[PATCH] arm64: invalidate TLB before turning MMU on

[PATCH] arm64: invalidate TLB before turning MMU on

[Qian Cai]

On this HPE Apollo 70 arm64 server with 256 CPUs, triggering a crash
dump just hung. It has 4 threads on each core. Each 2-core share a same
L1 and L2 caches, so that is 8 CPUs shares those. All CPUs share a same
L3 cache.

It turned out that this was due to the TLB contained stale entries (or
uninitialized junk which just happened to look valid) from the first
kernel before turning the MMU on in the second kernel which caused this
instruction hung,

msr	sctlr_el1, x0

Signed-off-by: Qian Cai <cai@lca.pw>
---
 arch/arm64/kernel/head.S | 4 ++++
 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+)

diff --git a/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S b/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S
index 4471f570a295..5196f3d729de 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S
+++ b/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S
@@ -771,6 +771,10 @@ ENTRY(__enable_mmu)
 	msr	ttbr0_el1, x2			// load TTBR0
 	msr	ttbr1_el1, x1			// load TTBR1
 	isb
+	dsb	nshst
+	tlbi	vmalle1				// invalidate TLB
+	dsb	nsh
+	isb
 	msr	sctlr_el1, x0
 	isb
 	/*
-- 
2.17.2 (Apple Git-113)

Re: [PATCH] arm64: invalidate TLB before turning MMU on

[Bhupesh Sharma]

Hi Qian Cai,

On Thu, Dec 13, 2018 at 10:53 AM Qian Cai <cai@lca.pw> wrote:
>
> On this HPE Apollo 70 arm64 server with 256 CPUs, triggering a crash
> dump just hung. It has 4 threads on each core. Each 2-core share a same
> L1 and L2 caches, so that is 8 CPUs shares those. All CPUs share a same
> L3 cache.
>
> It turned out that this was due to the TLB contained stale entries (or
> uninitialized junk which just happened to look valid) from the first
> kernel before turning the MMU on in the second kernel which caused this
> instruction hung,
>
> msr     sctlr_el1, x0
>
> Signed-off-by: Qian Cai <cai@lca.pw>
> ---
>  arch/arm64/kernel/head.S | 4 ++++
>  1 file changed, 4 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S b/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S
> index 4471f570a295..5196f3d729de 100644
> --- a/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S
> +++ b/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S
> @@ -771,6 +771,10 @@ ENTRY(__enable_mmu)
>         msr     ttbr0_el1, x2                   // load TTBR0
>         msr     ttbr1_el1, x1                   // load TTBR1
>         isb
> +       dsb     nshst
> +       tlbi    vmalle1                         // invalidate TLB
> +       dsb     nsh
> +       isb

This will be executed both for the primary and kdump kernel, right? I
don't think we really want to invalidate the TLB when booting the
primary kernel.
It would be too slow and considering that we need to minimize boot
timings on embedded arm64 devices, I think it would not be a good
idea.

>         msr     sctlr_el1, x0
>         isb
>         /*
> --
> 2.17.2 (Apple Git-113)
>

Also did you check this issue I reported on the HPE apollo machines
some days back with the kdump kernel boot
<https://www.spinics.net/lists/kexec/msg21750.html>.
Can you please confirm that you are not facing the same issue (as I
suspect from reading your earlier Bug Report) on the HPE apollo
machine. Also adding 'earlycon' to the bootargs being passed to the
kdump kernel you can see if you are able to atleast get some console
output from the kdump kernel.

Thanks,
Bhupesh

Re: [PATCH] arm64: invalidate TLB before turning MMU on

[Qian Cai]

