[PATCH v3 0/4] mmc: Add pstore backend for crash dump storage on eMMC
From: Kamal Dasu
Date: Thu Mar 19 2026 - 15:02:13 EST
This series adds mmcpstore, a pstore backend driver that enables
persistent storage of kernel crash logs on eMMC devices. When the
kernel panics, pstore captures the kmsg dump and writes it directly
to a dedicated MMC partition using polled I/O with interrupts
disabled.
Changes since v2 (RFC):
- Rebased onto v7.0-rc — no longer reverts any existing MMC core
or SDHCI changes (v1/v2 accidentally reverted recent upstream
commits due to being based on an older tree)
- Removed all erase/bitmap tracking logic — MMC/eMMC is managed
flash and does not need erase-before-write; the pstore_zone
framework handles zone management internally
- Uses standard MMC core request path (mmc_start_request) instead
of hand-building mmc_request structs; panic-context I/O is
handled through proper mmc_host_ops callbacks rather than ad-hoc
code in the driver
- Added panic-context ops to mmc_host_ops and sdhci_ops for clean
separation of panic and normal I/O paths
- Fixed deadlocks caused by spinlock contention during panic
(lockless mmc_panic_claim_host using WRITE_ONCE)
- Fixed data corruption in pstore recovery (zlib_inflate failures)
by letting the normal sdhci_request() path run instead of a
custom panic request handler
- Added PM suspend/resume support with eMMC re-initialization
- Supports module loading or builtin loading of the driver
- Added MAINTAINERS entry
- Split into 4-patch series for reviewability
The series is structured as follows:
Patch 1 adds panic-context operations to struct mmc_host_ops and a
lockless mmc_panic_claim_host() for use during kernel panic when
other CPUs are stopped and may hold locks.
Patch 2 implements these panic-context operations in the SDHCI host
controller driver: draining in-flight requests, polling for
completion, and making the command retry path panic-safe.
Patch 3 adds mmc_blk_get_card_by_name() helper to look up an
mmc_card from a block device name, used by the mmcpstore module
path for card discovery.
Patch 4 adds the mmcpstore driver itself, which registers with the
pstore_blk framework and handles panic writes, PM suspend/resume,
and dual-path registration (direct probe hook for builtin,
mmc_blk_get_card_by_name() for module). Also adds probe/remove
hooks in block.c and declarations in block.h for the builtin path.
Tested on Broadcom STB platforms (ARM64) with SDHCI controllers,
verified panic dump recovery across multiple panic/reboot cycles
with kmsg, pmsg, and console pstore.
Previous submissions and related work:
RFC v1: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mmc/20221216212738.7928-1-kdasu.kdev@xxxxxxxxx/
RFC v2: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mmc/20221222185948.12717-1-kdasu.kdev@xxxxxxxxx/
Marvell MMC pstore attempt (2020):
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mmc/20201207115753.21728-1-bbudiredla@xxxxxxxxxxx/
pstore/blk documentation:
https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/pstore-blk.html
Kamal Dasu (4):
mmc: core: Add panic-context host operations for pstore backends
mmc: sdhci: Implement panic-context write support
mmc: block: Add helper to look up mmc_card by device name
mmc: core: Add MMC pstore backend driver
MAINTAINERS | 6 +
drivers/mmc/core/Kconfig | 12 +
drivers/mmc/core/Makefile | 1 +
drivers/mmc/core/block.c | 56 ++
drivers/mmc/core/block.h | 18 +
drivers/mmc/core/core.c | 23 +
drivers/mmc/core/mmcpstore.c | 1512 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
drivers/mmc/host/sdhci.c | 164 +++-
drivers/mmc/host/sdhci.h | 6 +
include/linux/mmc/host.h | 12 +
10 files changed, 1806 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
create mode 100644 drivers/mmc/core/mmcpstore.c
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2.34.1