Re: [PATCH] netconsole: Initialize after all core networking drivers

[Calvin Owens <calvinowens@fb.com>]

On Thursday 12/17 at 17:08 -0800, Eric Dumazet wrote:
> On Thu, 2015-12-17 at 15:52 -0800, Calvin Owens wrote:
> > With built-in netconsole and IXGBE, configuring netconsole via the kernel
> > cmdline results in the following panic at boot:
> > 
> >     netpoll: netconsole: device eth0 not up yet, forcing it
> >     usb 2-1: new high-speed USB device number 2 using ehci-pci
> >     ixgbe 0000:03:00.0: registered PHC device on eth0
> >     BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 0000000000000810
> >     <snip>
> >     Call Trace:
> >      [<ffffffff81578661>] ? vxlan_get_rx_port+0x41/0xa0
> >      [<ffffffff81586828>] ixgbe_open+0x4e8/0x540
> >      [<ffffffff8168045c>] __dev_open+0xac/0x120
> >      [<ffffffff81680506>] dev_open+0x36/0x70
> >      [<ffffffff8169abec>] netpoll_setup+0x23c/0x300
> >      [<ffffffff8169a66a>] ? netpoll_parse_options+0x19a/0x200
> >      [<ffffffff81d797a8>] ? option_setup+0x1f/0x1f
> >      [<ffffffff81d79882>] init_netconsole+0xda/0x262
> >      [<ffffffff81d797a8>] ? option_setup+0x1f/0x1f
> >      [<ffffffff810003a8>] do_one_initcall+0x88/0x1b0
> >      [<ffffffff81d31144>] kernel_init_freeable+0x14a/0x1e3
> >      [<ffffffff81d308f1>] ? do_early_param+0x8c/0x8c
> >      [<ffffffff81778610>] ? rest_init+0x80/0x80
> >      [<ffffffff8177861e>] kernel_init+0xe/0xe0
> >      [<ffffffff8177dc5f>] ret_from_fork+0x3f/0x70
> >      [<ffffffff81778610>] ? rest_init+0x80/0x80
> > 
> > This happens because IXGBE assumes that vxlan has already been initialized.
> > The cleanest way to fix this is to just initialize netconsole after all the
> > other core networking stuff has completed.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Calvin Owens <calvinowens@fb.com>
> > ---
> >  drivers/net/Makefile | 2 +-
> >  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
> > 
> > diff --git a/drivers/net/Makefile b/drivers/net/Makefile
> > index 900b0c5..31557d0 100644
> > --- a/drivers/net/Makefile
> > +++ b/drivers/net/Makefile
> > @@ -15,7 +15,6 @@ obj-$(CONFIG_MACVTAP) += macvtap.o
> >  obj-$(CONFIG_MII) += mii.o
> >  obj-$(CONFIG_MDIO) += mdio.o
> >  obj-$(CONFIG_NET) += Space.o loopback.o
> > -obj-$(CONFIG_NETCONSOLE) += netconsole.o
> >  obj-$(CONFIG_PHYLIB) += phy/
> >  obj-$(CONFIG_RIONET) += rionet.o
> >  obj-$(CONFIG_NET_TEAM) += team/
> > @@ -26,6 +25,7 @@ obj-$(CONFIG_VXLAN) += vxlan.o
> >  obj-$(CONFIG_GENEVE) += geneve.o
> >  obj-$(CONFIG_NLMON) += nlmon.o
> >  obj-$(CONFIG_NET_VRF) += vrf.o
> > +obj-$(CONFIG_NETCONSOLE) += netconsole.o
> >  
> >  #
> >  # Networking Drivers
> 
> 
> Looks odd to rely on link order, but we might already rely on this...
> 
> Have you considered using device_initcall() instead of late_initcall()
> in vxlan ?

I'll look. As-is though, I think a similar problem would happen if you
tried to use a virtio_net device with netconsole= cmdline (although that
is admittedly a bizarre use case). The Makefile patch seemed like the
best way to ensure this can't recur elsewhere.

> In any case, a comment would really be good to avoid future mistakes.

Good point, I'll add something.