linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] PCI/AER: Add option to panic on unrecoverable errors

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Message-ID: <aYY_hMZyVp7GZvX2@kbusch-mbp>
Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2026 12:22:44 -0700
From: Keith Busch <kbusch@...nel.org>
To: Bjorn Helgaas <helgaas@...nel.org>
Cc: Breno Leitao <leitao@...ian.org>, Jonathan Corbet <corbet@....net>,
	Mahesh J Salgaonkar <mahesh@...ux.ibm.com>,
	Oliver O'Halloran <oohall@...il.com>,
	Bjorn Helgaas <bhelgaas@...gle.com>, linux-doc@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linuxppc-dev@...ts.ozlabs.org,
	linux-pci@...r.kernel.org, dcostantino@...a.com, rneu@...a.com,
	kernel-team@...a.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH] PCI/AER: Add option to panic on unrecoverable errors

On Fri, Feb 06, 2026 at 12:52:32PM -0600, Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
> Just from an overall complexity point of view, I'm a little hesitant
> to add new kernel parameters because this seems like a very specific
> case.
> 
> Is there anything we could do to improve the logging to make the issue
> more recognizable?  I assume you already look for KERN_CRIT, KERN_ERR,
> etc., but it looks like the current message is just KERN_INFO.  I
> think we could make a good case for at least KERN_WARNING.
> 
> But I guess you probably want something that's just impossible to
> ignore.

It's not necessarily about improving visibility with a higher alert
level. It's more that the system can't be trusted to operate correctly
from here on. Consider an interconnected GPU setup and only one
experiences an unrecoverable error. We don't want to leave the system
limping along with this unresolved error as it can't perform anything
useful. A panic induced reboot is the least bad option to return the
system to operation, or crashes the system temporally close to failure
to get logs for the vendor if we're actively debugging.

> Are there any other similar flags you already use that we could
> piggy-back on?  E.g., if we raised the level to KERN_WARNING, maybe
> the existing "panic_on_warn" would be enough?

There are many KERN_WARNING messages that don't rise to the level of
warranting a 'panic' that don't want to enable such an option in
production. It looks like the panic_on_warn was introduced for developer
debugging.

I agree the curnent INFO level is too low for the generic unrecovered
condition, though.