Re: nmi_watchdog=2 regression in 2.6.21

Daniel Walker
2007-08-28T20:23:23Z

On Tue, 2007-08-28 at 12:46 -0700, Stephane Eranian wrote:

> I think I found the problem. As I suspected, it seems there is an assymetry
> between the 1st end 2nd counter (just like what they have on P6 core). Yet
> for architectural perfmon v1, this restriction is supposed to be lifted.
>
> Unfortunately, a quick look at the errata document at
> http://download.intel.com/design/mobile/SPECUPDT/30922212.pdf
>
> for Core Duo shows bugs A49 as 'nofix':
> Core Duo processor has a bug which renders the enable bit (22) of
> PERFEVTSEL1 inoperative. The processor behaves like former P6 cores,
> the enable bit of PERFEVTSEL0 controls the activation of both counters

Your patch switched the nmi from PERFEVTSEL0 to PERFEVTSEL1 (right?)..
So 0 works, 1 does not , for me anyway ..

> That explains why you get the 'NMI stuck' message when using PERFEVTSEL1.
> I suspect when using PERFEVTSEL0, then NMI watchdog is not stuck. So it
> is possible that in case NMI is stuck the code does not cleanly shutdown the
> NMI interrupt and you get some spurious NMI interrupt later in the boot at
> you are stuck because you are holding a lock. We need to look at the error
> path of check_nmi_watchdog(). I glance through it and could not find the place
> where the APIC vector is cleared.

As far as I can tell the check_nmi_watchdog() doesn't take locks, and it
can't safely share a lock with the NMI ..

The patch below fixes the hang (not the stuck NMI) .. Not totally sure
why, but the cpus are stuck in a loop waiting for the endflag which
never comes .. This also plays with the nmi hz which might do
something.. /proc/interrupt doesn't show any nmi's either..

Daniel

Signed-off-by: Daniel Walker <dwalker@mvista.com>

Index: linux-2.6.22/arch/i386/kernel/nmi.c
===================================================================
--- linux-2.6.22.orig/arch/i386/kernel/nmi.c 2007-08-15 00:51:12.000000000 +0000
+++ linux-2.6.22/arch/i386/kernel/nmi.c 2007-08-28 20:15:04.000000000 +0000
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ static __init void nmi_cpu_busy(void *da
static int __init check_nmi_watchdog(void)
{
unsigned int *prev_nmi_count;
- int cpu;
+ int cpu, ret = 0;

if ((nmi_watchdog == NMI_NONE) || (nmi_watchdog == NMI_DEFAULT))
return 0;
@@ -125,18 +125,18 @@ static int __init check_nmi_watchdog(voi
if (!atomic_read(&nmi_active)) {
kfree(prev_nmi_count);
atomic_set(&nmi_active, -1);
- return -1;
- }
+ printk("nmi malfunctioning.\n");
+ ret = -1;
+ } else
+ printk("OK.\n");
endflag = 1;
- printk("OK.\n");
-
/* now that we know it works we can reduce NMI frequency to
something more reasonable; makes a difference in some configs */
if (nmi_watchdog == NMI_LOCAL_APIC)
nmi_hz = lapic_adjust_nmi_hz(1);

kfree(prev_nmi_count);
- return 0;
+ return ret;
}
/* This needs to happen later in boot so counters are working */
late_initcall(check_nmi_watchdog);