linux-kernel - Re: Deprecating and removing SLOB

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Date:   Wed, 09 Nov 2022 20:56:08 +0000
From:   Paul Cercueil <paul@...pouillou.net>
To:     vbabka@...e.cz
Cc:     42.hyeyoo@...il.com, akpm@...ux-foundation.org,
        catalin.marinas@....com, cl@...ux.com, iamjoonsoo.kim@....com,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-mm@...ck.org,
        penberg@...nel.org, rientjes@...gle.com, rkovhaev@...il.com,
        roman.gushchin@...ux.dev, torvalds@...ux-foundation.org,
        willy@...radead.org
Subject: Re: Deprecating and removing SLOB

Hi Vlastimil,

I was actually using SLOB until recently for a device flasher program 
(kernel + initramfs + dtb, booted over USB) for Ingenic SoCs. I picked 
SLOB just because it said "embedded systems" in menuconfig and some of 
my boards have as little as 32 MiB RAM.

It worked fine on some boards, but on others it had about a 25% chance 
of booting, and 75% chance of hanging at boot. I tried printk-debugging 
it, and was coming to the conclusion that it's memory corruption of 
some sort.

Then I switched to SLUB and all the problems are gone. Same with SLAB.

So while I can't say for sure that SLOB is broken (it might be 
triggering a bug somewhere else), I am highly suspicious that it is.

So yeah... axe it.

Cheers,
-Paul