2.6.20.3: kernel BUG at mm/slab.c:597 try#2

2.6.20.3: kernel BUG at mm/slab.c:597 try#2

[Andreas Steinmetz]

As posted to lkml and linux-scsi on 2007-03-15 without reply, see
http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=117395128412313&w=2 for original post:

It is not so nice when one can write backup tapes but the tapes cannot
be read. I don't know if memory management or the st driver is the
culprit, but this is a not so nice situation.

I can't even say if the tapes are written correctly as I can't read them
(one does not reboot production machines back to 2.4.x just to try to
read a backup tape - I don't have 2.6.x older than 2.6.20 on these
machines).
-- 
Andreas Steinmetz                       SPAMmers use robotrap@domdv.de

Re: 2.6.20.3: kernel BUG at mm/slab.c:597 try#2

[Andrew Morton]

On Mon, 19 Mar 2007 01:34:22 +0100 Andreas Steinmetz <ast@domdv.de> wrote:

> As posted to lkml and linux-scsi on 2007-03-15 without reply, see
> http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=117395128412313&w=2 for original post:

Repeatable oops in our most recently released kernel, nobody bothers to
reply.

> It is not so nice when one can write backup tapes but the tapes cannot
> be read. I don't know if memory management or the st driver is the
> culprit, but this is a not so nice situation.
> 
> I can't even say if the tapes are written correctly as I can't read them
> (one does not reboot production machines back to 2.4.x just to try to
> read a backup tape - I don't have 2.6.x older than 2.6.20 on these
> machines).

        BUG_ON(!PageSlab(page));

that's seriously screwed up.  Do you have CONFIG_DEBUG_SLAB enabled?  If
not, please enable it and retest.

Re: 2.6.20.3: kernel BUG at mm/slab.c:597 try#2

[Pekka Enberg]

On 3/19/07, Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> wrote:
>         BUG_ON(!PageSlab(page));
>
> that's seriously screwed up.  Do you have CONFIG_DEBUG_SLAB enabled?  If
> not, please enable it and retest.

This is scary. Looking at disassembly of the OOPS:

Disassembly of section .text:

00000000 <.text>:
   0:   5f                      pop    %edi
   1:   c3                      ret
   2:   57                      push   %edi
   3:   89 c1                   mov    %eax,%ecx
   5:   89 d7                   mov    %edx,%edi
   7:   8d 92 00 00 00 40       lea    0x40000000(%edx),%edx
   d:   56                      push   %esi
   e:   c1 ea 0c                shr    $0xc,%edx
  11:   53                      push   %ebx
  12:   c1 e2 05                shl    $0x5,%edx
  15:   03 15 40 5d 5a c0       add    0xc05a5d40,%edx

At this point, edx has the result of virt_to_page().

  1b:   8b 02                   mov    (%edx),%eax
  1d:   f6 c4 40                test   $0x40,%ah
  20:   74 03                   je     0x25

If it's a compound page, look up the real page from ->private.

  22:   8b 52 0c                mov    0xc(%edx),%edx

Now, reload page flags.

  25:   8b 02                   mov    (%edx),%eax

And test...

  27:   a8 80                   test   $0x80,%al
  29:   75 04                   jne    0x2f
  2b:   0f 0b                   ud2a
  2d:   eb fe                   jmp    0x2d
  2f:   39 4a 18                cmp    %ecx,0x18(%edx)

[snip, snip]

EIP is at kmem_cache_free+0x29/0x5a
eax: c1800000   ebx: f0ae12c0   ecx: c18f73c0   edx: c1800000
esi: c1919de0   edi: 00000000   ebp: 00001000   esp: f1fe7e14
ds: 007b   es: 007b   ss: 0068

But somehow eax and edx have the same value 0xc1800000 here. Hmm?

                                   Pekka

Re: 2.6.20.3: kernel BUG at mm/slab.c:597 try#2

[Pekka Enberg]

On 3/19/07, Pekka Enberg <penberg@cs.helsinki.fi> wrote:
> EIP is at kmem_cache_free+0x29/0x5a
> eax: c1800000   ebx: f0ae12c0   ecx: c18f73c0   edx: c1800000
> esi: c1919de0   edi: 00000000   ebp: 00001000   esp: f1fe7e14
> ds: 007b   es: 007b   ss: 0068
>
> But somehow eax and edx have the same value 0xc1800000 here. Hmm?

Aah, but if you look at contents of the stack:

Stack: f0ae12c0 c1919de0 ffffffea c0137f97 00000000 f0ae12c0 c1919e20 c0168d45
       f0ae12c0 00001000 c0168fb9 c02a77e3 00001000 00000000 00000000 00000000
       00000000 c17bb6e0 00001000 00000000 f1b38be8 00000003 f54ac050 c1b9d6e8
Call Trace:
 [<c0137f97>] mempool_free+0x48/0x4c
 [<c0168d45>] bio_free+0x21/0x2c
 [<c0168fb9>] bio_put+0x22/0x23

You can see that mempool_free is passing a NULL pointer to
kmem_cache_free() which doesn't handle it properly. The NULL pointer
comes from bio_free() where ->bi_io_vec is  NULL because nr_iovecs
passed to bio_alloc_bioset() was zero.

