One of our CI tests was booting upstream kernels with the "audit=off" kernel
parameter. This was our error; it should have been "audit=0". However,
in 4.15 the verification of the boot parameter got more strict in 80ab4df62706
("audit: don't use simple_strtol() anymore"), and our errant boot parameter
value starting panic'ing the system.
The problem is this happens so early in boot, the console isn't initialized yet
and you don't see the panic message. You have no idea what the problem is
unless you add an "earlyprintk" boot option, e.g.
earlyprintk=serial,ttyS0,115200n8.
Fix this by having the boot parameter setup function just save the boot
parameter value, and process it later from a call in audit_init(). The console
is initialized by this point, and you can see any panic messages without having
to use an earlyprintk option.
Additionally, add "on" and "off" as valid audit boot parameter
values.
Greg Edwards (2):
audit: move processing of "audit" boot param to audit_init()
audit: add "on"/"off" as valid boot parameter values
Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt | 14 +++----
kernel/audit.c | 49 ++++++++++++++++---------
2 files changed, 39 insertions(+), 24 deletions(-)
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2.14.3