[PATCH v3 3/3] x86: fix .brk attribute in linker script

From: Juergen Gross
Date: Thu Jun 30 2022 - 03:15:02 EST


Commit e32683c6f7d2 ("x86/mm: Fix RESERVE_BRK() for older binutils")
added the "NOLOAD" attribute to the .brk section as a "failsafe"
measure.

Unfortunately this leads to the linker no longer covering the .brk
section in a program header, resulting in the kernel loader not knowing
that the memory for the .brk section must be reserved.

This has led to crashes when loading the kernel as PV dom0 under Xen,
but other scenarios could be hit by the same problem (e.g. in case an
uncompressed kernel is used and the initrd is placed directly behind
it).

So drop the "NOLOAD" attribute. This has been verified to correctly
cover the .brk section by a program header of the resulting ELF file.

Fixes: e32683c6f7d2 ("x86/mm: Fix RESERVE_BRK() for older binutils")
Signed-off-by: Juergen Gross <jgross@xxxxxxxx>
Reviewed-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
V2:
- new patch
---
arch/x86/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S | 2 +-
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/arch/x86/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S b/arch/x86/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S
index 81aba718ecd5..9487ce8c13ee 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S
+++ b/arch/x86/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S
@@ -385,7 +385,7 @@ SECTIONS
__end_of_kernel_reserve = .;

. = ALIGN(PAGE_SIZE);
- .brk (NOLOAD) : AT(ADDR(.brk) - LOAD_OFFSET) {
+ .brk : AT(ADDR(.brk) - LOAD_OFFSET) {
__brk_base = .;
. += 64 * 1024; /* 64k alignment slop space */
*(.bss..brk) /* areas brk users have reserved */
--
2.35.3