The question is, why is nr_pages zero in scsi_req_map_sg()?

Re: 2.6.20.3: kernel BUG at mm/slab.c:597 try#2

[Pekka Enberg]

On 3/19/07, Pekka Enberg <penberg@cs.helsinki.fi> wrote:
> You can see that mempool_free is passing a NULL pointer to
> kmem_cache_free() which doesn't handle it properly. The NULL pointer
> comes from bio_free() where ->bi_io_vec is  NULL because nr_iovecs
> passed to bio_alloc_bioset() was zero.
>
> The question is, why is nr_pages zero in scsi_req_map_sg()?

Note that the following patch I posted only addresses the part where
slab is clearly failing here:

http://lkml.org/lkml/2007/3/19/42

So, while it should fix the oops, there might be a bug lurking in the
SCSI or block layer still.

Re: 2.6.20.3: kernel BUG at mm/slab.c:597 try#2

[Mike Christie]

Andreas Steinmetz wrote:
> As posted to lkml and linux-scsi on 2007-03-15 without reply, see
> http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=117395128412313&w=2 for original post:
> 
> It is not so nice when one can write backup tapes but the tapes cannot
> be read. I don't know if memory management or the st driver is the
> culprit, but this is a not so nice situation.
> 
> I can't even say if the tapes are written correctly as I can't read them
> (one does not reboot production machines back to 2.4.x just to try to
> read a backup tape - I don't have 2.6.x older than 2.6.20 on these
> machines).

Could you try this patch
http://marc.info/?l=linux-scsi&m=116464965414878&w=2
I thought st was modified to not send offsets in the last elements but
it looks like it wasn't.

Re: 2.6.20.3: kernel BUG at mm/slab.c:597 try#2

[James Bottomley]

On Mon, 2007-03-19 at 12:49 -0500, Mike Christie wrote:
> > I can't even say if the tapes are written correctly as I can't read them
> > (one does not reboot production machines back to 2.4.x just to try to
> > read a backup tape - I don't have 2.6.x older than 2.6.20 on these
> > machines).
> 
> Could you try this patch
> http://marc.info/?l=linux-scsi&m=116464965414878&w=2
> I thought st was modified to not send offsets in the last elements but
> it looks like it wasn't.

Actually, there are two patches in the email referred to.  If the
analysis that we're passing NULL to mempool_free is correct, it should
be the second one that fixes the problem (the one that checks
bio->bi_io_vec before freeing it).  Which would mean we have a
nr_vecs==0 bio generated by the tar somehow.

James

Re: 2.6.20.3: kernel BUG at mm/slab.c:597 try#2

[Mike Christie]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1577 bytes --]

James Bottomley wrote:
> On Mon, 2007-03-19 at 12:49 -0500, Mike Christie wrote:
>>> I can't even say if the tapes are written correctly as I can't read them
>>> (one does not reboot production machines back to 2.4.x just to try to
>>> read a backup tape - I don't have 2.6.x older than 2.6.20 on these
>>> machines).
>> Could you try this patch
>> http://marc.info/?l=linux-scsi&m=116464965414878&w=2
>> I thought st was modified to not send offsets in the last elements but
>> it looks like it wasn't.
> 
> Actually, there are two patches in the email referred to.  If the
> analysis that we're passing NULL to mempool_free is correct, it should
> be the second one that fixes the problem (the one that checks
> bio->bi_io_vec before freeing it).  Which would mean we have a
> nr_vecs==0 bio generated by the tar somehow.
> 

I think we might only need the first patch if the problem is similar to
what the lsi guys were seeing. I thought the problem is that we are not
estimating how large the transfer is correctly because we do not take
into account offsets at the end. This results in nr_vecs being zero when
it should be a valid value. I thought Kai's patch:
http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7919
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/jejb/scsi-misc-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=9abe16c670bd3d4ab5519257514f9f291383d104
fixed the problem on st's side, but I guess not so you are probably right.

Here is a patch that dumps the sgl we are getting from st so we can see
for sure what we are getting and can decide if we need the first patch,
second patch or both.

[-- Attachment #2: dump-sgl.patch --]
[-- Type: text/x-patch, Size: 464 bytes --]

diff --git a/drivers/scsi/scsi_lib.c b/drivers/scsi/scsi_lib.c
index 5f95570..81005aa 100644
--- a/drivers/scsi/scsi_lib.c
+++ b/drivers/scsi/scsi_lib.c
@@ -306,6 +306,10 @@ static int scsi_req_map_sg(struct reques
 	struct bio *bio = NULL;
 	int i, err, nr_vecs = 0;
 
+	for (i = 0; i < nsegs; i++)
+		printk(KERN_INFO "sg length %u offset %u\n", sgl[i].length,
+			sgl[i].offset);
+
 	for (i = 0; i < nsegs; i++) {
 		page = sgl[i].page;
 		off = sgl[i].offset;

