Merge tag 'trace-v7.3-2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-tracegrafted

Pull tracing fixes from Steven Rostedt:

 - Fix error output of boot instance creation failure

   Currently if a boot instance creation fails, instead of printing out
   the name of the instance that failed, it prints "(null)". That is
   because it prints "cur_str" that had already been processed by
   strsep(). Print the saved name instead.

   While at it, print the error code of the failure.

 - Fix use-after-free for same named historgrams

   Histograms can be named so that they can be used in multiple events.
   But if the named histogram has a variable attached, the second event
   that uses the named histogram which duplicates it and needs to free
   the original after duplication leaves the old variable in place and
   still visible. If another histogram uses than variable, it will use
   the stale one which will try to reference the freed duplicate
   histogram and crash the kernel.

   Free the duplicate variables along with the duplicated histogram
   data.

 - Check return value of kthread_run() in event self test

   The events self tests uses a kthread for testing but does not check
   if it succeeded in creating a kthread. If the kthread creation were
   to fail, the code will still try to call kthread_stop() on the error
   returned.

 - Fix race between reading trace_pipe and updating subbuffer size

   If a user is reading the trace_pipe file at the same time they update
   the ring buffer sub-buffer size, can cause the trace_pipe read to
   read stale data. Add trace_access_lock() around updating the ring
   buffer sub-buffer size.

 - Fix eventfs_inode on failure path in creation of the events directory

   In the creation of the "events" directory, if after allocating the
   eventfs_inode a failure is detected, it calls cleanup_ei() which
   calls free_ei(). The free_ei() will test if eventfs_inode being freed
   has no children. It is a bug if it does. But on the failure case of
   the creation of the "events" directory, the children lists have not
   yet been initialized and the free will trigger a warning because
   list_empty() on an uninitialized list returns false.

   Move the initialization into init_ei() where it makes more sense and
   makes sure that a created eventfs_inode has its lists initialized
   upon creation.

 - Check return value of kthread_run() in ftrace direct sample code

   The sample code that shows how to use the ftrace direct calls does
   not test the return of kthread_run() to see if it succeeds. Return a
   failure if the kthread_run() doesn't succeed.

 - Clear user events state on fork in case of alloc failure

   On fork, the child gets a pointer to the parent's user events state.
   It makes a copy of it then updates the child's pointer to it. But if
   the allocation fails, the duplication function leaves the child with
   a pointer to its parent's descriptor. When the child cleans up its
   data, it will free the parent's descriptor while the parent is still
   using it.

   In the duplication function, set the child's user_event_mm to NULL
   before testing if the allocation succeeded, and when it exits it will
   not free the parent's descriptor.

 - Fix retry exhaustion in simple ring buffer reader swap

   simple_ring_buffer_swap_reader_page() starts with retry set to 8 and
   post-decrements it only after a failed link replacement. On the final
   attempt, a successful replacement leaves retry at zero, while a
   failed replacement leaves it at -1.

   But the check for success expects the retry value to be non-zero and
   exits with an error on zero. This is the opposite result. Fix it.

 - Fail nicely when the remote swap_reader_page() returns an error

   Currently, if the swap_reader_page() of a remote buffer fails, it
   triggers a WARN_ON_ONCE() and continues normally. Instead, have it
   exit with an error and a pr_warn() print instead of a full WARNING.

* tag 'trace-v7.3-2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-trace:
  ring-buffer: Stop remote reader update when page swap fails
  tracing: Fix retry exhaustion in simple ring buffer reader swap
  tracing/user_events: Clear copied tracing state before fork duplication
  samples/ftrace: Fix kthread_stop() on ERR_PTR in ftrace-direct-multi-modify
  samples/ftrace: Fix kthread_stop() on ERR_PTR in ftrace-direct-modify
  eventfs: Initialize ei->children and ei->list in init_ei()
  tracing: Fix use-after-free in trace_pipe read on sub-buffer order change
  tracing: Fix crash passing ERR_PTR to kthread_stop()
  tracing: Fix use-after-free with same-name named triggers
  tracing: Fix logged instance name on creation failure

1 files changed, 48 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/init.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/init.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..41f06a091
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/init.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+Explaining the "No working init found." boot hang message
+=========================================================
+:Authors: Andreas Mohr <andi at lisas period de>
+          Cristian Souza <cristianmsbr at gmail period com>
+
+This document provides some high-level reasons for failure
+(listed roughly in order of execution) to load the init binary.
+
+1) **Unable to mount root FS**: Set "debug" kernel parameter (in bootloader
+   config file or CONFIG_CMDLINE) to get more detailed kernel messages.
+
+2) **init binary doesn't exist on rootfs**: Make sure you have the correct
+   root FS type (and ``root=`` kernel parameter points to the correct
+   partition), required drivers such as storage hardware (such as SCSI or
+   USB!) and filesystem (ext3, jffs2, etc.) are builtin (alternatively as
+   modules, to be pre-loaded by an initrd).
+
+3) **Broken console device**: Possibly a conflict in ``console= setup``
+   --> initial console unavailable. E.g. some serial consoles are unreliable
+   due to serial IRQ issues (e.g. missing interrupt-based configuration).
+   Try using a different ``console= device`` or e.g. ``netconsole=``.
+
+4) **Binary exists but dependencies not available**: E.g. required library
+   dependencies of the init binary such as ``/lib/ld-linux.so.2`` missing or
+   broken. Use ``readelf -d <INIT>|grep NEEDED`` to find out which libraries
+   are required.
+
+5) **Binary cannot be loaded**: Make sure the binary's architecture matches
+   your hardware. E.g. i386 vs. x86_64 mismatch, or trying to load x86 on ARM
+   hardware. In case you tried loading a non-binary file here (shell script?),
+   you should make sure that the script specifies an interpreter in its
+   shebang header line (``#!/...``) that is fully working (including its
+   library dependencies). And before tackling scripts, better first test a
+   simple non-script binary such as ``/bin/sh`` and confirm its successful
+   execution. To find out more, add code ``to init/main.c`` to display
+   kernel_execve()s return values.
+
+Please extend this explanation whenever you find new failure causes
+(after all loading the init binary is a CRITICAL and hard transition step
+which needs to be made as painless as possible), then submit a patch to LKML.
+Further TODOs:
+
+- Implement the various ``run_init_process()`` invocations via a struct array
+  which can then store the ``kernel_execve()`` result value and on failure
+  log it all by iterating over **all** results (very important usability fix).
+- Try to make the implementation itself more helpful in general, e.g. by
+  providing additional error messages at affected places.
+