linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] cciss: Ignore stale commands after reboot

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Date:	Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:33:44 -0400
From:	"Alan D. Brunelle" <adbrunelle@...il.com>
To:	Hannes Reinecke <hare@...e.de>
CC:	Jens Axboe <jens.axboe@...cle.com>,
	scameron@...rdog.cca.cpqcorp.net, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] cciss: Ignore stale commands after reboot

Hannes Reinecke wrote:
> When doing an unexpected shutdown like kexec the cciss
> firmware might still have some commands in flight, which
> it is trying to complete.
> The driver is doing it's best on resetting the HBA,
> but sadly there's a firmware issue causing the firmware
> _not_ to abort or drop old commands.
> So the firmware will send us commands which we haven't
> accounted for, causing the driver to panic.
> 
> With this patch we're just ignoring these commands as
> there is nothing we could be doing with them anyway.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Hannes Reinecke <hare@...e.de>

Pardon my ignorance here, but don't you have a bigger problem: if the 
reset is not dropping or aborting old commands, doesn't this also mean 
that these old commands can still be _executing_? In which case any 
(old) reads being executed could be scribbling over memory? (Memory that 
may be being used for other purposes?)

Alan D. Brunelle

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