Re: 2.6.20.3: kernel BUG at mm/slab.c:597 try#2

[Mike Christie]

Mike Christie wrote:
> James Bottomley wrote:
>> On Mon, 2007-03-19 at 12:49 -0500, Mike Christie wrote:
>>>> I can't even say if the tapes are written correctly as I can't read them
>>>> (one does not reboot production machines back to 2.4.x just to try to
>>>> read a backup tape - I don't have 2.6.x older than 2.6.20 on these
>>>> machines).
>>> Could you try this patch
>>> http://marc.info/?l=linux-scsi&m=116464965414878&w=2
>>> I thought st was modified to not send offsets in the last elements but
>>> it looks like it wasn't.
>> Actually, there are two patches in the email referred to.  If the
>> analysis that we're passing NULL to mempool_free is correct, it should
>> be the second one that fixes the problem (the one that checks
>> bio->bi_io_vec before freeing it).  Which would mean we have a
>> nr_vecs==0 bio generated by the tar somehow.
>>
> 
> I think we might only need the first patch if the problem is similar to
> what the lsi guys were seeing. I thought the problem is that we are not
> estimating how large the transfer is correctly because we do not take
> into account offsets at the end. This results in nr_vecs being zero when
> it should be a valid value. I thought Kai's patch:
> http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7919
> http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/jejb/scsi-misc-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=9abe16c670bd3d4ab5519257514f9f291383d104
> fixed the problem on st's side,

Oh, I noticed that the subject for the mail references 2.6.30.3 and the
patch for st in the bugzilla did not make into 2.6.20 and is not in .3.
Could we try the st patch in the bugzilla first?

Re: 2.6.20.3: kernel BUG at mm/slab.c:597 try#2

[Gene Heskett]

On Monday 19 March 2007, James Bottomley wrote:
>On Mon, 2007-03-19 at 12:49 -0500, Mike Christie wrote:
>> > I can't even say if the tapes are written correctly as I can't read
>> > them (one does not reboot production machines back to 2.4.x just to
>> > try to read a backup tape - I don't have 2.6.x older than 2.6.20 on
>> > these machines).
>>
>> Could you try this patch
>> http://marc.info/?l=linux-scsi&m=116464965414878&w=2
>> I thought st was modified to not send offsets in the last elements but
>> it looks like it wasn't.
>
>Actually, there are two patches in the email referred to.  If the
>analysis that we're passing NULL to mempool_free is correct, it should
>be the second one that fixes the problem (the one that checks
>bio->bi_io_vec before freeing it).  Which would mean we have a
>nr_vecs==0 bio generated by the tar somehow.
>
>James

James, could this also be the cause of a tar based backup going crazy and 
thinking all data is new under any 2.6.21-rc* kernel I've tested so far 
with amanda, which in my case uses tar?  I've tried the fedora patched 
tar-1.15-1, and one I hand built right after 1.15-1 came out over a year 
ago, and they both do it, but only when booted to a 2.6.21-rc* kernel.

This obviously will be a show-stopper, either for amanda (and by 
inference, any app that uses tar), or for the migration of an amanda 
users machinery to a 2.6.21 kernel.

>
>-
>To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel"
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>Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/



-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
fractal radiation jamming the backbone

Re: 2.6.20.3: kernel BUG at mm/slab.c:597 try#2

[James Bottomley]

On Mon, 2007-03-19 at 17:47 -0400, Gene Heskett wrote:
> James, could this also be the cause of a tar based backup going crazy and 
> thinking all data is new under any 2.6.21-rc* kernel I've tested so far 
> with amanda, which in my case uses tar?  I've tried the fedora patched 
> tar-1.15-1, and one I hand built right after 1.15-1 came out over a year 
> ago, and they both do it, but only when booted to a 2.6.21-rc* kernel.
> 
> This obviously will be a show-stopper, either for amanda (and by 
> inference, any app that uses tar), or for the migration of an amanda 
> users machinery to a 2.6.21 kernel.

Er, I don't think so .. that sounds like mtime miscompare, which is
either a problem with the filesystem or a problem with the way mtime is
stored in the tar archive.

James

Re: 2.6.20.3: kernel BUG at mm/slab.c:597 try#2

[Andreas Steinmetz]

Mike Christie wrote:
> James Bottomley wrote:
>> On Mon, 2007-03-19 at 12:49 -0500, Mike Christie wrote:
>>>> I can't even say if the tapes are written correctly as I can't read them
>>>> (one does not reboot production machines back to 2.4.x just to try to
>>>> read a backup tape - I don't have 2.6.x older than 2.6.20 on these
>>>> machines).
>>> Could you try this patch
>>> http://marc.info/?l=linux-scsi&m=116464965414878&w=2
>>> I thought st was modified to not send offsets in the last elements but
>>> it looks like it wasn't.
>> Actually, there are two patches in the email referred to.  If the
>> analysis that we're passing NULL to mempool_free is correct, it should
>> be the second one that fixes the problem (the one that checks
>> bio->bi_io_vec before freeing it).  Which would mean we have a
>> nr_vecs==0 bio generated by the tar somehow.
>>
> 
> I think we might only need the first patch if the problem is similar to
> what the lsi guys were seeing. I thought the problem is that we are not
> estimating how large the transfer is correctly because we do not take
> into account offsets at the end. This results in nr_vecs being zero when
> it should be a valid value. I thought Kai's patch:
> http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7919
> http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/jejb/scsi-misc-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=9abe16c670bd3d4ab5519257514f9f291383d104
> fixed the problem on st's side, but I guess not so you are probably right.
> 
> Here is a patch that dumps the sgl we are getting from st so we can see
> for sure what we are getting and can decide if we need the first patch,
> second patch or both.
> 

