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+Ramoops oops/panic logger
+=========================
+
+Sergiu Iordache <sergiu@chromium.org>
+
+Updated: 17 November 2011
+
+Introduction
+------------
+
+Ramoops is an oops/panic logger that writes its logs to RAM before the system
+crashes. It works by logging oopses and panics in a circular buffer. Ramoops
+needs a system with persistent RAM so that the content of that area can
+survive after a restart.
+
+Ramoops concepts
+----------------
+
+Ramoops uses a predefined memory area to store the dump. The start and size
+and type of the memory area are set using three variables:
+
+ * ``mem_address`` for the start
+ * ``mem_size`` for the size. The memory size will be rounded down to a
+ power of two.
+ * ``mem_type`` to specifiy if the memory type (default is pgprot_writecombine).
+
+Typically the default value of ``mem_type=0`` should be used as that sets the pstore
+mapping to pgprot_writecombine. Setting ``mem_type=1`` attempts to use
+``pgprot_noncached``, which only works on some platforms. This is because pstore
+depends on atomic operations. At least on ARM, pgprot_noncached causes the
+memory to be mapped strongly ordered, and atomic operations on strongly ordered
+memory are implementation defined, and won't work on many ARMs such as omaps.
+
+The memory area is divided into ``record_size`` chunks (also rounded down to
+power of two) and each kmesg dump writes a ``record_size`` chunk of
+information.
+
+Limiting which kinds of kmsg dumps are stored can be controlled via
+the ``max_reason`` value, as defined in include/linux/kmsg_dump.h's
+``enum kmsg_dump_reason``. For example, to store both Oopses and Panics,
+``max_reason`` should be set to 2 (KMSG_DUMP_OOPS), to store only Panics
+``max_reason`` should be set to 1 (KMSG_DUMP_PANIC). Setting this to 0
+(KMSG_DUMP_UNDEF), means the reason filtering will be controlled by the
+``printk.always_kmsg_dump`` boot param: if unset, it'll be KMSG_DUMP_OOPS,
+otherwise KMSG_DUMP_MAX.
+
+The module uses a counter to record multiple dumps but the counter gets reset
+on restart (i.e. new dumps after the restart will overwrite old ones).
+
+Ramoops also supports software ECC protection of persistent memory regions.
+This might be useful when a hardware reset was used to bring the machine back
+to life (i.e. a watchdog triggered). In such cases, RAM may be somewhat
+corrupt, but usually it is restorable.
+
+Setting the parameters
+----------------------
+
+Setting the ramoops parameters can be done in several different manners:
+
+ A. Use the module parameters (which have the names of the variables described
+ as before). For quick debugging, you can also reserve parts of memory during
+ boot and then use the reserved memory for ramoops. For example, assuming a
+ machine with > 128 MB of memory, the following kernel command line will tell
+ the kernel to use only the first 128 MB of memory, and place ECC-protected
+ ramoops region at 128 MB boundary::
+
+ mem=128M ramoops.mem_address=0x8000000 ramoops.ecc=1
+
+ B. Use Device Tree bindings, as described in
+ ``Documentation/devicetree/bindings/reserved-memory/ramoops.txt``.
+ For example::
+
+ reserved-memory {
+ #address-cells = <2>;
+ #size-cells = <2>;
+ ranges;
+
+ ramoops@8f000000 {
+ compatible = "ramoops";
+ reg = <0 0x8f000000 0 0x100000>;
+ record-size = <0x4000>;
+ console-size = <0x4000>;
+ };
+ };
+
+ C. Use a platform device and set the platform data. The parameters can then
+ be set through that platform data. An example of doing that is:
+
+ .. code-block:: c
+
+ #include <linux/pstore_ram.h>
+ [...]
+
+ static struct ramoops_platform_data ramoops_data = {
+ .mem_size = <...>,
+ .mem_address = <...>,
+ .mem_type = <...>,
+ .record_size = <...>,
+ .max_reason = <...>,
+ .ecc = <...>,
+ };
+
+ static struct platform_device ramoops_dev = {
+ .name = "ramoops",
+ .dev = {
+ .platform_data = &ramoops_data,
+ },
+ };
+
+ [... inside a function ...]
+ int ret;
+
+ ret = platform_device_register(&ramoops_dev);
+ if (ret) {
+ printk(KERN_ERR "unable to register platform device\n");
+ return ret;
+ }
+
+You can specify either RAM memory or peripheral devices' memory. However, when
+specifying RAM, be sure to reserve the memory by issuing memblock_reserve()
+very early in the architecture code, e.g.::
+
+ #include <linux/memblock.h>
+
+ memblock_reserve(ramoops_data.mem_address, ramoops_data.mem_size);
+
+Dump format
+-----------
+
+The data dump begins with a header, currently defined as ``====`` followed by a
+timestamp and a new line. The dump then continues with the actual data.
+
+Reading the data
+----------------
+
+The dump data can be read from the pstore filesystem. The format for these
+files is ``dmesg-ramoops-N``, where N is the record number in memory. To delete
+a stored record from RAM, simply unlink the respective pstore file.
+
+Persistent function tracing
+---------------------------
+
+Persistent function tracing might be useful for debugging software or hardware
+related hangs. The functions call chain log is stored in a ``ftrace-ramoops``
+file. Here is an example of usage::
+
+ # mount -t debugfs debugfs /sys/kernel/debug/
+ # echo 1 > /sys/kernel/debug/pstore/record_ftrace
+ # reboot -f
+ [...]
+ # mount -t pstore pstore /mnt/
+ # tail /mnt/ftrace-ramoops
+ 0 ffffffff8101ea64 ffffffff8101bcda native_apic_mem_read <- disconnect_bsp_APIC+0x6a/0xc0
+ 0 ffffffff8101ea44 ffffffff8101bcf6 native_apic_mem_write <- disconnect_bsp_APIC+0x86/0xc0
+ 0 ffffffff81020084 ffffffff8101a4b5 hpet_disable <- native_machine_shutdown+0x75/0x90
+ 0 ffffffff81005f94 ffffffff8101a4bb iommu_shutdown_noop <- native_machine_shutdown+0x7b/0x90
+ 0 ffffffff8101a6a1 ffffffff8101a437 native_machine_emergency_restart <- native_machine_restart+0x37/0x40
+ 0 ffffffff811f9876 ffffffff8101a73a acpi_reboot <- native_machine_emergency_restart+0xaa/0x1e0
+ 0 ffffffff8101a514 ffffffff8101a772 mach_reboot_fixups <- native_machine_emergency_restart+0xe2/0x1e0
+ 0 ffffffff811d9c54 ffffffff8101a7a0 __const_udelay <- native_machine_emergency_restart+0x110/0x1e0
+ 0 ffffffff811d9c34 ffffffff811d9c80 __delay <- __const_udelay+0x30/0x40
+ 0 ffffffff811d9d14 ffffffff811d9c3f delay_tsc <- __delay+0xf/0x20