linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 3/4] x86, kdump: Retore crashkernel= to allocate low

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Date:	Tue, 2 Apr 2013 14:06:06 -0400
From:	Vivek Goyal <vgoyal@...hat.com>
To:	Yinghai Lu <yinghai@...nel.org>
Cc:	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>, Ingo Molnar <mingo@...e.hu>,
	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>, WANG Chao <chaowang@...hat.com>,
	"Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederm@...ssion.com>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH 3/4] x86, kdump: Retore crashkernel= to allocate low

On Tue, Apr 02, 2013 at 10:19:42AM -0700, Yinghai Lu wrote:

[..]
> Index: linux-2.6/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt
> ===================================================================
> --- linux-2.6.orig/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt
> +++ linux-2.6/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt
> @@ -603,9 +603,13 @@ bytes respectively. Such letter suffixes
>  			a memory unit (amount[KMG]). See also
>  			Documentation/kdump/kdump.txt for an example.
>  
> +	crashkernel_high=size[KMG]
> +			[KNL, x86_64] range could be above 4G. Allow kernel
> +			to allocate physical memory region from top, so could
> +			be above 4G if system have more than 4G ram installed.
>  	crashkernel_low=size[KMG]
> -			[KNL, x86_64] range under 4G. When crashkernel= is
> -			passed, kernel allocate physical memory region
> +			[KNL, x86_64] range under 4G. When crashkernel_high= is
> +			passed, kernel could allocate physical memory region
>  			above 4G, that cause second kernel crash on system
>  			that need swiotlb later. Kernel would try to allocate
>  			some region below 4G automatically. This one let

Hi Yinghai,

I think there are still some issues with crashkernel= semantics.

What if I specify both crashkernel_high= as well as crashkernel_low=.
Looks like crashkernel_low will be parsed only if crashkernel_high
reserved memory above 4G.

So if one gives following command line.

crashkernel=256M;high crashkernel=100M;low

Final outcome will vary across systems. If system has all RAM below 4G
we will see only one 256M chunk reserved otherwise we will see one 256M
and one 100M chunk reserved. And a user might think that I asked you to
reserve two chunks. One 256M and otherr 100M.

Also interesting is, what if user specifies both crashkernel=X and
crashkernel=Y;high. Looks like we will ignore crashkernel=X and honor
only crashkernel=Y;high.

So the problem here is, do we want to parse multiple crashkernel=
command line and support reserving multiple ranges? Till 3.8 kernel
we did not do that.  If we want to do that, then parsing crashkernel=
logic needs to be more generic. 

- I would say that to keep things simple, we can stick to semantics
  of 3.8 kernel and say only first crashkernel= option is parsed and
  acted upon. Rest are ignored. Trying to support multiple ranges will
  require much more work.

- If we say that we will only parse first crashkernel= option, then 
  crashkernel=X;high and crashkernel0;low can not co-exist. I would say
  use a new option to disable automatically reserved low memory. Say,
  crashkernel_no_auto_low; That way it can co-exist with other
  crashkernel= options without any conflict.

  In fact this will also work with crashkernel=X, if we decide to extend
  crashkernel=X to look for memory below 4G and look beyond 4G.

- Support crashkernel=X;high as a new crashkernel= option.

Thanks
Vivek
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