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Bug 1214730

Summary: abrt reporting kernel is tainted when it is not
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Reporter: Stephen Beal <sbeal>
Component: abrtAssignee: abrt <abrt-devel-list>
Status: CLOSED ERRATA QA Contact: Martin Kyral <mkyral>
Severity: high Docs Contact:
Priority: high    
Version: 7.2CC: aquini, brentrbrian, bubrown, chaithco, jberan, jkejda, lmiksik, maurizio.antillon, mkutlak, mkyral, msuchy, nobody, ovasik, streeter, yundtj
Target Milestone: rcKeywords: Reopened
Target Release: 7.3   
Hardware: x86_64   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: If docs needed, set a value
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of:
: 1452160 (view as bug list) Environment:
Last Closed: 2018-04-10 17:41:30 UTC Type: Bug
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:
Bug Depends On: 1452160    
Bug Blocks: 1305230, 1420851, 1474754    

Description Stephen Beal 2015-04-23 12:54:51 UTC
Description of problem:

In abrt oops data, the kernel is reports as tainted, though this is a fresh 7.1 install with nothing else added.


dmesg:[ 7019.437238] CPU: 1 PID: 14620 Comm: kworker/u17:0 Not tainted 3.10.0-229.1.2.el7.x86_64 #1
not-reportable:A kernel problem occurred, but your kernel has been tainted (flags:GW). Kernel maintainers are unable to diagnose tainted reports.

$ cat kernel_tainted_long
Proprietary module has not been loaded.
Taint on warning.

$ cat kernel_tainted_short
GW

From the backtrace:

CPU: 1 PID: 14620 Comm: kworker/u17:0 Tainted: G        W   --------------   3.10.0-22
9.1.2.el7.x86_64 #1


Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):

7.1 (3.10.0-229.1.2.el7.x86_64)


How reproducible:

- Unknown

Expected results:

- kernel not reported to be tainted if it is truly not.


Additional info:

- attaching abrt tarball.

Comment 3 Charles Haithcock 2015-07-02 21:05:05 UTC
iirc, ABRT won't report on a tainted kernel by default. If there was a kernel warning (and it looks as if there was one regarding bluetooth issues), then that would taint the kernel.

Comment 4 Jakub Filak 2015-07-03 10:43:48 UTC
(In reply to Charles Haithcock from comment #3)
> iirc, ABRT won't report on a tainted kernel by default. If there was a
> kernel warning (and it looks as if there was one regarding bluetooth
> issues), then that would taint the kernel.

Correct and W is a taint flag [1][2].

1: http://abrt.readthedocs.org/en/latest/faq.html#what-is-tainted-kernel-and-why-is-my-kernel-tainted
2: " *  'W' - Taint on warning." - http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/kernel/panic.c#n245

Comment 5 Richard Marko 2015-07-08 14:50:36 UTC
(In reply to Charles Haithcock from comment #3)
> iirc, ABRT won't report on a tainted kernel by default. If there was a
> kernel warning (and it looks as if there was one regarding bluetooth
> issues), then that would taint the kernel.

This explanation is correct. Closing as not a bug.

Comment 6 Guy Streeter 2015-07-09 14:46:17 UTC
Just because there is a taint flag set doesn't mean the problem shouldn't be reported. We want to avoid reporting problems when proprietary modules are loaded in the kernel, for instance. That's a valid reason abrt to refuse reporting an issue.
The W flag means there was a kernel problem. Kernel problems should be reported.

Comment 28 Julius Milan 2017-05-12 12:52:49 UTC

It it easy fix to enable reporting oopses with arbitrary tainted flags, however
I examined this deeply and discovered interesting facts.

* as W taint flag means warning has already occured, it is not interesting for reporting W tainted oopses because we only care about 1 occurence, which was probably already filed by abrt, so reporting W flaged oopses wouldn't even help resolving particular problem and so makes no sense. (https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=786280#c2)
* enabling reporting of W tainted oopses is in direct contradiction with resolution of bug 786280, which prevents flood of useles identical or follow-on reports.

My conclusion of these two facts is not to enable reporting of W tainted oopses.

* Regarding G flag, it occurs only besides other taint flags, without W it makes no sense too.

So lets move a step back, to bug opening comment.

In opening message is written:
"In abrt oops data, the kernel is reports as tainted, though this is a fresh 7.1 install with nothing else added."

this is not in contradiction with content of not-reportable:
"A kernel problem occurred, but your kernel has been tainted (flags:GW). Kernel maintainers are unable to diagnose tainted reports."

That kernel is tainted, doesn't imply something had to be loaded into it, however I agree that this message can be confusing in this situation.

I propose to extend the not-reportable message to this form:

"
A kernel problem occurred, but your kernel has been tainted (flags:GW). Kernel maintainers are unable to diagnose tainted reports.
Kernel may become tainted for one of following reasons:
* The use of a proprietary (or non-GPL-compatible) kernel module.
* The use of staging drivers, which are part of the kernel source code but are not fully tested.
* The use of out-of-tree modules that are not included with the Linux kernel source code.
* Forcible loading or unloading of a kernel module (such as forcibly inserting a module not built for the current version of the kernel).
* The use of an SMP (multiprocessor) kernel on certain unsupported uniprocessor CPUs, primarily older AMD Athlon processors.
* Overriding of the ACPI DSDT, sometimes needed to correct for power-management bugs.
* Certain critical error conditions, such as machine check exceptions and kernel oopses.
* Certain serious bugs in the system firmware (BIOS, UEFI) which the kernel must work around.
"

Comment 29 Julius Milan 2017-05-18 13:22:06 UTC
Pull request: https://github.com/abrt/abrt/pull/1245

Comment 41 errata-xmlrpc 2018-04-10 17:41:30 UTC
Since the problem described in this bug report should be
resolved in a recent advisory, it has been closed with a
resolution of ERRATA.

For information on the advisory, and where to find the updated
files, follow the link below.

If the solution does not work for you, open a new bug report.

https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2018:0949

Comment 42 ekulik 2019-04-29 13:27:53 UTC
*** Bug 1704285 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 43 Red Hat Bugzilla 2023-09-14 02:58:24 UTC
The needinfo request[s] on this closed bug have been removed as they have been unresolved for 1000 days