On Thu, 2018-12-13 at 11:10 +0530, Bhupesh Sharma wrote:
> Hi Qian Cai,
> 
> On Thu, Dec 13, 2018 at 10:53 AM Qian Cai <cai@lca.pw> wrote:
> > 
> > On this HPE Apollo 70 arm64 server with 256 CPUs, triggering a crash
> > dump just hung. It has 4 threads on each core. Each 2-core share a same
> > L1 and L2 caches, so that is 8 CPUs shares those. All CPUs share a same
> > L3 cache.
> > 
> > It turned out that this was due to the TLB contained stale entries (or
> > uninitialized junk which just happened to look valid) from the first
> > kernel before turning the MMU on in the second kernel which caused this
> > instruction hung,
> > 
> > msr     sctlr_el1, x0
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Qian Cai <cai@lca.pw>
> > ---
> >  arch/arm64/kernel/head.S | 4 ++++
> >  1 file changed, 4 insertions(+)
> > 
> > diff --git a/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S b/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S
> > index 4471f570a295..5196f3d729de 100644
> > --- a/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S
> > +++ b/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S
> > @@ -771,6 +771,10 @@ ENTRY(__enable_mmu)
> >         msr     ttbr0_el1, x2                   // load TTBR0
> >         msr     ttbr1_el1, x1                   // load TTBR1
> >         isb
> > +       dsb     nshst
> > +       tlbi    vmalle1                         // invalidate TLB
> > +       dsb     nsh
> > +       isb
> 
> This will be executed both for the primary and kdump kernel, right? I
> don't think we really want to invalidate the TLB when booting the
> primary kernel.
> It would be too slow and considering that we need to minimize boot
> timings on embedded arm64 devices, I think it would not be a good
> idea.

Yes, it will be executed for the first kernel as well. As James mentioned, it
needs to be done to invalidate TLB that might be used by bootloader anyway.

> 
> >         msr     sctlr_el1, x0
> >         isb
> >         /*
> > --
> > 2.17.2 (Apple Git-113)
> > 
> 
> Also did you check this issue I reported on the HPE apollo machines
> some days back with the kdump kernel boot
> <https://www.spinics.net/lists/kexec/msg21750.html>.
> Can you please confirm that you are not facing the same issue (as I
> suspect from reading your earlier Bug Report) on the HPE apollo
> machine. Also adding 'earlycon' to the bootargs being passed to the
> kdump kernel you can see if you are able to atleast get some console
> output from the kdump kernel.

No, here did not encounter the problem you mentioned.

Re: [PATCH] arm64: invalidate TLB before turning MMU on

[James Morse]

Hi Qian,

On 13/12/2018 05:22, Qian Cai wrote:
> On this HPE Apollo 70 arm64 server with 256 CPUs, triggering a crash
> dump just hung. It has 4 threads on each core. Each 2-core share a same
> L1 and L2 caches, so that is 8 CPUs shares those. All CPUs share a same
> L3 cache.
> 
> It turned out that this was due to the TLB contained stale entries (or
> uninitialized junk which just happened to look valid) from the first
> kernel before turning the MMU on in the second kernel which caused this
> instruction hung,

This is a great find, thanks for debugging this!

The kernel should already handle this, as we don't trust the bootloader to clean
up either.

In arch/arm64/mm/proc.S::__cpu_setup()
|/*
| *	__cpu_setup
| *
| *	Initialise the processor for turning the MMU on.  Return in x0 the
| *	value of the SCTLR_EL1 register.
| */
| 	.pushsection ".idmap.text", "awx"
| ENTRY(__cpu_setup)
| 	tlbi	vmalle1				// Invalidate local TLB
| 	dsb	nsh

This is called from stext, which then branches to __primary_switch(), which
calls __enable_mmu() where you see this problem. It shouldn't not be possible to
allocate new tlb entries between these points...

Do you have CONFIG_RANDOMIZE_BASE disabled? This causes enable_mmu() to be
called twice, the extra tlb maintenance is in __primary_switch.
(if it works with this turned off, it points to the extra off/tlbi/on sequence).


> diff --git a/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S b/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S
> index 4471f570a295..5196f3d729de 100644
> --- a/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S
> +++ b/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S
> @@ -771,6 +771,10 @@ ENTRY(__enable_mmu)
>  	msr	ttbr0_el1, x2			// load TTBR0
>  	msr	ttbr1_el1, x1			// load TTBR1
>  	isb
> +	dsb	nshst
> +	tlbi	vmalle1				// invalidate TLB
> +	dsb	nsh
> +	isb
>  	msr	sctlr_el1, x0
>  	isb

The overall change here is that we do extra maintenance later.

