Hi Guenter, sorry for the delay (Dolomiti's fault). I didn't consider that rq->elv-icq might have been NULL also because of OOM. Thanks for spotting this issue. As for the other places where the return value of bfq_init_rq is used, unfortunately I think they matter too. Those other places are related to request merging, which is the alternative destiny of requests (instead of being just inserted). But, regardless of whether a request is to be merged or inserted, that request may be destined to a bfq_queue (possibly merged with a request already in a bfq_queue), and a NULL return value by bfq_init_rq leads to a crash. I guess you can reproduce your failure also for the merge case, by generating sequential, direct I/O with queue depth > 1, and of course by enabling failslab. If my considerations above are correct, do you want to propose a complete fix yourself? Thanks, Paolo > Il giorno 28 lug 2019, alle ore 17:19, Guenter Roeck <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxx> ha scritto: > > ping ... just in case this patch got lost in Paolo's queue. > > Guenter > > On Mon, Jul 22, 2019 at 10:30:48AM -0700, Guenter Roeck wrote: >> In bfq_insert_request(), bfqq is initialized with: >> bfqq = bfq_init_rq(rq); >> In bfq_init_rq(), we find: >> if (unlikely(!rq->elv.icq)) >> return NULL; >> Indeed, rq->elv.icq can be NULL if the memory allocation in >> create_task_io_context() failed. >> >> A comment in bfq_insert_request() suggests that bfqq is supposed to be >> non-NULL if 'at_head || blk_rq_is_passthrough(rq)' is false. Yet, as >> debugging and practical experience shows, this is not the case in the >> above situation. >> >> This results in the following crash. >> >> Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference >> at virtual address 00000000000001b0 >> ... >> Call trace: >> bfq_setup_cooperator+0x44/0x134 >> bfq_insert_requests+0x10c/0x630 >> blk_mq_sched_insert_requests+0x60/0xb4 >> blk_mq_flush_plug_list+0x290/0x2d4 >> blk_flush_plug_list+0xe0/0x230 >> blk_finish_plug+0x30/0x40 >> generic_writepages+0x60/0x94 >> blkdev_writepages+0x24/0x30 >> do_writepages+0x74/0xac >> __filemap_fdatawrite_range+0x94/0xc8 >> file_write_and_wait_range+0x44/0xa0 >> blkdev_fsync+0x38/0x68 >> vfs_fsync_range+0x68/0x80 >> do_fsync+0x44/0x80 >> >> The problem is relatively easy to reproduce by running an image with >> failslab enabled, such as with: >> >> cd /sys/kernel/debug/failslab >> echo 10 > probability >> echo 300 > times >> >> Avoid the problem by checking if bfqq is NULL before using it. With the >> NULL check in place, requests with missing io context are queued >> immediately, and the crash is no longer seen. >> >> Fixes: 18e5a57d79878 ("block, bfq: postpone rq preparation to insert or merge") >> Reported-by: Hsin-Yi Wang <hsinyi@xxxxxxxxxx> >> Cc: Hsin-Yi Wang <hsinyi@xxxxxxxxxx> >> Cc: Nicolas Boichat <drinkcat@xxxxxxxxxxxx> >> Cc: Doug Anderson <dianders@xxxxxxxxxxxx> >> Signed-off-by: Guenter Roeck <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxx> >> --- >> block/bfq-iosched.c | 2 +- >> 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) >> >> diff --git a/block/bfq-iosched.c b/block/bfq-iosched.c >> index 72860325245a..56f3f4227010 100644 >> --- a/block/bfq-iosched.c >> +++ b/block/bfq-iosched.c >> @@ -5417,7 +5417,7 @@ static void bfq_insert_request(struct blk_mq_hw_ctx *hctx, struct request *rq, >> >> spin_lock_irq(&bfqd->lock); >> bfqq = bfq_init_rq(rq); >> - if (at_head || blk_rq_is_passthrough(rq)) { >> + if (!bfqq || at_head || blk_rq_is_passthrough(rq)) { >> if (at_head) >> list_add(&rq->queuelist, &bfqd->dispatch); >> else >> -- >> 2.7.4 >>