linux-kernel - Re: [patch 0/9] x86, xsave: xsave/xrstor support

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Date:	Fri, 1 Aug 2008 00:50:04 +0200
From:	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...e.hu>
To:	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
Cc:	Suresh Siddha <suresh.b.siddha@...el.com>,
	Wim Van Sebroeck <wim@...ana.be>,
	Pádraig Brady <P@...igBrady.com>,
	Andi Kleen <andi@...stfloor.org>,
	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>,
	"tglx@...utronix.de" <tglx@...utronix.de>,
	"akpm@...ux-foundation.org" <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	"arjan@...ux.intel.com" <arjan@...ux.intel.com>,
	"roland@...hat.com" <roland@...hat.com>,
	"drepper@...hat.com" <drepper@...hat.com>,
	"mikpe@...uu.se" <mikpe@...uu.se>,
	"chrisw@...s-sol.org" <chrisw@...s-sol.org>,
	"linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [patch 0/9] x86, xsave: xsave/xrstor support


* Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org> wrote:

> > But thats not what I see with for ex with, w83627hf_wdt.c
> > 
> > Its done at the module_init time. (while I thought it should be 
> > really done when some user level app opens the device, probably its 
> > poorly written to take care if the kernel panics before starting 
> > userland. but kernel can even die before the watchdog driver load 
> > aswell ;-)
> 
> Yeah, that's a _really_ broken watchdog timer driver. There's no way 
> that it's correct to start the watchdog at init time, at least when 
> compiled in.
> 
> It also looks to me like it's not even probing for the hardware - it's 
> just assuming it's there. That's scary. Am I missing something?
> 
> It really shouldn't be activated until it's opened. And it really 
> shouldn't just write to ports randomly without checking that they make 
> sense...

there are a handful of old ISA-ish drivers that can crash randconfig 
kernels in various ways. [indefinite lockups, crashes, stomped-over 
hardware, non-working keyboard, etc.]

I mapped most of them out via many months of trial-and-error - but it 
would still be nice to have some separate config option to disable the 
known ones. CONFIG_ALLOW_NON_GENERIC or something like that - which i 
would unset in the randconfig runs.

( They are not CONFIG_BROKEN per se, because often it's hardware that
  cannot be probed in any reliable way - the driver just assumes it's 
  there. )

	Ingo
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