Re: "cannot access vmalloc'd module memory" when loading kdump'ed vmcore in crash

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Worth, Kevin wrote:
Tried running crash on a running kernel... seems that 4.0-3.7 doesn't like my kernel. When I run crash 4.0-7.2 on a live system, it appears that it has no problems with vmalloc'd module memory.

crash 4.0-3.7
...
GNU gdb 6.1
...
This GDB was configured as "i686-pc-linux-gnu"...

crash: /boot/System.map-2.6.20-17.39-custom2 and /dev/mem do not match!

Usage:
  crash [-h [opt]][-v][-s][-i file][-d num] [-S] [mapfile] [namelist] [dumpfile]

Enter "crash -h" for details.


crash 4.0-7.2
...
GNU gdb 6.1
...
This GDB was configured as "i686-pc-linux-gnu"...

      KERNEL: vmlinux-2.6.20-17.39-custom2
    DUMPFILE: /dev/mem
        CPUS: 2
        DATE: Wed Oct  1 16:31:39 2008
      UPTIME: 04:57:53
LOAD AVERAGE: 0.10, 0.09, 0.09
       TASKS: 95
    NODENAME: ProCurve-TMS-zl-Module
     RELEASE: 2.6.20-17.39-custom2
     VERSION: #3 SMP Wed Sep 24 10:11:03 PDT 2008
     MACHINE: i686  (2200 Mhz)
      MEMORY: 5 GB
         PID: 15801
     COMMAND: "crash"
        TASK: 47bd6030  [THREAD_INFO: 4a8a8000]
         CPU: 1
       STATE: TASK_RUNNING (ACTIVE)
crash>

Since that seems ok (and I don't encounter the error) I'll run crash with -d7 on the dump file to hopefully expose what is wrong with either the dump or with crash.

I've attached the output of crash with -d7... not sure how the mailing like handles file attachments, but if needed I can paste the text. (or if there is something specific I should look for let me know and I can paste just that section).

Yeah, crash 4.0-3.7 is 2 years old, which is pretty ancient.
Plus I'm only interested in helping out with the latest version.

But according to the above, 4.0-7.2 works OK on the live system?
You can do a "mod" command and it works OK?

Sometimes on larger-memory systems, running live using /dev/mem,
you might see the "WARNING: cannot access vmalloc'd module"
message because the physical memory that is backing the
vmalloc'd virtual address is in highmem, and cannot be
accessed by /dev/mem.  In any case, it appears that the
module structures have all been read successfully on your
live system.

And that's kind of bothersome, because for all practical
purposes, the crash utility doesn't care where it's getting
the physical memory from (i.e., from /dev/mem or from the
dumpfile).  And if it works on the live system, it should
work with the dumpfile.

Anyway, looking at the crash.log, here's what's happening:

Everything was running fine until the module initialization
step.  The list of installed kernel modules is headed up
from the "modules" list_head symbol at 403c63a4, which
contains a pointer to the first module structure at
vmalloc address f9088280:

  ...
  <readmem: 403c63a4, KVADDR, "modules", 4, (FOE), 83ff8cc>
  please wait... (gathering module symbol data)
  module: f9088280

The readmem() of that first module -- and the very first vmalloc
address -- at f9088280 required a page table translation:

  <readmem: f9088280, KVADDR, "module struct", 1536, (ROE|Q), 842a5e0>
  <readmem: 4044b000, KVADDR, "pgd page", 32, (FOE), 845a308>
  <readmem: 6000, PHYSADDR, "pmd page", 4096, (FOE), 845b310>
  <readmem: 1d515000, PHYSADDR, "page table", 4096, (FOE), 845c318>

That readmem() appears to have worked, because it thinks it
successfully read the module struct at that address.  But when
it pulled out the address of the *next* module in the linked list,
it read this:

  module: fffffffc

And when it tried to read that bogus address, it failed, and
led to the WARNING message:

  <readmem: fffffffc, KVADDR, "module struct", 1536, (ROE|Q), 842a5e0>
  <readmem: 7000, PHYSADDR, "page table", 4096, (FOE), 845c318>

  crash: invalid kernel virtual address: fffffffc  type: "module struct"

  WARNING: cannot access vmalloc'd module memory
  ...

