On Mon, Sep 10, 2012 at 12:16:24PM +0100, Alan Cox wrote:

quoted

serial port, the CPU receives NMI exception, and we fall into KDB
shell.  So, it is our "debug console", and it is able to interrupt
(and thus debug) even IRQ handlers themselves.

You seem to have an assumption of single core here. What happens if
the NMI hits CPU #0 and the serial IRQ hits CPU #1 simultaneously ?

If you can't redirect all serial IRQs to NMI context, e.g. sometimes you get
NMIs, sometimes IRQs, then your NMI handling is not deterministic, and surely
this is not supported.

The whole concept of clearing IRQs is needed if serial IRQ is routed to the
NMI/FIQ (on all CPUs), which by definition guarantees that serial IRQ routine
is never triggered. We "steal" all and every serial port's IRQs.

Thanks!