Here's the patch output:

sg length 6 offset 0
sg length 12 offset 0
sg length 4096 offset 0
sg length 4096 offset 0
sg length 2048 offset 0

Please note (as replied in the other mail) that the bugzilla patch
solves the problem.
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> diff --git a/drivers/scsi/scsi_lib.c b/drivers/scsi/scsi_lib.c
> index 5f95570..81005aa 100644
> --- a/drivers/scsi/scsi_lib.c
> +++ b/drivers/scsi/scsi_lib.c
> @@ -306,6 +306,10 @@ static int scsi_req_map_sg(struct reques
>  	struct bio *bio = NULL;
>  	int i, err, nr_vecs = 0;
>  
> +	for (i = 0; i < nsegs; i++)
> +		printk(KERN_INFO "sg length %u offset %u\n", sgl[i].length,
> +			sgl[i].offset);
> +
>  	for (i = 0; i < nsegs; i++) {
>  		page = sgl[i].page;
>  		off = sgl[i].offset;


-- 
Andreas Steinmetz                       SPAMmers use robotrap@domdv.de

Re: 2.6.20.3: kernel BUG at mm/slab.c:597 try#2

[Andreas Steinmetz]

Mike Christie wrote:
> Mike Christie wrote:
>> James Bottomley wrote:
>>> On Mon, 2007-03-19 at 12:49 -0500, Mike Christie wrote:
>>>>> I can't even say if the tapes are written correctly as I can't read them
>>>>> (one does not reboot production machines back to 2.4.x just to try to
>>>>> read a backup tape - I don't have 2.6.x older than 2.6.20 on these
>>>>> machines).
>>>> Could you try this patch
>>>> http://marc.info/?l=linux-scsi&m=116464965414878&w=2
>>>> I thought st was modified to not send offsets in the last elements but
>>>> it looks like it wasn't.
>>> Actually, there are two patches in the email referred to.  If the
>>> analysis that we're passing NULL to mempool_free is correct, it should
>>> be the second one that fixes the problem (the one that checks
>>> bio->bi_io_vec before freeing it).  Which would mean we have a
>>> nr_vecs==0 bio generated by the tar somehow.
>>>
>> I think we might only need the first patch if the problem is similar to
>> what the lsi guys were seeing. I thought the problem is that we are not
>> estimating how large the transfer is correctly because we do not take
>> into account offsets at the end. This results in nr_vecs being zero when
>> it should be a valid value. I thought Kai's patch:
>> http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7919
>> http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/jejb/scsi-misc-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=9abe16c670bd3d4ab5519257514f9f291383d104
>> fixed the problem on st's side,
> 
> Oh, I noticed that the subject for the mail references 2.6.30.3 and the
> patch for st in the bugzilla did not make into 2.6.20 and is not in .3.
> Could we try the st patch in the bugzilla first?

Ok, the st patch from bugzilla solves the problem (tested on both
affected machines).
-- 
Andreas Steinmetz                       SPAMmers use robotrap@domdv.de

Re: 2.6.20.3: kernel BUG at mm/slab.c:597 try#2

[Gene Heskett]

On Monday 19 March 2007, James Bottomley wrote:
>On Mon, 2007-03-19 at 17:47 -0400, Gene Heskett wrote:
>> James, could this also be the cause of a tar based backup going crazy
>> and thinking all data is new under any 2.6.21-rc* kernel I've tested
>> so far with amanda, which in my case uses tar?  I've tried the fedora
>> patched tar-1.15-1, and one I hand built right after 1.15-1 came out
>> over a year ago, and they both do it, but only when booted to a
>> 2.6.21-rc* kernel.
>>
>> This obviously will be a show-stopper, either for amanda (and by
>> inference, any app that uses tar), or for the migration of an amanda
>> users machinery to a 2.6.21 kernel.
>
>Er, I don't think so .. that sounds like mtime miscompare, which is
>either a problem with the filesystem or a problem with the way mtime is
>stored in the tar archive.
>
>James

Well, since the times reported by ls -l --full-time are sane
[root@coyote pix]# ls -l --full-time
total 924784
-rw-r--r-- 1 root   root     985324 2002-06-09 18:14:54.000000000 -0400 
0203.jpg
[... the rest of a 100k listing, booted to 2.6.20.3-rdsl-0.31]

And:
[root@coyote pix]# ls -l --full-time
total 924784
-rw-r--r-- 1 root   root     985324 2002-06-09 18:14:54.000000000 -0400 
0203.jpg

booted to 2.6.21-rc4

allthough the fractional second is a string of .000000000, even when 
booted to a tar-unfriendly kernel, then it would tend to point at tar, 
but two differently built versions of tar have been confirmed as 
miss-behaving in the presence of a kernel in the 2.6.21 series so far, 
all of them.

