diff --git a/kernel/debug/kdb/kdb_debugger.c b/kernel/debug/kdb/kdb_debugger.c
index 0220afda3200..e91fc3e4edd5 100644
--- a/kernel/debug/kdb/kdb_debugger.c
+++ b/kernel/debug/kdb/kdb_debugger.c
@@ -140,7 +140,6 @@ int kdb_stub(struct kgdb_state *ks)
 	 */
 	kdb_common_deinit_state();
 	KDB_STATE_CLEAR(PAGER);
-	kdbnearsym_cleanup();
 	if (error == KDB_CMD_KGDB) {
 		if (KDB_STATE(DOING_KGDB))
 			KDB_STATE_CLEAR(DOING_KGDB);
diff --git a/kernel/debug/kdb/kdb_private.h b/kernel/debug/kdb/kdb_private.h
index 170c69aedebb..8dbc840113c9 100644
--- a/kernel/debug/kdb/kdb_private.h
+++ b/kernel/debug/kdb/kdb_private.h
@@ -109,7 +109,6 @@ extern int kdbgetaddrarg(int, const char **, int*, unsigned long *,
 			 long *, char **);
 extern int kdbgetsymval(const char *, kdb_symtab_t *);
 extern int kdbnearsym(unsigned long, kdb_symtab_t *);
-extern void kdbnearsym_cleanup(void);
 extern char *kdb_strdup(const char *str, gfp_t type);
 extern void kdb_symbol_print(unsigned long, const kdb_symtab_t *, unsigned int);
 
@@ -233,10 +232,6 @@ extern struct task_struct *kdb_curr_task(int);
 
 #define GFP_KDB (in_dbg_master() ? GFP_ATOMIC : GFP_KERNEL)
 
-extern void *debug_kmalloc(size_t size, gfp_t flags);
-extern void debug_kfree(void *);
-extern void debug_kusage(void);
-
 extern struct task_struct *kdb_current_task;
 extern struct pt_regs *kdb_current_regs;
 
diff --git a/kernel/debug/kdb/kdb_support.c b/kernel/debug/kdb/kdb_support.c
index 9f50d22d68e6..c605b17b2a0d 100644
--- a/kernel/debug/kdb/kdb_support.c
+++ b/kernel/debug/kdb/kdb_support.c
@@ -52,48 +52,48 @@ int kdbgetsymval(const char *symname, kdb_symtab_t *symtab)
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(kdbgetsymval);
 
-static char *kdb_name_table[100];	/* arbitrary size */
-
-/*
- * kdbnearsym -	Return the name of the symbol with the nearest address
- *	less than 'addr'.
+/**
+ * kdbnearsym() - Return the name of the symbol with the nearest address
+ *                less than @addr.
+ * @addr: Address to check for near symbol
+ * @symtab: Structure to receive results
  *
- * Parameters:
- *	addr	Address to check for symbol near
- *	symtab  Structure to receive results
- * Returns:
- *	0	No sections contain this address, symtab zero filled
- *	1	Address mapped to module/symbol/section, data in symtab
- * Remarks:
- *	2.6 kallsyms has a "feature" where it unpacks the name into a
- *	string.  If that string is reused before the caller expects it
- *	then the caller sees its string change without warning.  To
- *	avoid cluttering up the main kdb code with lots of kdb_strdup,
- *	tests and kfree calls, kdbnearsym maintains an LRU list of the
- *	last few unique strings.  The list is sized large enough to
- *	hold active strings, no kdb caller of kdbnearsym makes more
- *	than ~20 later calls before using a saved value.
+ * WARNING: This function may return a pointer to a single statically
+ * allocated buffer (namebuf). kdb's unusual calling context (single
+ * threaded, all other CPUs halted) provides us sufficient locking for
+ * this to be safe. The only constraint imposed by the static buffer is
+ * that the caller must consume any previous reply prior to another call
+ * to lookup a new symbol.
+ *
+ * Note that, strictly speaking, some architectures may re-enter the kdb
+ * trap if the system turns out to be very badly damaged and this breaks
+ * the single-threaded assumption above. In these circumstances successful
+ * continuation and exit from the inner trap is unlikely to work and any
+ * user attempting this receives a prominent warning before being allowed
+ * to progress. In these circumstances we remain memory safe because
+ * namebuf[KSYM_NAME_LEN-1] will never change from '\0' although we do
+ * tolerate the possibility of garbled symbol display from the outer kdb
+ * trap.
+ *
+ * Return:
+ * * 0 - No sections contain this address, symtab zero filled
+ * * 1 - Address mapped to module/symbol/section, data in symtab
  */
 int kdbnearsym(unsigned long addr, kdb_symtab_t *symtab)
 {
 	int ret = 0;
 	unsigned long symbolsize = 0;
 	unsigned long offset = 0;
-#define knt1_size 128		/* must be >= kallsyms table size */
-	char *knt1 = NULL;
+	static char namebuf[KSYM_NAME_LEN];
 
