# Kernel crash vmware with i915

## mahdi1234

hi there, recently bought new laptop with Intel i7-5500U 2.4GHz which holds integrated i965 it has also dicrete radeon, but vmware is not launched on that card.

```
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Broadwell-U Integrated Graphics (rev 09)
```

compiled without sna which causes some other oops instead with uxa

```
[ebuild   R   ~] x11-drivers/xf86-video-intel-2.99.917-r2::gentoo  USE="debug dri -sna udev uxa -xvmc" 0 KiB
```

when I run vmware player it gives me kernel crash

```
[ebuild   R   ~] app-emulation/vmware-tools-9.6.5.2700073::gentoo  USE="-vmware_guest_freebsd vmware_guest_linux -vmware_guest_netware -vmware_guest_solaris -vmware_guest_winPre2k vmware_guest_windows" 127,570 KiB

[ebuild   R   ~] app-emulation/vmware-player-6.0.6.2700073::gentoo  USE="cups -doc vmware-tools" 224,790 KiB
```

critical log

```
Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.926728] BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 00000059

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.926797] IP: [<c1260e96>] copy_from_iter+0x157/0x204
```

kernel log

```
Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.880173] NET: Registered protocol family 40

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.926728] BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 00000059

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.926797] IP: [<c1260e96>] copy_from_iter+0x157/0x204

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.926849] *pdpt = 000000002e982001 *pde = 0000000000000000 

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.926913] Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP 

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.926945] Modules linked in: vmnet(O) vmblock(O) vsock(O) vmmon(O) vmci(O) vboxnetadp(O) vboxnetflt(O) vboxdrv(O) i915 iwlmvm radeon i2c_algo_bit ttm drm_kms_helper iwlwifi drm x86_pkg_temp_thermal

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.927293] EIP: 0060:[<c1260e96>] EFLAGS: 00010246 CPU: 3

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.927339] EIP is at copy_from_iter+0x157/0x204

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.927376] EAX: ee803ee4 EBX: 00000055 ECX: ee803ee4 EDX: 00000055

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.927426] ESI: 00000000 EDI: f1833a00 EBP: ee803d98 ESP: ee803d7c

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.927475]  DS: 007b ES: 007b FS: 00d8 GS: 0033 SS: 0068

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.927518] CR0: 80050033 CR2: 00000059 CR3: 2e92a000 CR4: 003406f0

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.927583]  ffc47000 00000040 ee803ee4 00000000 f1833a0c 00000000 f1833a00 ee803dcc

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.927660]  fc262acb ee803ee4 010e829f 00000000 00000000 00000055 00000000 00000000

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.927735]  00000000 00000055 00000055 f1833a00 ee803de0 fc262c90 ee803edc 00000055

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.927841]  [<fc262acb>] __VMCIMemcpyToQueue+0x9c/0xf6 [vmci]

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.927893]  [<fc262c90>] VMCIMemcpyToQueueV+0x10/0x12 [vmci]

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.927954]  [<fc268010>] vmci_qpair_consume_buf_ready+0x150/0x1c7 [vmci]

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.928011]  [<fc268166>] vmci_qpair_enquev+0x53/0x8c [vmci]

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.928060]  [<fc262c80>] ? VMCIMemcpyFromQueueLocal+0x19/0x19 [vmci]

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.928113]  [<fc4ae125>] VSockVmciStreamHasSpace+0x235/0x2bc [vsock]

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.928166]  [<c105c9fe>] ? finish_wait+0x48/0x48

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.928208]  [<c149de65>] __sock_sendmsg+0x2e/0x37

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.928248]  [<c149ded8>] sock_write_iter+0x6a/0x81

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.928290]  [<c10eab2d>] new_sync_write+0x4d/0x71

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.928331]  [<c10eaae0>] ? new_sync_read+0x6e/0x6e

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.928372]  [<c10eb246>] vfs_write+0x87/0xf2

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.928410]  [<c10eb689>] SyS_write+0x44/0x6b

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.928447]  [<c1617f08>] sysenter_do_call+0x12/0x12

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.928823] CR2: 0000000000000059

Oct 28 16:44:11 [kernel] [  621.941380] ---[ end trace 058184a3327e372a ]---
```

kernel version

```
[ebuild   R    ] sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-4.0.9:4.0.9::gentoo  USE="-build -deblob -experimental -symlink" 0 KiB
```

