Re: [patch] Real-Time Preemption, -RT-2.6.9-rc4-mm1-U8

[Michal Schmidt]

Ingo Molnar wrote:
> disable_irq() should work fine though. (it doesnt disable local
> interrupts, it only disables that particular irq line.) So something
> else disabled interrupts - ah, netconsole.c itself. Does the patch below
> fix things up for you?
>
> 	Ingo
> [patch snipped]

That patch was not enough. The BUGs were still showing up the same as 
before.
I tried to debug it myself. I've found an interesting thing in 
kernel/printk.c:release_console_sem(). There is the following sequence:

  spin_lock_irqsave(&logbuf_lock, flags);
  /* ... some code ... */
  spin_unlock(&logbuf_lock);
  call_console_drivers(...);
  local_irq_restore(flags);

I know very little about locking, but I didn't like this two-phased 
unlock. So I replaced it with a single spin_unlock_irqrestore. Patch 
attached.
I'm almost certain that there is a reason for the two-phased unlocking 
and that this patch will break something, but so far it works for me. 
netconsole now works without complaining.

Michal
diff -Nurp linux-2.6.9-rc4-mm1-RT-U8/kernel/printk.c linux-2.6.9-rc4-mm1-RT-U8-m/kernel/printk.c
--- linux-2.6.9-rc4-mm1-RT-U8/kernel/printk.c	2004-10-20 22:20:55.000000000 +0200
+++ linux-2.6.9-rc4-mm1-RT-U8-m/kernel/printk.c	2004-10-20 22:24:40.000000000 +0200
@@ -646,9 +646,8 @@ void release_console_sem(void)
 		_con_start = con_start;
 		_log_end = log_end;
 		con_start = log_end;		/* Flush */
-		spin_unlock(&logbuf_lock);
+		spin_unlock_irqrestore(&logbuf_lock, flags);
 		call_console_drivers(_con_start, _log_end);
-		local_irq_restore(flags);
 	}
 	console_locked = 0;
 	console_may_schedule = 0;