We've had a few bugs recently where device drivers were forgetting to set vma->vm_flags:VM_IO in their mmap() methods. This causes kernel deadlocks when applications which have the relevant device mapped try to dump core (the pagefault handler deadlocks on mmap_sem). Failing to set VM_IO also causes kernel oopses when PTRACE_PEEKUSR tries to read the device mapping - the region has no page structs, but access_process_vm() acts as if it does. This patch doesn't fix the PTRACE_PEEKUSR bug - for that we need this patch as well as the patch Andrea, Manfred and I pieced together - it's at http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/andrea/kernels/v2.4/2.4.18pre7aa2/00_get_user_pages-2 I understand that Manfred will be sending you a version of that patch. The drivers which are forgetting to set VM_IO include a whole bunch of fbmem drivers, one or more AGP drivers and I don't know what else. It's simpler to make VM_IO default to `on', and to only clear it in places where we know that it's safe to dump the memory to a core file, and where it's safe to PTRACE_PEEKUSR it. That's what this patch does. We only clear VM_IO in generic_file_mmap() and in ncp_mmap() and in coda_file_mmap(). Any filesystem which implements its own mmap() method, and which does not call generic_file_mmap() needs to be changed to clear VM_IO inside its mmap function. All in-kernel filesystems are OK, as is XFS. And the only breakage this can cause to out-of-kernel filesystems is failure to include mappings in core files, and inability to use PEEKUSR. With this patch in place we can go through and remove the setting of VM_IO in all the drivers which _do_ remember to set it. But that's a cleanup which can await 2.4.19-pre. --- linux-2.4.18-pre8/mm/mmap.c Mon Nov 5 21:01:12 2001 +++ linux-akpm/mm/mmap.c Sat Feb 2 17:36:55 2002 @@ -534,6 +534,11 @@ munmap_back: } vma->vm_file = file; get_file(file); + /* + * Subdrivers can clear VM_IO if their mappings are + * valid pages inside mem_map[] + */ + vma->vm_flags |= VM_IO; error = file->f_op->mmap(file, vma); if (error) goto unmap_and_free_vma; --- linux-2.4.18-pre8/mm/filemap.c Tue Feb 5 00:33:05 2002 +++ linux-akpm/mm/filemap.c Sat Feb 2 17:36:55 2002 @@ -2111,6 +2111,7 @@ int generic_file_mmap(struct file * file return -ENOEXEC; UPDATE_ATIME(inode); vma->vm_ops = &generic_file_vm_ops; + vma->vm_flags &= ~VM_IO; return 0; } --- linux-2.4.18-pre8/fs/coda/file.c Tue Feb 5 00:33:05 2002 +++ linux-akpm/fs/coda/file.c Wed Feb 6 21:50:16 2002 @@ -97,6 +97,7 @@ coda_file_mmap(struct file *file, struct if (!cfile->f_op || !cfile->f_op->mmap) return -ENODEV; + vma->vm_flags &= ~VM_IO; down(&inode->i_sem); ret = cfile->f_op->mmap(cfile, vma); UPDATE_ATIME(inode); --- linux-2.4.18-pre8/fs/ncpfs/mmap.c Mon Sep 10 09:04:53 2001 +++ linux-akpm/fs/ncpfs/mmap.c Wed Feb 6 21:49:28 2002 @@ -119,5 +119,6 @@ int ncp_mmap(struct file *file, struct v } vma->vm_ops = &ncp_file_mmap; + vma->vm_flags &= ~VM_IO; return 0; } - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/