Although I cannot say for sure, I'm presuming that the initial
read of the module structure at f9088280 ended up reading from
the wrong location and therefore read garbage.  You can verify
that by bringing the a dumpfile session, and doing this:

  crash> module f9088280

It *should* display something that is recognizable as a module
structure.  For example:

  crash> mod | grep ext3
  f8899080  ext3                123593  (not loaded)  [CONFIG_KALLSYMS]
  crash> module f8899080
  struct module {
    state = MODULE_STATE_LIVE,
    list = {
      next = 0xf8854a84,
      prev = 0xf8876984
    },
    name = "ext3"
    mkobj = {
      kobj = {
        k_name = 0xf88990cc "ext3",
        name = "ext3",
        kref = {
          refcount = {
            counter = 2
          }
        },
    ...

Your attempt will probably show the fffffffc in the list_head
just after the "state" field at the top, as well as a bunch
of other garbage.

And as I suggested in my first reply, can you also verify that
user virtual address translations also fail?  I suggested pulling
a sample virtual address out of the current context's ("bash")
VM, but doing that may "look" like it's working, but it may
be doing it incorrectly.  So you also need to verify the data
that it finds there.  One way to do that is to read the beginning
of the /bin/bash text segment, and look for "ELF" string.

For example, here I'm in a "bash" context, similar to the
context that your dumpfile comes up in by default:

  crash> set
      PID: 19839
  COMMAND: "bash"
     TASK: f7b03000  [THREAD_INFO: def66000]
      CPU: 1
    STATE: TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE
  crash>

Dump the virtual memory regions, and find the first VMA
that is backed by "/bin/bash":

  crash> vm
  PID: 19839  TASK: f7b03000  CPU: 1   COMMAND: "bash"
     MM       PGD      RSS    TOTAL_VM
  f6dc5740  f745c9c0  1392k    4532k
    VMA       START      END    FLAGS  FILE
  f69019bc    6fa000    703000     75  /lib/libnss_files-2.5.so
  f69013e4    703000    704000 100071  /lib/libnss_files-2.5.so
  f6901d84    704000    705000 100073  /lib/libnss_files-2.5.so
  f6901284    a7c000    a96000    875  /lib/ld-2.5.so
  f6901b74    a96000    a97000 100871  /lib/ld-2.5.so
  f6901b1c    a97000    a98000 100873  /lib/ld-2.5.so
  f69012dc    a9a000    bd7000     75  /lib/libc-2.5.so
  f690185c    bd7000    bd9000 100071  /lib/libc-2.5.so
  f6901ac4    bd9000    bda000 100073  /lib/libc-2.5.so
  f69017ac    bda000    bdd000 100073
  f6901e8c    bdf000    be1000     75  /lib/libdl-2.5.so
  f6901a6c    be1000    be2000 100071  /lib/libdl-2.5.so
  f6901754    be2000    be3000 100073  /lib/libdl-2.5.so
  f6901f94    c89000    c8c000     75  /lib/libtermcap.so.2.0.8
  f69016fc    c8c000    c8d000 100073  /lib/libtermcap.so.2.0.8
  f6901d2c    fd1000    fd2000 8000075
  f6901124   8047000   80f5000   1875  /bin/bash
  f69018b4   80f5000   80fa000 101873  /bin/bash
  f6901964   80fa000   80ff000 100073
  f690122c   9a75000   9a96000 100073
  f680890c  b7d7f000  b7f7f000     71  /usr/lib/locale/locale-archive
  f6901f3c  b7f7f000  b7f81000 100073
  f68cfb74  b7f82000  b7f84000 100073
  f6dd69bc  b7f84000  b7f8b000     d1  /usr/lib/gconv/gconv-modules.cache
  f69014ec  bf86e000  bf884000 100173
  crash>

You can see above, that in my case the text region starts at
user virtual address 8047000.  That actually points to the
ELF header at the beginning of the "/bin/bash" file, which
starts with a 0x7f followed by the ascii "ELF" characters:

  crash> rd 8047000
  8047000:  464c457f                              .ELF
  crash>

You might want to use "rd -u <address>" to ensure that
crash will presume that the address is a user address,
just in case that's an issue with your setup.

Anyway, try the above, and also dump out the and save
the output of these debug commands:

  crash> help -m > help.k
  crash> help -k > help.m
  crash> help -v > help.v

But again, given that you seem to be saying that everything
works just fine on the live system, the debugging of this
issue will most likely end up requiring that you determine
where exactly things "go wrong" with the dumpfile in comparison
to the same things working correctly on the live system.

Thanks,
  Dave

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