[Bug] Kdump does not work when panic triggered due to MCE

[K.Prasad]

On Mon, May 09, 2011 at 08:39:02AM -0400, Vivek Goyal wrote:
> On Fri, May 06, 2011 at 10:24:12PM +0530, K.Prasad wrote:
> > Hi All,
> > 	I wanted to test the behaviour of kdump when panic is triggered
> > due to MCE on x86 and found that kdump is not captured.
> > 
> > While the kdump service is configured and running and non-MCE panics
> > (such as those triggered through to /proc/sysrq-trigger) successfully
> > capture a kdump, any fatal MCE error injected through the mce-inject
> > tool causes a reboot of the machine.
> > 
> > The code has been traced (using early_serial_putc()) to enter the kexec
> > path i.e. panic()->crash_kexec()->machine_kexec()->relocate_kernel()
> > but is untraceable further.
> > 
> > Kdump works fine when the same the similar test is carried out inside a
> > KVM guest.
> > 
> > Has anybody tested this before? Or have found kdump working when fatal
> > MCEs have actually occurred?
> 
> Prasad,
> 
> I have never tried taking dump in MCE situation. Does kdump work on this
> machine with normal panic()?
> 

Hi Vivek,
	kdump worked fine on this machine for non-MCE triggered panic
calls (the /proc/sysrq-trigger initiated crashes got the kdump fine).

> Use --debug and --serial option in kexec-tools to print some debug message
> and look for "I am in purgatory". This will tell you whether you hanged
> in first kernel or second kernel.
> 

There were no boot logs from the second kernel while the "Rebooting in X
seconds..." message had appeared before the system rebooted, suggesting
that the second kernel did not boot at all.

> Then put "outb()" messages in the kernel to trace what happened. 
> 

The outb logs showed that the system entered machine_kexec function (traceable
upto relocate_kernel) but then rebooted from inside the panic() function.

Thanks,
K.Prasad