Re: NULL pointer dereference when booting ppc64_guest_defconfig in QEMU on -next

Harry Yoo (Oracle)
2026-03-20T13:22:02Z

On Fri, Mar 20, 2026 at 08:35:46AM -0400, Mathieu Desnoyers wrote:
> On 2026-03-20 00:17, Harry Yoo wrote:
> [...]
> > > [1]: https://lore.kernel.org/20260227153730.1556542-4-mathieu.desnoyers@efficios.com/
> >
> > @Mathieu: In patch 1/3 description,
> > > Changes since v7:
> > > - Explicitly initialize the subsystem from start_kernel() right
> > > after mm_core_init() so it is up and running before the creation of
> > > the first mm at boot.
> >
> > But how does this work when someone calls mm_cpumask() on init_mm early?
> > Looks like it will behave incorrectly because get_rss_stat_items_size()
> > returns zero?
>
> It doesn't work as expected at all. I missed that all users of mm_cpumask()
> end up relying on get_rss_stat_items_size(), which now calls
> percpu_counter_tree_items_size(), which depends on initialization from
> percpu_counter_tree_subsystem_init().
>
> If you add a call to percpu_counter_tree_subsystem_init in
> arch/powerpc/kernel/setup_arch() just before:
>
> VM_WARN_ON(cpumask_test_cpu(smp_processor_id(), mm_cpumask(&init_mm)));
> cpumask_set_cpu(smp_processor_id(), mm_cpumask(&init_mm));
>
> Does the warning go away ?

Hmm it goes away, but I'm not sure if it is it okay to use nr_cpu_ids
before setup_nr_cpu_ids() is called?

> Alternatively, would could use a lazy initialization invoking
> percpu_counter_tree_subsystem_init from percpu_counter_tree_items_size
> when the initialization is not already done.

So this probably isn't a way to go?

Hmm perhaps we should treat init_mm as a special case in
mm_cpus_allowed() and mm_cpumask().

--
Cheers,
Harry / Hyeonggon