Subject: linux 2.6.12-rc4 oops reading /sys/module/intelfb/parameters/*
From: patrick mcmanus <mcmanus@ducksong.com>
To: sylvain.meyer@worldonline.fr
Cc: adaplas@pol.net, mcmanus@ducksong.com
Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 12:40:11 -0400

Hello,

On Nov 16 2004 a change to intelfbdrv.c was commited (as part of 0.9.2
it looks like) that added __initdata to all of the module param
variables.

I've recently been chasing an OOPS
(http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel&m=111552250920370&w=2) I
created by reading every file on the /sys file system and I've traced it
back to this code in the intelfbdrv. Though I had root privs in my
initial problem report, it turns out they are un-necessary to generate
the oops - all you've got to do is "cat
/sys/module/intelfb/parameters/mode" enough times and eventually it will
oops.

This is because sysfs automatically exports all module_param
declarations to the sysfs file system.. which means those variables can
be dynamically evaluated at any later time, which of course means
marking them __initdata is a bad idea ;)

Applying the patch below clears up the OOPS for me.

Signed-off-by: Patrick McManus <mcmanus@ducksong.com>

Index: drivers/video/intelfb/intelfbdrv.c
===================================================================
--- b44e6db42c986f858d2487a6a41ee0cbdd2cf670/drivers/video/intelfb/intelfbdrv.c  (mode:100644 sha1:549e229392604359f46ed629d916b4ea89674226)
+++ uncommitted/drivers/video/intelfb/intelfbdrv.c  (mode:100644)
@@ -228,17 +228,17 @@
 MODULE_LICENSE("Dual BSD/GPL");
 MODULE_DEVICE_TABLE(pci, intelfb_pci_table);
 
-static int accel        __initdata = 1;
-static int vram         __initdata = 4;
-static int hwcursor     __initdata = 1;
-static int mtrr         __initdata = 1;
-static int fixed        __initdata = 0;
-static int noinit       __initdata = 0;
-static int noregister   __initdata = 0;
-static int probeonly    __initdata = 0;
-static int idonly       __initdata = 0;
-static int bailearly    __initdata = 0;
-static char *mode       __initdata = NULL;
+static int accel        = 1;
+static int vram         = 4;
+static int hwcursor     = 1;
+static int mtrr         = 1;
+static int fixed        = 0;
+static int noinit       = 0;
+static int noregister   = 0;
+static int probeonly    = 0;
+static int idonly       = 0;
+static int bailearly    = 0;
+static char *mode       = NULL;
 
 module_param(accel, bool, S_IRUGO);
 MODULE_PARM_DESC(accel, "Enable console acceleration");