On Wed, Jan 03, 2007 at 09:29:52AM -0500, Dave Anderson wrote: > > > > WARNING: invalid linux_banner pointer: 756e694c > > crash: vmlinux and vmcore do not match! > > > > Hi Vivek, > > It has to do with how the linux_banner symbol is declared. The crash code > in question does this: > > > if (!(sp = symbol_search("linux_banner"))) > error(FATAL, "linux_banner symbol does not exist?\n"); > else if (sp->type == 'R') > linux_banner = symbol_value("linux_banner"); > else > get_symbol_data("linux_banner", sizeof(ulong), &linux_banner); > > if (!IS_KVADDR(linux_banner)) > error(WARNING, "invalid linux_banner pointer: %lx\n", > linux_banner); > > Up until 2.6.20-rc2 (apparently), if the linux_banner symbol > was in the readonly section ('R'), the string data was located > at the address of the linux_banner symbol. Otherwise, the > linux_banner symbol contained the address of the string data. > > In your kernel, what does "nm -Bn vmlinux | grep linux_banner" show? > Maybe 'r' instead of 'R'? > Hi Dave, You are right. Following is "nm -Bn vmlinux | grep linux_banner" output. c0411000 r linux_banner I checked that in 2.6.19, following was definition of linux_banner. const char linux_banner[] = "Linux version " UTS_RELEASE " (" LINUX_COMPILE_BY "@" LINUX_COMPILE_HOST ") (" LINUX_COMPILER ") " UTS_VERSION "\n"; Symbol table entry for linux_banner: c0407000 129 OBJECT GLOBAL DEFAULT 3 linux_banner But in 2.6.20-rc, it has been made static. Hence scope of this symbol is no more global and now it is local, hence 'r' instead of 'R'. static const char linux_banner[] = "Linux version " UTS_RELEASE " (" LINUX_COMPILE_BY "@" LINUX_COMPILE_HOST ")" " (" LINUX_COMPILER ")" " " UTS_VERSION "\n"; Symbol table entry for linux_banner: c0411000 143 OBJECT LOCAL DEFAULT 7 linux_banner Attached test patch works for me. Just a thought, can debug info section tell us what is the type of linux_banner? I mean something to differentiate between above two cases where linux_banner itself is a string or it contains a pointer to string. Thanks Vivek Signed-off-by: Vivek Goyal <vgoyal@xxxxxxxxxx> --- kernel.c | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff -puN kernel.c~crash-unable-to-read-linux-banner-fix kernel.c --- crash-4.0-3.16/kernel.c~crash-unable-to-read-linux-banner-fix 2007-01-04 14:05:23.000000000 +0530 +++ crash-4.0-3.16-root/kernel.c 2007-01-04 14:07:15.000000000 +0530 @@ -480,7 +480,7 @@ verify_version(void) if (!(sp = symbol_search("linux_banner"))) error(FATAL, "linux_banner symbol does not exist?\n"); - else if (sp->type == 'R') + else if ((sp->type == 'R') || (sp->type == 'r')) linux_banner = symbol_value("linux_banner"); else get_symbol_data("linux_banner", sizeof(ulong), &linux_banner); _ -- Crash-utility mailing list Crash-utility@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/crash-utility