Re: [PATCH] ath5k: prevent infinite loop

[Nick Kossifidis <mickflemm@gmail.com>]

2009/5/19 Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>:
>
> After updating my laptop with the latest kernel (had 2.6.26 before that),
> my laptop load went to 100%. The daemon phy0 was at 99.9% of the CPU.
> Luckily I compiled with a preempt kernel otherwise this would have
> been a lock up.
>
> Using ftrace to dig into the problem I found that that the ath5k driver
> was in an infinite loop. The code in ath5k_get_linear_pcdac_min has:
>
>        pwr_i = pwrR[0];
>        do {
>                pwr_i--;
>                tmp = (s8) ath5k_get_interpolated_value(pwr_i,
>                                                pwrR[0], pwrR[1],
>                                                stepR[0], stepR[1]);
>        } while (tmp > 1);
>
>
> But ath5k_get_interpolated returns stepR[0] if pwrR[0] == pwrR[1] or
> stepR[0] == stepR[1]. The pwr_i is ignored and we enter an infinite loop
> because tmp never changes between iterations. Using ftrace, I was able to
> determine that is exactly what happened in the case of my laptop.
>
> This patch tries to keep the same result that would happen when this case
> occurs. That is, the pwr_i becomes a minimal number. I used the minimum
> number that a signed short may be to initialize the min pwrL and pwrR.
> Then if the case that the code would cause an infinite loop, we bypass it.
>
> Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>
>

This is already fixed on wireless-testing ;-)
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/linville/wireless-testing.git;a=blob;f=drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath5k/phy.c;h=d0d1c350025aebba1fe4e17a44550536a59951ba;hb=HEAD

-- 
GPG ID: 0xD21DB2DB
As you read this post global entropy rises. Have Fun ;-)
Nick