We have seen bad_pte_print when testing crashdump on an SN machine in
recent 2.6.20 kernel. There are tons of bad pte print (pfn < max_low_pfn)
reports when the crash kernel boots up, all those reported bad pages
are inside initmem range; That is because if the crash kernel code and
data happens to be at the beginning of the 1st node. build_node_maps in
discontig.c will bypass reserved regions with filter_rsvd_memory. Since
min_low_pfn is calculated in build_node_map, so in this case, min_low_pfn
will be greater than kernel code and data.
Because pages inside initmem are freed and reused later, we saw
pfn_valid check fail on those pages.
I think this theoretically happen on a normal kernel. When I check
min_low_pfn and max_low_pfn calculation in contig.c and discontig.c.
I found more issues than this.
1. min_low_pfn and max_low_pfn calculation is inconsistent between
contig.c and discontig.c,
min_low_pfn is calculated as the first page number of boot memmap in
contig.c (Why? Though this may work at the most of the time, I don't
think it is the right logic). It is calculated as the lowest physical
memory page number bypass reserved regions in discontig.c.
max_low_pfn is calculated include reserved regions in contig.c. It is
calculated exclude reserved regions in discontig.c.
2. If kernel code and data region is happen to be at the begin or the
end of physical memory, when min_low_pfn and max_low_pfn calculation is
bypassed kernel code and data, pages in initmem will report bad.
3. initrd is also in reserved regions, if it is at the begin or at the
end of physical memory, kernel will refuse to reuse the memory. Because
the virt_addr_valid check in free_initrd_mem.
So it is better to fix and clean up those issues.
Calculate min_low_pfn and max_low_pfn in a consistent way.
Signed-off-by: Zou Nan hai <nanhai.zou@intel.com>
Acked-by: Jay Lan <jlan@sgi.com>
Signed-off-by: Tony Luck <tony.luck@intel.com>
a3f5c338b9