Can move this around to bisect where the TLB entries are either coming from, or
failing-to-be invalidated?
Do your first and kdump kernels have the same VA_BITS/PAGE_SIZE?
As a stab in the dark, (totally untested):
------------------------------%<------------------------------
diff --git a/arch/arm64/mm/proc.S b/arch/arm64/mm/proc.S
index 2c75b0b903ae..a5f3b7314bda 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/mm/proc.S
+++ b/arch/arm64/mm/proc.S
@@ -406,9 +406,6 @@ ENDPROC(idmap_kpti_install_ng_mappings)
  */
        .pushsection ".idmap.text", "awx"
 ENTRY(__cpu_setup)
-       tlbi    vmalle1                         // Invalidate local TLB
-       dsb     nsh
-
        mov     x0, #3 << 20
        msr     cpacr_el1, x0                   // Enable FP/ASIMD
        mov     x0, #1 << 12                    // Reset mdscr_el1 and disable
@@ -465,5 +462,10 @@ ENTRY(__cpu_setup)
 1:
 #endif /* CONFIG_ARM64_HW_AFDBM */
        msr     tcr_el1, x10
+       isb
+
+       tlbi    vmalle1                         // Invalidate local TLB
+       dsb     nsh
+
        ret                                     // return to head.S
 ENDPROC(__cpu_setup)
------------------------------%<------------------------------


Thanks,

James

Re: [PATCH] arm64: invalidate TLB before turning MMU on

[Qian Cai]

On Thu, 2018-12-13 at 10:44 +0000, James Morse wrote:
> The kernel should already handle this, as we don't trust the bootloader to
> clean
> up either.
> 
> In arch/arm64/mm/proc.S::__cpu_setup()
> > /*
> > *	__cpu_setup
> > *
> > *	Initialise the processor for turning the MMU on.  Return in x0 the
> > *	value of the SCTLR_EL1 register.
> > */
> > 	.pushsection ".idmap.text", "awx"
> > ENTRY(__cpu_setup)
> > 	tlbi	vmalle1				// Invalidate local
> > TLB
> > 	dsb	nsh
> 
> This is called from stext, which then branches to __primary_switch(), which
> calls __enable_mmu() where you see this problem. It shouldn't not be possible
> to
> allocate new tlb entries between these points...
> 
> Do you have CONFIG_RANDOMIZE_BASE disabled? This causes enable_mmu() to be
> called twice, the extra tlb maintenance is in __primary_switch.
> (if it works with this turned off, it points to the extra off/tlbi/on
> sequence).

Yes, CONFIG_RANDOMIZE_BASE is NOT set.

> 
> 
> > diff --git a/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S b/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S
> > index 4471f570a295..5196f3d729de 100644
> > --- a/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S
> > +++ b/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S
> > @@ -771,6 +771,10 @@ ENTRY(__enable_mmu)
> >  	msr	ttbr0_el1, x2			// load TTBR0
> >  	msr	ttbr1_el1, x1			// load TTBR1
> >  	isb
> > +	dsb	nshst
> > +	tlbi	vmalle1				// invalidate
> > TLB
> > +	dsb	nsh
> > +	isb
> >  	msr	sctlr_el1, x0
> >  	isb
> 
> The overall change here is that we do extra maintenance later.
> 
> Can move this around to bisect where the TLB entries are either coming from,
> or
> failing-to-be invalidated?
> Do your first and kdump kernels have the same VA_BITS/PAGE_SIZE?

Yes,

CONFIG_ARM64_VA_BITS=48
CONFIG_ARM64_PAGE_SHIFT=16
# CONFIG_ARM64_4K_PAGES is not set
# CONFIG_ARM64_16K_PAGES is not set
CONFIG_ARM64_64K_PAGES=y

> As a stab in the dark, (totally untested):
> ------------------------------%<------------------------------
> diff --git a/arch/arm64/mm/proc.S b/arch/arm64/mm/proc.S
> index 2c75b0b903ae..a5f3b7314bda 100644
> --- a/arch/arm64/mm/proc.S
> +++ b/arch/arm64/mm/proc.S
> @@ -406,9 +406,6 @@ ENDPROC(idmap_kpti_install_ng_mappings)
>   */
>         .pushsection ".idmap.text", "awx"
>  ENTRY(__cpu_setup)
> -       tlbi    vmalle1                         // Invalidate local TLB
> -       dsb     nsh
> -
>         mov     x0, #3 << 20
>         msr     cpacr_el1, x0                   // Enable FP/ASIMD
>         mov     x0, #1 << 12                    // Reset mdscr_el1 and disable
> @@ -465,5 +462,10 @@ ENTRY(__cpu_setup)
>  1:
>  #endif /* CONFIG_ARM64_HW_AFDBM */
>         msr     tcr_el1, x10
> +       isb
> +
> +       tlbi    vmalle1                         // Invalidate local TLB
> +       dsb     nsh
> +
>         ret                                     // return to head.S
>  ENDPROC(__cpu_setup)
> ------------------------------%<------------------------------
> 

This patch works well too.

