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Date:   Tue, 20 Feb 2018 16:26:14 +0530
From:   Rahul Lakkireddy <rahul.lakkireddy@chelsio.com>
To:     linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, netdev@vger.kernel.org
Cc:     akpm@linux-foundation.org, torvalds@linux-foundation.org,
        davem@davemloft.net, ganeshgr@chelsio.com, nirranjan@chelsio.com,
        indranil@chelsio.com, rahul.lakkireddy@chelsio.com
Subject: Appending firmware/hardware dump to vmcore during kernel panic
Message-ID: <20180220105613.GA9766@chelsio.com>
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Hi all,

We have a requirement to collect firmware/hardware state of the
underlying NIC during kernel panic.  We are doing this in cxgb4
driver, using panic notifier list [1].  cxgb4 registers a callback
function to the panic notifier list, which gets invoked during kernel
panic. In the callback function, firmware/hardware dump is collected
into pre-allocated buffer and then extracted later from the vmcore,
for post-analysis.

Is this approach of using panic notifier correct?  Any suggestions are
much appreciated.

Thanks,
Rahul

[1] https://patchwork.ozlabs.org/patch/873830/