[PATCH] x86, kdump: crashkernel=X try to reserve below 896M first, then try below 4G, then MAXMEM

[Yinghai Lu]

On Mon, Oct 14, 2013 at 4:46 AM, WANG Chao <chaowang at redhat.com> wrote:
> Now crashkernel=X will fail out if there's not enough memory at
> low (below 896M). What makes sense for crashkernel=X would be:
>
>  - First try to reserve X below 896M (for being compatible with old
>    kexec-tools).
>  - If fails, try to reserve X below 4G (swiotlb need to stay below 4G).
>  - If fails, try to reserve X from MAXMEM top down.
>
> So that user can easily reserve large memory with crashkernel=X instead
> of crashkernel=X,high. It's more transparent and user-friendly.
>
> If crashkernel is large and the reserved is beyond 896M, old kexec-tools
> won't be compatible with new kernel for most of time.
>
> kexec will fail out immediately in this case. But the failure could be
> expected, because old kexec users should not try to reserve that large
> amount of memory at the first place.
>
> On the other hand, old kexec also will fail on old kernel when there's
> not enough low memory to reserve a large crash kernel area. So the
> failure of old kexec is consistent between old kernel and new kernel.
>
> Signed-off-by: WANG Chao <chaowang at redhat.com>
> ---
>  arch/x86/kernel/setup.c | 14 ++++++++++++++
>  1 file changed, 14 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/arch/x86/kernel/setup.c b/arch/x86/kernel/setup.c
> index f0de629..38e6c1f 100644
> --- a/arch/x86/kernel/setup.c
> +++ b/arch/x86/kernel/setup.c
> @@ -593,6 +593,20 @@ static void __init reserve_crashkernel(void)
>                                         high ? CRASH_KERNEL_ADDR_HIGH_MAX :
>                                                CRASH_KERNEL_ADDR_LOW_MAX,
>                                         crash_size, alignment);
> +               /*
> +                * crashkernel=X reserve below 896M fails? Try below 4G
> +                */
> +               if (!high && !crash_base)
> +                       crash_base = memblock_find_in_range(alignment,
> +                                               (1ULL << 32),
> +                                               crash_size, alignment);
> +               /*
> +                * crashkernel=X reserve below 4G fails? Try MAXMEM
> +                */
> +               if (!high && !crash_base)
> +                       crash_base = memblock_find_in_range(alignment,
> +                                               CRASH_KERNEL_ADDR_HIGH_MAX,
> +                                               crash_size, alignment);
>
>                 if (!crash_base) {
>                         pr_info("crashkernel reservation failed - No suitable area found.\n");
> --

User should change crashkernel=X to crashkernel=X,high.

As user could forget to update kexec-tools to utilize ",high" feature, and get
kdump later fail later.

Yinghai