powerpc: Fix kernel panic during kernel module load

This fixes a problem which can causes kernel oopses while loading
a kernel module.

According to the PowerPC EABI specification, GPR r11 is assigned
the dedicated function to point to the previous stack frame.
In the powerpc-specific kernel module loader, do_plt_call()
(in arch/powerpc/kernel/module_32.c), GPR r11 is also used
to generate trampoline code.

This combination crashes the kernel, in the case where the compiler
chooses to use a helper function for saving GPRs on entry, and the
module loader has placed the .init.text section far away from the
.text section, meaning that it has to generate a trampoline for
functions in the .init.text section to call the GPR save helper.
Because the trampoline trashes r11, references to the stack frame
using r11 can cause an oops.

The fix just uses GPR r12 instead of GPR r11 for generating the
trampoline code.  According to the statements from Freescale, this is
safe from an EABI perspective.

I've tested the fix for kernel 2.6.33 on MPC8541.

Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Steffen Rumler <steffen.rumler.ext@nsn.com>
[paulus@samba.org: reworded the description]
Signed-off-by: Paul Mackerras <paulus@samba.org>
1 file changed