From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S266425AbUHQMEX (ORCPT ); Tue, 17 Aug 2004 08:04:23 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S266486AbUHQMEX (ORCPT ); Tue, 17 Aug 2004 08:04:23 -0400 Received: from e33.co.us.ibm.com ([32.97.110.131]:63131 "EHLO e33.co.us.ibm.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S266425AbUHQMEV (ORCPT ); Tue, 17 Aug 2004 08:04:21 -0400 Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2004 17:34:06 +0530 From: Hariprasad Nellitheertha To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, fastboot@osdl.org Cc: akpm@osdl.org, Suparna Bhattacharya , mbligh@aracnet.com, litke@us.ibm.com, ebiederm@xmission.com Subject: [RFC]Kexec based crash dumping Message-ID: <20040817120239.GA3916@in.ibm.com> Reply-To: hari@in.ibm.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Hi, The patches that follow contain the initial implementation for kexec based crash dumping that we are working on. I had sent this to the fastboot mailing list a couple of weeks ago and this set of patches includes the changes made as per feedback from Andrew, Eric and others. Main Idea - Whenever a panic occurs, reboot to a new kernel using kexec using a small amount of memory (16MB). The rest of the memory is preserved across the reboot. - In the second kernel, the memory contents from the failed kernel is available as an ELF format file for write-out. Details on the design and implementation and on how to setup this facility are available in the first of the patches that follow. The patches have been made for the 2.6.8.1 kernel. Kindly review these patches and provide feedback. Thanks to Martin Bligh and Suparna for the design ideas and to Adam Litke who hacked up most of the memory preserving reboot code and the dump device abstraction code. Regards, Hari -- Hariprasad Nellitheertha Linux Technology Center India Software Labs IBM India, Bangalore