Re: [PATCH] Revert "staging:r8188eu: use lib80211 CCMP decrypt"

[Michael Straube <straube.linux@gmail.com>]

On 1/1/19 3:17 AM, Larry Finger wrote:
> On 12/30/18 12:39 PM, Michael Straube wrote:
>> Commit 6bd082af7e36 ("staging:r8188eu: use lib80211 CCMP decrypt")
>> is causing hardfreeze whenever the driver tries to connect to my wifi
>> network. That makes the driver unusable on my system. Reverting the
>> commit fixes the issue and the driver works properly.
>>
>> Dec 29 19:21:17 gentoo kernel: BUG: scheduling while atomic: swapper/6/0/0x00000100
> 
> Michael,
> 
> I have verified the freezes that you see. Although I have not been able to capture the console dump, I think we are likely seeing the same problem.
> 
> I do have a work-around in that I have not gotten any freezes when I force module lib80211_crypt_ccmp to be loaded before I load module r8188eu. This clue was used in finding what seems to be a good fix.
> 
> I do not know anything about demand loading of modules using try_then_request_module(); however, I noticed that the macro actually calls __request_module(), which has the following comment:
> 
>   * Load a module using the user mode module loader. The function returns
>   * zero on success or a negative errno code or positive exit code from
>   * "modprobe" on failure. Note that a successful module load does not mean
>   * the module did not then unload and exit on an error of its own. Callers
>   * must check that the service they requested is now available not blindly
>   * invoke it.
> 
> I note that it says "user mode module loader". Routine rtw_aes_decrypt() is likely inside some sort of locking, which leads to the "scheduling while atomic" bug that you see. As a result, I suspect that the module is not loaded, and that leads to the NULL dereference when the module is accessed. Please try the one-line patch attached, which forces lib80211 to load when r8188eu is loaded. With this patch, I have been connected to an AES-encrypted AP for nearly 3 hours with no problems.
> 
> Larry
> 
> 

I've tested your patch and it solved the issue. No freezes and dmesg looks good.

I noticed that try_then_request_module() is also used in rtw_wep_encrypt() and
rtw_wep_decrypt(). I guess that also could cause problems?

Michael