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Recently I came across high fragmentation of vm_map_ram allocator:
vmap_block has free space, but still new blocks continue to appear.
Further investigation showed that certain mapping/unmapping sequences
can exhaust vmalloc space. On small 32bit systems that's not a big
problem, cause purging will be called soon on a first allocation failure
(alloc_vmap_area), but on 64bit machines, e.g. x86_64 has 45 bits of
vmalloc space, that can be a disaster.
1) I came up with a simple allocation sequence, which exhausts virtual
space very quickly:
while (iters) {
/* Map/unmap big chunk */
vaddr = vm_map_ram(pages, 16, -1, PAGE_KERNEL);
vm_unmap_ram(vaddr, 16);
/* Map/unmap small chunks.
*
* -1 for hole, which should be left at the end of each block
* to keep it partially used, with some free space available */
for (i = 0; i < (VMAP_BBMAP_BITS - 16) / 8 - 1; i++) {
vaddr = vm_map_ram(pages, 8, -1, PAGE_KERNEL);
vm_unmap_ram(vaddr, 8);
}
}
The idea behind is simple:
1. We have to map a big chunk, e.g. 16 pages.
2. Then we have to occupy the remaining space with smaller chunks, i.e.
8 pages. At the end small hole should remain to keep block in free list,
but do not let big chunk to occupy remaining space.
3. Goto 1 - allocation request of 16 pages can't be completed (only 8 slots
are left free in the block in the #2 step), new block will be allocated,
all further requests will lay into newly allocated block.
To have some measurement numbers for all further tests I setup ftrace and
enabled 4 basic calls in a function profile:
echo vm_map_ram > /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/set_ftrace_filter;
echo alloc_vmap_area >> /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/set_ftrace_filter;
echo vm_unmap_ram >> /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/set_ftrace_filter;
echo free_vmap_block >> /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/set_ftrace_filter;
So for this scenario I got these results:
BEFORE (all new blocks are put to the head of a free list)
# cat /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/trace_stat/function0
Function Hit Time Avg s^2
-------- --- ---- --- ---
vm_map_ram 126000 30683.30 us 0.243 us 30819.36 us
vm_unmap_ram 126000 22003.24 us 0.174 us 340.886 us
alloc_vmap_area 1000 4132.065 us 4.132 us 0.903 us
AFTER (all new blocks are put to the tail of a free list)
# cat /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/trace_stat/function0
Function Hit Time Avg s^2
-------- --- ---- --- ---
vm_map_ram 126000 28713.13 us 0.227 us 24944.70 us
vm_unmap_ram 126000 20403.96 us 0.161 us 1429.872 us
alloc_vmap_area 993 3916.795 us 3.944 us 29.370 us
free_vmap_block 992 654.157 us 0.659 us 1.273 us
SUMMARY:
The most interesting numbers in those tables are numbers of block
allocations and deallocations: alloc_vmap_area and free_vmap_block
calls, which show that before the change blocks were not freed, and
virtual space and physical memory (vmap_block structure allocations,
etc) were consumed.
Average time which were spent in vm_map_ram/vm_unmap_ram became slightly
better. That can be explained with a reasonable amount of blocks in a
free list, which we need to iterate to find a suitable free block.
2) Another scenario is a random allocation:
while (iters) {
/* Randomly take number from a range [1..32/64] */
nr = rand(1, VMAP_MAX_ALLOC);
vaddr = vm_map_ram(pages, nr, -1, PAGE_KERNEL);
vm_unmap_ram(vaddr, nr);
}
I chose mersenne twister PRNG to generate persistent random state to
guarantee that both runs have the same random sequence. For each
vm_map_ram call random number from [1..32/64] was taken to represent
amount of pages which I do map.
