RCU lockup issues when CONFIG_SOFTLOCKUP_DETECTOR=n - any one else seeing this?

Wed Jul 26 02:52:07 AEST 2017

On Tue, 25 Jul 2017 08:12:45 -0700
"Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck at linux.vnet.ibm.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Jul 25, 2017 at 10:42:45PM +0800, Jonathan Cameron wrote:
> > On Tue, 25 Jul 2017 06:46:26 -0700
> > "Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck at linux.vnet.ibm.com> wrote:
> >   
> > > On Tue, Jul 25, 2017 at 10:26:54PM +1000, Nicholas Piggin wrote:  
> > > > On Tue, 25 Jul 2017 19:32:10 +0800
> > > > Jonathan Cameron <Jonathan.Cameron at huawei.com> wrote:
> > > >     
> > > > > Hi All,
> > > > > 
> > > > > We observed a regression on our d05 boards (but curiously not
> > > > > the fairly similar but single socket / smaller core count
> > > > > d03), initially seen with linux-next prior to the merge window
> > > > > and still present in v4.13-rc2.
> > > > > 
> > > > > The symptom is:    
> > > 
> > > Adding Dave Miller and the sparclinux at vger.kernel.org email on CC, as
> > > they have been seeing something similar, and you might well have saved
> > > them the trouble of bisecting.
> > > 
> > > [ . . . ]
> > >   
> > > > > [ 1984.628602] rcu_preempt kthread starved for 5663 jiffies! g1566 c1565 f0x0 RCU_GP_WAIT_FQS(3) ->state=0x1    
> > > 
> > > This is the cause from an RCU perspective.  You had a lot of idle CPUs,
> > > and RCU is not permitted to disturb them -- the battery-powered embedded
> > > guys get very annoyed by that sort of thing.  What happens instead is
> > > that each CPU updates a per-CPU state variable when entering or exiting
> > > idle, and the grace-period kthread ("rcu_preempt kthread" in the above
> > > message) checks these state variables, and if when sees an idle CPU,
> > > it reports a quiescent state on that CPU's behalf.
> > > 
> > > But the grace-period kthread can only do this work if it gets a chance
> > > to run.  And the message above says that this kthread hasn't had a chance
> > > to run for a full 5,663 jiffies.  For completeness, the "g1566 c1565"
> > > says that grace period #1566 is in progress, the "f0x0" says that no one
> > > is needing another grace period #1567.  The "RCU_GP_WAIT_FQS(3)" says
> > > that the grace-period kthread has fully initialized the current grace
> > > period and is sleeping for a few jiffies waiting to scan for idle tasks.
> > > Finally, the "->state=0x1" says that the grace-period kthread is in
> > > TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE state, in other words, still sleeping.  
> > 
> > Thanks for the explanation!  
> > > 
> > > So my first question is "What did commit 05a4a9527 (kernel/watchdog:
> > > split up config options) do to prevent the grace-period kthread from
> > > getting a chance to run?"   
> > 
> > As far as we can tell it was a side effect of that patch.
> > 
> > The real cause is that patch changed the result of defconfigs to stop running
> > the softlockup detector - now CONFIG_SOFTLOCKUP_DETECTOR
> > 
> > Enabling that on 4.13-rc2 (and presumably everything in between)
> > means we don't see the problem any more.
> >   
> > > I must confess that I don't see anything
> > > obvious in that commit, so my second question is "Are we sure that
> > > reverting this commit makes the problem go away?"  
> > 
> > Simply enabling CONFIG_SOFTLOCKUP_DETECTOR seems to make it go away.
> > That detector fires up a thread on every cpu, which may be relevant.  
> 
> Interesting...  Why should it be necessary to fire up a thread on every
> CPU in order to make sure that RCU's grace-period kthreads get some
> CPU time?  Especially give how many idle CPUs you had on your system.
> 
> So I have to ask if there is some other bug that the softlockup detector
> is masking.
I am thinking the same.  We can try going back further than 4.12 tomorrow
(we think we can realistically go back to 4.8 and possibly 4.6
with this board)
> 
> > > and my third is "Is
> > > this an intermittent problem that led to a false bisection?"  
> > 
> > Whilst it is a bit slow to occur, we verified with long runs on either
