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authorDapeng Mi <dapeng1.mi@linux.intel.com>2026-09-17 09:52:33 +0800
committerIngo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>2026-09-22 11:37:46 +0200
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perf/x86/intel: Rename DMR offcore_rsp attribute to offmodule_rspgrafted
DMR introduces Offmodule Response events in place of the legacy Offcore Response events, but it still exposes the inherited offcore_rsp PMU attribute for programming the corresponding MSR data. Rename the DMR PMU attribute to offmodule_rsp so the sysfs interface matches the underlying event name and avoids user & tooling confusion. Signed-off-by: Dapeng Mi <dapeng1.mi@linux.intel.com> Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) <peterz@infradead.org> Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org> Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260917015234.981153-12-dapeng1.mi@linux.intel.com
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+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later
+
+====================
+Kexec Handover Usage
+====================
+
+Kexec HandOver (KHO) is a mechanism that allows Linux to preserve memory
+regions, which could contain serialized system states, across kexec.
+
+This document expects that you are familiar with the base KHO
+:ref:`concepts <kho-concepts>`. If you have not read
+them yet, please do so now.
+
+Prerequisites
+=============
+
+KHO is available when the kernel is compiled with ``CONFIG_KEXEC_HANDOVER``
+set to y. Every KHO producer may have its own config option that you
+need to enable if you would like to preserve their respective state across
+kexec.
+
+To use KHO, please boot the kernel with the ``kho=on`` command line
+parameter. You may use ``kho_scratch`` parameter to define size of the
+scratch regions. For example ``kho_scratch=16M,512M,256M`` will reserve a
+16 MiB low memory scratch area, a 512 MiB global scratch region, and 256 MiB
+per NUMA node scratch regions on boot.
+
+Perform a KHO kexec
+===================
+
+To perform a KHO kexec, load the target payload and kexec into it. It
+is important that you use the ``-s`` parameter to use the in-kernel
+kexec file loader, as user space kexec tooling currently has no
+support for KHO with the user space based file loader ::
+
+ # kexec -l /path/to/bzImage --initrd /path/to/initrd -s
+ # kexec -e
+
+The new kernel will boot up and contain some of the previous kernel's state.
+
+For example, if you used ``reserve_mem`` command line parameter to create
+an early memory reservation, the new kernel will have that memory at the
+same physical address as the old kernel.
+
+Kexec Metadata
+==============
+
+KHO automatically tracks metadata about the kexec chain, passing information
+about the previous kernel to the next kernel. This feature helps diagnose
+bugs that only reproduce when kexecing from specific kernel versions.
+
+On each KHO kexec, the kernel logs the previous kernel's version and the
+number of kexec reboots since the last cold boot::
+
+ [ 0.000000] KHO: exec from: 6.19.0-rc4-next-20260107 (count 1)
+
+The metadata includes:
+
+``previous_release``
+ The kernel version string (from ``uname -r``) of the kernel that
+ initiated the kexec.
+
+``kexec_count``
+ The number of kexec boots since the last cold boot. On cold boot,
+ this counter starts at 0 and increments with each kexec. This helps
+ identify issues that only manifest after multiple consecutive kexec
+ reboots.
+
+Use Cases
+---------
+
+This metadata is particularly useful for debugging kexec transition bugs,
+where a buggy kernel kexecs into a new kernel and the bug manifests only
+in the second kernel. Examples of such bugs include:
+
+- Memory corruption from the previous kernel affecting the new kernel
+- Incorrect hardware state left by the previous kernel
+- Firmware/ACPI state issues that only appear in kexec scenarios
+
+At scale, correlating crashes to the previous kernel version enables
+faster root cause analysis when issues only occur in specific kernel
+transition scenarios.
+
+debugfs Interfaces
+==================
+
+These debugfs interfaces are available when the kernel is compiled with
+``CONFIG_KEXEC_HANDOVER_DEBUGFS`` enabled.
+
+Currently KHO creates the following debugfs interfaces. Notice that these
+interfaces may change in the future. They will be moved to sysfs once KHO is
+stabilized.
+
+``/sys/kernel/debug/kho/out/fdt``
+ The kernel exposes the flattened device tree blob that carries its
+ current KHO state in this file. Kexec user space tooling can use this
+ as input file for the KHO payload image.
+
+``/sys/kernel/debug/kho/out/scratch_len``
+ Lengths of KHO scratch regions, which are physically contiguous
+ memory regions that will always stay available for future kexec
+ allocations. Kexec user space tools can use this file to determine
+ where it should place its payload images.
+
+``/sys/kernel/debug/kho/out/scratch_phys``
+ Physical locations of KHO scratch regions. Kexec user space tools
+ can use this file in conjunction to scratch_phys to determine where
+ it should place its payload images.
+
+``/sys/kernel/debug/kho/out/sub_fdts/``
+ KHO producers can register their own FDT or another binary blob under
+ this directory.
+
+``/sys/kernel/debug/kho/in/fdt``
+ When the kernel was booted with Kexec HandOver (KHO),
+ the state tree that carries metadata about the previous
+ kernel's state is in this file in the format of flattened
+ device tree. This file may disappear when all consumers of
+ it finished to interpret their metadata.
+
+``/sys/kernel/debug/kho/in/sub_fdts/``
+ Similar to ``kho/out/sub_fdts/``, but contains sub blobs
+ of KHO producers passed from the old kernel.