Re: [PATCH] NMI watchdog documentation

From: Ville Herva (vherva@niksula.hut.fi)
Date: Mon Jul 28 2003 - 14:21:42 EST


On Mon, Jul 28, 2003 at 07:53:42PM +0200, you [Andi Kleen] wrote:
>
> x86-64 is the same, except APIC is always compiled in and the nmi watchdog is
> always enabled with perfctr mode. mode=2 seems to also not work correctly currently.
>
> However one caveat (even for i386): when you use perfctr mode 1 you lose the first
> performance register which you may need for other things.

Thanks.

So, is something like the following ok by you (patch is relative to -test2
nmi-watchdog.txt)? If it is, I'll send it to Linus and Marcelo.

-- v --

v@iki.fi

--- /usr/src/linux/Documentation/nmi_watchdog.txt Mon Jul 28 22:10:18 2003
+++ /usr/src/linux~/Documentation/nmi_watchdog.txt Mon Jul 28 22:18:10 2003
@@ -1,9 +1,11 @@
 
-Is your ix86 system locking up unpredictably? No keyboard activity, just
+[NMI watchdog is available for x86 and x86-64 architectures]
+
+Is your system locking up unpredictably? No keyboard activity, just
 a frustrating complete hard lockup? Do you want to help us debugging
 such lockups? If all yes then this document is definitely for you.
 
-On Intel and similar ix86 type hardware there is a feature that enables
+On many x86/x86-64 type hardware there is a feature that enables
 us to generate 'watchdog NMI interrupts'. (NMI: Non Maskable Interrupt
 which get executed even if the system is otherwise locked up hard).
 This can be used to debug hard kernel lockups. By executing periodic
@@ -20,6 +22,13 @@
 kernel debugging options such as Kernel Stack Meter or Kernel Tracer
 may implicitly disable NMI watchdog.]
 
+For x86-64, the needed APIC is always compiled in, and the NMI watchdog is
+always enabled with perfctr mode. Currently, mode=2 does not work on x86-64.
+
+Using NMI watchdog (in mode=1) needs the first performance register, so you
+can't use it for other purposes (such as high precision performance
+profiling.)
+
 To actually enable the NMI watchdog, use the 'nmi_watchdog=N' boot
 parameter. Eg. the relevant lilo.conf entry:
 
-
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