> > side of that patch and since with the option enabled on latest mainline.
> > 
> > Also can cause the issue before that patch by disabling the previous
> > relevant option on 4.12.  
> 
> OK, thank you -- hard to argue with that!  ;-)
We thought it was a pretty unlikely a bisection result
hence hammered it thoroughly ;)
> 
> Except that I am still puzzled as to why per-CPU softlockup threads
> are needed for RCU's kthreads to get their wakeups.  We really should
> be able to disable softlockup and still have kthreads get wakeups and
> access to CPU, after all.
> 
> > > [ . . . ]
> > >   
> > > > > Reducing the RCU CPU stall timeout makes it happen more often,
> > > > > but we are seeing even with the default value of 24 seconds.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Tends to occur after a period or relatively low usage, but has
> > > > > also been seen mid way through performance tests.
> > > > > 
> > > > > This was not seen with v4.12 so a bisection run later lead to
> > > > > commit 05a4a9527 (kernel/watchdog: split up config options).
> > > > > 
> > > > > Which was odd until we discovered that a side effect of this patch
> > > > > was to change whether the softlockup detector was enabled or not in
> > > > > the arm64 defconfig.
> > > > > 
> > > > > On 4.13-rc2 enabling the softlockup detector indeed stopped us
> > > > > seeing the rcu issue. Disabling the equivalent on 4.12 made the
> > > > > issue occur there as well.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Clearly the softlockup detector results in a thread on every cpu,
> > > > > which might be related but beyond that we are still looking into
> > > > > the issue.
> > > > > 
> > > > > So the obvious question is whether anyone else is seeing this as
> > > > > it might help us to focus in on where to look!    
> > > > 
> > > > Huh. Something similar has been seen very intermittently on powerpc
> > > > as well. We couldn't reproduce it reliably to bisect it already, so
> > > > this is a good help.
> > > > 
> > > > http://marc.info/?l=linuxppc-embedded&m=149872815523646&w=2
> > > > 
> > > > It looks like the watchdog patch has a similar effect on powerpc in
> > > > that it stops enabling the softlockup detector by default. Haven't
> > > > confirmed, but it looks like the same thing.
> > > > 
> > > > A bug in RCU stall detection?    
> > > 
> > > Well, if I am expected to make grace periods complete when my grace-period
> > > kthreads aren't getting any CPU time, I will have to make some substantial
> > > changes.  ;-)
> > > 
> > > One possibility is that the timer isn't firing and another is that the
> > > timer's wakeup is being lost somehow.
> > > 
> > > So another thing to try is to boot with rcutree.rcu_kick_kthreads=1.
> > > This will cause RCU to do redundant wakeups on the grace-period kthread
> > > if the grace period is moving slowly.  This is of course a crude hack,
> > > which is why this boot parameter will also cause a splat if it ever has
> > > to do anything.  
> > 
> > Running that now will let you know how it goes.  Not seen the issue yet
> > but might just be a 'lucky' run - will give it a few hours.  
> 
> Thank you very much!
So far it's not actually shown any splats.  I did a quick drop back to running
without the parameter and got the original splat in less that 5 minutes.

I've spun up another board with this parameter set as well and will leave
them both running overnight to see if anything interesting happens.

Thanks for your help with this,

Jonathan

> 
> 							Thanx, Paul
> 
> > Jonathan  
> > > 
> > > Does this help at all?
> > > 
> > > 							Thanx, Paul
> > >   
> > > > > In the meantime we'll carry on digging.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Thanks,
> > > > > 
> > > > > Jonathan
> > > > > 
> > > > > p.s. As a more general question, do we want to have the
> > > > > soft lockup detector enabledon arm64 by default?    
> > > > 
> > > > I've cc'ed Don. My patch should not have changed defconfigs, I
> > > > should have been more careful with that.
> > > > 
> > > > Thanks,
> > > > Nick
> > > >     
> > >   
> > 
> >   
> 