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Subject: Re: [PATCH 4.4 00/65] 4.4.173-stable review
To:     Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
Cc:     linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, torvalds@linux-foundation.org,
        akpm@linux-foundation.org, shuah@kernel.org, patches@kernelci.org,
        ben.hutchings@codethink.co.uk, lkft-triage@lists.linaro.org,
        stable@vger.kernel.org
References: <20190204103610.583715954@linuxfoundation.org>
 <20190204224817.GA12968@roeck-us.net> <20190205144221.GB17950@kroah.com>
From:   Guenter Roeck <linux@roeck-us.net>
Message-ID: <e67529ce-2303-2cea-4d44-b80077078f9a@roeck-us.net>
Date:   Tue, 5 Feb 2019 07:12:34 -0800
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On 2/5/19 6:42 AM, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 04, 2019 at 02:48:17PM -0800, Guenter Roeck wrote:
>> On Mon, Feb 04, 2019 at 11:35:53AM +0100, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
>>> This is the start of the stable review cycle for the 4.4.173 release.
>>> There are 65 patches in this series, all will be posted as a response
>>> to this one.  If anyone has any issues with these being applied, please
>>> let me know.
>>>
>>> Responses should be made by Wed Feb  6 10:35:30 UTC 2019.
>>> Anything received after that time might be too late.
>>>
>>
>> Build results:
>> 	total: 171 pass: 171 fail: 0
>> Qemu test results:
>> 	total: 291 pass: 291 fail: 0 (*)
>>
>> Guenter
>>
>> ---
>> (*) I had to revert to gcc 5.3.0 for sh4 boot tests.
>>      With gcc 8.2.0, most tests stall early in boot.
>>      I didn't try to track down the root cause.
> 
> Is this a new issue?  I don't see any sh-specific patches in this
> series.
> 

I had switched to gcc 8.2.0 last October since images built with gcc 5.3.0
had stopped working in -next at the time (coincidentally with the same
symptoms). Ever since then, I had on-and-off problems where one or two
of the test boots would fail. Usually a re-run would be successful.
I originally blamed qemu and switched between versions, but that didn't help.
This is the first release and branch where 8-10 of the 14 boot tests failed
persistently when building the image with gcc 8.2.0. I finally had the idea
to look at the compiler and, yes, switching back to an older version helped.

I have no idea if gcc or qemu or the code itself is to blame. I am not
sure if anyone would be interested enough to fix the underlying problem.
I just wanted to mention it in case someone does care. If so,
I'll be happy to help tracking it down further.

Thanks,
Guenter