I did 10'000 vm_map_ram calls and got these two tables:
BEFORE (all new blocks are put to the head of a free list)
# cat /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/trace_stat/function0
Function Hit Time Avg s^2
-------- --- ---- --- ---
vm_map_ram 10000 10170.01 us 1.017 us 993.609 us
vm_unmap_ram 10000 5321.823 us 0.532 us 59.789 us
alloc_vmap_area 420 2150.239 us 5.119 us 3.307 us
free_vmap_block 37 159.587 us 4.313 us 134.344 us
AFTER (all new blocks are put to the tail of a free list)
# cat /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/trace_stat/function0
Function Hit Time Avg s^2
-------- --- ---- --- ---
vm_map_ram 10000 7745.637 us 0.774 us 395.229 us
vm_unmap_ram 10000 5460.573 us 0.546 us 67.187 us
alloc_vmap_area 414 2201.650 us 5.317 us 5.591 us
free_vmap_block 412 574.421 us 1.394 us 15.138 us
SUMMARY:
'BEFORE' table shows, that 420 blocks were allocated and only 37 were
freed. Remained 383 blocks are still in a free list, consuming virtual
space and physical memory.
'AFTER' table shows, that 414 blocks were allocated and 412 were really
freed. 2 blocks remained in a free list.
So fragmentation was dramatically reduced. Why? Because when we put
newly allocated block to the head, all further requests will occupy new
block, regardless remained space in other blocks. In this scenario all
requests come randomly. Eventually remained free space will be less
than requested size, free list will be iterated and it is possible that
nothing will be found there - finally new block will be created. So
exhaustion in random scenario happens for the maximum possible
allocation size: 32 pages for 32-bit system and 64 pages for 64-bit
system.
Also average cost of vm_map_ram was reduced from 1.017 us to 0.774 us.
Again this can be explained by iteration through smaller list of free
blocks.
3) Next simple scenario is a sequential allocation, when the allocation
order is increased for each block. This scenario forces allocator to
reach maximum amount of partially free blocks in a free list:
while (iters) {
/* Populate free list with blocks with remaining space */
for (order = 0; order <= ilog2(VMAP_MAX_ALLOC); order++) {
nr = VMAP_BBMAP_BITS / (1 << order);
/* Leave a hole */
nr -= 1;
for (i = 0; i < nr; i++) {
vaddr = vm_map_ram(pages, (1 << order), -1, PAGE_KERNEL);
vm_unmap_ram(vaddr, (1 << order));
}
/* Completely occupy blocks from a free list */
for (order = 0; order <= ilog2(VMAP_MAX_ALLOC); order++) {
vaddr = vm_map_ram(pages, (1 << order), -1, PAGE_KERNEL);
vm_unmap_ram(vaddr, (1 << order));
}
}
Results which I got:
BEFORE (all new blocks are put to the head of a free list)
# cat /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/trace_stat/function0
Function Hit Time Avg s^2
-------- --- ---- --- ---
vm_map_ram 2032000 399545.2 us 0.196 us 467123.7 us
vm_unmap_ram 2032000 363225.7 us 0.178 us 111405.9 us
alloc_vmap_area 7001 30627.76 us 4.374 us 495.755 us
free_vmap_block 6993 7011.685 us 1.002 us 159.090 us
AFTER (all new blocks are put to the tail of a free list)
# cat /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/trace_stat/function0
Function Hit Time Avg s^2
-------- --- ---- --- ---
vm_map_ram 2032000 394259.7 us 0.194 us 589395.9 us
vm_unmap_ram 2032000 292500.7 us 0.143 us 94181.08 us
alloc_vmap_area 7000 31103.11 us 4.443 us 703.225 us
free_vmap_block 7000 6750.844 us 0.964 us 119.112 us
SUMMARY:
No surprises here, almost all numbers are the same.
Fixing this fragmentation problem I also did some improvements in a
allocation logic of a new vmap block: occupy block immediately and get
rid of extra search in a free list.
Also I replaced dirty bitmap with min/max dirty range values to make the
logic simpler and slightly faster, since two longs comparison costs
less, than loop thru bitmap.
This patchset raises several questions:
Q: Think the problem you comments is already known so that I wrote comments
about it as "it could consume lots of address space through fragmentation".
Could you tell me about your situation and reason why it should be avoided?
Gioh Kim
A: Indeed, there was a commit 364376383 which adds explicit comment about
fragmentation. But fragmentation which is described in this comment caused
by mixing of long-lived and short-lived objects, when a whole block is pinned
in memory because some page slots are still in use. But here I am talking
about blocks which are free, nobody uses them, and allocator keeps them alive
forever, continuously allocating new blocks.
