From: Wen Congyang <wency(a)cn.fujitsu.com>
Subject: Re: question about phys_base
Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2012 09:16:28 +0800
At 02/16/2012 12:17 AM, Dave Anderson Wrote:
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>> Hi, Dave
>>
>> I am implementing a new dump command in the qemu. The vmcore's
>> format is elf(like kdump). And I try to provide phys_base in
>> the PT_LOAD. But if the os uses the first vcpu do kdump, the
>> value of phys_base is wrong.
>>
>> I find a function x86_64_virt_phys_base() in crash's code.
>> Is it OK to call this function first? If the function
>> successes, we do not calculate phys_base according to PT_LOAD.
>
> I'm presuming that the qemu-generated ELF file is essentially
> a "clone" of a kdump ELF file, and therefore the initialization
> sequence would be:
>
> main()
> machdep_init(PRE_GDB)
> x86_64_init(PRE_GDB)
> x86_64_calc_phys_base()
>
> where it should fall into this part:
>
> if ((vd = get_kdump_vmcore_data())) {
> for (i = 0; i < vd->num_pt_load_segments; i++) {
> phdr = vd->load64 + i;
> if ((phdr->p_vaddr >= __START_KERNEL_map) &&
> !(IS_VMALLOC_ADDR(phdr->p_vaddr))) {
>
> machdep->machspec->phys_base = phdr->p_paddr
-
> (phdr->p_vaddr & ~(__START_KERNEL_map));
>
> if (CRASHDEBUG(1)) {
> fprintf(fp, "p_vaddr: %lx p_paddr: %lx
-> ",
> phdr->p_vaddr, phdr->p_paddr);
> fprintf(fp, "phys_base: %lx\n\n",
> machdep->machspec->phys_base);
> }
> break;
> }
> }
>
> return;
> }
>
> Question: will the qemu-generated ELF header contain a PT_LOAD segment that
> describes the mapped __START_KERNEL_map region?
>
> If the __START_KERNEL_map PT_LOAD segment does *not* exist, then the code above
> would fall through to the "return", and I suppose that you could call
> x86_64_virt_phys_base() there instead.
>
> If there *is* a __START_KERNEL_map PT_LOAD segment, are you saying that
> the calculation above would incorrectly calculate phys_base?
Because it is hard to calculate phys_base in qemu side. I try to do it like
the function get_kernel_base() in qemu.c. But if the os uses the vcpu to do
kdump, the phys_base is for the second kernel, not the first kernel. Another
problem is that it is for linux, and we donot which the guest is.
For the another problem, I don't know whether the way of checking the
type of running OS that is typically used, exists now, how about
letting users to specify the format through command-line? For example
--elf or --os=linux. Users who try to generate vmcore must know what
kind of OS is running, so I guess they can choose proper ones.
Of couse, if such way exists, it should be used.
>
> Ideally, there would be some other "differentiator" between qemu-generated
> and kdump-generated ELF headers -- while still being a KDUMP clone in all
> other respects. (Maybe an ELF NOTE?) And then preferably, that differentiator
> could be used to separate the code, i.e., something like:
The qemu-generated ELF headers may be the same as kdump-generated ELF headers.
Thanks
Wen Congyang
kdump ELF vmcore has further VMCOREINFO.
$ readelf -n /media/pub3/vmcores/vmcore-2.6.35.14-106.fc14.x86_64-10000-threads
Notes at offset 0x000001c8 with length 0x00000838:
Owner Data size Description
CORE 0x00000150 NT_PRSTATUS (prstatus structure)
CORE 0x00000150 NT_PRSTATUS (prstatus structure)
VMCOREINFO 0x00000557 Unknown note type: (0x00000000)
But diskdump/netdump ELF vmcore doesn't, so crash could possibly get
confused against this.
OTOH, I think qemu's CPU state information, CPUX86State structure, is
very useful debugging information. Because kvmdump format has the same
information, if this information is lost, this can be thouht of as a
kind of feature regression. So, how adding the information as new note
information? Then, this can help crash to distinguish the vmcore from
the original kdump's.
Thanks.
HATAYAMA, Daisuke
>
> if (qemu_generated_ELF_kdump() {
> x86_64_virt_phys_base();
> return;
> }
>
> if ((vd = get_kdump_vmcore_data())) {
> for (i = 0; i < vd->num_pt_load_segments; i++) {
> phdr = vd->load64 + i;
> if ((phdr->p_vaddr >= __START_KERNEL_map) &&
> ...
>
> Would that be possible?
>
> Dave
>
>