SymSearch can cause make nconfig to segfault

SymSearch can cause make nconfig to segfault

[Vivien Gallinaro]

Hi all,

In make nconfig, when I perform a SymSearch (F8) for "x86", I get a 
segfault. It doesn't happen in make menuconfig (/ search).

It doesn't seem to be a simple matter of "too many results" as a 
SymSearch for "fs" does ok.


For a fresh 6.6 kernel :

$ cd linux-6.6
$ make mrproper
$ make nconfig 2>../blarb
(<F8> x86 <enter>)
$ reset
$ cat ../blarb

gives :

make[2]: *** [scripts/kconfig/Makefile:48: nconfig] Segmentation fault
make[1]: *** [/home/username/linux-6.6/Makefile:697: nconfig] Error 2
make: *** [Makefile:234: __sub-make] Error 2


That's not very helpful, I know… looking up "x86" was not particularly 
useful either! (I was following a wiki referring to x86_sysfb. Before I 
realized it probably doesn't exist any more, I tried to widen the 
search, since I had just come across the deprecation of efi_vars in 
favor of efivar_fs, so to speak.) I hope some one can help the search 
fail gracefully.

Have a nice day,
VG

Re: SymSearch can cause make nconfig to segfault

[Jesse T]

On Tue, Nov 7, 2023 at 9:30 PM Vivien Gallinaro
<vivien.gallinaro@free.fr> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> In make nconfig, when I perform a SymSearch (F8) for "x86", I get a
> segfault. It doesn't happen in make menuconfig (/ search).
>
> It doesn't seem to be a simple matter of "too many results" as a
> SymSearch for "fs" does ok.
>
>
> For a fresh 6.6 kernel :
>
> $ cd linux-6.6
> $ make mrproper
> $ make nconfig 2>../blarb
> (<F8> x86 <enter>)
> $ reset

I'm assuming "reset" here means you got put back into your shell and are
resetting the terminal state.

> $ cat ../blarb
>
> gives :
>
> make[2]: *** [scripts/kconfig/Makefile:48: nconfig] Segmentation fault
> make[1]: *** [/home/username/linux-6.6/Makefile:697: nconfig] Error 2
> make: *** [Makefile:234: __sub-make] Error 2

I can not recreate this error on my machine unfortunately are you
using the tar release?
What distro are you using?

Thanks,
Jesse Taube
>
>
> That's not very helpful, I know… looking up "x86" was not particularly
> useful either! (I was following a wiki referring to x86_sysfb. Before I
> realized it probably doesn't exist any more, I tried to widen the
> search, since I had just come across the deprecation of efi_vars in
> favor of efivar_fs, so to speak.) I hope some one can help the search
> fail gracefully.
>
> Have a nice day,
> VG

Re: SymSearch can cause make nconfig to segfault

[Randy Dunlap]

On 11/7/23 19:06, Jesse T wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 7, 2023 at 9:30 PM Vivien Gallinaro
> <vivien.gallinaro@free.fr> wrote:
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> In make nconfig, when I perform a SymSearch (F8) for "x86", I get a
>> segfault. It doesn't happen in make menuconfig (/ search).
>>
>> It doesn't seem to be a simple matter of "too many results" as a
>> SymSearch for "fs" does ok.
>>
>>
>> For a fresh 6.6 kernel :
>>
>> $ cd linux-6.6
>> $ make mrproper
>> $ make nconfig 2>../blarb
>> (<F8> x86 <enter>)
>> $ reset
> 
> I'm assuming "reset" here means you got put back into your shell and are
> resetting the terminal state.
> 
>> $ cat ../blarb
>>
>> gives :
>>
>> make[2]: *** [scripts/kconfig/Makefile:48: nconfig] Segmentation fault
>> make[1]: *** [/home/username/linux-6.6/Makefile:697: nconfig] Error 2
>> make: *** [Makefile:234: __sub-make] Error 2
> 
> I can not recreate this error on my machine unfortunately are you
> using the tar release?
> What distro are you using?
> 
> Thanks,
> Jesse Taube
>>
>>
>> That's not very helpful, I know… looking up "x86" was not particularly
>> useful either! (I was following a wiki referring to x86_sysfb. Before I
>> realized it probably doesn't exist any more, I tried to widen the
>> search, since I had just come across the deprecation of efi_vars in
>> favor of efivar_fs, so to speak.) I hope some one can help the search
>> fail gracefully.
>>
>> Have a nice day,
>> VG

I also cannot recreate this issue.
FWIW.

More info needed.

-- 
~Randy

Re: SymSearch can cause make nconfig to segfault

[Vivien Gallinaro]

On 11/8/23, Randy Dunlap wrote:
> On 11/7/23, Jesse T wrote:
>> On 11/7/23 Vivien Gallinaro wrote:
>>> 
>>> For a fresh 6.6 kernel :
>>> $ cd linux-6.6
>>> $ make mrproper
>>> $ make nconfig 2>../blarb
>>> (<F8> x86 <enter>)
>>> $ reset
>> 
>> I'm assuming "reset" here means you got put back into your shell and 
>> are
>> resetting the terminal state.

Exactly.

>> I can not recreate this error on my machine unfortunately are you
>> using the tar release?
>> What distro are you using?

Gentoo, but checking with the (then) stable 6.6 tarball.

> I also cannot recreate this issue.
> FWIW.
> 
> More info needed.

That was good news. I tried to investigate a little deeper with strace, 
gdb… a little too deep for me actually. Then I eventually remembered: 
even though my install is pretty fresh, I've been a bit sloppy on 
maintenance, leaving one stuff to the side to catter to another, a few 
times over. One global update later — meaning I only have /usr/src in a 
corny state, now — I don't get the segfault either. Sorry, pebkac.

Thanks for your time,
VG