[PATCH v2] arm64: invalidate TLB just before turning MMU on

[Qian Cai]

On this HPE Apollo 70 arm64 server with 256 CPUs, triggering a crash
dump just hung. It has 4 threads on each core. Each 2-core share a same
L1 and L2 caches, so that is 8 CPUs shares those. All CPUs share a same
L3 cache.

It turned out that this was due to the TLB contained stale entries (or
uninitialized junk which just happened to look valid) before turning the
MMU on in the second kernel which caused this instruction hung,

msr	sctlr_el1, x0

Although there is a local TLB flush in the second kernel in
__cpu_setup(), it is called too early. When the time to turn the MMU on
later, the TLB is dirty again from some reasons.

Also tried to move the local TLB flush part around a bit inside
__cpu_setup(), although it did complete kdump some times, it did trigger
"Synchronous Exception" in EFI after a cold-reboot fairly often that
seems no way to recover remotely without reinstalling the OS. For
example, in those places,

ENTRY(__cpu_setup)
+	isb
	tlbi	vmalle1
	dsb	nsh

or

	mov	x0, #3 << 20
	msr	cpacr_el1, x0
+	tlbi    vmalle1
+	dsb     nsh

Since it is only necessary to flush local TLB right before turning the
MMU on, just re-arrage the part a bit like the one in __primary_switch()
within CONFIG_RANDOMIZE_BASE path, so it does not depends on other
instructions in between that could pollute the TLB, and it no longer
trigger "Synchronous Exception" as well.

Signed-off-by: Qian Cai <cai@lca.pw>
---

v2: merge the similar part from __cpu_setup() pointed out by James.

 arch/arm64/kernel/head.S | 4 ++++
 arch/arm64/mm/proc.S     | 3 ---
 2 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S b/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S
index 4471f570a295..7f555dd4577e 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S
+++ b/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S
@@ -771,6 +771,10 @@ ENTRY(__enable_mmu)
 	msr	ttbr0_el1, x2			// load TTBR0
 	msr	ttbr1_el1, x1			// load TTBR1
 	isb
+
+	tlbi	vmalle1				// invalidate TLB
+	dsb	nsh
+
 	msr	sctlr_el1, x0
 	isb
 	/*
diff --git a/arch/arm64/mm/proc.S b/arch/arm64/mm/proc.S
index 2c75b0b903ae..14f68afdd57f 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/mm/proc.S
+++ b/arch/arm64/mm/proc.S
@@ -406,9 +406,6 @@ ENDPROC(idmap_kpti_install_ng_mappings)
  */
 	.pushsection ".idmap.text", "awx"
 ENTRY(__cpu_setup)
-	tlbi	vmalle1				// Invalidate local TLB
-	dsb	nsh
-
 	mov	x0, #3 << 20
 	msr	cpacr_el1, x0			// Enable FP/ASIMD
 	mov	x0, #1 << 12			// Reset mdscr_el1 and disable
-- 
2.17.2 (Apple Git-113)

Re: [PATCH v2] arm64: invalidate TLB just before turning MMU on

[Bhupesh Sharma]

