Bug 23560

Summary:	Kernel configuration option "CONFIG_SPI_INTEL_SPI_PCI" is enabled
Product:	Mageia	Reporter:	LuismaGo <luismago>
Component:	RPM Packages	Assignee:	Thomas Backlund <tmb>
Status:	RESOLVED FIXED	QA Contact:
Severity:	normal
Priority:	Normal	CC:	davidwhodgins, tmb
Version:	Cauldron
Target Milestone:	---
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:	MGA6TOO
Source RPM:	kernel-4.14.65-1.mga6.src.rpm	CVE:
Status comment:

Description LuismaGo 2018-09-11 23:13:24 CEST

Description of problem:

I've found that in recent kernels (>=4.14) the option "CONFIG_SPI_INTEL_SPI_PCI" (and thus "CONFIG_SPI_INTEL_SPI") are enabled in Mageia:

$ grep CONFIG_SPI_INTEL_SPI /boot/config-4.14.65-desktop-1.mga6 
CONFIG_SPI_INTEL_SPI=m
CONFIG_SPI_INTEL_SPI_PCI=m
# CONFIG_SPI_INTEL_SPI_PLATFORM is not set

As a result, the modules below are compiled in these kernels:

$ ls /lib/modules/4.14.65-desktop-1.mga6/kernel/drivers/mtd/spi-nor/intel-spi*
/lib/modules/4.14.65-desktop-1.mga6/kernel/drivers/mtd/spi-nor/intel-spi.ko.xz
/lib/modules/4.14.65-desktop-1.mga6/kernel/drivers/mtd/spi-nor/intel-spi-pci.ko.xz

These modules are known to produce severe BIOS corruption on certain Lenovo (and other brands, too) laptops. See https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1734147 for a quick refresh of the bug.

Unsetting "CONFIG_SPI_INTEL_SPI_PLATFORM" was fine to avoid the bug, but kernels starting at version 4.14 include a new option "CONFIG_SPI_INTEL_SPI_PCI", that is not disabled in Mageia configuration.

I don't really know the actual impact of these issue on a Lenovo laptop, but as far as I know, other distros are disabling both configuration options and in kernels starting at version 4.18 both SPI_INTEL_SPI_PCI and SPI_INTEL_SPI_PLATFORM are marked as "DANGEROUS" (see https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/drivers/mtd/spi-nor/Kconfig#L92)

So, IMHO this option should be disabled also in Mageia.

Comment 1 Dave Hodgins 2018-09-12 04:27:35 CEST

Thanks for catching this.

Added the info to bug 23543, the bug for the currently being qa tested
kernels, with you added to the cc list.

Closing this bug as a duplicate of that one.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 23543 ***

CC: (none) => davidwhodgins
Resolution: (none) => DUPLICATE
Status: NEW => RESOLVED

Comment 2 Thomas Backlund 2018-09-12 10:31:26 CEST

Fixed in SVN for next Mga6 and Cauldron kernels that will be built today.

BIG thanks for the report.

CC: (none) => tmb
Assignee: bugsquad => tmb
Whiteboard: (none) => MGA6TOO
Version: 6 => Cauldron
Resolution: DUPLICATE => FIXED