I'm going to reboot twice more tonight, once to verify that the output of 
an ls -l --full-time is as I said above, I'll save this and do that again 
and clip it in after a reboot to 2.6.21-rc4, and once to 2.6.20.4-rc1 to 
see if by chance one of those patches is the guilty party.  I'll leave 
the latter running tonight for the amanda run & see what falls out.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Try to relax and enjoy the crisis.
		-- Ashleigh Brilliant

Re: 2.6.20.3: kernel BUG at mm/slab.c:597 try#2

[Andrew Morton]

On Tue, 20 Mar 2007 00:25:02 +0100
Andreas Steinmetz <ast@domdv.de> wrote:

> Mike Christie wrote:
> > Mike Christie wrote:
> >> James Bottomley wrote:
> >>> On Mon, 2007-03-19 at 12:49 -0500, Mike Christie wrote:
> >>>>> I can't even say if the tapes are written correctly as I can't read them
> >>>>> (one does not reboot production machines back to 2.4.x just to try to
> >>>>> read a backup tape - I don't have 2.6.x older than 2.6.20 on these
> >>>>> machines).
> >>>> Could you try this patch
> >>>> http://marc.info/?l=linux-scsi&m=116464965414878&w=2
> >>>> I thought st was modified to not send offsets in the last elements but
> >>>> it looks like it wasn't.
> >>> Actually, there are two patches in the email referred to.  If the
> >>> analysis that we're passing NULL to mempool_free is correct, it should
> >>> be the second one that fixes the problem (the one that checks
> >>> bio->bi_io_vec before freeing it).  Which would mean we have a
> >>> nr_vecs==0 bio generated by the tar somehow.
> >>>
> >> I think we might only need the first patch if the problem is similar to
> >> what the lsi guys were seeing. I thought the problem is that we are not
> >> estimating how large the transfer is correctly because we do not take
> >> into account offsets at the end. This results in nr_vecs being zero when
> >> it should be a valid value. I thought Kai's patch:
> >> http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7919
> >> http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/jejb/scsi-misc-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=9abe16c670bd3d4ab5519257514f9f291383d104
> >> fixed the problem on st's side,
> > 
> > Oh, I noticed that the subject for the mail references 2.6.30.3 and the
> > patch for st in the bugzilla did not make into 2.6.20 and is not in .3.
> > Could we try the st patch in the bugzilla first?
> 
> Ok, the st patch from bugzilla solves the problem (tested on both
> affected machines).


If you're referring to the below patch then it's already in mainline, and
has been for a month.

Have you tested 2.6.21-rc4?  If not, please do so.

Perhaps we should merge this into 2.6.20.x?



commit 9abe16c670bd3d4ab5519257514f9f291383d104
Author: Kai Makisara <Kai.Makisara@kolumbus.fi>
Date:   Sat Feb 3 13:21:29 2007 +0200

    [SCSI] st: fix Tape dies if wrong block size used, bug 7919
    
    On Thu, 1 Feb 2007, Andrew Morton wrote:
    > On Thu, 1 Feb 2007 15:34:29 -0800
    > bugme-daemon@bugzilla.kernel.org wrote:
    >
    > > http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7919
    > >
    > >            Summary: Tape dies if wrong block size used
    > >     Kernel Version: 2.6.20-rc5
    > >             Status: NEW
    > >           Severity: normal
    > >              Owner: scsi_drivers-other@kernel-bugs.osdl.org
    > >          Submitter: dmartin@sccd.ctc.edu
    > >
    > >
    > > Most recent kernel where this bug did *NOT* occur: 2.6.17.14
    > >
    > > Other Kernels Tested and Results:
    > >
    > >     OK 2.6.15.7
    > >     OK 2.6.16.37
    > >     OK 2.6.17.14
    > >     BAD 2.6.18.6
    > >     BAD 2.6.18-1.2869.fc6
    > >     BAD 2.6.19.2 +
    > >     BAD 2.6.20-rc5
    > >
    > > NOTE: 2.6.18-1.2869.fc6 is a Fedora modified kernel, all others are from kernel.org
    > >
    ...
    > > Steps to reproduce:
    > > Get a Adaptec AHA-2940U/UW/D / AIC-7881U card and a tape drive,
    > > install a recent kernel
    > > set the tape block size - mt setblk 4096
    > > read from or write to tape using wrong block size - tar -b 7 -cvf /dev/tape foo
    > >
    Write does not trigger this bug because the driver refuses in fixed block
    mode writes that are not a multiple of the block size. Read does trigger
    it in my system.
    
    The bug is not associated with any specific HBA. st tries to do direct i/o
    in fixed block mode with reads that are not a multiple of tape block size.
    
