On Tue, Jul 18, 2017 at 12:05:03PM +0200, Andrew Jones wrote: > On Fri, Jul 14, 2017 at 08:45:12AM -0700, Christoffer Dall wrote: > > On Fri, Jul 14, 2017 at 09:04:10AM +0100, Marc Zyngier wrote: > > > On 13/07/17 20:20, Christoffer Dall wrote: > > > > When running the vtimer test on an APM X-Gene, setting the timer value > > > > to (2^64 - 1) apparently results in the timer always firing, even > > > > thought the counter is mich lower than the cval. > > > > > > Note that the system counter is only guaranteed to be at least 56 bit > > > wide (see DDI0487B.a G5.1.2), and I seem to remember that X-Gene only > > > has the minimum. This could explain why setting the comparator to a > > > value greater than (2^56 - 1) leads to a firing timer (the comparator > > > appears to be in the past). > > Ah, that explains why when I tried setting it to ~0 on my mustang, and > then reading it back, it was always 2^56 - 1 instead. However my mustang > still also requires me to clear bit 31, otherwise the vcpu hangs. > > > > > Thanks for pointing that out, that makes good sense. So then we should > > definitely fix the test. > > > > We could either set it to 2^56 - 1 instead, or just keep the 10s as used > > in this patch, because the whole test times out after 2s anyway. > > With the 10s version the test runs and passes on my mustang, so on one > hand I prefer it. OTOH, testing to the spec, by using 2^56 - 1, seems > more correct and allows one to find issues like the one I have on my > mustang, i.e. a vcpu hang when bit 31 isn't clear. > > I guess I lean more towards testings to the spec, but not enough to > ask for a v2 of the patch. It's up to you. I think we should have something that tests KVM on the platforms we have and that are available for people's use. I don't think we should verify the architecture as much. People use the m400 (basically Mustang) in CloudLab, for example, which is we I keep caring about that. I think this test was designed to test "if I program a timer to some time in the future it shouldn't fire right away", which is still what we test with this patch. If we want to add a "the platform provides a timer with 56 valid bits in the counter and compare register", then I think it should be a separate test, and the the user can see that "basic stuff works", "architecture compliance not so much" and shrug accordingly. Thanks, -Christoffer