On Fri, Dec 14, 2018 at 9:39 AM Qian Cai <cai@lca.pw> wrote:
>
> On this HPE Apollo 70 arm64 server with 256 CPUs, triggering a crash
> dump just hung. It has 4 threads on each core. Each 2-core share a same
> L1 and L2 caches, so that is 8 CPUs shares those. All CPUs share a same
> L3 cache.
>
> It turned out that this was due to the TLB contained stale entries (or
> uninitialized junk which just happened to look valid) before turning the
> MMU on in the second kernel which caused this instruction hung,
>
> msr     sctlr_el1, x0
>
> Although there is a local TLB flush in the second kernel in
> __cpu_setup(), it is called too early. When the time to turn the MMU on
> later, the TLB is dirty again from some reasons.
>
> Also tried to move the local TLB flush part around a bit inside
> __cpu_setup(), although it did complete kdump some times, it did trigger
> "Synchronous Exception" in EFI after a cold-reboot fairly often that
> seems no way to recover remotely without reinstalling the OS. For
> example, in those places,
>
> ENTRY(__cpu_setup)
> +       isb
>         tlbi    vmalle1
>         dsb     nsh
>
> or
>
>         mov     x0, #3 << 20
>         msr     cpacr_el1, x0
> +       tlbi    vmalle1
> +       dsb     nsh
>
> Since it is only necessary to flush local TLB right before turning the
> MMU on, just re-arrage the part a bit like the one in __primary_switch()
> within CONFIG_RANDOMIZE_BASE path, so it does not depends on other
> instructions in between that could pollute the TLB, and it no longer
> trigger "Synchronous Exception" as well.
>
> Signed-off-by: Qian Cai <cai@lca.pw>
> ---
>
> v2: merge the similar part from __cpu_setup() pointed out by James.
>
>  arch/arm64/kernel/head.S | 4 ++++
>  arch/arm64/mm/proc.S     | 3 ---
>  2 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S b/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S
> index 4471f570a295..7f555dd4577e 100644
> --- a/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S
> +++ b/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S
> @@ -771,6 +771,10 @@ ENTRY(__enable_mmu)
>         msr     ttbr0_el1, x2                   // load TTBR0
>         msr     ttbr1_el1, x1                   // load TTBR1
>         isb
> +
> +       tlbi    vmalle1                         // invalidate TLB
> +       dsb     nsh
> +
>         msr     sctlr_el1, x0
>         isb
>         /*
> diff --git a/arch/arm64/mm/proc.S b/arch/arm64/mm/proc.S
> index 2c75b0b903ae..14f68afdd57f 100644
> --- a/arch/arm64/mm/proc.S
> +++ b/arch/arm64/mm/proc.S
> @@ -406,9 +406,6 @@ ENDPROC(idmap_kpti_install_ng_mappings)
>   */
>         .pushsection ".idmap.text", "awx"
>  ENTRY(__cpu_setup)
> -       tlbi    vmalle1                         // Invalidate local TLB
> -       dsb     nsh
> -
>         mov     x0, #3 << 20
>         msr     cpacr_el1, x0                   // Enable FP/ASIMD
>         mov     x0, #1 << 12                    // Reset mdscr_el1 and disable
> --
> 2.17.2 (Apple Git-113)
>

Not sure why I can't reproduce on my HPE Apollo machine, so a couple
of questions:
1. How many CPUs do you enable in the kdump kernel - do you pass
'nr_cpus=1' to the kdump kernel to limit the maximum number of cores
to 1 in the kdump kernel?
2. Which firmware version do you use on your board?

Thanks,
Bhupesh

Re: [PATCH v2] arm64: invalidate TLB just before turning MMU on

[Qian Cai]

On 12/14/18 12:01 AM, Bhupesh Sharma wrote:
> Not sure why I can't reproduce on my HPE Apollo machine, so a couple
> of questions:
> 1. How many CPUs do you enable in the kdump kernel - do you pass
> 'nr_cpus=1' to the kdump kernel to limit the maximum number of cores
> to 1 in the kdump kernel?

Yes

> 2. Which firmware version do you use on your board?

Handle 0x0000, DMI type 0, 26 bytes
BIOS Information
        Vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
        Version: L50_5.13_1.0.6
        Release Date: 07/10/2018
        Address: 0xF0000
        Runtime Size: 64 kB
        ROM Size: 64 MB
        Characteristics:
                PCI is supported
                BIOS is upgradeable
                BIOS shadowing is allowed
                Boot from CD is supported
                Selectable boot is supported
                BIOS ROM is socketed
                ACPI is supported
                BIOS boot specification is supported
                Targeted content distribution is supported
                UEFI is supported
        BIOS Revision: 6.3

Re: [PATCH v2] arm64: invalidate TLB just before turning MMU on

[Ard Biesheuvel]

On Fri, 14 Dec 2018 at 05:08, Qian Cai <cai@lca.pw> wrote:
> Also tried to move the local TLB flush part around a bit inside
> __cpu_setup(), although it did complete kdump some times, it did trigger
> "Synchronous Exception" in EFI after a cold-reboot fairly often that
> seems no way to recover remotely without reinstalling the OS.

This doesn't make any sense to me. If the system gets into a weird
state out of cold reboot, how could this code be the culprit? Please
check your firmware, and try to reproduce the issue on a system that
doesn't have such defects.

