Re: "Dead loop on virtual device" error without softirq-BKL on PREEMPT_RT

From: Bert Karwatzki

Date: Mon Feb 16 2026 - 10:32:54 EST


Am Montag, dem 16.02.2026 um 14:43 +0100 schrieb Bert Karwatzki:
> Starting with linux-6.18, I see the following log messages
>
> 2026-02-15T23:50:17.558716+01:00 [ T1559] Dead loop on virtual device wlp4s0, fix it urgently!
> 2026-02-15T23:50:17.558737+01:00 [ T1559] Dead loop on virtual device wlp4s0, fix it urgently!
> [...]
>
> regarding my wireless network device
>
> 04:00.0 Network controller [0280]: MEDIATEK Corp. MT7921K (RZ608) Wi-Fi 6E 80MHz [14c3:0608]
>
> I bisected this (from v6.17 to v6.18) and got this as the first bad commit:
> 3253cb49cbad ("softirq: Allow to drop the softirq-BKL lock on PREEMPT_RT")
>
> Using CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT_NEEDS_BH_LOCK=y in v6.18.10 fixes the issue.
>
> Bert Karwatzki

May I presume that to fix this properly at least some of the spin_lock_bh()s in
net/mac80211/ need to be converted to local_lock_nested_bh()s?

Bert Karwatzki