Re: [PATCH 5.8 000/186] 5.8.8-rc1 review

[Geert Uytterhoeven]

Hi Günter,

On Wed, Sep 9, 2020 at 8:24 PM Guenter Roeck <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 9/9/20 11:01 AM, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> > On Wed, Sep 09, 2020 at 09:47:05AM -0700, Guenter Roeck wrote:
> >> On Tue, Sep 08, 2020 at 05:22:22PM +0200, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> >>> This is the start of the stable review cycle for the 5.8.8 release.
> >>> There are 186 patches in this series, all will be posted as a response
> >>> to this one.  If anyone has any issues with these being applied, please
> >>> let me know.
> >>>
> >>> Responses should be made by Thu, 10 Sep 2020 15:21:57 +0000.
> >>> Anything received after that time might be too late.
> >>>
> >>
> >> Build results:
> >>      total: 154 pass: 153 fail: 1
> >> Failed builds:
> >>      powerpc:allmodconfig
> >> Qemu test results:
> >>      total: 430 pass: 430 fail: 0
> >>
> >> The powerpc problem is the same as before:
> >>
> >> Inconsistent kallsyms data
> >> Try make KALLSYMS_EXTRA_PASS=1 as a workaround
> >>
> >> KALLSYMS_EXTRA_PASS=1 doesn't help. The problem is sporadic, elusive, and all
> >> but impossible to bisect. The same build passes on another system, for example,
> >> with a different load pattern. It may pass with -j30 and fail with -j40.
> >> The problem started at some point after v5.8, and got worse over time; by now
> >> it almost always happens. I'd be happy to debug if there is a means to do it,
> >> but I don't have an idea where to even start. I'd disable KALLSYMS in my
> >> test configurations, but the symbol is selected from various places and thus
> >> difficult to disable. So unless I stop building ppc:allmodconfig entirely
> >> we'll just have to live with the failure.
> >
> > Ah, I was worried when I saw your dashboard orange for this kernel.
> >
> > I guess the powerpc maintainers don't care?  Sad :(
> >
>
> Not sure if the powerpc architecture is to blame. Bisect attempts end up
> all over the place, and don't typically include any powerpc changes.
> I have no idea how kallsyms is created, but my suspicion is that it is
> a generic problem and that powerpc just happens to hit it right now.
> I have added KALLSYMS_EXTRA_PASS=1 to several architecture builds over
> time, when they reported similar problems. Right now I set it for
> alpha, arm, and m68k. powerpc just happens to be the first architecture
> where it doesn't help.

This is a generic problem, cfr. scripts/link-vmlinux.sh:

        # kallsyms support
        # Generate section listing all symbols and add it into vmlinux
        # It's a three step process:
        # 1)  Link .tmp_vmlinux1 so it has all symbols and sections,
        #     but __kallsyms is empty.
        #     Running kallsyms on that gives us .tmp_kallsyms1.o with
        #     the right size
        # 2)  Link .tmp_vmlinux2 so it now has a __kallsyms section of
        #     the right size, but due to the added section, some
        #     addresses have shifted.
        #     From here, we generate a correct .tmp_kallsyms2.o
        # 3)  That link may have expanded the kernel image enough that
        #     more linker branch stubs / trampolines had to be added, which
        #     introduces new names, which further expands kallsyms. Do another
        #     pass if that is the case. In theory it's possible this results
        #     in even more stubs, but unlikely.
        #     KALLSYMS_EXTRA_PASS=1 may also used to debug or work around
        #     other bugs.

Adding even more kallsyms_steps may help (or not, if you're really
unlucky).  Perhaps the number of passes should be handled automatically
(i.e. run until it succeeds, with a sane (16?) upper limit to avoid
 endless builds, so it can still fail, in theory).

Gr{oetje,eeting}s,

                        Geert

-- 
Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But
when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that.
                                -- Linus Torvalds