Re: REGRESSION: boot stalls on several old dual core Intel CPUs

[Siegfried Metz]

On 9/3/18 11:33 AM, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 03, 2018 at 10:54:23AM +0200, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> > On Mon, Sep 03, 2018 at 09:38:15AM +0200, Thomas Gleixner wrote:
> > > On Mon, 3 Sep 2018, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> > > > On Sat, Sep 01, 2018 at 11:51:26AM +0930, Kevin Shanahan wrote:
> > > > > commit 01548f4d3e8e94caf323a4f664eb347fd34a34ab
> > > > > Author: Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > > > > Date:   Tue Aug 18 17:09:42 2009 +0200
> > > > >
> > > > >      clocksource: Avoid clocksource watchdog circular locking dependency
> > > > >
> > > > >      stop_machine from a multithreaded workqueue is not allowed because
> > > > >      of a circular locking dependency between cpu_down and the workqueue
> > > > >      execution. Use a kernel thread to do the clocksource downgrade.
> > > >
> > > > I cannot find stop_machine usage there; either it went away or I need to
> > > > like wake up.
> > >
> > > timekeeping_notify() which is involved in switching clock source uses stomp
> > > machine.
> >
> > ARGH... OK, lemme see if I can come up with something other than
> > endlessly spawning that kthread.
> >
> > A special purpose kthread_worker would make more sense than that.
>
> Can someone test this?
>
> ---
>   kernel/time/clocksource.c | 28 ++++++++++++++++++++++------
>   1 file changed, 22 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/kernel/time/clocksource.c b/kernel/time/clocksource.c
> index f74fb00d8064..898976d0082a 100644
> --- a/kernel/time/clocksource.c
> +++ b/kernel/time/clocksource.c
> @@ -112,13 +112,28 @@ static int finished_booting;
>   static u64 suspend_start;
>   
>   #ifdef CONFIG_CLOCKSOURCE_WATCHDOG
> -static void clocksource_watchdog_work(struct work_struct *work);
> +static void clocksource_watchdog_work(struct kthread_work *work);
>   static void clocksource_select(void);
>   
>   static LIST_HEAD(watchdog_list);
>   static struct clocksource *watchdog;
>   static struct timer_list watchdog_timer;
> -static DECLARE_WORK(watchdog_work, clocksource_watchdog_work);
> +
> +/*
> + * We must use a kthread_worker here, because:
> + *
> + *   clocksource_watchdog_work()
> + *     clocksource_select()
> + *       __clocksource_select()
> + *         timekeeping_notify()
> + *           stop_machine()
> + *
> + * cannot be called from a reqular workqueue, because of deadlocks between
> + * workqueue and stopmachine.
> + */
> +static struct kthread_worker *watchdog_worker;
> +static DEFINE_KTHREAD_WORK(watchdog_work, clocksource_watchdog_work);
> +
>   static DEFINE_SPINLOCK(watchdog_lock);
>   static int watchdog_running;
>   static atomic_t watchdog_reset_pending;
> @@ -158,7 +173,7 @@ static void __clocksource_unstable(struct clocksource *cs)
>   
>   	/* kick clocksource_watchdog_work() */
>   	if (finished_booting)
> -		schedule_work(&watchdog_work);
> +		kthread_queue_work(watchdog_worker, &watchdog_work);
>   }
>   
>   /**
> @@ -199,7 +214,7 @@ static void clocksource_watchdog(struct timer_list *unused)
>   		/* Clocksource already marked unstable? */
>   		if (cs->flags & CLOCK_SOURCE_UNSTABLE) {
>   			if (finished_booting)
> -				schedule_work(&watchdog_work);
> +				kthread_queue_work(watchdog_worker, &watchdog_work);
>   			continue;
>   		}
>   
> @@ -269,7 +284,7 @@ static void clocksource_watchdog(struct timer_list *unused)
>   			 */
>   			if (cs != curr_clocksource) {
>   				cs->flags |= CLOCK_SOURCE_RESELECT;
> -				schedule_work(&watchdog_work);
> +				kthread_queue_work(watchdog_worker, &watchdog_work);
>   			} else {
>   				tick_clock_notify();
>   			}
> @@ -418,7 +433,7 @@ static int __clocksource_watchdog_work(void)
>   	return select;
>   }
>   
> -static void clocksource_watchdog_work(struct work_struct *work)
> +static void clocksource_watchdog_work(struct kthread_work *work)
>   {
>   	mutex_lock(&clocksource_mutex);
>   	if (__clocksource_watchdog_work())
> @@ -806,6 +821,7 @@ static int __init clocksource_done_booting(void)
>   {
>   	mutex_lock(&clocksource_mutex);
>   	curr_clocksource = clocksource_default_clock();
> +	watchdog_worker = kthread_create_worker(0, "cs-watchdog");
>   	finished_booting = 1;
>   	/*
>   	 * Run the watchdog first to eliminate unstable clock sources

Successfully booted my Intel Core 2 Duo with the patch applied on top of
4.18.5 (based on default Arch Linux config).

I tested with at least 8/8 successful boots in total - with no
additional kernel boot parameters and also with "quiet", and "debug".
No problems seen so far.

Thank you for your effort and developing this patch.


Siegfried