    The patch in this message fixes the st problem by switching to using the
    driver buffer up to the next close of the device file in fixed block mode
    if the user asks for a read like this.
    
    I don't know why the bug has surfaced only after 2.6.17 although the st
    problem is old. There may be another bug in the block subsystem and this
    patch works around it. However, the patch fixes a problem in st and in
    this way it is a valid fix.
    
    This patch may also fix the bug 7900.
    
    The patch compiles and is lightly tested.
    
    Signed-off-by: Kai Makisara <kai.makisara@kolumbus.fi>
    Signed-off-by: James Bottomley <James.Bottomley@SteelEye.com>

diff --git a/drivers/scsi/st.c b/drivers/scsi/st.c
index e016e09..fba8b20 100644
--- a/drivers/scsi/st.c
+++ b/drivers/scsi/st.c
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
    Steve Hirsch, Andreas Koppenh"ofer, Michael Leodolter, Eyal Lebedinsky,
    Michael Schaefer, J"org Weule, and Eric Youngdale.
 
-   Copyright 1992 - 2006 Kai Makisara
+   Copyright 1992 - 2007 Kai Makisara
    email Kai.Makisara@kolumbus.fi
 
    Some small formal changes - aeb, 950809
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
    Last modified: 18-JAN-1998 Richard Gooch <rgooch@atnf.csiro.au> Devfs support
  */
 
-static const char *verstr = "20061107";
+static const char *verstr = "20070203";
 
 #include <linux/module.h>
 
@@ -1168,6 +1168,7 @@ static int st_open(struct inode *inode, 
 		STps = &(STp->ps[i]);
 		STps->rw = ST_IDLE;
 	}
+	STp->try_dio_now = STp->try_dio;
 	STp->recover_count = 0;
 	DEB( STp->nbr_waits = STp->nbr_finished = 0;
 	     STp->nbr_requests = STp->nbr_dio = STp->nbr_pages = STp->nbr_combinable = 0; )
@@ -1400,9 +1401,9 @@ static int setup_buffering(struct scsi_t
 	struct st_buffer *STbp = STp->buffer;
 
 	if (is_read)
-		i = STp->try_dio && try_rdio;
+		i = STp->try_dio_now && try_rdio;
 	else
-		i = STp->try_dio && try_wdio;
+		i = STp->try_dio_now && try_wdio;
 
 	if (i && ((unsigned long)buf & queue_dma_alignment(
 					STp->device->request_queue)) == 0) {
@@ -1599,7 +1600,7 @@ st_write(struct file *filp, const char _
 			STm->do_async_writes && STps->eof < ST_EOM_OK;
 
 		if (STp->block_size != 0 && STm->do_buffer_writes &&
-		    !(STp->try_dio && try_wdio) && STps->eof < ST_EOM_OK &&
+		    !(STp->try_dio_now && try_wdio) && STps->eof < ST_EOM_OK &&
 		    STbp->buffer_bytes < STbp->buffer_size) {
 			STp->dirty = 1;
 			/* Don't write a buffer that is not full enough. */
@@ -1769,7 +1770,7 @@ static long read_tape(struct scsi_tape *
 	if (STp->block_size == 0)
 		blks = bytes = count;
 	else {
-		if (!(STp->try_dio && try_rdio) && STm->do_read_ahead) {
+		if (!(STp->try_dio_now && try_rdio) && STm->do_read_ahead) {
 			blks = (STp->buffer)->buffer_blocks;
 			bytes = blks * STp->block_size;
 		} else {
@@ -1948,10 +1949,12 @@ st_read(struct file *filp, char __user *
 		goto out;
 
 	STm = &(STp->modes[STp->current_mode]);
-	if (!(STm->do_read_ahead) && STp->block_size != 0 &&
-	    (count % STp->block_size) != 0) {
-		retval = (-EINVAL);	/* Read must be integral number of blocks */
-		goto out;
+	if (STp->block_size != 0 && (count % STp->block_size) != 0) {
+		if (!STm->do_read_ahead) {
+			retval = (-EINVAL);	/* Read must be integral number of blocks */
+			goto out;
+		}
+		STp->try_dio_now = 0;  /* Direct i/o can't handle split blocks */
 	}
 
 	STps = &(STp->ps[STp->partition]);
diff --git a/drivers/scsi/st.h b/drivers/scsi/st.h
index 05a5cae..50f3deb 100644
--- a/drivers/scsi/st.h
+++ b/drivers/scsi/st.h
@@ -117,7 +117,8 @@ struct scsi_tape {
 	unsigned char cln_sense_value;
 	unsigned char cln_sense_mask;
 	unsigned char use_pf;			/* Set Page Format bit in all mode selects? */
-	unsigned char try_dio;			/* try direct i/o? */
+	unsigned char try_dio;			/* try direct i/o in general? */
+	unsigned char try_dio_now;		/* try direct i/o before next close? */
 	unsigned char c_algo;			/* compression algorithm */
 	unsigned char pos_unknown;			/* after reset position unknown */
 	int tape_type;

