Re: [PATCH 2/2] x86/MCE: Add command line option to extend MCE Records pool

[Naik, Avadhut]

Hi,

On 2/11/2024 05:14, Borislav Petkov wrote:
> On Sat, Feb 10, 2024 at 03:15:26PM -0600, Naik, Avadhut wrote:
>> IIUC, you wouldn't want to extend the pool through late_initcall().
>> Instead, you would want for memory to be allocated (on the heap) and
>> size of the pool to be set at the very beginning i.e. when the pool
>> is created (~2 seconds, according to dmesg timestamps).
>>
>> Please correct me if I have understood wrong.
> 
> Nah, you got it right. I went, looked and realized that we have to do
> this early dance because we have no allocator yet. And we can't move
> this gen_pool allocation to later, when we *do* have an allocator
> because MCA is up and logging already.
> 
Okay. Will make changes to allocate memory and set size of the pool
when it is created. Also, will remove the command line parameter and
resubmit.

> But your extending approach doesn't fly in all cases either:
> 
> gen_pool_add->gen_pool_add_virt->gen_pool_add_owner
> 
> it grabs the pool->lock spinlock and adds to &pool->chunks while, at the
> exact same time, gen_pool_alloc(), in *NMI* context iterates over that
> same &pool->chunks in the case we're logging an MCE at exact that same
> time when you're extending the buffer.
> 
> And Tony already said that in the thread you're quoting:
> 
> https://lore.kernel.org/linux-edac/SJ1PR11MB60832922E4D036138FF390FAFCD7A@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/
> 
> So no, that doesn't work either.
> 
> Thx.

Thanks for this explanation!
> 

-- 
Thanks,
Avadhut Naik