[PATCH] KVM: ARM: ignore guest L2 cache control SMCs on Highbank and OMAP

[Dave Martin]

On Wed, Aug 14, 2013 at 11:39:21AM +0200, Andre Przywara wrote:
> On 08/14/2013 11:32 AM, Marc Zyngier wrote:
> >On 2013-08-14 10:22, Andre Przywara wrote:
> >>Guest kernels with CONFIG_L2X0 set (for instance Highbank or OMAP4)
> >>will trigger SMCs to handle the L2 cache controller (PL310).
> >>This will currently inject #UNDEFs and eventually stop the guest.
> >>
> >>We don't need explicit L2 cache controller handling on A15s anymore,
> >>so it is safe to simply ignore these calls and proceed with the next
> >>instruction.
> >>
> >>Signed-off-by: Andre Przywara <andre.przywara at calxeda.com>
> >
> >Hold on.
> >
> >Are you trying to run A9 guests on KVM? Sorry, but that's not a
> >supported mode of operation just yet.
> 
> No, I don't. I just run guests with kernels that would support A9
> also. If you select Highbank in your .config, you will get
> CACHE_L2X0 and the kernel will do SMCs - regardless of the CPU you
> are running on. Those SMCs are ignored by the firmware on Midway.
> 
> I agree that the proper solution would be to detect at run-time in
> the (guest) kernel whether you actually need the PL310 handling, but
> for the time being and to support older kernels we will need this
> fix.
> 
> For me this fixes "qemu -machine midway --enable-kvm".
> 
> Regards,
> Andre.
> 
> >
> >So, until we have a proper framework to deal with multiple CPUs, the
> >only valid configuration is A15-on-A15.
> >
> >>---
> >>  arch/arm/kvm/handle_exit.c | 20 ++++++++++++++++++++
> >>  1 file changed, 20 insertions(+)
> >>
> >>diff --git a/arch/arm/kvm/handle_exit.c b/arch/arm/kvm/handle_exit.c
> >>index df4c82d..2cbe6a0 100644
> >>--- a/arch/arm/kvm/handle_exit.c
> >>+++ b/arch/arm/kvm/handle_exit.c
> >>@@ -50,8 +50,28 @@ static int handle_hvc(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu,
> >>struct kvm_run *run)
> >>  	return 1;
> >>  }
> >>
> >>+/*
> >>+ * OMAP4 and Highbank machines do a SMC call to handle the L2 cache
> >>+ * controller. They put 0x102 in r12 to request this functionality.
> >>+ * This is not needed on A15s, so we can safely ignore it in KVM
> >>guests.
> >>+ */
> >>+static int kvm_ignore_l2x0_call(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
> >>+{
> >>+	unsigned long fn_nr = *vcpu_reg(vcpu, 12) & ~((u32) 0);
> >>+
> >>+	if (fn_nr == 0x102) {
> >>+		kvm_skip_instr(vcpu, kvm_vcpu_trap_il_is32bit(vcpu));
> >>+		return 1;
> >>+	}
> >>+
> >>+	return 0;
> >>+}
> >
> >And what if I run mach-foo which uses r12 to request bar services from
> >secure mode? Is it safe to ignore it? We need something much better than
> >just testing random registers to guess what the guest wants.
> >
> >>  static int handle_smc(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, struct kvm_run *run)
> >>  {
> >>+	if (kvm_ignore_l2x0_call(vcpu))
> >>+		return 1;
> >>+
> >>  	kvm_inject_undefined(vcpu);
> >>  	return 1;
> >>  }
> >
> >          M.
> >

Now, suppose a second board family has a similar problem, with a
different SMC ABI, which doesn't use r12.

If the kernel might believe it is running on that board, it
may make SMC calls, but r12 may contain garbage.  Sometimes it
will contain 0x102 and hit your code.


Because this is a board-specific emulation issue, not virtualisation, it
seems wrong to put knowledge about every platform's random firmware
into KVM.


I see two solutions:

 1) Describe the presence/absence of the firmware in the DT.

 2) Provide a framework which allows qemu to emulate the needed
    parts of the the firmware (i.e., allowing SMCs to be trapped back to
    qemu)
   

(1) is the best option for any situation where we don't have legacy
    to support (i.e., we're not trying to run old kernels which don't
    know about the DT binding)

(2) allows for the most authentic simulation in KVM.   It's also the
    only way to be backwards compatible with older kernels that don't
    understand the added DT bindings.


We would also want a way to turn the PSCI implementation in the
kernel off: that's valid for the kvmtool case, because it is part of
the canonical paravirtualised environment.  But it's not valid for the
qemu full emulation case where we probably want to punt HVC/SMC calls
back to qemu for emulation, or otherwise fault/ignore them (depending on
whether the board in question has the Security/Virtualisation
extensions, and on what the firmware is supposed to be present).

Cheers
---Dave