Subject: Re: [PATCH] powerpc: fix os-term usage on kernel panic

From: Olaf Hering <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2007 11:41:47 +0100

On Wed, Nov 28, Linas Vepstas wrote:

> On Wed, Nov 28, 2007 at 12:00:37PM +0100, Olaf Hering wrote:
> > On Tue, Nov 27, Will Schmidt wrote:

> > > > -	if (panic_timeout)
> > > > -		return;
> > 
> > This change is wrong. Booting with panic=123 really means the system
> > has to reboot in 123 seconds after a panic.
> 
> And it does.

Have you ever tried it? Current state is that the JS20 hangs after
panic, simply because it calls into the hypervisor (or whatever).
To reproduce:
 mkdir ../O-os-term
 cp arch/powerpc/configs/pseries_defconfig ../O-os-term/.config
 yes '' | make -kj6 O=../O-os-term zImage
 scp -4pr ../O-os-term/arch/powerpc/boot/zImage root@tftp:/tftpboot/js20

 boot /pci@8000000f8000000/pci@0/ethernet@1,1 debug panic=1 root=/dev/sdx42

Whoever relies on the string passing to the HMC can boot with panic=0 or
use some sysctl to write to /proc/sys/kernel/panic
So, please restore the panic_timeout check.