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diff --git a/Documentation/ia64/mca.txt b/Documentation/ia64/mca.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a71cc6a --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/ia64/mca.txt @@ -0,0 +1,194 @@ +An ad-hoc collection of notes on IA64 MCA and INIT processing. Feel +free to update it with notes about any area that is not clear. + +--- + +MCA/INIT are completely asynchronous. They can occur at any time, when +the OS is in any state. Including when one of the cpus is already +holding a spinlock. Trying to get any lock from MCA/INIT state is +asking for deadlock. Also the state of structures that are protected +by locks is indeterminate, including linked lists. + +--- + +The complicated ia64 MCA process. All of this is mandated by Intel's +specification for ia64 SAL, error recovery and and unwind, it is not as +if we have a choice here. + +* MCA occurs on one cpu, usually due to a double bit memory error. + This is the monarch cpu. + +* SAL sends an MCA rendezvous interrupt (which is a normal interrupt) + to all the other cpus, the slaves. + +* Slave cpus that receive the MCA interrupt call down into SAL, they + end up spinning disabled while the MCA is being serviced. + +* If any slave cpu was already spinning disabled when the MCA occurred + then it cannot service the MCA interrupt. SAL waits ~20 seconds then + sends an unmaskable INIT event to the slave cpus that have not + already rendezvoused. + +* Because MCA/INIT can be delivered at any time, including when the cpu + is down in PAL in physical mode, the registers at the time of the + event are _completely_ undefined. In particular the MCA/INIT + handlers cannot rely on the thread pointer, PAL physical mode can + (and does) modify TP. It is allowed to do that as long as it resets + TP on return. However MCA/INIT events expose us to these PAL + internal TP changes. Hence curr_task(). + +* If an MCA/INIT event occurs while the kernel was running (not user + space) and the kernel has called PAL then the MCA/INIT handler cannot + assume that the kernel stack is in a fit state to be used. Mainly + because PAL may or may not maintain the stack pointer internally. + Because the MCA/INIT handlers cannot trust the kernel stack, they + have to use their own, per-cpu stacks. The MCA/INIT stacks are + preformatted with just enough task state to let the relevant handlers + do their job. + +* Unlike most other architectures, the ia64 struct task is embedded in + the kernel stack[1]. So switching to a new kernel stack means that + we switch to a new task as well. Because various bits of the kernel + assume that current points into the struct task, switching to a new + stack also means a new value for current. + +* Once all slaves have rendezvoused and are spinning disabled, the + monarch is entered. The monarch now tries to diagnose the problem + and decide if it can recover or not. + +* Part of the monarch's job is to look at the state of all the other + tasks. The only way to do that on ia64 is to call the unwinder, + as mandated by Intel. + +* The starting point for the unwind depends on whether a task is + running or not. That is, whether it is on a cpu or is blocked. The + monarch has to determine whether or not a task is on a cpu before it + knows how to start unwinding it. The tasks that received an MCA or + INIT event are no longer running, they have been converted to blocked + tasks. But (and its a big but), the cpus that received the MCA + rendezvous interrupt are still running on their normal kernel stacks! + +* To distinguish between these two cases, the monarch must know which + tasks are on a cpu and which are not. Hence each slave cpu that + switches to an MCA/INIT stack, registers its new stack using + set_curr_task(), so the monarch can tell that the _original_ task is + no longer running on that cpu. That gives us a decent chance of + getting a valid backtrace of the _original_ task. + +* MCA/INIT can be nested, to a depth of 2 on any cpu. In the case of a + nested error, we want diagnostics on the MCA/INIT handler that + failed, not on the task that was originally running. Again this + requires set_curr_task() so the MCA/INIT handlers can register their + own stack as running on that cpu. Then a recursive error gets a + trace of the failing handler's "task". + +[1] My (Keith Owens) original design called for ia64 to separate its + struct task and the kernel stacks. Then the MCA/INIT data would be + chained stacks like i386 interrupt stacks. But that required + radical surgery on the rest of ia64, plus extra hard wired TLB + entries with its associated performance