2013-03-08 18:11:39

by Larry Finger

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Subject: Question about checking a pointer for validity

I am chasing what I suspect is a firmware error for the Realtek RTL8723AE
device. The symptom is that the RX buffer is corrupted, and I get a kernel panic
due to a bad pointer in an interrupt routine.

I am currently checking that pointer for NULL, which is catching some of the
situations, but I am still getting panics from non-NULL pointers that do not
point to a valid address.

Is there any way to test a pointer for validity that will not crash the system
if it is bad?

Thanks,

Larry