linux-kernel - Re: [RFC PATCH 01/13] arm: Fix mutual exclusion in arch

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Date:   Sat, 17 Nov 2018 09:49:48 +1100 (AEDT)
From:   Finn Thain <fthain@...egraphics.com.au>
To:     Russell King - ARM Linux <linux@...linux.org.uk>
cc:     Christoph Hellwig <hch@...radead.org>,
        Geert Uytterhoeven <geert@...ux-m68k.org>,
        Arnd Bergmann <arnd@...db.de>,
        Stephen N Chivers <schivers@....com.au>,
        Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
        Daniel Lezcano <daniel.lezcano@...aro.org>,
        John Stultz <john.stultz@...aro.org>,
        linux-m68k@...ts.linux-m68k.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org
Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH 01/13] arm: Fix mutual exclusion in
 arch_gettimeoffset

On Fri, 16 Nov 2018, Russell King - ARM Linux wrote:

> 
> The EBSA110 is probably in a similar boat - I don't remember whether it 
> had 16MB or 32MB as the maximal amount of memory, but memory was getting 
> tight with some kernels even running a minimalist userspace.
> 
> So, it's probably time to say goodbyte to the kernel support for these 
> platforms.
> 

Your call.

Note that removing code from mainline won't help users obtain older, 
smaller, -stable kernel releases, free from the bug we were discussing. 
(The bug appeared in Linux v2.6.32.)

BTW, if you did want to boot Linux on a 16 MB system, you do have some 
options.

https://lwn.net/Articles/741494/
https://lwn.net/Articles/608945/
https://tiny.wiki.kernel.org/

Contributing to this kind of effort probably has value for IoT 
deployments. I suspect it also cuts a small amount of bloat from a large 
number of other Linux systems.

--