Re: 2.6.20.3: kernel BUG at mm/slab.c:597 try#2

[Andreas Steinmetz]

Andrew Morton wrote:
> On Tue, 20 Mar 2007 00:25:02 +0100
> Andreas Steinmetz <ast@domdv.de> wrote:
> 
>> Mike Christie wrote:
>>> Mike Christie wrote:
>>>> James Bottomley wrote:
>>>>> On Mon, 2007-03-19 at 12:49 -0500, Mike Christie wrote:
>>>>>>> I can't even say if the tapes are written correctly as I can't read them
>>>>>>> (one does not reboot production machines back to 2.4.x just to try to
>>>>>>> read a backup tape - I don't have 2.6.x older than 2.6.20 on these
>>>>>>> machines).
>>>>>> Could you try this patch
>>>>>> http://marc.info/?l=linux-scsi&m=116464965414878&w=2
>>>>>> I thought st was modified to not send offsets in the last elements but
>>>>>> it looks like it wasn't.
>>>>> Actually, there are two patches in the email referred to.  If the
>>>>> analysis that we're passing NULL to mempool_free is correct, it should
>>>>> be the second one that fixes the problem (the one that checks
>>>>> bio->bi_io_vec before freeing it).  Which would mean we have a
>>>>> nr_vecs==0 bio generated by the tar somehow.
>>>>>
>>>> I think we might only need the first patch if the problem is similar to
>>>> what the lsi guys were seeing. I thought the problem is that we are not
>>>> estimating how large the transfer is correctly because we do not take
>>>> into account offsets at the end. This results in nr_vecs being zero when
>>>> it should be a valid value. I thought Kai's patch:
>>>> http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7919
>>>> http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/jejb/scsi-misc-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=9abe16c670bd3d4ab5519257514f9f291383d104
>>>> fixed the problem on st's side,
>>> Oh, I noticed that the subject for the mail references 2.6.30.3 and the
>>> patch for st in the bugzilla did not make into 2.6.20 and is not in .3.
>>> Could we try the st patch in the bugzilla first?
>> Ok, the st patch from bugzilla solves the problem (tested on both
>> affected machines).
> 
> 
> If you're referring to the below patch then it's already in mainline, and
> has been for a month.
> 

Yes, that's the patch I'm referring to.

> Have you tested 2.6.21-rc4?  If not, please do so.
> 

Sorry, this is not possible on these machines. They are production
servers and every problem on them that cannot be easily solved via
remote access is a 40km (one way) drive in the middle of the night.

> Perhaps we should merge this into 2.6.20.x?
> 

I would suggest so.

