linux-kernel - RE: [PATCH RFC 2/2] events/hw_event: Create a Hardware Anomaly Report Mechanism (HARM)

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Message-ID: <987664A83D2D224EAE907B061CE93D5301A7A60074@orsmsx505.amr.corp.intel.com>
Date:	Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:27:43 -0700
From:	"Luck, Tony" <tony.luck@...el.com>
To:	Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@...hat.com>,
	Borislav Petkov <bp@...64.org>
CC:	Borislav Petkov <bp@...en8.de>,
	Linux Edac Mailing List <linux-edac@...r.kernel.org>,
	Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: RE: [PATCH RFC 2/2] events/hw_event: Create a Hardware Anomaly
 Report Mechanism (HARM)

> A INT13 persistent data saving will probably be too hard to implement for
> all kind of storages. So, it will probably need lots of hack in order to
> work. Also, some hardware may even not have any local hard disk. Not sure
> if it is worth to spend time on it.

Linus was pretty clear that he didn't like the idea when
it came up a few weeks ago in the:
 [PATCH 0/2][concept RFC] x86: BIOS-save kernel log to disk upon panic
thread.

Linus ranted:
> Quite frankly, I'm not likely to _ever_ merge anything like this.
>
> Over the years, many people have tried to write things to disk on
> oops. I refuse to take it. No way in hell do I want the situation of
> "the system is screwed, so let's overwrite the disk" to be something
> the kernel I release might do. It's crazy. That disk is a lot more
> important than the kernel, and overwriting it when we might have
> serious memory corruption issues or something is not a thing I feel is
> appropriate.

I agree with him - writing to disk from a known broken kernel (using
a probably buggy BIOS) is a disaster waiting to happen to somebody's
disk.

-Tony