Q: I think that if you put newly allocated block to the tail of a free
list, below example would results in enormous performance degradation.
new block: 1MB (256 pages)
while (iters--) {
vm_map_ram(3 or something else not dividable for 256) * 85
vm_unmap_ram(3) * 85
}
On every iteration, it needs newly allocated block and it is put to the
tail of a free list so finding it consumes large amount of time.
Joonsoo Kim
A: Second patch in current patchset gets rid of extra search in a free list,
so new block will be immediately occupied..
Also, the scenario above is impossible, cause vm_map_ram allocates virtual
range in orders, i.e. 2^n. I.e. passing 3 to vm_map_ram you will allocate
4 slots in a block and 256 slots (capacity of a block) of course dividable
on 4, so block will be completely occupied.
But there is a worst case which we can achieve: each free block has a hole
equal to order size.
The maximum size of allocation is 64 pages for 64-bit system
(if you try to map more, original alloc_vmap_area will be called).
So the maximum order is 6. That means that worst case, before allocator
makes a decision to allocate a new block, is to iterate 7 blocks:
HEAD
1st block - has 1 page slot free (order 0)
2nd block - has 2 page slots free (order 1)
3rd block - has 4 page slots free (order 2)
4th block - has 8 page slots free (order 3)
5th block - has 16 page slots free (order 4)
6th block - has 32 page slots free (order 5)
7th block - has 64 page slots free (order 6)
TAIL
So the worst scenario on 64-bit system is that each CPU queue can have 7
blocks in a free list.
This can happen only and only if you allocate blocks increasing the order.
(as I did in the function written in the comment of the first patch)
This is weird and rare case, but still it is possible. Afterwards you will
get 7 blocks in a list.
All further requests should be placed in a newly allocated block or some
free slots should be found in a free list.
Seems it does not look dramatically awful.
This patch (of 3):
If suitable block can't be found, new block is allocated and put into a
head of a free list, so on next iteration this new block will be found
first.
That's bad, because old blocks in a free list will not get a chance to be
fully used, thus fragmentation will grow.
Let's consider this simple example:
#1 We have one block in a free list which is partially used, and where only
one page is free:
HEAD |xxxxxxxxx-| TAIL
^
free space for 1 page, order 0
#2 New allocation request of order 1 (2 pages) comes, new block is allocated
since we do not have free space to complete this request. New block is put
into a head of a free list:
HEAD |----------|xxxxxxxxx-| TAIL
#3 Two pages were occupied in a new found block:
HEAD |xx--------|xxxxxxxxx-| TAIL
^
two pages mapped here
#4 New allocation request of order 0 (1 page) comes. Block, which was created
on #2 step, is located at the beginning of a free list, so it will be found
first:
HEAD |xxX-------|xxxxxxxxx-| TAIL
^ ^
page mapped here, but better to use this hole
It is obvious, that it is better to complete request of #4 step using the
old block, where free space is left, because in other case fragmentation
will be highly increased.
But fragmentation is not only the case. The worst thing is that I can
easily create scenario, when the whole vmalloc space is exhausted by
blocks, which are not used, but already dirty and have several free pages.
Let's consider this function which execution should be pinned to one CPU:
static void exhaust_virtual_space(struct page *pages[16], int iters)
{
/* Firstly we have to map a big chunk, e.g. 16 pages.
* Then we have to occupy the remaining space with smaller
* chunks, i.e. 8 pages. At the end small hole should remain.
* So at the end of our allocation sequence block looks like
* this:
* XX big chunk
* |XXxxxxxxx-| x small chunk
* - hole, which is enough for a small chunk,
* but is not enough for a big chunk
*/
while (iters--) {
int i;
void *vaddr;
/* Map/unmap big chunk */
vaddr = vm_map_ram(pages, 16, -1, PAGE_KERNEL);
vm_unmap_ram(vaddr, 16);
/* Map/unmap small chunks.
