Re: powerpc/fadump: CMA init is failing
From: Ritesh Harjani (IBM) <ritesh.list@gmail.com>
Date: 2026-02-27 17:42:27
Also in:
linux-mm
Sourabh Jain [off-list ref] writes:
I noticed CMA init for fadump crashkernel memory is failing. [ 0.000000] cma: pageblock_order not yet initialized. Called during early boot? [ 0.000000] fadump: Failed to init cma area for firmware-assisted dump,-22 kernel command-line: BOOT_IMAGE=(ieee1275//vdevice/v-scsi@30000070/disk@8100000000000000,msdos2)/vmlinuz-7.0.0-rc1+ root=/dev/mapper/rhel_ltcden3--lp12-root ro rd.lvm.lv=rhel_ltcden3-lp12/root rd.lvm.lv=rhel_ltcden3-lp12/swap fadump=on crashkernel=3G Same issue with kdump CMA reservation: [ 0.000000][ T0] cma: pageblock_order not yet initialized. Called during early boot?
Good that we added those debug prints ;)
I think I know what went wrong, as part of this arch,mm consolidation
patch series [1], I think the order of initialization is changed.
With this patch the new order is ...
start_kernel()
- setup_arch()
- xxx_cma_reserve();
- mm_core_init_early()
- free_area_init()
- sparse_init()
- set_pageblock_order() // this sets the pageblock_order.
Whereas earlier set_pageblock_order() was called from initmem_init(),
just before cma reservations were being made.
start_kernel()
- setup_arch()
- initmem_init()
- sparse_init()
- set_pageblock_order(); // this sets the pageblock_order
- xxx_cma_reserve();
So that means, pageblock_order is not initialized before these cma
reservation function calls, hence we are seeing these failures.
setup_arch() {
...
/*
* Reserve large chunks of memory for use by CMA for kdump, fadump, KVM and
* hugetlb. These must be called after initmem_init(), so that
* pageblock_order is initialised.
*/
fadump_cma_init();
kdump_cma_reserve();
kvm_cma_reserve();
...
}
So what if we do..
start_kernel() {
...
setup_arch(&command_line);
mm_core_init_early();
setup_arch_post_mm_core_init(); // and here we call CMA reservation functions ?
References:
[1]: https://lore.kernel.org/linuxppc-dev/20260111082105.290734-1-rppt@kernel.org/T/#m5adf1a845e0a0867066c4f7055f28e6304b73fa5 (local)
[2]: https://lore.kernel.org/all/3ae208e48c0d9cefe53d2dc4f593388067405b7d.1729146153.git.ritesh.list@gmail.com/ (local)
-ritesh