 	kdb_dbg_printf(AR, "addr=0x%lx, symtab=%px\n", addr, symtab);
 	memset(symtab, 0, sizeof(*symtab));
 
 	if (addr < 4096)
 		goto out;
-	knt1 = debug_kmalloc(knt1_size, GFP_ATOMIC);
-	if (!knt1) {
-		kdb_func_printf("addr=0x%lx cannot kmalloc knt1\n", addr);
-		goto out;
-	}
+
 	symtab->sym_name = kallsyms_lookup(addr, &symbolsize , &offset,
-				(char **)(&symtab->mod_name), knt1);
+				(char **)(&symtab->mod_name), namebuf);
 	if (offset > 8*1024*1024) {
 		symtab->sym_name = NULL;
 		addr = offset = symbolsize = 0;
@@ -102,63 +102,14 @@ int kdbnearsym(unsigned long addr, kdb_symtab_t *symtab)
 	symtab->sym_end = symtab->sym_start + symbolsize;
 	ret = symtab->sym_name != NULL && *(symtab->sym_name) != '\0';
 
-	if (ret) {
-		int i;
-		/* Another 2.6 kallsyms "feature".  Sometimes the sym_name is
-		 * set but the buffer passed into kallsyms_lookup is not used,
-		 * so it contains garbage.  The caller has to work out which
-		 * buffer needs to be saved.
-		 *
-		 * What was Rusty smoking when he wrote that code?
-		 */
-		if (symtab->sym_name != knt1) {
-			strncpy(knt1, symtab->sym_name, knt1_size);
-			knt1[knt1_size-1] = '\0';
-		}
-		for (i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(kdb_name_table); ++i) {
-			if (kdb_name_table[i] &&
-			    strcmp(kdb_name_table[i], knt1) == 0)
-				break;
-		}
-		if (i >= ARRAY_SIZE(kdb_name_table)) {
-			debug_kfree(kdb_name_table[0]);
-			memmove(kdb_name_table, kdb_name_table+1,
-			       sizeof(kdb_name_table[0]) *
-			       (ARRAY_SIZE(kdb_name_table)-1));
-		} else {
-			debug_kfree(knt1);
-			knt1 = kdb_name_table[i];
-			memmove(kdb_name_table+i, kdb_name_table+i+1,
-			       sizeof(kdb_name_table[0]) *
-			       (ARRAY_SIZE(kdb_name_table)-i-1));
-		}
-		i = ARRAY_SIZE(kdb_name_table) - 1;
-		kdb_name_table[i] = knt1;
-		symtab->sym_name = kdb_name_table[i];
-		knt1 = NULL;
-	}
-
 	if (symtab->mod_name == NULL)
 		symtab->mod_name = "kernel";
 	kdb_dbg_printf(AR, "returns %d symtab->sym_start=0x%lx, symtab->mod_name=%px, symtab->sym_name=%px (%s)\n",
 		       ret, symtab->sym_start, symtab->mod_name, symtab->sym_name, symtab->sym_name);
-
 out:
-	debug_kfree(knt1);
 	return ret;
 }
 
-void kdbnearsym_cleanup(void)
-{
-	int i;
-	for (i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(kdb_name_table); ++i) {
-		if (kdb_name_table[i]) {
-			debug_kfree(kdb_name_table[i]);
-			kdb_name_table[i] = NULL;
-		}
-	}
-}
-
 static char ks_namebuf[KSYM_NAME_LEN+1], ks_namebuf_prev[KSYM_NAME_LEN+1];
 
 /*
@@ -656,230 +607,6 @@ unsigned long kdb_task_state(const struct task_struct *p, unsigned long mask)
 	return (mask & kdb_task_state_string(state)) != 0;
 }
 
