From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S966926AbeBNJip (ORCPT ); Wed, 14 Feb 2018 04:38:45 -0500 Received: from bombadil.infradead.org ([198.137.202.133]:58222 "EHLO bombadil.infradead.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S966693AbeBNJin (ORCPT ); Wed, 14 Feb 2018 04:38:43 -0500 Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2018 10:38:35 +0100 From: Peter Zijlstra To: Ingo Molnar Cc: Tim Chen , Dave Hansen , hpa@zytor.com, tglx@linutronix.de, torvalds@linux-foundation.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, dwmw@amazon.co.uk, linux-tip-commits@vger.kernel.org, Borislav Petkov , Arjan van de Ven Subject: Re: [PATCH] watchdog: hpwdt: Remove spinlock acquire and BIOS calls from NMI context Message-ID: <20180214093835.GW25181@hirez.programming.kicks-ass.net> References: <1518362359-1005-1-git-send-email-dwmw@amazon.co.uk> <20180212102211.cdrrqqd4hdw7xu5y@gmail.com> <20180212165835.GO25181@hirez.programming.kicks-ass.net> <20180213075540.3lkikkpgjoe6ocjk@gmail.com> <5c3ba123-abbe-f153-7b75-a89d31d25c72@linux.intel.com> <20180214093159.mdzfupne547bi5qx@gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20180214093159.mdzfupne547bi5qx@gmail.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.9.2 (2017-12-15) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Wed, Feb 14, 2018 at 10:31:59AM +0100, Ingo Molnar wrote: > Because in this particular case it does not appear to be so: the reason for the > BIOS/firmware call appears to be to determine how we nmi_panic() after receiving > an NMI that no other NMI handler handled: with a passive-aggressive "I don't know" > panic message or with a slightly more informative panic message. However much I like just ripping all that out, I think the ROM call actually does that logging, or that is how I read things. If you look at the original Changelog for that driver: Hp is providing a Hardware WatchDog Timer driver that will only work with the specific HW Timer located in the HP ProLiant iLO 2 ASIC. The iLO 2 HW Timer will generate a Non-maskable Interrupt (NMI) 9 seconds before physically resetting the server, by removing power, so that the event can be logged to the HP Integrated Management Log (IML), a Non-Volatile Random Access Memory (NVRAM). The logging of the event is performed using the HP ProLiant ROM via an Industry Standard access known as a BIOS Service Directory Entry.