With your patch, I have reproduced the panic: Unable to handle kernel paging request at 000000000000186a RIP: [<ffffffff8105d4e7>] __alloc_pages+0x2f/0x2c3 PGD 72595067 PUD 72594067 PMD 0 Oops: 0000 [1] SMP CPU 0 Modules linked in: xt_tcpudp iptable_filter ip_tables x_tables cpufreq_ondemand dm_mirror dm_multipath dm_mod video sbs button battery backlight ac snd_intel8x0 snd_ac97_codec ac97_bus snd_seq_dummy snd_seq_oss snd_seq_midi_event snd_seq snd_seq_device snd_pcm_oss snd_mixer_oss snd_pcm sg snd_timer shpchp snd soundcore tg3 i2c_i801 piix i2c_core snd_page_alloc ide_cd cdrom serio_raw ata_piix libata sd_mod scsi_mod ext3 jbd ehci_hcd ohci_hcd uhci_hcd Pid: 3996, comm: sh Not tainted 2.6.22 #9 RIP: 0010:[<ffffffff8105d4e7>] [<ffffffff8105d4e7>] __alloc_pages+0x2f/0x2c3 RSP: 0018:ffff810071563e48 EFLAGS: 00010246 RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: 000000e8d4a51000 RCX: 0000000000000000 RDX: ffff810071563fd8 RSI: 0000000000000009 RDI: 00000000000242d2 RBP: 00000000000242d2 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000043a01 R10: ffff810000e88000 R11: ffffffff81072a02 R12: 0000000000001862 R13: ffff810070c74ea0 R14: 0000000000000009 R15: 00002adc51042000 FS: 00002adc4db3ddb0(0000) GS:ffffffff81312000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 000000008005003b CR2: 000000000000186a CR3: 000000007d963000 CR4: 00000000000006e0 Process sh (pid: 3996, threadinfo ffff810071562000, task ffff810070c74ea0) Stack: 00000010000242d2 ffff810000e88000 ffff810070e76710 ffffffff812e31e0 ffffffffffffffff 000000e8d4a51000 ffffffffffffffff ffff810077d11b00 000000000000000e ffff810071563f50 00002adc51042000 ffffffff81071a67 Call Trace: [<ffffffff81071a67>] alloc_fresh_huge_page+0x98/0xe7 [<ffffffff8107263b>] hugetlb_sysctl_handler+0x14/0xf1 [<ffffffff810bdad9>] proc_sys_write+0x7c/0xa6 [<ffffffff8108074b>] vfs_write+0xad/0x156 [<ffffffff81080ced>] sys_write+0x45/0x6e [<ffffffff81009c9c>] tracesys+0xdc/0xe1
Code: 49 83 7c 24 08 00 75 0e 48 c7 44 24 08 00 00 00 00 e9 6a 02 RIP [<ffffffff8105d4e7>] __alloc_pages+0x2f/0x2c3 RSP <ffff810071563e48> CR2: 000000000000186a >From your patch, if we dont the lock, the race condition maybe occur at next_node(). On 2007-07-17 21:35, Hugh Dickins wrote: > On Tue, 17 Jul 2007, Andrew Morton wrote: > > > > Given that we've now gone and added deliberate-but-we-hope-benign > > races into this code, an elaborate comment which explains and justifies > > it all is pretty much obligatory, IMO. > > [PATCH] Remove nid_lock from alloc_fresh_huge_page > > The fix to that race in alloc_fresh_huge_page() which could give an illegal > node ID did not need nid_lock at all: the fix was to replace static int nid > by static int prev_nid and do the work on local int nid. nid_lock did make > sure that racers strictly roundrobin the nodes, but that's not something we > need to enforce strictly. Kill nid_lock. > > Signed-off-by: Hugh Dickins <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > --- > mm/hugetlb.c | 10 +++++++--- > 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) > > --- 2.6.22-git9/mm/hugetlb.c 2007-07-17 20:29:33.000000000 +0100 > +++ linux/mm/hugetlb.c 2007-07-17 21:29:58.000000000 +0100 > @@ -107,15 +107,19 @@ static int alloc_fresh_huge_page(void) > { > static int prev_nid; > struct page *page; > - static DEFINE_SPINLOCK(nid_lock); > int nid; > > - spin_lock(&nid_lock); > + /* > + * Copy static prev_nid to local nid, work on that, then copy it > + * back to prev_nid afterwards: otherwise there's a window in which > + * a racer might pass invalid nid MAX_NUMNODES to alloc_pages_node. > + * But we don't need to use a spin_lock here: it really doesn't > + * matter if occasionally a racer chooses the same nid as we do. > + */ > nid = next_node(prev_nid, node_online_map); > if (nid == MAX_NUMNODES) > nid = first_node(node_online_map); > prev_nid = nid; > - spin_unlock(&nid_lock); > > page = alloc_pages_node(nid, htlb_alloc_mask|__GFP_COMP|__GFP_NOWARN, > HUGETLB_PAGE_ORDER); - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/