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Date:      Mon, 08 Jul 2002 20:46:52 -0400 (EDT)
From:      John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org>
To:        David Xu <bsddiy@yahoo.com>
Cc:        David Schultz <dschultz@uclink.Berkeley.EDU>, current@FreeBSD.ORG, Jonathan Lemon <jlemon@flugsvamp.com>
Subject:   Re: i386 trap code
Message-ID:  <XFMail.20020708204652.jhb@FreeBSD.org>
In-Reply-To: <20020708233758.1620.qmail@web20905.mail.yahoo.com>

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On 08-Jul-2002 David Xu wrote:
> 
> --- John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org> wrote:
>> 
>> On 07-Jul-2002 Jonathan Lemon wrote:
>> > On Sat, Jul 06, 2002 at 11:59:50PM -0700, David Xu wrote:
>> >> Jonthan,
>> >> 
>> >>   I just use DOS program as an example, for any program, if it wants to go
>> >> into VM86 mode, it is very easy, just calls i386_vm86() to initailize its
>> >> VM86 pcb extension, setups some memory area, then call sigreturn() to turn
>> >> into VM86 mode.
>> >>   I think global in_vm86call flags is a bug under SMP, it creates a race
>> >> condition. suppose this scenario:
>> >>   CPU A is running a simple VM86 code program.
>> >>   CPU B is running vm86_intcall() by some kernel driver (vesa module ?)
>> >>   CPU B set in_vm86call = 1
>> >>   CPU A gets a fault trap.
>> >>   CPU A runs trap(), and find that in_vm86call is set and handles the trap
>> >>         as  it is running vm86_intcall(), but it is not true and make a
>> mess.
>> > 
>> > Yes, as I mentioned earlier, the way the original vm86 bioscall worked 
>> > was to prevent an AST until the BIOS was done.  This relied on the giant
>> > lock for correctness, since we only allowed one CPU into the kernel at 
>> > once.  There probably needs to be some work done for -current in this area.
>> 
>> Since vm86_lock is a spin lock, you could possibly make in_vm86call per-cpu
>> or you could just check the lock instead of the variable to fix this.
>> 
>> -- 
>> 
>> John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org>  <><  http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/
>> "Power Users Use the Power to Serve!"  -  http://www.FreeBSD.org/
> 
> No, vm86_lock is not a spin lock, unless you change it now.
> I saw a line in vm86.c:
>   mtx_init(&vm86_lock, "vm86 lock", NULL, MTX_DEF);

Oof, bad memory on my part.  A per-thread flag would probably be best, although
using a per-PCB flag can work fine as well.  Esp. since the PCB is MD and the
flag would need to be MD.

> fixing in_vm86call is not diffcult, problem is old code stores some parameters
> in vm86 static pcb, so if the thread is preempted, when it switches back
> again, if it gets parameters from the pcb, these parameters is already modified
> 
> by cpu switch routine, old code assume it will never be preempted until BIOS
> returns, this is true under RELENG_4, but obviously it is not true in CURRENT
> source.

Ok.

-- 

John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org>  <><  http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/
"Power Users Use the Power to Serve!"  -  http://www.FreeBSD.org/

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