Re: [PATCH v2] arm64: invalidate TLB just before turning MMU on

[Qian Cai]

On 12/14/18 2:23 AM, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:
> On Fri, 14 Dec 2018 at 05:08, Qian Cai <cai@lca.pw> wrote:
>> Also tried to move the local TLB flush part around a bit inside
>> __cpu_setup(), although it did complete kdump some times, it did trigger
>> "Synchronous Exception" in EFI after a cold-reboot fairly often that
>> seems no way to recover remotely without reinstalling the OS.
> 
> This doesn't make any sense to me. If the system gets into a weird
> state out of cold reboot, how could this code be the culprit? Please
> check your firmware, and try to reproduce the issue on a system that
> doesn't have such defects.
> 

I'll continue investigating those "Synchronous Exception" although it is kind of
hard due to I don't have any source code of the firmware to confirm it is buggy
or not.

I did manage to reproduce this kdump issue on around 5 of those server running a
fairly recent version of the firmware (07/01/2018). I don't have access to other
large CPU machines.

Re: [PATCH v2] arm64: invalidate TLB just before turning MMU on

[Bhupesh Sharma]

Hi Qian,

On Sat, Dec 15, 2018 at 7:24 AM Qian Cai <cai@lca.pw> wrote:
>
> On 12/14/18 2:23 AM, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:
> > On Fri, 14 Dec 2018 at 05:08, Qian Cai <cai@lca.pw> wrote:
> >> Also tried to move the local TLB flush part around a bit inside
> >> __cpu_setup(), although it did complete kdump some times, it did trigger
> >> "Synchronous Exception" in EFI after a cold-reboot fairly often that
> >> seems no way to recover remotely without reinstalling the OS.
> >
> > This doesn't make any sense to me. If the system gets into a weird
> > state out of cold reboot, how could this code be the culprit? Please
> > check your firmware, and try to reproduce the issue on a system that
> > doesn't have such defects.
> >
>
> I'll continue investigating those "Synchronous Exception" although it is kind of
> hard due to I don't have any source code of the firmware to confirm it is buggy
> or not.
>
> I did manage to reproduce this kdump issue on around 5 of those server running a
> fairly recent version of the firmware (07/01/2018). I don't have access to other
> large CPU machines.

Sorry I got busy with some other stuff, but as I reported earlier, I
am not able to reproduce this on my HPE apollo with the latest linus
tree as well.
Here are some details on my setup:

1. # uname -r
5.0.0-rc1+

with the following commit as the HEAD:
commit a88cc8da0279f8e481b0d90e51a0a1cffac55906 (HEAD -> master,
origin/master, origin/HEAD)
Merge: 9cb2feb4d21d 73444bc4d8f9
Author: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Date:   Tue Jan 8 18:58:29 2019 -0800

    Merge branch 'akpm' (patches from Andrew)

2. I use the following kdump commandline:
Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=(hd9,gpt2)/vmlinuz-5.0.0-rc1+ ro
irqpoll nr_cpus=1 swiotlb=noforce reset_devices
earlycon=pl011,mmio,0x402020000

3. I am able to run kdump successfully on the machine and also collect
the crash core properly:

.. snip..
kdump: saving to /sysroot//var/crash/127.0.0.1-2019-01-10-10:52:25/
kdump: saving vmcore-dmesg.txt
kdump: saving vmcore-dmesg.txt complete
kdump: saving vmcore
Copying data                                      : [100.0 %] \
   eta: 0s
kdump: saving vmcore complete
.. snip ..

4. I use the same firmware version on the board as you shared earlier:
# dmidecode | grep -A 20 -i "BIOS Information"
BIOS Information
    Vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
    Version: L50_5.13_1.0.6
    Release Date: 07/10/2018
    Address: 0xF0000
    Runtime Size: 64 kB
    ROM Size: 64 MB
    Characteristics:
        PCI is supported
        BIOS is upgradeable
        BIOS shadowing is allowed
        Boot from CD is supported
        Selectable boot is supported
        BIOS ROM is socketed
        ACPI is supported
        BIOS boot specification is supported
        Targeted content distribution is supported
        UEFI is supported
    BIOS Revision: 6.3

So, I am guessing that it might be a kdump command line issue at your end.

Thanks,
Bhupesh