linux-kernel - Re: [BUG] Kernel panic in __migrate_swap_task() on 6.16-rc2 (NULL pointer dereference)

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Message-ID: <8a919ef6-4105-44e0-a17c-e41c1c0abbe9@amd.com>
Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2025 13:06:21 +0530
From: "Aithal, Srikanth" <sraithal@....com>
To: "Chen, Yu C" <yu.c.chen@...el.com>, Jirka Hladky <jhladky@...hat.com>,
 Abhigyan ghosh <zscript.team.zs@...il.com>
Cc: linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Suneeth D <Suneeth.D@....com>
Subject: Re: [BUG] Kernel panic in __migrate_swap_task() on 6.16-rc2 (NULL
 pointer dereference)



On 7/2/2025 10:02 AM, Aithal, Srikanth wrote:
> On 6/27/2025 1:03 PM, Chen, Yu C wrote:
>> On 6/27/2025 3:16 PM, Chen, Yu C wrote:
>>> Hi Jirka,
>>>
>>> On 6/27/2025 5:46 AM, Jirka Hladky wrote:
>>>> Hi Chen and all,
>>>>
>>>> we have now verified that the following commit causes a kernel panic
>>>> discussed in this thread:
>>>>
>>>> ad6b26b6a0a79 sched/numa: add statistics of numa balance task
>>>>
>>>> Reverting this commit fixes the issue.
>>>>
>>>> I'm happy to help debug this further or test a proposed fix.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks very much for your report, it seems that there is a
>>> race condition that when the swap task candidate was chosen,
>>> but its mm_struct get released due to task exit, then later
>>> when doing the task swaping, the p->mm is NULL which caused
>>> the problem:
>>>
>>> CPU0                                   CPU1
>>> :
>>> ...
>>> task_numa_migrate
>>>    task_numa_find_cpu
>>>     task_numa_compare
>>>       # a normal task p is chosen
>>>       env->best_task = p
>>>
>>>                                         # p exit:
>>>                                         exit_signals(p);
>>>                                            p->flags |= PF_EXITING
>>>                                         exit_mm
>>>                                            p->mm = NULL;
>>>
>>>     migrate_swap_stop
>>>       __migrate_swap_task((arg->src_task, arg->dst_cpu)
>>>        count_memcg_event_mm(p->mm, NUMA_TASK_SWAP)# p->mm is NULL
>>>
>>> Could you please help check if the following debug patch works,
>>
>> Attached the patch:
>>
>> diff --git a/kernel/sched/core.c b/kernel/sched/core.c
>> index 8988d38d46a3..82fc966b390c 100644
>> --- a/kernel/sched/core.c
>> +++ b/kernel/sched/core.c
>> @@ -3364,7 +3364,12 @@ static void __migrate_swap_task(struct 
>> task_struct *p, int cpu)
>>   {
>>       __schedstat_inc(p->stats.numa_task_swapped);
>>       count_vm_numa_event(NUMA_TASK_SWAP);
>> -    count_memcg_event_mm(p->mm, NUMA_TASK_SWAP);
>> +    if (unlikely(!p->mm)) {
>> +        trace_printk("!! (%d %s) flags=%lx\n", p->pid, p->comm,
>> +                p->flags);
>> +    } else {
>> +        count_memcg_event_mm(p->mm, NUMA_TASK_SWAP);
>> +    }
>>
>>       if (task_on_rq_queued(p)) {
>>           struct rq *src_rq, *dst_rq;
> 
> I was encountering the same issue as mentioned earlier in this thread, 
> which has been recurring in our daily linux-next CI builds within our 
> virtualization CI stream where we observed this BUG appearing randomly 
> during the runs.
> 
> Additionally, we were able to reproduce this issue while running the 
> autonuma benchmark. As mentioned earlier, the BUG would occur randomly 
> across iterations, typically between the 5th and 10th iterations.
> 
> We consistently encountered this issue up to the 6.16.0-rc4- 
> next-20250630 build [https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/ 
> next/linux-next.git].
> 
> After applying the aforementioned patch ontop of next-20250630 build, I 
> tested it in our virtualization CI and with the autonuma benchmark 
> reproducer described below, and the issue no longer occurred. The patch 
> appears to have resolved the reported problem.
> 
> 
> git clone https://github.com/pholasek/autonuma-benchmark.git
> cd autonuma-benchmark
> for i in $(seq 1 80); do bash ./start_bench.sh -s -t; done
> Note: The server running the autonuma-benchmark must have at least two 
> nodes.
> 
> If the provided fix is final, please feel free to include the following 
> Tested-by tag:
> 
> Tested-by: Srikanth Aithal <Srikanth.Aithal@....com>
> Tested-by: Suneeth D <Suneeth.D@....com>
> 


I apologize for overlooking that this was a debug patch. With this debug 
patch applied on top of 6.16.0-rc4-next-20250630, I am unable to 
reproduce the issue. However, when I revert this debug patch, I 
encounter the issue again on 6.16.0-rc4-next-20250630.