[RFC][PATCH 00/14] introduce kmemdump

[Bjorn Andersson]

On Tue, Apr 22, 2025 at 02:31:42PM +0300, Eugen Hristev wrote:
> kmemdump is a mechanism which allows the kernel to mark specific memory
> areas for dumping or specific backend usage.
> Once regions are marked, kmemdump keeps an internal list with the regions
> and registers them in the backend.
> Further, depending on the backend driver, these regions can be dumped using
> firmware or different hardware block.
> Regions being marked beforehand, when the system is up and running, there
> is no need nor dependency on a panic handler, or a working kernel that can
> dump the debug information.
> The kmemdump approach works when pstore, kdump, or another mechanism do not.
> Pstore relies on persistent storage, a dedicated RAM area or flash, which
> has the disadvantage of having the memory reserved all the time, or another
> specific non volatile memory. Some devices cannot keep the RAM contents on
> reboot so ramoops does not work. Some devices do not allow kexec to run
> another kernel to debug the crashed one.
> For such devices, that have another mechanism to help debugging, like
> firmware, kmemdump is a viable solution.
> 
> kmemdump can create a core image, similar with /proc/vmcore, with only
> the registered regions included. This can be loaded into crash tool/gdb and
> analyzed.
> To have this working, specific information from the kernel is registered,
> and this is done at kmemdump init time, no need for the kmemdump user to
> do anything.
> 
> The implementation is based on the initial Pstore/directly mapped zones
> published as an RFC here:
> https://lore.kernel.org/all/20250217101706.2104498-1-eugen.hristev@linaro.org/
> 
> The back-end implementation for qcom_smem is based on the minidump
> patch series and driver written by Mukesh Ojha, thanks:
> https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20240131110837.14218-1-quic_mojha@quicinc.com/
> 
> I appreciate the feedback on this series, I know it is a longshot, and there
> is a lot to improve, but I hope I am on the right track.
> 
> Thanks,
> Eugen
> 
> PS. Here is how crash tool reports the dump:
> 
>      KERNEL: /home/eugen/linux-minidump/vmlinux  [TAINTED]
>     DUMPFILE: /home/eugen/eee

Can you please describe the steps taken to get acquire/generate this
file and how to invoke crash?

Regards,
Bjorn

>         CPUS: 8 [OFFLINE: 7]
>         DATE: Thu Jan  1 02:00:00 EET 1970
>       UPTIME: 00:00:28
>     NODENAME: qemuarm64
>      RELEASE: 6.14.0-rc5-next-20250303-00014-g011eb2aaf7b6-dirty
>      VERSION: #169 SMP PREEMPT Thu Apr 17 14:12:21 EEST 2025
>      MACHINE: aarch64  (unknown Mhz)
>       MEMORY: 0
>        PANIC: ""
> 
> crash> log
> [    0.000000] Booting Linux on physical CPU 0x0000000000 [0x410fd4b2]
> [    0.000000] Linux version 6.14.0-rc5-next-20250303-00014-g011eb2aaf7b6-dirty (eugen at eugen-station) (aarch64-none-linux-gnu-gcc (Arm GNU Toolchain 13.3.Rel1 (Build arm-13.24)) 13.3.1 20240614, GNU ld (Arm GNU Toolchain 13.3.Rel1 (Build arm-13.24)) 2.42.0.20240614) #169 SMP PREEMPT Thu Apr 17 14:12:21 EEST 2025
> [    0.000000] KASLR enabled
> [...]
> 
> Eugen Hristev (14):
>   Documentation: add kmemdump
>   kmemdump: introduce kmemdump
>   kmemdump: introduce qcom-md backend driver
>   soc: qcom: smem: add minidump device
>   Documentation: kmemdump: add section for coreimage ELF
>   kmemdump: add coreimage ELF layer
>   printk: add kmsg_kmemdump_register
>   kmemdump: coreimage: add kmsg registration
>   genirq: add irq_kmemdump_register
>   kmemdump: coreimage: add irq registration
>   panic: add panic_kmemdump_register
>   kmemdump: coreimage: add panic registration
>   sched: add sched_kmemdump_register
>   kmemdump: coreimage: add sched registration
> 
>  Documentation/debug/index.rst      |  17 ++
>  Documentation/debug/kmemdump.rst   |  83 +++++
>  drivers/Kconfig                    |   2 +
>  drivers/Makefile                   |   2 +
>  drivers/debug/Kconfig              |  39 +++
>  drivers/debug/Makefile             |   5 +
>  drivers/debug/kmemdump.c           | 197 ++++++++++++
>  drivers/debug/kmemdump_coreimage.c | 293 ++++++++++++++++++
>  drivers/debug/qcom_md.c            | 467 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  drivers/soc/qcom/smem.c            |  10 +
>  include/linux/irqnr.h              |   1 +
>  include/linux/kmemdump.h           |  77 +++++
>  include/linux/kmsg_dump.h          |   6 +
>  include/linux/panic.h              |   1 +
>  include/linux/sched.h              |   1 +
>  kernel/irq/irqdesc.c               |   7 +
>  kernel/panic.c                     |   8 +
>  kernel/printk/printk.c             |  13 +
>  kernel/sched/core.c                |   7 +
>  19 files changed, 1236 insertions(+)
>  create mode 100644 Documentation/debug/index.rst
>  create mode 100644 Documentation/debug/kmemdump.rst
>  create mode 100644 drivers/debug/Kconfig
>  create mode 100644 drivers/debug/Makefile
>  create mode 100644 drivers/debug/kmemdump.c
>  create mode 100644 drivers/debug/kmemdump_coreimage.c
>  create mode 100644 drivers/debug/qcom_md.c
>  create mode 100644 include/linux/kmemdump.h
> 
> -- 
> 2.43.0
>