linux-kernel - Re: [tip:x86/setup] x86, setup: "glove box" BIOS calls -- infrastructure

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Message-ID: <20090410080444.GC16512@elf.ucw.cz>
Date:	Fri, 10 Apr 2009 10:04:44 +0200
From:	Pavel Machek <pavel@....cz>
To:	mingo@...hat.com, hpa@...or.com, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	tglx@...utronix.de, hpa@...ux.intel.com, rjw@...k.pl
Cc:	linux-tip-commits@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [tip:x86/setup] x86, setup: "glove box" BIOS calls --
	infrastructure

Hi!

> x86, setup: "glove box" BIOS calls -- infrastructure
> 
> Impact: new interfaces (not yet used)
> 
> For all the platforms out there, there is an infinite number of buggy
> BIOSes.  This adds infrastructure to treat BIOS interrupts more like
> toxic waste and "glove box" them -- we switch out the register set,
> perform the BIOS interrupt, and then restore the previous state.
> 
> LKML-Reference: <49DE7F79.4030106@...or.com>
> Signed-off-by: H. Peter Anvin <hpa@...ux.intel.com>
> Cc: Pavel Machek <pavel@....cz>

Sounds quite sane. Disadvantage is that we will no longer detect those
buggy BIOSen.

> +/*
> + * "Glove box" for BIOS calls.  Avoids the constant problems with BIOSes
> + * touching memory they shouldn't be.
> + */

Touching memory? AFAICT it only prevents touching registers.

> +	.code16
> +	.text
> +	.globl	intcall
> +	.type	intcall, @function
> +intcall:
> +	/* Self-modify the INT instruction.  Ugly, but works. */
> +	cmpb	%al, 3f
> +	je	1f
> +	movb	%al, 3f
> +	jmp	1f		/* Synchronize pipeline */
> +1:

There are various CPU bugs with self-modifying code, but I guess we
are not using it heavily enough. Also we are single-threaded so that
should be ok.
								Pavel

-- 
(english) http://www.livejournal.com/~pavelmachek
(cesky, pictures) http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~pavel/picture/horses/blog.html
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