> 
> 
> commit 9abe16c670bd3d4ab5519257514f9f291383d104
> Author: Kai Makisara <Kai.Makisara@kolumbus.fi>
> Date:   Sat Feb 3 13:21:29 2007 +0200
> 
>     [SCSI] st: fix Tape dies if wrong block size used, bug 7919
>     
>     On Thu, 1 Feb 2007, Andrew Morton wrote:
>     > On Thu, 1 Feb 2007 15:34:29 -0800
>     > bugme-daemon@bugzilla.kernel.org wrote:
>     >
>     > > http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7919
>     > >
>     > >            Summary: Tape dies if wrong block size used
>     > >     Kernel Version: 2.6.20-rc5
>     > >             Status: NEW
>     > >           Severity: normal
>     > >              Owner: scsi_drivers-other@kernel-bugs.osdl.org
>     > >          Submitter: dmartin@sccd.ctc.edu
>     > >
>     > >
>     > > Most recent kernel where this bug did *NOT* occur: 2.6.17.14
>     > >
>     > > Other Kernels Tested and Results:
>     > >
>     > >     OK 2.6.15.7
>     > >     OK 2.6.16.37
>     > >     OK 2.6.17.14
>     > >     BAD 2.6.18.6
>     > >     BAD 2.6.18-1.2869.fc6
>     > >     BAD 2.6.19.2 +
>     > >     BAD 2.6.20-rc5
>     > >
>     > > NOTE: 2.6.18-1.2869.fc6 is a Fedora modified kernel, all others are from kernel.org
>     > >
>     ...
>     > > Steps to reproduce:
>     > > Get a Adaptec AHA-2940U/UW/D / AIC-7881U card and a tape drive,
>     > > install a recent kernel
>     > > set the tape block size - mt setblk 4096
>     > > read from or write to tape using wrong block size - tar -b 7 -cvf /dev/tape foo
>     > >
>     Write does not trigger this bug because the driver refuses in fixed block
>     mode writes that are not a multiple of the block size. Read does trigger
>     it in my system.
>     
>     The bug is not associated with any specific HBA. st tries to do direct i/o
>     in fixed block mode with reads that are not a multiple of tape block size.
>     
>     The patch in this message fixes the st problem by switching to using the
>     driver buffer up to the next close of the device file in fixed block mode
>     if the user asks for a read like this.
>     
>     I don't know why the bug has surfaced only after 2.6.17 although the st
>     problem is old. There may be another bug in the block subsystem and this
>     patch works around it. However, the patch fixes a problem in st and in
>     this way it is a valid fix.
>     
>     This patch may also fix the bug 7900.
>     
>     The patch compiles and is lightly tested.
>     
>     Signed-off-by: Kai Makisara <kai.makisara@kolumbus.fi>
>     Signed-off-by: James Bottomley <James.Bottomley@SteelEye.com>
> 
> diff --git a/drivers/scsi/st.c b/drivers/scsi/st.c
> index e016e09..fba8b20 100644
> --- a/drivers/scsi/st.c
> +++ b/drivers/scsi/st.c
> @@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
>     Steve Hirsch, Andreas Koppenh"ofer, Michael Leodolter, Eyal Lebedinsky,
>     Michael Schaefer, J"org Weule, and Eric Youngdale.
>  
> -   Copyright 1992 - 2006 Kai Makisara
> +   Copyright 1992 - 2007 Kai Makisara
>     email Kai.Makisara@kolumbus.fi
>  
>     Some small formal changes - aeb, 950809
> @@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
>     Last modified: 18-JAN-1998 Richard Gooch <rgooch@atnf.csiro.au> Devfs support
>   */
>  
> -static const char *verstr = "20061107";
> +static const char *verstr = "20070203";
>  
>  #include <linux/module.h>
>  
> @@ -1168,6 +1168,7 @@ static int st_open(struct inode *inode, 
>  		STps = &(STp->ps[i]);
>  		STps->rw = ST_IDLE;
>  	}
> +	STp->try_dio_now = STp->try_dio;
>  	STp->recover_count = 0;
>  	DEB( STp->nbr_waits = STp->nbr_finished = 0;
>  	     STp->nbr_requests = STp->nbr_dio = STp->nbr_pages = STp->nbr_combinable = 0; )
> @@ -1400,9 +1401,9 @@ static int setup_buffering(struct scsi_t
>  	struct st_buffer *STbp = STp->buffer;
>  
>  	if (is_read)
> -		i = STp->try_dio && try_rdio;
> +		i = STp->try_dio_now && try_rdio;
>  	else
> -		i = STp->try_dio && try_wdio;
> +		i = STp->try_dio_now && try_wdio;
>  
>  	if (i && ((unsigned long)buf & queue_dma_alignment(
>  					STp->device->request_queue)) == 0) {
> @@ -1599,7 +1600,7 @@ st_write(struct file *filp, const char _
>  			STm->do_async_writes && STps->eof < ST_EOM_OK;
>  
>  		if (STp->block_size != 0 && STm->do_buffer_writes &&
> -		    !(STp->try_dio && try_wdio) && STps->eof < ST_EOM_OK &&
> +		    !(STp->try_dio_now && try_wdio) && STps->eof < ST_EOM_OK &&
>  		    STbp->buffer_bytes < STbp->buffer_size) {
>  			STp->dirty = 1;
>  			/* Don't write a buffer that is not full enough. */
> @@ -1769,7 +1770,7 @@ static long read_tape(struct scsi_tape *
>  	if (STp->block_size == 0)
>  		blks = bytes = count;
>  	else {
> -		if (!(STp->try_dio && try_rdio) && STm->do_read_ahead) {
> +		if (!(STp->try_dio_now && try_rdio) && STm->do_read_ahead) {
>  			blks = (STp->buffer)->buffer_blocks;
>  			bytes = blks * STp->block_size;
>  		} else {
> @@ -1948,10 +1949,12 @@ st_read(struct file *filp, char __user *
>  		goto out;
>  
>  	STm = &(STp->modes[STp->current_mode]);
> -	if (!(STm->do_read_ahead) && STp->block_size != 0 &&
> -	    (count % STp->block_size) != 0) {
> -		retval = (-EINVAL);	/* Read must be integral number of blocks */
> -		goto out;
> +	if (STp->block_size != 0 && (count % STp->block_size) != 0) {
> +		if (!STm->do_read_ahead) {
> +			retval = (-EINVAL);	/* Read must be integral number of blocks */
> +			goto out;
> +		}
> +		STp->try_dio_now = 0;  /* Direct i/o can't handle split blocks */
>  	}
>  
>  	STps = &(STp->ps[STp->partition]);
> diff --git a/drivers/scsi/st.h b/drivers/scsi/st.h
> index 05a5cae..50f3deb 100644
> --- a/drivers/scsi/st.h
> +++ b/drivers/scsi/st.h
> @@ -117,7 +117,8 @@ struct scsi_tape {
>  	unsigned char cln_sense_value;
>  	unsigned char cln_sense_mask;
>  	unsigned char use_pf;			/* Set Page Format bit in all mode selects? */
> -	unsigned char try_dio;			/* try direct i/o? */
> +	unsigned char try_dio;			/* try direct i/o in general? */
> +	unsigned char try_dio_now;		/* try direct i/o before next close? */
>  	unsigned char c_algo;			/* compression algorithm */
>  	unsigned char pos_unknown;			/* after reset position unknown */
>  	int tape_type;
> 


-- 
Andreas Steinmetz                       SPAMmers use robotrap@domdv.de