous value (object), but
> object[c->offset] was changed by IRQ.
>
> We then put back in freelist an already allocated object.
>