degradation. David + Mosberger vetoed that approach. Which meant that separate kernel + stacks meant separate "tasks" for the MCA/INIT handlers. + +--- + +INIT is less complicated than MCA. Pressing the nmi button or using +the equivalent command on the management console sends INIT to all +cpus. SAL picks one one of the cpus as the monarch and the rest are +slaves. All the OS INIT handlers are entered at approximately the same +time. The OS monarch prints the state of all tasks and returns, after +which the slaves return and the system resumes. + +At least that is what is supposed to happen. Alas there are broken +versions of SAL out there. Some drive all the cpus as monarchs. Some +drive them all as slaves. Some drive one cpu as monarch, wait for that +cpu to return from the OS then drive the rest as slaves. Some versions +of SAL cannot even cope with returning from the OS, they spin inside +SAL on resume. The OS INIT code has workarounds for some of these +broken SAL symptoms, but some simply cannot be fixed from the OS side. + +--- + +The scheduler hooks used by ia64 (curr_task, set_curr_task) are layer +violations. Unfortunately MCA/INIT start off as massive layer +violations (can occur at _any_ time) and they build from there. + +At least ia64 makes an attempt at recovering from hardware errors, but +it is a difficult problem because of the asynchronous nature of these +errors. When processing an unmaskable interrupt we sometimes need +special code to cope with our inability to take any locks. + +--- + +How is ia64 MCA/INIT different from x86 NMI? + +* x86 NMI typically gets delivered to one cpu. MCA/INIT gets sent to + all cpus. + +* x86 NMI cannot be nested. MCA/INIT can be nested, to a depth of 2 + per cpu. + +* x86 has a separate struct task which points to one of multiple kernel + stacks. ia64 has the struct task embedded in the single kernel + stack, so switching stack means switching task. + +* x86 does not call the BIOS so the NMI handler does not have to worry + about any registers having changed. MCA/INIT can occur while the cpu + is in PAL in physical mode, with undefined registers and an undefined + kernel stack. + +* i386 backtrace is not very sensitive to whether a process is running + or not. ia64 unwind is very, very sensitive to whether a process is + running or not. + +--- + +What happens when MCA/INIT is delivered what a cpu is running user +space code? + +The user mode registers are stored in the RSE area of the MCA/INIT on +entry to the OS and are restored from there on return to SAL, so user +mode registers are preserved across a recoverable MCA/INIT. Since the +OS has no idea what unwind data is available for the user space stack, +MCA/INIT never tries to backtrace user space. Which means that the OS +does not bother making the user space process look like a blocked task, +i.e. the OS does not copy pt_regs and switch_stack to the user space +stack. Also the OS has no idea how big the user space RSE and memory +stacks are, which makes it too risky to copy the saved state to a user +mode stack. + +--- + +How do we get a backtrace on the tasks that were running when MCA/INIT +was delivered? + +mca.c:::ia64_mca_modify_original_stack(). That identifies and +verifies the original kernel stack, copies the dirty registers from +the MCA/INIT stack's RSE to the original stack's RSE, copies the +skeleton struct pt_regs and switch_stack to the original stack, fills +in the skeleton structures from the PAL minstate area and updates the +original stack's thread.ksp. That makes the original stack look +exactly like any other blocked task, i.e. it now appears to be +sleeping. To get a backtrace, just start with thread.ksp for the +original task and unwind like any other sleeping task. + +--- + +How do we identify the tasks that were running when MCA/INIT was +delivered? + +If the previous task has been verified and converted to a blocked +state, then sos->prev_task on the MCA/INIT stack is updated to point to +the previous task. You can look at that field in dumps or debuggers. +To help distinguish between the handler and the original tasks, +handlers have _TIF_MCA_INIT set in thread_info.flags. + +The sos data is always in the MCA/INIT handler stack, at offset +MCA_SOS_OFFSET. You can get that value from mca_asm.h or calculate it +as KERNEL_STACK_SIZE - sizeof(struct pt_regs) - sizeof(struct +ia64_sal_os_state), with 16 byte alignment for all structures. + +Also the comm field of the MCA/INIT task is modified to include the pid +of the original task, for humans to use. For example, a comm field of +'MCA 12159' means that pid 12159 was running when the MCA was +delivered. |
