[BUG] WARNING in __alloc_frozen_pages_noprof
From: Xianying Wang
Date: Wed Nov 19 2025 - 04:07:15 EST
Hi,
I hit the following warning in the page allocator when opening a perf
event with callchain sampling after increasing
kernel.perf_event_max_stack.This warning can be triggered by first
writing a large value into kernel.perf_event_max_stack and then
opening a perf event with callchain sampling enabled.
The reproducer does two things:
1) It writes a large (but still accepted) value to the sysctl:
echo 0x40132 > /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_max_stack
(0x40132 = 262450 in decimal. This is below the current upper bound
enforced by perf_event_max_stack_handler(), which uses 640 * 1024
as extra2.)
2) It calls perf_event_open() with callchain sampling:
struct perf_event_attr attr = {
.type = PERF_TYPE_HARDWARE,
.size = sizeof(attr),
.config = PERF_COUNT_HW_CPU_CYCLES,
.sample_type = PERF_SAMPLE_CALLCHAIN,
.sample_period = 1,
.disabled = 1,
};
fd = syscall(__NR_perf_event_open, &attr, -1, 0, -1, 0);
The same warning is reproducible on both v6.17.0 and v6.18-rc2
(6.18.0-rc2-00120 g6fab32bb6508), only the line numbers in
__alloc_frozen_pages_noprof() differ slightly.
The suspected cause is that alloc_callchain_buffers() uses
sysctl_perf_event_max_stack directly when computing the size of the
per-CPU callchain buffers. For large but valid values of
kernel.perf_event_max_stack, perf_callchain_entry__sizeof() grows to
several megabytes, and alloc_callchain_buffers() ends up doing a very
large contiguous kmalloc_node() per CPU. This high-order allocation
then triggers the warning in __alloc_frozen_pages_noprof() in the page
allocator.
This can be reproduced on:
HEAD commit:
e5f0a698b34ed76002dc5cff3804a61c80233a7a
6fab32bb6508abbb8b7b1c5498e44f0c32320ed5
report: https://pastebin.com/raw/bCq3d4KR
console output : https://pastebin.com/raw/5hfk57Vd
kernel config : https://pastebin.com/raw/1grwrT16
C reproducer :https://pastebin.com/raw/GADWbwKN
Let me know if you need more details or testing.
Best regards,
Xianying