-/* Last ditch allocator for debugging, so we can still debug even when
- * the GFP_ATOMIC pool has been exhausted.  The algorithms are tuned
- * for space usage, not for speed.  One smallish memory pool, the free
- * chain is always in ascending address order to allow coalescing,
- * allocations are done in brute force best fit.
- */
-
-struct debug_alloc_header {
-	u32 next;	/* offset of next header from start of pool */
-	u32 size;
-	void *caller;
-};
-
-/* The memory returned by this allocator must be aligned, which means
- * so must the header size.  Do not assume that sizeof(struct
- * debug_alloc_header) is a multiple of the alignment, explicitly
- * calculate the overhead of this header, including the alignment.
- * The rest of this code must not use sizeof() on any header or
- * pointer to a header.
- */
-#define dah_align 8
-#define dah_overhead ALIGN(sizeof(struct debug_alloc_header), dah_align)
-
-static u64 debug_alloc_pool_aligned[256*1024/dah_align];	/* 256K pool */
-static char *debug_alloc_pool = (char *)debug_alloc_pool_aligned;
-static u32 dah_first, dah_first_call = 1, dah_used, dah_used_max;
-
-/* Locking is awkward.  The debug code is called from all contexts,
- * including non maskable interrupts.  A normal spinlock is not safe
- * in NMI context.  Try to get the debug allocator lock, if it cannot
- * be obtained after a second then give up.  If the lock could not be
- * previously obtained on this cpu then only try once.
- *
- * sparse has no annotation for "this function _sometimes_ acquires a
- * lock", so fudge the acquire/release notation.
- */
-static DEFINE_SPINLOCK(dap_lock);
-static int get_dap_lock(void)
-	__acquires(dap_lock)
-{
-	static int dap_locked = -1;
-	int count;
-	if (dap_locked == smp_processor_id())
-		count = 1;
-	else
-		count = 1000;
-	while (1) {
-		if (spin_trylock(&dap_lock)) {
-			dap_locked = -1;
-			return 1;
-		}
-		if (!count--)
-			break;
-		udelay(1000);
-	}
-	dap_locked = smp_processor_id();
-	__acquire(dap_lock);
-	return 0;
-}
-
-void *debug_kmalloc(size_t size, gfp_t flags)
-{
-	unsigned int rem, h_offset;
-	struct debug_alloc_header *best, *bestprev, *prev, *h;
-	void *p = NULL;
-	if (!get_dap_lock()) {
-		__release(dap_lock);	/* we never actually got it */
-		return NULL;
-	}
-	h = (struct debug_alloc_header *)(debug_alloc_pool + dah_first);
-	if (dah_first_call) {
-		h->size = sizeof(debug_alloc_pool_aligned) - dah_overhead;
-		dah_first_call = 0;
-	}
-	size = ALIGN(size, dah_align);
-	prev = best = bestprev = NULL;
-	while (1) {
-		if (h->size >= size && (!best || h->size < best->size)) {
-			best = h;
-			bestprev = prev;
-			if (h->size == size)
-				break;
-		}
-		if (!h->next)
-			break;
-		prev = h;
-		h = (struct debug_alloc_header *)(debug_alloc_pool + h->next);
-	}
-	if (!best)
-		goto out;
-	rem = best->size - size;
-	/* The pool must always contain at least one header */
-	if (best->next == 0 && bestprev == NULL && rem < dah_overhead)
-		goto out;
-	if (rem >= dah_overhead) {
-		best->size = size;
-		h_offset = ((char *)best - debug_alloc_pool) +
-			   dah_overhead + best->size;
-		h = (struct debug_alloc_header *)(debug_alloc_pool + h_offset);
-		h->size = rem - dah_overhead;
-		h->next = best->next;
-	} else
-		h_offset = best->next;
-	best->caller = __builtin_return_address(0);
-	dah_used += best->size;
-	dah_used_max = max(dah_used, dah_used_max);
-	if (bestprev)
-		bestprev->next = h_offset;
-	else
-		dah_first = h_offset;
-	p = (char *)best + dah_overhead;
-	memset(p, POISON_INUSE, best->size - 1);
