Re: PROBLEM: 3.0-rc kernels unbootable since -rc3

Paul E. McKenney
2011-07-12T17:22:12Z

On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 12:03:24PM -0400, Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk wrote:
> > > http://darnok.org/xen/cpu1.log
> >
> > OK, a fair amount of variety, then lots and lots of task_waking_fair(),
> > so I still feel good about asking you for the following.
> .. snup..
> > Hmmm... Given that this is persisting for many many seconds, it might
> > be better to check for at least 10,000,000 passes. In contrast, 1000
> > passes might elapse just waiting for a cache miss to complete.
>
> Changed it to that large number. This is the diff I used:
>
> diff --git a/kernel/sched_fair.c b/kernel/sched_fair.c
> index 433491c..e185c04 100644
> --- a/kernel/sched_fair.c
> +++ b/kernel/sched_fair.c
> @@ -1392,14 +1392,19 @@ static void task_waking_fair(struct task_struct *p)
> struct sched_entity *se = &p->se;
> struct cfs_rq *cfs_rq = cfs_rq_of(se);
> u64 min_vruntime;
> + u64 loop_cnt = 0UL;
>
> #ifndef CONFIG_64BIT
> u64 min_vruntime_copy;
> -
> + loop_cnt = 0UL;
> do {
> min_vruntime_copy = cfs_rq->min_vruntime_copy;
> smp_rmb();
> min_vruntime = cfs_rq->min_vruntime;
> + if (loop_cnt++ > 10000000) {
> + printk(KERN_INFO "POKE!\n");
> + loop_cnt = 0UL;
> + }
> } while (min_vruntime != min_vruntime_copy);
> #else
> min_vruntime = cfs_rq->min_vruntime;
>
> And the log is:
> http://darnok.org/xen/loop_cnt.log
>
> which seems to imply that we are indeed stuck in that loop
> forever.

It does indeed, thank you! Also it looks like interrupts are
disabled, and that timekeeping is similarly out of action.

> > Other possible causes include:
>
> What is really strange is that I can only reproduce this on 32-bit builds.

Not strange at all. If you have a 64-bit build, the function doesn't
have a loop. ;-)

> > o A mismatch between Xen's and RCU's ideas of how CONFIG_NO_HZ
> > works. If Xen thinks that the CPU is in CONFIG_NO_HZ's
> > dyntick-idle mode, but RCU thinks otherwise, the grace period
> > might stall.
>
> One sure way to figure this out is to disable CONFIG_NO_HZ right?
> Or will that take away task_waking_fair case as well?

Disabling CONFIG_NO_HZ would be an interesting test case.

> > o Problems due to portions of the code attempting to use
> > RCU read-side critical sections while in dyntick-idle mode.
> > Frederic Weisbecker has located some of these, (though not yet
> > in Xen) and he has some diagnositics which may be found at:
> >
> > git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/paulmck/linux-2.6-rcu.git
> >
> > on branch eqscheck.2011.07.08a.
> >
> > You need to enable CONFIG_PROVE_RCU for these diagnostics to
> > be executed.
>
> Ok, let me try those too.

Thank you!

> > o As always, there might be bugs in RCU. ;-)
> >
> > But the loop in task_waking_fair() looks like the most prominent smoking
> > gun at the moment.

And could you also please try out the patch that I posted earlier?

Thaxn, Paul