[PATCH v2 1/2] x86/crash: reserve elfcorehdr for CONFIG_NR_CPUS, not CONFIG_NR_CPUS_DEFAULT
From: Ionut Nechita (Wind River)
Date: Tue Aug 25 2026 - 04:03:14 EST
From: Ionut Nechita <ionut.nechita@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
kexec_file_load(2) fails with -EINVAL when loading a crash kernel on a
machine whose number of possible CPUs exceeds CONFIG_NR_CPUS_DEFAULT,
even though the classic kexec_load(2) path succeeds on the same machine.
With CONFIG_CRASH_HOTPLUG=y the elfcorehdr segment is over-allocated so
it can be updated in place on CPU/memory hotplug. On the
!CONFIG_MEMORY_HOTPLUG path, crash_load_segments() sizes that
reservation as:
ret = crash_prepare_headers(..., &kbuf.bufsz, &pnum);
...
pnum += 2 + CONFIG_NR_CPUS_DEFAULT;
The value that lands in @pnum is crash_prepare_headers()'s
@nr_mem_ranges out parameter, i.e. cmem->nr_ranges - the number of
memory ranges only, not a phdr count. The header that
crash_prepare_elf64_headers() actually builds adds one phdr per
*possible* CPU on top of those ranges:
nr_phdr = nr_cpus + 1; /* + vmcoreinfo */
nr_phdr += mem->nr_ranges;
nr_phdr++; /* + kernel text map */
So the reservation covers
nr_ranges + 2 + CONFIG_NR_CPUS_DEFAULT
phdrs while the buffer holds
nr_ranges + 2 + num_possible_cpus()
phdrs, and the buffer exceeds the reservation by
(num_possible_cpus() - CONFIG_NR_CPUS_DEFAULT) * sizeof(Elf64_Phdr)
bytes as soon as num_possible_cpus() grows past CONFIG_NR_CPUS_DEFAULT.
num_possible_cpus() is bounded by CONFIG_NR_CPUS, not by
CONFIG_NR_CPUS_DEFAULT, so this is reachable on any config that raises
CONFIG_NR_CPUS above the arch default without CONFIG_MAXSMP.
crash_prepare_elf64_headers() rounds bufsz up to ELF_CORE_HEADER_ALIGN
and kexec_add_buffer() rounds memsz up to PAGE_SIZE (both 4096), so the
excess is invisible until it outgrows that padding. Once it does,
sanity_check_segment_list() rejects the image:
if (image->segment[i].bufsz > image->segment[i].memsz)
return -EINVAL;
kexec_load(2) is unaffected because user space builds the elfcorehdr
without the hotplug over-allocation.
Observed on a single-socket Xeon 6776P (144 possible CPUs) running a
PREEMPT_RT kernel with:
# CONFIG_MAXSMP is not set
# CONFIG_MEMORY_HOTPLUG is not set
CONFIG_NR_CPUS_RANGE_BEGIN=2
CONFIG_NR_CPUS_RANGE_END=512
CONFIG_NR_CPUS_DEFAULT=64
CONFIG_NR_CPUS=256
At 144 possible CPUs the buffer exceeds the reservation by
(144 - 64) * 56 = 4480 bytes. That is more than the 4096 bytes of page
padding, so the overflow is guaranteed and kexec -p -s fails with
"kexec_file_load failed: Invalid argument". Reducing the possible CPU
count to 72 leaves an excess of (72 - 64) * 56 = 448 bytes, which the
page rounding still absorbs, and the load succeeds - confirming the
reservation is the limiting factor.
Reserve the elfcorehdr for CONFIG_NR_CPUS, the compile-time upper bound
of num_possible_cpus(), so the reservation always covers the header that
is actually generated.
The CONFIG_MEMORY_HOTPLUG=y path discards @pnum and reserves
2 + CONFIG_NR_CPUS_DEFAULT + CONFIG_CRASH_MAX_MEMORY_RANGES phdrs
instead. With the default CONFIG_CRASH_MAX_MEMORY_RANGES=8192 the
memory range allowance dwarfs the CPU shortfall, so that path does not
fail in practice; it is switched to CONFIG_NR_CPUS as well for
consistency and to stay correct for small CONFIG_CRASH_MAX_MEMORY_RANGES
values.
This does not change the reservation for defconfig-like builds, since
CONFIG_NR_CPUS defaults to CONFIG_NR_CPUS_DEFAULT. Only configs that
raise CONFIG_NR_CPUS reserve more, and the worst case is bounded by the
top of the range (CONFIG_NR_CPUS=8192 with CONFIG_CPUMASK_OFFSTACK=y),
which is exactly what CONFIG_MAXSMP already reserves today.
Fixes: ea53ad9cf73b ("x86/crash: add x86 crash hotplug support")
Signed-off-by: Ionut Nechita <ionut.nechita@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reviewed-by: Jinjie Ruan <ruanjinjie@xxxxxxxxxx>
Reviewed-by: Bradley Morgan <include@xxxxxxxxx>
---
arch/x86/kernel/crash.c | 6 +++---
1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
diff --git a/arch/x86/kernel/crash.c b/arch/x86/kernel/crash.c
index e681ec9cf1dc..e6f23933a6df 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kernel/crash.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kernel/crash.c
@@ -369,9 +369,9 @@ int crash_load_segments(struct kimage *image)
* maximum CPUs and maximum memory ranges.
*/
if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_MEMORY_HOTPLUG))
- pnum = 2 + CONFIG_NR_CPUS_DEFAULT + CONFIG_CRASH_MAX_MEMORY_RANGES;
+ pnum = 2 + CONFIG_NR_CPUS + CONFIG_CRASH_MAX_MEMORY_RANGES;
else
- pnum += 2 + CONFIG_NR_CPUS_DEFAULT;
+ pnum += 2 + CONFIG_NR_CPUS;
if (pnum < (unsigned long)PN_XNUM) {
kbuf.memsz = pnum * sizeof(Elf64_Phdr);
@@ -430,7 +430,7 @@ unsigned int arch_crash_get_elfcorehdr_size(void)
unsigned int sz;
/* kernel_map, VMCOREINFO and maximum CPUs */
- sz = 2 + CONFIG_NR_CPUS_DEFAULT;
+ sz = 2 + CONFIG_NR_CPUS;
if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_MEMORY_HOTPLUG))
sz += CONFIG_CRASH_MAX_MEMORY_RANGES;
sz *= sizeof(Elf64_Phdr);
base-commit: 4b18edbd8e70f7e6860d56370f13244896d0f95c
--
2.55.0