*
* -1 for hole, which should be left at the end of each block
* to keep it partially used, with some free space available */
for (i = 0; i < (VMAP_BBMAP_BITS - 16) / 8 - 1; i++) {
vaddr = vm_map_ram(pages, 8, -1, PAGE_KERNEL);
vm_unmap_ram(vaddr, 8);
}
}
}
On every iteration new block (1MB of vm area in my case) will be
allocated and then will be occupied, without attempt to resolve small
allocation request using previously allocated blocks in a free list.
In case of random allocation (size should be randomly taken from the
range [1..64] in 64-bit case or [1..32] in 32-bit case) situation is the
same: new blocks continue to appear if maximum possible allocation size
(32 or 64) passed to the allocator, because all remaining blocks in a
free list do not have enough free space to complete this allocation
request.
In summary if new blocks are put into the head of a free list eventually
virtual space will be exhausted.
In current patch I simply put newly allocated block to the tail of a
free list, thus reduce fragmentation, giving a chance to resolve
allocation request using older blocks with possible holes left.
Signed-off-by: Roman Pen <r.peniaev@gmail.com>
Cc: Eric Dumazet <edumazet@google.com>
Acked-by: Joonsoo Kim <iamjoonsoo.kim@lge.com>
Cc: David Rientjes <rientjes@google.com>
Cc: WANG Chao <chaowang@redhat.com>
Cc: Fabian Frederick <fabf@skynet.be>
Cc: Christoph Lameter <cl@linux.com>
Cc: Gioh Kim <gioh.kim@lge.com>
Cc: Rob Jones <rob.jones@codethink.co.uk>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Linux kernel release 3.x <http://kernel.org/>
These are the release notes for Linux version 3. Read them carefully,
as they tell you what this is all about, explain how to install the
kernel, and what to do if something goes wrong.
WHAT IS LINUX?
Linux is a clone of the operating system Unix, written from scratch by
Linus Torvalds with assistance from a loosely-knit team of hackers across
the Net. It aims towards POSIX and Single UNIX Specification compliance.
It has all the features you would expect in a modern fully-fledged Unix,
including true multitasking, virtual memory, shared libraries, demand
loading, shared copy-on-write executables, proper memory management,
and multistack networking including IPv4 and IPv6.
It is distributed under the GNU General Public License - see the
accompanying COPYING file for more details.
ON WHAT HARDWARE DOES IT RUN?
Although originally developed first for 32-bit x86-based PCs (386 or higher),
today Linux also runs on (at least) the Compaq Alpha AXP, Sun SPARC and
UltraSPARC, Motorola 68000, PowerPC, PowerPC64, ARM, Hitachi SuperH, Cell,
IBM S/390, MIPS, HP PA-RISC, Intel IA-64, DEC VAX, AMD x86-64, AXIS CRIS,
Xtensa, Tilera TILE, AVR32 and Renesas M32R architectures.
Linux is easily portable to most general-purpose 32- or 64-bit architectures
as long as they have a paged memory management unit (PMMU) and a port of the
GNU C compiler (gcc) (part of The GNU Compiler Collection, GCC). Linux has
also been ported to a number of architectures without a PMMU, although
functionality is then obviously somewhat limited.
Linux has also been ported to itself. You can now run the kernel as a
userspace application - this is called UserMode Linux (UML).
DOCUMENTATION:
- There is a lot of documentation available both in electronic form on
the Internet and in books, both Linux-specific and pertaining to
general UNIX questions. I'd recommend looking into the documentation
subdirectories on any Linux FTP site for the LDP (Linux Documentation
Project) books. This README is not meant to be documentation on the
system: there are much better sources available.
- There are various README files in the Documentation/ subdirectory:
these typically contain kernel-specific installation notes for some
drivers for example. See Documentation/00-INDEX for a list of what
is contained in each file. Please read the Changes file, as it
contains information about the problems, which may result by upgrading
your kernel.
- The Documentation/DocBook/ subdirectory contains several guides for
kernel developers and users. These guides can be rendered in a
number of formats: PostScript (.ps), PDF, HTML, & man-pages, among others.
After installation, "make psdocs", "make pdfdocs", "make htmldocs",
or "make mandocs" will render the documentation in the requested format.