kernel config - http://pastebin.com/4p8eAvpf

make.conf

```
# These settings were set by the catalyst build script that automatically built this stage

CFLAGS="-O2 -march=native -pipe"

CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"

CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}"

MAKEOPTS="-j5"

ALSA_CARDS="intel8x0"

FEATURES="ccache"

CCACHE_SIZE="2G"

FEATURES="parallel-fetch"

PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage"

PORTAGE_NICENESS="19"

LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1,--enable-new-dtags,--sort-common"

USE="asf doc mmx sse sse2 sse3 ssse3 win32codecs xcomposite -arts -handbook nptl nptlonly dri opengl gif jpeg png tiff raw alsa vaapi X mp3 vorbis mikmod -kde encode sdl ogg flac ffmpeg exif xml dbus cups udev -hal -semantic-desktop perl python -php_targets_php5-3 php_targets_php5-4 -systemd -libav"

CPU_FLAGS_X86="aes avx  avx2 fma3 mmx mmxext popcnt sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3"

EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--alphabetical --autounmask"

INPUT_DEVICES="evdev synaptics mouse keyboard"

VIDEO_CARDS="intel i965 radeon radeonsi vesa"

CAMERAS="*"

PORT_LOGDIR="/var/log/portage"

PORTAGE_ELOG_SYSTEM="save"

PORTAGE_ELOG_CLASSES="warn error info log"

source /usr/portage/local/layman/make.conf

GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://ftp.fi.muni.cz/pub/linux/gentoo/ http://gentoo.mirror.web4u.cz/ ftp://gentoo.mirror.web4u.cz/ http://gentoo.mirror.dkm.cz/pub/gentoo/ ftp://ftp.fi.muni.cz/pub/linux/gentoo/ ftp://gentoo.mirror.dkm.cz/pub/gentoo/"

LIRC_DEVICES="all"

ACCEPT_LICENSE="*"

PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
```

any ideas what could be wrong?

thanks

----------

## TigerJr

I think that VMware can't work on native linux kernel, only on selfpatched kernel. That a proprietary BUG %) Like other software from VMware. 

I think so cause they using proprietary function those doesn't supported in mainstream kernel.

You can try to unload vmci kernel module in a slight functional degradation. If it helps - keep in mind that isn't only one bug you can faced with. The reason - use proprietary VMware kernel.

----------

## mahdi1234

Thanks, without much of thorough testing vmware now runs and doesn't cause kernel oops with vmci unloaded.

Though it's bit strange since my old c2d worked pretty much fine, but I understand there are many factors to it ... let's see when 4.2 gets stable whether it changes something.

----------

## TigerJr

I recommend 4.1.12 or 3.18.22

----------

## mahdi1234

Since 4.1.12 was stabilized I gave it a try, but it still crashes ...

```
Nov 03 19:34:50 [kernel] [  323.551012] NET: Registered protocol family 40

Nov 03 19:34:50 [kernel] [  323.590878] BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 00000079

Nov 03 19:34:50 [kernel] [  323.590923] IP: [<fab35f1b>] VSockVmciStreamHasSpace+0x32/0x2bc [vsock]

Nov 03 19:34:50 [kernel] [  323.590959] *pdpt = 000000002bdde001 *pde = 0000000000000000 

Nov 03 19:34:50 [kernel] [  323.590989] Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP 

Nov 03 19:34:50 [kernel] [  323.591009] Modules linked in: vmnet(O) vmblock(O) vsock(O) vmmon(O) vmci(O) iwlmvm i915 radeon i2c_algo_bit ttm drm_kms_helper drm iwlwifi x86_pkg_temp_thermal

Nov 03 19:34:50 [kernel] [  323.591198] EIP: 0060:[<fab35f1b>] EFLAGS: 00010286 CPU: 2

Nov 03 19:34:50 [kernel] [  323.591225] EIP is at VSockVmciStreamHasSpace+0x32/0x2bc [vsock]

Nov 03 19:34:50 [kernel] [  323.591253] EAX: f0b42460 EBX: 00000055 ECX: 00000000 EDX: ebde7edc

Nov 03 19:34:50 [kernel] [  323.591282] ESI: ebde7f28 EDI: ebde7ea4 EBP: ebde7eb0 ESP: ebde7e74

Nov 03 19:34:50 [kernel] [  323.591311]  DS: 007b ES: 007b FS: 00d8 GS: 0033 SS: 0068

Nov 03 19:34:50 [kernel] [  323.591337] CR0: 80050033 CR2: 00000079 CR3: 316b5f40 CR4: 003406f0

Nov 03 19:34:50 [kernel] [  323.591871] CR2: 0000000000000079

Nov 03 19:34:50 [kernel] [  323.601535] ---[ end trace 09debe20cbb917f3 ]---

```

So I'll stick with blacklisting vmci/vsock a going back to 4.0.9 since new kernel apparently creates additional problems right now like - https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=106851 ... life's not always easy :)

----------

## TigerJr

Hm it's looks like VMWare have awfull pointers programming and them writing kernel modules...!? lol  

Sorry but no one here can't support that software. Even mainstream kernel. 

I don't know what cause this Oops, but i think that if you use VMWare kernel maybe you get more stable system.

P\S

That's VMware modules crash linux kernel with awful pointers =) The solve of that problem is choosing from use proprietary kernel with proprietary kernel modules or never use them in open source linux kernel in cause of stability %)

----------

