linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] efi/libstub/fdt: Standardize the names of EFI stub parameters

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Date:	Thu, 10 Sep 2015 11:19:51 +0100
From:	Stefano Stabellini <stefano.stabellini@...citrix.com>
To:	Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@....com>
CC:	Shannon Zhao <zhaoshenglong@...wei.com>,
	"linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org" 
	<linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org>,
	"devicetree@...r.kernel.org" <devicetree@...r.kernel.org>,
	"linux-efi@...r.kernel.org" <linux-efi@...r.kernel.org>,
	"Ian.Campbell@...rix.com" <Ian.Campbell@...rix.com>,
	"linux-doc@...r.kernel.org" <linux-doc@...r.kernel.org>,
	"ard.biesheuvel@...aro.org" <ard.biesheuvel@...aro.org>,
	"linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	"leif.lindholm@...aro.org" <leif.lindholm@...aro.org>,
	"xen-devel@...ts.xen.org" <xen-devel@...ts.xen.org>,
	"julien.grall@...rix.com" <julien.grall@...rix.com>,
	"freebsd-arm@...ebsd.org" <freebsd-arm@...ebsd.org>,
	"matt.fleming@...el.com" <matt.fleming@...el.com>,
	"christoffer.dall@...aro.org" <christoffer.dall@...aro.org>,
	"jbeulich@...e.com" <jbeulich@...e.com>,
	"peter.huangpeng@...wei.com" <peter.huangpeng@...wei.com>,
	"stefano.stabellini@...citrix.com" <stefano.stabellini@...citrix.com>,
	"shannon.zhao@...aro.org" <shannon.zhao@...aro.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] efi/libstub/fdt: Standardize the names of EFI stub
 parameters

On Thu, 10 Sep 2015, Mark Rutland wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm not necessarily opposed to the renaming, but I think that this is
> the least important thing to standardize for this to work.
> 
> On Thu, Sep 10, 2015 at 09:41:56AM +0100, Shannon Zhao wrote:
> > From: Shannon Zhao <shannon.zhao@...aro.org>
> > 
> > These EFI stub parameters are used to internal communication between EFI
> > stub and Linux kernel and EFI stub creates these parameters. But for Xen
> > on ARM when booting with UEFI, Xen will create a minimal DT providing
> > these parameters for Dom0 and Dom0 is not only Linux kernel, but also
> > other OS (such as FreeBSD) which will be used in the future.
> 
> Currently the Linux EFI stub and kernel have a symbiotic relationship,
> because they're intimately coupled and we don't have kexec (yet) on EFI
> platforms to loosen that coupling.
> 
> If an agent other than the (kernel-specific) stub is going to provide
> this to the kernel, then we need more specified than just the property
> names.
> 
> That at least includes the following:
> 
> * The state of boot services (we currently have the EFI stub call
>   ExitBootServices(), and I believe this is crucial to the plan for
>   kexec).
> 
> * The state of the address map (we currently have the EFI stub call
>   SetVirtualAddressMap()).
> 
> * The virtual address range(s) that SetVirtualAddressMap() may map
>   elements to (this logic is currently in the EFI stub, and this matches
>   the expectations of the kernel that it is tied to).
> 
> > So here we plan to standardize the names by dropping the prefix
> > "linux," and make them common to other OS. Also this will not break
> > the compatibility since these parameters are used to internal
> > communication between EFI stub and kernel.
> 
> For the moment this is true, but will not be once we have kexec, so
> there's a dependency (or anti-dependency) there.
> 
> > Signed-off-by: Shannon Zhao <shannon.zhao@...aro.org>
> > ---
> > Look at [1] for the discussion about this in Xen ML. The purpose of this
> > patch is to standardize the names to make Linux ARM kernel work on Xen
> > with UEFI. Also it hopes other OS(e.g. FreeBSD), which will be used as
> > Dom0 on Xen, could support this mechanism as well.
> > 
> > [1]http://lists.xenproject.org/archives/html/xen-devel/2015-08/msg02250.html
> 
> Per this post, it looks like to pass a DTB to the kernel Xen already
> needs to know it's a Linux kernel...
> 
> I wasn't aware that there was a common standard for arm(64) kernels
> other than a PE/COFF EFI application.
> 
> Does Xen not talk to EFI itself and/or give the kernel a virtual EFI
> interface?

Xen talks to EFI itself but the interface provided to dom0 is somewhat
different: there are no BootServices (Xen calls ExitBootServices before
running the kernel), and the RuntimeServices go via hypercalls (see
drivers/xen/efi.c).
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@...r.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/