INSTALLING the kernel source:
- If you install the full sources, put the kernel tarball in a
directory where you have permissions (eg. your home directory) and
unpack it:
gzip -cd linux-3.X.tar.gz | tar xvf -
or
bzip2 -dc linux-3.X.tar.bz2 | tar xvf -
Replace "X" with the version number of the latest kernel.
Do NOT use the /usr/src/linux area! This area has a (usually
incomplete) set of kernel headers that are used by the library header
files. They should match the library, and not get messed up by
whatever the kernel-du-jour happens to be.
- You can also upgrade between 3.x releases by patching. Patches are
distributed in the traditional gzip and the newer bzip2 format. To
install by patching, get all the newer patch files, enter the
top level directory of the kernel source (linux-3.X) and execute:
gzip -cd ../patch-3.x.gz | patch -p1
or
bzip2 -dc ../patch-3.x.bz2 | patch -p1
Replace "x" for all versions bigger than the version "X" of your current
source tree, _in_order_, and you should be ok. You may want to remove
the backup files (some-file-name~ or some-file-name.orig), and make sure
that there are no failed patches (some-file-name# or some-file-name.rej).
If there are, either you or I have made a mistake.
Unlike patches for the 3.x kernels, patches for the 3.x.y kernels
(also known as the -stable kernels) are not incremental but instead apply
directly to the base 3.x kernel. For example, if your base kernel is 3.0
and you want to apply the 3.0.3 patch, you must not first apply the 3.0.1
and 3.0.2 patches. Similarly, if you are running kernel version 3.0.2 and
want to jump to 3.0.3, you must first reverse the 3.0.2 patch (that is,
patch -R) _before_ applying the 3.0.3 patch. You can read more on this in
Documentation/applying-patches.txt
Alternatively, the script patch-kernel can be used to automate this
process. It determines the current kernel version and applies any
patches found.
linux/scripts/patch-kernel linux
The first argument in the command above is the location of the
kernel source. Patches are applied from the current directory, but
an alternative directory can be specified as the second argument.
- Make sure you have no stale .o files and dependencies lying around:
cd linux
make mrproper
You should now have the sources correctly installed.
SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
Compiling and running the 3.x kernels requires up-to-date
versions of various software packages. Consult
Documentation/Changes for the minimum version numbers required
and how to get updates for these packages. Beware that using
excessively old versions of these packages can cause indirect
errors that are very difficult to track down, so don't assume that
you can just update packages when obvious problems arise during
build or operation.
BUILD directory for the kernel:
When compiling the kernel, all output files will per default be
stored together with the kernel source code.
Using the option "make O=output/dir" allow you to specify an alternate
place for the output files (including .config).
Example:
kernel source code: /usr/src/linux-3.X
build directory: /home/name/build/kernel
To configure and build the kernel, use:
cd /usr/src/linux-3.X
make O=/home/name/build/kernel menuconfig
make O=/home/name/build/kernel
sudo make O=/home/name/build/kernel modules_install install
Please note: If the 'O=output/dir' option is used, then it must be
used for all invocations of make.
CONFIGURING the kernel:
Do not skip this step even if you are only upgrading one minor
version. New configuration options are added in each release, and
odd problems will turn up if the configuration files are not set up
as expected. If you want to carry your existing configuration to a
new version with minimal work, use "make oldconfig", which will
only ask you for the answers to new questions.
- Alternative configuration commands are:
"make config" Plain text interface.
"make menuconfig" Text based color menus, radiolists & dialogs.
"make nconfig" Enhanced text based color menus.
"make xconfig" X windows (Qt) based configuration tool.
"make gconfig" X windows (Gtk) based configuration tool.
"make oldconfig" Default all questions based on the contents of
your existing ./.config file and asking about
new config symbols.
"make silentoldconfig"
Like above, but avoids cluttering the screen
with questions already answered.
Additionally updates the dependencies.
"make olddefconfig"
Like above, but sets new symbols to their default
values without prompting.
"make defconfig" Create a ./.config file by using the default
symbol values from either arch/$ARCH/defconfig
or arch/$ARCH/configs/${PLATFORM}_defconfig,
depending on the architecture.
