Bug 499253 - kernel leaves initrd in vmalloc space
Summary: kernel leaves initrd in vmalloc space
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED ERRATA
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
Classification: Red Hat
Component: kernel
Version: 5.3
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
high
high
Target Milestone: rc
: 5.5
Assignee: Neil Horman
QA Contact: Zhouping Liu
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks: 499522 525215 533192 540569
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2009-05-05 19:52 UTC by Casey Dahlin
Modified: 2018-10-27 14:24 UTC (History)
7 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2010-03-30 07:22:42 UTC
Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)
backport of referenced patch (4.51 KB, patch)
2009-10-16 18:08 UTC, Neil Horman
no flags Details | Diff


Links
System ID Private Priority Status Summary Last Updated
Red Hat Product Errata RHSA-2010:0178 0 normal SHIPPED_LIVE Important: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5 kernel security and bug fix update 2010-03-29 12:18:21 UTC

Description Casey Dahlin 2009-05-05 19:52:15 UTC
Grub doesn't account for the kernel vmalloc= parameter when finding where to place initrd, causing booting with vmalloc=256m to produce an error such as follows:

3232MB HIGHMEM available.
864MB LOWMEM available.
initrd extends beyond end of memory (0x37fef0e1 > 0x36000000)
disabling initrd

The kernel panics soon after.

The problem and a workaround are documented in this posting:
http://linux.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/Kernel/2006-06/msg09537.html

Comment 3 Peter Jones 2009-09-09 21:06:59 UTC
hpa's response to this on lkml ( http://linux.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/Kernel/2006-06/msg09868.html ) is correct.  If this is to happen, it needs to happen in the kernel.  It's not just grub that picks the highest available memory to load the initrd in - it's grub, syslinux, pxelinux, and other bootloaders on other platforms.

This needs to be fixed at the right place - in the kernel.

Comment 5 RHEL Program Management 2009-10-05 22:19:33 UTC
This request was evaluated by Red Hat Product Management for inclusion in a Red
Hat Enterprise Linux maintenance release.  Product Management has requested
further review of this request by Red Hat Engineering, for potential
inclusion in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux Update release for currently deployed
products.  This request is not yet committed for inclusion in an Update
release.

Comment 8 Neil Horman 2009-10-16 18:08:10 UTC
Created attachment 365080 [details]
backport of referenced patch

can you please give this patch a try and see if it corrects your issue?  Thanks!

Comment 9 Neil Horman 2009-11-02 15:14:13 UTC
ping, any update here?

Comment 10 Neil Horman 2009-11-12 18:26:56 UTC
Casey, ping, any update on this?

Comment 11 Casey Dahlin 2009-11-12 18:43:03 UTC
Sorry. I think I was running into some weirdness trying to get the patch to apply in the build. Back on top of it now.

Comment 12 Neil Horman 2009-11-12 19:07:35 UTC
Ok, please let me know.

Comment 13 Neil Horman 2009-11-19 16:12:18 UTC
casey, ping once again.  I'm going to close this if I don't get some feedback here at some point soon.

Comment 14 Casey Dahlin 2009-11-19 16:22:53 UTC
Delivered the patched kernel. Waiting for it to get tested. I'll see if I can push things a bit quicker.

Comment 31 Chris Ward 2010-02-11 10:03:58 UTC
~~ Attention Customers and Partners - RHEL 5.5 Beta is now available on RHN ~~

RHEL 5.5 Beta has been released! There should be a fix present in this 
release that addresses your request. Please test and report back results 
here, by March 3rd 2010 (2010-03-03) or sooner.

Upon successful verification of this request, post your results and update 
the Verified field in Bugzilla with the appropriate value.

If you encounter any issues while testing, please describe them and set 
this bug into NEED_INFO. If you encounter new defects or have additional 
patch(es) to request for inclusion, please clone this bug per each request
and escalate through your support representative.

Comment 32 Chris Ward 2010-02-15 09:07:35 UTC
My apologies. This items is scheduled for inclusion in Snapshot 1.

Comment 36 errata-xmlrpc 2010-03-30 07:22:42 UTC
An advisory has been issued which should help the problem
described in this bug report. This report is therefore being
closed with a resolution of ERRATA. For more information
on therefore solution and/or where to find the updated files,
please follow the link below. You may reopen this bug report
if the solution does not work for you.

http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2010-0178.html

Comment 38 Chris Lalancette 2010-07-19 13:15:35 UTC
Clearing out needinfo requests.

Chris Lalancette


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