Messages in this thread | | | Subject | Re: [RESEND PATCH v5 2/5] arm64/crash_core: Export TCR_EL1.T1SZ in vmcoreinfo | From | Bhupesh Sharma <> | Date | Mon, 13 Jan 2020 17:44:10 +0530 |
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Hi James,
On 01/11/2020 12:30 AM, Dave Anderson wrote: > > ----- Original Message ----- >> Hi Bhupesh, >> >> On 25/12/2019 19:01, Bhupesh Sharma wrote: >>> On 12/12/2019 04:02 PM, James Morse wrote: >>>> On 29/11/2019 19:59, Bhupesh Sharma wrote: >>>>> vabits_actual variable on arm64 indicates the actual VA space size, >>>>> and allows a single binary to support both 48-bit and 52-bit VA >>>>> spaces. >>>>> >>>>> If the ARMv8.2-LVA optional feature is present, and we are running >>>>> with a 64KB page size; then it is possible to use 52-bits of address >>>>> space for both userspace and kernel addresses. However, any kernel >>>>> binary that supports 52-bit must also be able to fall back to 48-bit >>>>> at early boot time if the hardware feature is not present. >>>>> >>>>> Since TCR_EL1.T1SZ indicates the size offset of the memory region >>>>> addressed by TTBR1_EL1 (and hence can be used for determining the >>>>> vabits_actual value) it makes more sense to export the same in >>>>> vmcoreinfo rather than vabits_actual variable, as the name of the >>>>> variable can change in future kernel versions, but the architectural >>>>> constructs like TCR_EL1.T1SZ can be used better to indicate intended >>>>> specific fields to user-space. >>>>> >>>>> User-space utilities like makedumpfile and crash-utility, need to >>>>> read/write this value from/to vmcoreinfo >>>> >>>> (write?) >>> >>> Yes, also write so that the vmcoreinfo from an (crashing) arm64 system can >>> be used for >>> analysis of the root-cause of panic/crash on say an x86_64 host using >>> utilities like >>> crash-utility/gdb. >> >> I read this as as "User-space [...] needs to write to vmcoreinfo".
That's correct. But for writing to vmcore dump in the kdump kernel, we need to read the symbols from the vmcoreinfo in the primary kernel.
>>>>> for determining if a virtual address lies in the linear map range. >>>> >>>> I think this is a fragile example. The debugger shouldn't need to know >>>> this. >>> >>> Well that the current user-space utility design, so I am not sure we can >>> tweak that too much. >>> >>>>> The user-space computation for determining whether an address lies in >>>>> the linear map range is the same as we have in kernel-space: >>>>> >>>>> #define __is_lm_address(addr) (!(((u64)addr) & BIT(vabits_actual - >>>>> 1))) >>>> >>>> This was changed with 14c127c957c1 ("arm64: mm: Flip kernel VA space"). If >>>> user-space >>>> tools rely on 'knowing' the kernel memory layout, they must have to >>>> constantly be fixed >>>> and updated. This is a poor argument for adding this to something that >>>> ends up as ABI. >>> >>> See above. The user-space has to rely on some ABI/guaranteed >>> hardware-symbols which can be >>> used for 'determining' the kernel memory layout. >> >> I disagree. Everything and anything in the kernel will change. The ABI rules apply to >> stuff exposed via syscalls and kernel filesystems. It does not apply to kernel internals, >> like the memory layout we used yesterday. 14c127c957c1 is a case in point. >> >> A debugger trying to rely on this sort of thing would have to play catchup whenever it >> changes. > > Exactly. That's the whole point. > > The crash utility and makedumpfile are not in the same league as other user-space tools. > They have always had to "play catchup" precisely because they depend upon kernel internals, > which constantly change.
I agree with you and DaveA here. Software user-space debuggers are dependent on kernel internals (which can change from time-to-time) and will have to play catch-up (which has been the case since the very start).
Unfortunately we don't have any clear ABI for software debugging tools - may be something to look for in future.
A case in point is gdb/kgdb, which still needs to run with KASLR turned-off (nokaslr) for debugging, as it confuses gdb which resolve kernel symbol address from symbol table of vmlinux. But we can work-around the same in makedumpfile/crash by reading the 'kaslr_offset' value. And I have several users telling me now they cannot use gdb on KASLR enabled kernel to debug panics, but can makedumpfile + crash combination to achieve the same.
So, we should be looking to fix these utilities which are broken since the 52-bit changes for arm64. Accordingly, I will try to send the v6 soon while incorporating the comments posted on the v5.
Thanks, Bhupesh
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