Re: [crash] Re: Latest brk patchset

From: H. Peter Anvin
Date: Mon Mar 16 2009 - 14:20:25 EST


Jeremy Fitzhardinge wrote:
Yinghai Lu wrote:
could be max_pfn_mapped change in head_32.S that reduce mapping range to _end only.

Yes, I would say you're right. Trimming the mapping to _end only leaves the space under the kernel avaliable for allocating pagetable from e820 space. In this case we've got DEBUG_PAGEALLOC enabled, which inhibits the use of PSE, and BIOS corruption checking on, which eats a chunk of low memory. In combination, there's only 0x8f000 bytes free below the kernel, and it needs 0xe1000 to allocate for pagetables.

Reverting 2bd2753ff46346543ab92e80df9d96366e21baa5 fixes the problem for me, though it does result in a kernel with a 73MB BSS...


I did kind of think that was a bit fishy, but I somehow assumed you'd taken the consequences into account. Obviously not.

The 73 MB brk isn't a problem per se as it will not be used in most systems. This, in fact, is the whole reason for using brk and not just bss: it allows unused brk to be reclaimed at a relatively early stage.

-hpa
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