"make ${PLATFORM}_defconfig"
Create a ./.config file by using the default
symbol values from
arch/$ARCH/configs/${PLATFORM}_defconfig.
Use "make help" to get a list of all available
platforms of your architecture.
"make allyesconfig"
Create a ./.config file by setting symbol
values to 'y' as much as possible.
"make allmodconfig"
Create a ./.config file by setting symbol
values to 'm' as much as possible.
"make allnoconfig" Create a ./.config file by setting symbol
values to 'n' as much as possible.
"make randconfig" Create a ./.config file by setting symbol
values to random values.
"make localmodconfig" Create a config based on current config and
loaded modules (lsmod). Disables any module
option that is not needed for the loaded modules.
To create a localmodconfig for another machine,
store the lsmod of that machine into a file
and pass it in as a LSMOD parameter.
target$ lsmod > /tmp/mylsmod
target$ scp /tmp/mylsmod host:/tmp
host$ make LSMOD=/tmp/mylsmod localmodconfig
The above also works when cross compiling.
"make localyesconfig" Similar to localmodconfig, except it will convert
all module options to built in (=y) options.
You can find more information on using the Linux kernel config tools
in Documentation/kbuild/kconfig.txt.
- NOTES on "make config":
- Having unnecessary drivers will make the kernel bigger, and can
under some circumstances lead to problems: probing for a
nonexistent controller card may confuse your other controllers
- Compiling the kernel with "Processor type" set higher than 386
will result in a kernel that does NOT work on a 386. The
kernel will detect this on bootup, and give up.
- A kernel with math-emulation compiled in will still use the
coprocessor if one is present: the math emulation will just
never get used in that case. The kernel will be slightly larger,
but will work on different machines regardless of whether they
have a math coprocessor or not.
- The "kernel hacking" configuration details usually result in a
bigger or slower kernel (or both), and can even make the kernel
less stable by configuring some routines to actively try to
break bad code to find kernel problems (kmalloc()). Thus you
should probably answer 'n' to the questions for "development",
"experimental", or "debugging" features.
COMPILING the kernel:
- Make sure you have at least gcc 3.2 available.
For more information, refer to Documentation/Changes.
Please note that you can still run a.out user programs with this kernel.
- Do a "make" to create a compressed kernel image. It is also
possible to do "make install" if you have lilo installed to suit the
kernel makefiles, but you may want to check your particular lilo setup first.
To do the actual install, you have to be root, but none of the normal
build should require that. Don't take the name of root in vain.
- If you configured any of the parts of the kernel as `modules', you
will also have to do "make modules_install".
- Verbose kernel compile/build output:
Normally, the kernel build system runs in a fairly quiet mode (but not
totally silent). However, sometimes you or other kernel developers need
to see compile, link, or other commands exactly as they are executed.
For this, use "verbose" build mode. This is done by inserting
"V=1" in the "make" command. E.g.:
make V=1 all
To have the build system also tell the reason for the rebuild of each
target, use "V=2". The default is "V=0".
- Keep a backup kernel handy in case something goes wrong. This is
especially true for the development releases, since each new release
contains new code which has not been debugged. Make sure you keep a
backup of the modules corresponding to that kernel, as well. If you
are installing a new kernel with the same version number as your
working kernel, make a backup of your modules directory before you
do a "make modules_install".
Alternatively, before compiling, use the kernel config option
"LOCALVERSION" to append a unique suffix to the regular kernel version.
LOCALVERSION can be set in the "General Setup" menu.
- In order to boot your new kernel, you'll need to copy the kernel
image (e.g. .../linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage after compilation)
to the place where your regular bootable kernel is found.
- Booting a kernel directly from a floppy without the assistance of a
bootloader such as LILO, is no longer supported.
If you boot Linux from the hard drive, chances are you use LILO, which
uses the kernel image as specified in the file /etc/lilo.conf. The
kernel image file is usually /vmlinuz, /boot/vmlinuz, /bzImage or
/boot/bzImage. To use the new kernel, save a copy of the old image
and copy the new image over the old one. Then, you MUST RERUN LILO
to update the loading map!! If you don't, you won't be able to boot
the new kernel image.
Reinstalling LILO is usually a matter of running /sbin/lilo.
