Could that be related to the fix [PATCH] libata: fix oops with sparsemem That Arnd Bergmann just posted ? I'm copying it below in case you haven't seen it. ---- From: Arnd Bergmann <arnd.bergmann@xxxxxxxxxx> To: jgarzik@xxxxxxxxx Cc: linux-ide@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, linuxppc-dev@xxxxxxxxxx Subject: [PATCH] libata: fix oops with sparsemem Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2006 19:14:40 +0100 (Sat, 05:14 EST) libata incorrectly passes NULL arguments to sg_set_buf, which crashes on powerpc64 when looking for the corresponding mem_section. This introduces a new ata_exec_nodma() wrapper that takes no buffer arguments and does not call sg_set_buf either. In order to make it easier to detect this sort of problem, it also adds a WARN_ON(!buf) to sg_set_buf() so we get a log message even platforms without sparsemem. Signed-off-by: Arnd Bergmann <arnd.bergmann@xxxxxxxxxx> Index: linux-2.6/drivers/ata/libata-core.c =================================================================== --- linux-2.6.orig/drivers/ata/libata-core.c +++ linux-2.6/drivers/ata/libata-core.c @@ -1332,7 +1332,7 @@ unsigned ata_exec_internal_sg(struct ata } /** - * ata_exec_internal_sg - execute libata internal command + * ata_exec_internal - execute libata internal command * @dev: Device to which the command is sent * @tf: Taskfile registers for the command and the result * @cdb: CDB for packet command @@ -1361,6 +1361,25 @@ unsigned ata_exec_internal(struct ata_de } /** + * ata_exec_nodma - execute libata internal command + * @dev: Device to which the command is sent + * @tf: Taskfile registers for the command and the result + * + * Wrapper around ata_exec_internal_sg() which takes no + * data buffer. + * + * LOCKING: + * None. Should be called with kernel context, might sleep. + * + * RETURNS: + * Zero on success, AC_ERR_* mask on failure + */ +static unsigned ata_exec_nodma(struct ata_device *dev, struct ata_taskfile *tf) +{ + return ata_exec_internal_sg(dev, tf, NULL, DMA_NONE, NULL, 0); +} + +/** * ata_do_simple_cmd - execute simple internal command * @dev: Device to which the command is sent * @cmd: Opcode to execute @@ -1384,7 +1403,7 @@ unsigned int ata_do_simple_cmd(struct at tf.flags |= ATA_TFLAG_DEVICE; tf.protocol = ATA_PROT_NODATA; - return ata_exec_internal(dev, &tf, NULL, DMA_NONE, NULL, 0); + return ata_exec_nodma(dev, &tf); } /** @@ -3475,7 +3494,7 @@ static unsigned int ata_dev_set_xfermode tf.protocol = ATA_PROT_NODATA; tf.nsect = dev->xfer_mode; - err_mask = ata_exec_internal(dev, &tf, NULL, DMA_NONE, NULL, 0); + err_mask = ata_exec_nodma(dev, &tf); DPRINTK("EXIT, err_mask=%x\n", err_mask); return err_mask; @@ -3513,7 +3532,7 @@ static unsigned int ata_dev_init_params( tf.nsect = sectors; tf.device |= (heads - 1) & 0x0f; /* max head = num. of heads - 1 */ - err_mask = ata_exec_internal(dev, &tf, NULL, DMA_NONE, NULL, 0); + err_mask = ata_exec_nodma(dev, &tf); DPRINTK("EXIT, err_mask=%x\n", err_mask); return err_mask; Index: linux-2.6/include/linux/scatterlist.h =================================================================== --- linux-2.6.orig/include/linux/scatterlist.h +++ linux-2.6/include/linux/scatterlist.h @@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ static inline void sg_set_buf(struct scatterlist *sg, const void *buf, unsigned int buflen) { + WARN_ON(!buf); /* virt_to_page(NULL) crashes with sparsemem */ + sg->page = virt_to_page(buf); sg->offset = offset_in_page(buf); sg->length = buflen; _______________________________________________ - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-ide" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html