Re: [Help Test] kdump, x86, acpi: Reproduce CPU0 SMI corruption issue after unsetting BSP flag

HATAYAMA Daisuke
2013-08-19T01:59:12Z

(2013/08/14 18:13), Jingbai Ma wrote:
> On 08/13/2013 06:55 PM, Jingbai Ma wrote:
>> On 08/06/2013 05:19 PM, HATAYAMA Daisuke wrote:
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> I've addressing kdump restriction that there's only one cpu available
>>> on the kdump 2nd kernel. Now I need to check if the following CPU0 SMI
>>> corruption issue fixed in the following commit can again be reproduced
>>> by unsetting BSP flag of the boot cpu:
>>>
>>> commit 74b5820808215f65b70b05a099d6d3c969b82689
>>> Author: Bjorn Helgaas<bjorn.helgaas@hp.com>
>>> Date: Wed Jul 29 15:54:25 2009 -0600
>>>
>>> ACPI: bind workqueues to CPU 0 to avoid SMI corruption
>>>
>>> On some machines, a software-initiated SMI causes corruption unless the
>>> SMI runs on CPU 0. An SMI can be initiated by any AML, but typically it's
>>> done in GPE-related methods that are run via workqueues, so we can avoid
>>> the known corruption cases by binding the workqueues to CPU 0.
>>>
>>> References:
>>> http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=13751
>>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/157171
>>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/157691
>>>
>>> Signed-off-by: Bjorn Helgaas<bjorn.helgaas@hp.com>
>>> Signed-off-by: Len Brown<len.brown@intel.com>
>>>
>>> The reason is that in the current situation, I have two ideas to deal
>>> with the avove kdump restriction:
>>>
>>> 1) Disable BSP at the 2nd kernel, posted at:
>>> [PATCH v1 0/2] x86, apic: Disable BSP if boot cpu is AP
>>> https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/10/16/15
>>>
>>> 2) Unset BSP flag at the 1st kernel, suggested by Eric Biederman
>>> during the discussion of the idea 1).
>>>
>>> On the idea 1), BSP is disabled on the kdump 2nd kernel. My conclusion
>>> is that we have no method to reset BSP, i.e. recover BPS's healthy
>>> state, while we can recover AP by means of INIT as described in MP
>>> specification.
>>>
>>> The idea 2) is simpler. We unset BSP flag of the boot cpu at 1st
>>> kernel. The behaviour when receiving INIT depends on whether or not
>>> BSP flag is set or not on its MSR; we can set and unset BSP flag of
>>> MSR freely at runtime. (I don't mean we should).
>>>
>>> So, next thing I should do is to evalute risk of the idea 2). In fact,
>>> during the discussion of the idea 1), HPA pointed out that some kind
>>> of firmware affects if BSP flag is unset. Also, maybe from the same
>>> reason, recently introduced cpu0 hot-plugging feature by Fenghua Yu
>>> doesn't appear to unset BSP flag.
>>>
>>> The biggest problem next is that I don't have any machines reported in
>>> the bugzilla articles; this issue inherently depends on firmware.
>>>
>>> So, could anyone help testing the idea 2) above if you have which of
>>> the following machines? (or other ones that can lead to the same bug)
>>>
>>> - HP Compaq 6910p
>>> - HP Compaq 6710b
>>> - HP Compaq 6710s
>>> - HP Compaq 6510b
>>> - HP Compaq 2510p
>>>
>>> I prepared a small programs for this test. See the attached file.
>>> The steps to try to reproduce the bug is as follows:
>>>
>>> 1. $ tar xf bsp_flag_modules.tar.gz; cd bsp_flag_modules
>>> 2. $ make # to build these programs
>>> 3. $ insmod unsetbspflag.ko # to unset BSP flag of the boot cpu
>>> 4. $ insmod getcpuinfo.ko # to confirm if BSP flag of the boot cpu has
>>> # been unset.
>>> $ dmesg | tail
>>> 5. Close the lid of the machine.
>>> 6. Wait some minutes if necessary.
>>> 7. Open the lid and you can see oops on the screen if bug has
>>> successfully been reproduced.
>>>
>>
>> I couldn't find any model list above, but found one HP EliteBook 6930p.
>> I tested this machine with kernel 2.6.30 first. After resuming from
>> suspend, system hang.
>>
>> Then, I tested with kernel 3.11.0-rc5, it worked well, could resume from
>> suspend without any problem.
>>
>> Next, I tested your program to clear BSP flag, I found the
>> unsetbspflag.ko didn't work everytime, sometimes I have to execute
>> insmod/rmmod several times to clear the BSP flag. (I used your
>> getcpuinfo.ko to check the BSP flag)
>>
>> cpu: 0 bios_apic: 0 apic: 0 AP
>> cpu: 1 bios_apic: 1 apic: 1 AP
>>
>> I suspended it, and them resumed it. This machine resumed from suspend
>> successfully, but the BSP flag has been set back:
>>
>> cpu: 0 bios_apic: 0 apic: 0 BSP
>> cpu: 1 bios_apic: 1 apic: 1 AP
>>
>> That's all my observation. Hope it's helpful.
>>
>
> I found a side effect of unsetting BSP flag.
> It affected system rebooting, once the BSP flags been removed, and issue
> reboot command, system will hang after message:
> Restarting system.
> And have to do a hardware reset to recover it.
>
> I have reproduced this problem on the following systems:
> HP EliteBook 6930p
> HP Compaq DC7700
> HP ProLiant DL980 (4 sockets, 40 cores)
>

# Sorry for the delayed response. I was in vacation last week.

Thanks for your help, Ma. This result is enough to indicate risk of unsetting
BSP flag in the 1st kernel.

BTW, I have question that does normal kdump work well if crash happens on some
AP? I wonder the same issue could happen on the 2nd kernel.

> I have an idea: To avoid such kind of issue, we can unset BSP flag in
> the first kernel during crash processing, and restore it in the second
> kernel in the APs initializing.
>

As Eric has already suggested, we cannot rely on kdump crash path. There are
certainly several codes that try to disable/reset a variety of CPU features
in the kdump crash path. However, they are just best effort. On worst
catastrophic case, even the reset codes can be broken. It was the same reason
why the first patch of mine that switches CPUes to BSP if crash happens on AP
was nacked.