kexec fails to boot kernels where CONFIG_RANDOMIZE_BASE=y is set

[Baoquan He]

On 08/22/14 at 08:53am, Vivek Goyal wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 22, 2014 at 02:47:39PM +0200, Thomas D. wrote:
> > On 2014-08-22 14:38, Vivek Goyal wrote:
> > > So may be this failure happens because new kernel stomps over page tables
> > > of old kernel. But if that theory is right, then we should be able to
> > > kexec using 32bit entry point of bzImage.
> > > 
> > > Thomas, have you had any success with that?
> > 
> > When I execute kexec with "--entry-32bit" (I understand that you asked
> > me to try that) the new kernel will boot as expected.
> 
> Good to know that --entry-32bit option makes kexec work with kASLR
> enabled. So this indeed sounds like the issue of page tables being
> stomped over by new kernel.

I don't think page tables could be stomped over by new kernel.
The reason why --entry-32bit can work is kexec-tools get the memory near
the beginning of system RAM. You can check the value passed to argument
buf_end. when --entry-32bit it's 0, that means find memoey hole from low
to high. 

But in 64bit mode, the buf_end is always -1, this cause all memory ready
for kernel/initrd is close to th end of system ram. On my PC with 16G
memory, all those memory around 16G. I changed buf_end to 1, then use
this to load bzImage64, it works too. And addr for
kernel/initrd/real_mode are all allocated from low to high. I don't know
why we need put kernel/initrd/xxx close to the end of system ram.


diff --git a/kexec/add_buffer.c b/kexec/add_buffer.c
index 4d4a55f..ce76669 100644
--- a/kexec/add_buffer.c
+++ b/kexec/add_buffer.c
@@ -10,5 +10,5 @@ unsigned long add_buffer(struct kexec_info *info,
                         int buf_end)
 {
        return add_buffer_virt(info, buf, bufsz, memsz, buf_align,
-                              buf_min, buf_max, buf_end);
+                              buf_min, buf_max, 1);
 }

> 
> IIUC, there are bootloaders which can use 64bit entry point of kernel. I
> think they must run into similar issue too.
> 
> Thanks
> Vivek
> 
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