On 02.08.2012, at 14:35, Avi Kivity wrote: > On 08/01/2012 06:17 AM, Benjamin Herrenschmidt wrote: >> Hi Avi ! >> >> We identified a problem on powerpc which seems to actually be a generic >> issue, and Alex suggested we propose a generic fix. I want to make sure >> we are on the right track first before proposing an actual patch as we >> would like the patch to go in ASAP (ie not waiting the next merge >> window) as it will fix an actual nasty bug with reset in KVM. >> >> So the basic issue has to do with doing a machine reset as a result of a >> hypervisor call, but the same problem should happen with MMIO/PIO >> emulation. >> >> After we do an exit as a result of such an operation, at the next >> KVM_RUN, KVM will fetch the "results" of the operation (in the hypercall >> case that's a bunch of register values, in the MMIO read emulation case >> it's a single register value usually, x86 might have more subtle cases) >> and we update the VCPU state (ie. registers) with that data. >> >> However, what happens is that if a reset happens in between, we end up >> clobbering the reset state. >> >> IE. What happens in qemu is roughtly: >> >> - The hcall or MMIO that triggers the reset happens, goes to qemu, >> which eventually calls qemu_system_reset_request() >> >> - This sets the global reset pending flag and wakes up the main loop. >> It also does a stop of the current vcpu, so we do not return to the >> kernel at this stage. >> >> - The main loop gets the flag, starts the reset process, which begins >> with stopping all the VCPUs. >> >> - The reset handlers are called, which includes resetting the CPU >> state, which in our case (powerpc) results in a SET_REGS ioctl to >> establish a new fresh state for booting. >> >> - The generic code then restarts all VCPUs, which then return into >> VCPU_RUN. >> >> - The VCPU(s) that did an exit as a result of MMIO emulation, >> hypercall, or similiar (typically the one that triggered the reset but >> possibly others) then gets some of their register state "updated" by the >> result of the operation (in the hcall case, it's a field in the mmap'ed >> run structure that clobbers GPR3 among others). >> >> Now this is generally not a big issue as -usually- machines don't care >> much about the state of registers on reset. >> > > This is actually documented in api.txt, though not in relation to reset: > > NOTE: For KVM_EXIT_IO, KVM_EXIT_MMIO and KVM_EXIT_OSI, the > corresponding operations are complete (and guest state is consistent) > only after userspace has re-entered the kernel with KVM_RUN. The > kernel side will first finish incomplete operations and then check > for pending signals. Userspace can re-enter the guest with an > unmasked signal pending to complete pending operations. > > For x86 the issue was with live migration - you can't copy guest > register state in the middle of an I/O operation. Reset is actually > similar, but it involves writing state (which can then be overwritten) > instead of reading it. Yeah, we stumbled over this chunk as well. So you're saying we should delay the reset by invoking a self-signal if we're in such an operation? Alex -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe kvm-ppc" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
