linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 3.12-rc7] KVM: Fix modprobe failure for kvm_intel/kvm

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Date:	Tue, 29 Oct 2013 09:45:11 -0700
From:	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
To:	Tim Gardner <tim.gardner@...onical.com>
Cc:	Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	"the arch/x86 maintainers" <x86@...nel.org>,
	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>,
	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>, Gleb Natapov <gleb@...hat.com>,
	Raghavendra K T <raghavendra.kt@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>,
	Marcelo Tosatti <mtosatti@...hat.com>,
	Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@...hat.com>,
	KVM list <kvm@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 3.12-rc7] KVM: Fix modprobe failure for kvm_intel/kvm_amd

Ugh. I won't comment on the actual kvm part of this patch, somebody
who knows that code should do so.

But I reacted to this:

On Tue, Oct 29, 2013 at 8:13 AM, Tim Gardner <tim.gardner@...onical.com> wrote:
>
> sudo modprobe kvm_amd
> modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'kvm_amd': Bad address

"Bad address"? Christ people, are you guys making up error numbers
with some kind of dice-roll? I can just see it now, somebody sitting
there with a D20, playing some kind of kernel-specific D&D, and
rolling a ten means that you get to slay the orc, and pick an error
number of EFAULT for some random kernel function. Because quite
frankly, "random dice roll" is the _only_ thing that explains "Bad
address" sufficiently.

Please, whoever wrote virt/kvm/kvm_main.c:: kvm_init_debug(), WTF?
EFAULT means "user passed in an invalid virtual address pointer",
which is why the error string is "Bad address". It makes absolutely NO
SENSE here. Perhaps EEXIST or EBUSY.

                  Linus
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