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(-) -- 2.14.3 -- Linux-audit mailing list Linux-audit@redhat.com https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-audit