Re: Kernel 2.6.5 - Compaq Fibre Channel 64-bit/66Mhz HBA

From: Rolf Eike Beer
Date: Thu Aug 11 2005 - 11:58:03 EST


Am Donnerstag, 11. August 2005 18:41 schrieben Sie:
>>arrays allocated by the driver eat 2kB each, so a stack overflow is very
>>likely. Even with 8kB stack it is still not impossible. Using the version
>>from 2.6.5 will not be a very good idea I think, it's likely to crash your
>>machine one day.
>>
>:-(
>:
>>The right solution would be fixing the driver to use kmalloc()/kfree() when
>> he really needs the memory. There was a patch only a few days ago that
>> tried to do that, but it was not really well done and would have crashed.
>> If you are really interested in I can do such a patch. The code of this
>> driver sucks universes through nanotubes, but one day someone _will_ have
>> to start cleaning this up.
>
>Define: really interested
>
>So, probably we are really interested. Though there are a couple of caveats:
>
>- Testing can be done only very limited. We have only one raid array
>available and it is in production

If whatever I do will go wrong you'll see it very fast. Then you can't receive
data ;)

>- Servers are not in yet, but will been in the next couple of weeks
>- As Arjan noted the kernel will be "some vendor 2.6.5". More precisely
>sles9 or rhle 3. This is dictated by the setup of informix 10 on those
>machines, we are stuck with that unfortunately. To be really interesting
>a patch should be backportable to 2.6.5 (or the equivalent rh kernel).

This should be rather simple. Just use their kernel sources, copy the files
from a newer kernel in and rebuild the module.

>- I am currently investigating if other controllers are able to support
>this raid array and are supported. If so it might be a better idea to
>use those

Yes, if you find some which have a driver that smells less it would be a good
idea to use them.

>- We are willing to offer something in exchange. This ranges from 24
>bottles of beer of your choice to something else. The something else
>part needs to be discussed, but the beer part I can be held responsible
>for :-)

*g* I'll remind you ;)

Eike

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