-	*((char *)p + best->size - 1) = POISON_END;
-out:
-	spin_unlock(&dap_lock);
-	return p;
-}
-
-void debug_kfree(void *p)
-{
-	struct debug_alloc_header *h;
-	unsigned int h_offset;
-	if (!p)
-		return;
-	if ((char *)p < debug_alloc_pool ||
-	    (char *)p >= debug_alloc_pool + sizeof(debug_alloc_pool_aligned)) {
-		kfree(p);
-		return;
-	}
-	if (!get_dap_lock()) {
-		__release(dap_lock);	/* we never actually got it */
-		return;		/* memory leak, cannot be helped */
-	}
-	h = (struct debug_alloc_header *)((char *)p - dah_overhead);
-	memset(p, POISON_FREE, h->size - 1);
-	*((char *)p + h->size - 1) = POISON_END;
-	h->caller = NULL;
-	dah_used -= h->size;
-	h_offset = (char *)h - debug_alloc_pool;
-	if (h_offset < dah_first) {
-		h->next = dah_first;
-		dah_first = h_offset;
-	} else {
-		struct debug_alloc_header *prev;
-		unsigned int prev_offset;
-		prev = (struct debug_alloc_header *)(debug_alloc_pool +
-						     dah_first);
-		while (1) {
-			if (!prev->next || prev->next > h_offset)
-				break;
-			prev = (struct debug_alloc_header *)
-				(debug_alloc_pool + prev->next);
-		}
-		prev_offset = (char *)prev - debug_alloc_pool;
-		if (prev_offset + dah_overhead + prev->size == h_offset) {
-			prev->size += dah_overhead + h->size;
-			memset(h, POISON_FREE, dah_overhead - 1);
-			*((char *)h + dah_overhead - 1) = POISON_END;
-			h = prev;
-			h_offset = prev_offset;
-		} else {
-			h->next = prev->next;
-			prev->next = h_offset;
-		}
-	}
-	if (h_offset + dah_overhead + h->size == h->next) {
-		struct debug_alloc_header *next;
-		next = (struct debug_alloc_header *)
-			(debug_alloc_pool + h->next);
-		h->size += dah_overhead + next->size;
-		h->next = next->next;
-		memset(next, POISON_FREE, dah_overhead - 1);
-		*((char *)next + dah_overhead - 1) = POISON_END;
-	}
-	spin_unlock(&dap_lock);
-}
-
-void debug_kusage(void)
-{
-	struct debug_alloc_header *h_free, *h_used;
-#ifdef	CONFIG_IA64
-	/* FIXME: using dah for ia64 unwind always results in a memory leak.
-	 * Fix that memory leak first, then set debug_kusage_one_time = 1 for
-	 * all architectures.
-	 */
-	static int debug_kusage_one_time;
-#else
-	static int debug_kusage_one_time = 1;
-#endif
-	if (!get_dap_lock()) {
-		__release(dap_lock);	/* we never actually got it */
-		return;
-	}
-	h_free = (struct debug_alloc_header *)(debug_alloc_pool + dah_first);
-	if (dah_first == 0 &&
-	    (h_free->size == sizeof(debug_alloc_pool_aligned) - dah_overhead ||
-	     dah_first_call))
-		goto out;
-	if (!debug_kusage_one_time)
-		goto out;
-	debug_kusage_one_time = 0;
-	kdb_func_printf("debug_kmalloc memory leak dah_first %d\n", dah_first);
-	if (dah_first) {
-		h_used = (struct debug_alloc_header *)debug_alloc_pool;
-		kdb_func_printf("h_used %px size %d\n", h_used, h_used->size);
-	}
-	do {
-		h_used = (struct debug_alloc_header *)
-			  ((char *)h_free + dah_overhead + h_free->size);
-		kdb_func_printf("h_used %px size %d caller %px\n",
-				h_used, h_used->size, h_used->caller);
-		h_free = (struct debug_alloc_header *)
-			  (debug_alloc_pool + h_free->next);
-	} while (h_free->next);
-	h_used = (struct debug_alloc_header *)
-		  ((char *)h_free + dah_overhead + h_free->size);
-	if ((char *)h_used - debug_alloc_pool !=
-	    sizeof(debug_alloc_pool_aligned))
-		kdb_func_printf("h_used %px size %d caller %px\n",
-				h_used, h_used->size, h_used->caller);
-out:
-	spin_unlock(&dap_lock);
-}
-
 /* Maintain a small stack of kdb_flags to allow recursion without disturbing
  * the global kdb state.
  */