Re: [PATCH v11 00/11] iommu/arm-smmu-v3: Adopt the crashed kernel's stream table for kdump
From: Nicolin Chen
Date: Sat Oct 17 2026 - 15:14:20 EST
On Sat, Oct 17, 2026 at 04:19:20PM +0800, Shuai Xue wrote:
> We tested this series (v11, backported onto our 6.6-based kernel) on two
> arm64 server platforms that differ in how PCIe errors are reported: one
> with firmware-first reporting (GHES/CPER), the other with OS-first AER
> plus DPC. The test triggers a kdump crash (echo c > /proc/sysrq-trigger)
> on an otherwise idle machine and compares the capture kernel's dmesg
> between the unpatched baseline and the kernel carrying this series.
>
> On the firmware-first platform (10 SMMUv3 instances):
>
> Unpatched, every SMMU logs:
>
> arm-smmu-v3.0.auto: SMMU currently enabled! Resetting...
>
> and the destructive reset immediately aborts in-flight DMA. The capture
> kernel then drowns in a storm of GHES/CPER records together with PCIe
> AER "Poisoned TLP" (Data Link Layer) errors from the devices that were
> bus-mastering at crash time. Devices behind the reset SMMUs fail to
> recover in the capture kernel, and in some runs the capture kernel
> hangs in the error storm instead of saving the vmcore.
>
> With the series applied, all 10 SMMUs log:
>
> arm-smmu-v3.0.auto: kdump: retaining SMMUEN for in-flight DMA
>
> and the capture kernel boots with zero AER/GHES error records. A
> complete vmcore is saved and the machine reboots normally.
>
> On the OS-first AER/DPC platform (8 SMMUv3 instances):
>
> Unpatched: 8x "SMMU currently enabled! Resetting..." followed within
> seconds by PCIe AER Completion Abort errors reported by the root
> complex, along with DPC containment events and EDR notifications. The
> NICs behind the contained link never recover in the capture kernel.
>
> With the series applied: 8x "kdump: retaining SMMUEN for in-flight DMA",
> no PCIe error events at all, a complete vmcore and a clean reboot.
>
> The baseline symptom is load-independent: it reproduces on idle machines,
> since even an idle server has periodic DMA in flight (NIC rings, NVMe
> admin queues, etc.).
>
> Overall, on both platforms this series turns a capture-kernel boot that
> used to be buried under fatal PCIe error storms into a quiet one that
> reliably produces a usable vmcore.
>
> Please feel free to add:
>
> Tested-by: Shuai Xue <xueshuai@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Thanks for the test report. I'll add your tag in v12 (on rc1).
Nicolin