You may wish to edit /etc/lilo.conf to specify an entry for your
old kernel image (say, /vmlinux.old) in case the new one does not
work. See the LILO docs for more information.
After reinstalling LILO, you should be all set. Shutdown the system,
reboot, and enjoy!
If you ever need to change the default root device, video mode,
ramdisk size, etc. in the kernel image, use the 'rdev' program (or
alternatively the LILO boot options when appropriate). No need to
recompile the kernel to change these parameters.
- Reboot with the new kernel and enjoy.
IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG:
- If you have problems that seem to be due to kernel bugs, please check
the file MAINTAINERS to see if there is a particular person associated
with the part of the kernel that you are having trouble with. If there
isn't anyone listed there, then the second best thing is to mail
them to me (torvalds@linux-foundation.org), and possibly to any other
relevant mailing-list or to the newsgroup.
- In all bug-reports, *please* tell what kernel you are talking about,
how to duplicate the problem, and what your setup is (use your common
sense). If the problem is new, tell me so, and if the problem is
old, please try to tell me when you first noticed it.
- If the bug results in a message like
unable to handle kernel paging request at address C0000010
Oops: 0002
EIP: 0010:XXXXXXXX
eax: xxxxxxxx ebx: xxxxxxxx ecx: xxxxxxxx edx: xxxxxxxx
esi: xxxxxxxx edi: xxxxxxxx ebp: xxxxxxxx
ds: xxxx es: xxxx fs: xxxx gs: xxxx
Pid: xx, process nr: xx
xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx
or similar kernel debugging information on your screen or in your
system log, please duplicate it *exactly*. The dump may look
incomprehensible to you, but it does contain information that may
help debugging the problem. The text above the dump is also
important: it tells something about why the kernel dumped code (in
the above example, it's due to a bad kernel pointer). More information
on making sense of the dump is in Documentation/oops-tracing.txt
- If you compiled the kernel with CONFIG_KALLSYMS you can send the dump
as is, otherwise you will have to use the "ksymoops" program to make
sense of the dump (but compiling with CONFIG_KALLSYMS is usually preferred).
This utility can be downloaded from
ftp://ftp.<country>.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/ksymoops/ .
Alternatively, you can do the dump lookup by hand:
- In debugging dumps like the above, it helps enormously if you can
look up what the EIP value means. The hex value as such doesn't help
me or anybody else very much: it will depend on your particular
kernel setup. What you should do is take the hex value from the EIP
line (ignore the "0010:"), and look it up in the kernel namelist to
see which kernel function contains the offending address.
To find out the kernel function name, you'll need to find the system
binary associated with the kernel that exhibited the symptom. This is
the file 'linux/vmlinux'. To extract the namelist and match it against
the EIP from the kernel crash, do:
nm vmlinux | sort | less
This will give you a list of kernel addresses sorted in ascending
order, from which it is simple to find the function that contains the
offending address. Note that the address given by the kernel
debugging messages will not necessarily match exactly with the
function addresses (in fact, that is very unlikely), so you can't
just 'grep' the list: the list will, however, give you the starting
point of each kernel function, so by looking for the function that
has a starting address lower than the one you are searching for but
is followed by a function with a higher address you will find the one
you want. In fact, it may be a good idea to include a bit of
"context" in your problem report, giving a few lines around the
interesting one.
If you for some reason cannot do the above (you have a pre-compiled
kernel image or similar), telling me as much about your setup as
possible will help. Please read the REPORTING-BUGS document for details.
- Alternatively, you can use gdb on a running kernel. (read-only; i.e. you
cannot change values or set break points.) To do this, first compile the
kernel with -g; edit arch/i386/Makefile appropriately, then do a "make
clean". You'll also need to enable CONFIG_PROC_FS (via "make config").
After you've rebooted with the new kernel, do "gdb vmlinux /proc/kcore".
You can now use all the usual gdb commands. The command to look up the
point where your system crashed is "l *0xXXXXXXXX". (Replace the XXXes
with the EIP value.)
gdb'ing a non-running kernel currently fails because gdb (wrongly)
disregards the starting offset for which the kernel is compiled.