Re: [PATCH 0/2] Kexec jump: The first step to kexec base hibernation

[david]

On Fri, 13 Jul 2007, Rafael J. Wysocki wrote:

> > remember release early, release often (with something that functions)
> >
> > > > fo rthe current stage where we are trying to make things work don't worry
> > > > about packaging everything tight with initrd and re-useing partitions or
> > > > kernel images. once everything is working reliably then it's time to look
> > > > at useing the same kernel for multiple functions, writing to a partition
> > > > that's i use for other things, etc
> > >
> > > I don't agree.  You need to think of many limitations in advance, because
> > > they need to be taken into consideration in the design.
> > >
> > > Otherwise we'll end up with something that will need to be bandaided like the
> > > freezer. :-)
> >
> > on the other hand, worrying about all the possible ways to do things can
> > paralize you.
> >
> > the big advantage of the kexec approach is that the new userspace that's
> > setup with the new kernel can do _anything_.
>
> No, it can't.  For example, it can't access filesystems mounted by the
> hibernated kernel, or they may get corrupted after the restore (if they are
> journaling, it can't even read from them).

it's only ext3 that has this bug when mounting a fileystem read-only 
AFAIK.

> Which reminds me of one more issue, which is that the image-saving kernel
> won't be able to use these filesystems either, so its modules and user space
> will have to be available from somewhere else (like a RAM disk or dedicated
> partition).  So things get ugly.

another reason to go ahead and make a dedicated no-module kernel for the 
hibernate phase ;-)

> Apart from this, the new kernel's user space cannot blindly modify swap space
> that might be in use by the hibernated kernel.

with swap space you have two options

1. free it up (to a swap file if needed) and don't worry about it

2. try and ensure that nothing else on the system attempts to use the swap 
partition until you reboot.

#2 is failure prone, #1 would be more reliable.

David Lang
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