On 15.08.2012, at 20:33, Scott Wood wrote:

> On 08/15/2012 01:29 PM, Alexander Graf wrote:
>> 
>> On 15.08.2012, at 20:27, Alexander Graf wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>> On 15.08.2012, at 20:16, Scott Wood wrote:
>>> 
>>>> On 08/15/2012 01:01 PM, Alexander Graf wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> On 15.08.2012, at 19:47, Scott Wood wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>> On 08/15/2012 12:27 PM, Alexander Graf wrote:
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> On 15.08.2012, at 19:26, Scott Wood wrote:
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> On 08/15/2012 04:52 AM, Alexander Graf wrote:
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> On 15.08.2012, at 03:23, Scott Wood wrote:
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> On 08/14/2012 06:04 PM, Alexander Graf wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>> When we map a page that wasn't icache cleared before, do so when 
>>>>>>>>>>> first
>>>>>>>>>>> mapping it in KVM using the same information bits as the Linux 
>>>>>>>>>>> mapping
>>>>>>>>>>> logic. That way we are 100% sure that any page we map does not have 
>>>>>>>>>>> stale
>>>>>>>>>>> entries in the icache.
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> We're not really 100% sure of that -- this only handles the case 
>>>>>>>>>> where
>>>>>>>>>> the kernel does the dirtying, not when it's done by QEMU or the 
>>>>>>>>>> guest.
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> When the guest does it, the guest is responsible for clearing the
>>>>>>>>> icache. Same for QEMU. It needs to clear it when doing DMA.
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> Sure.  I was just worried that that commit message could be taken the
>>>>>>>> wrong way, as in "we no longer need the QEMU icache flushing patch".
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> However, what is still broken would be a direct /dev/mem map. There
>>>>>>>>> QEMU should probably clear the icache before starting the guest, in
>>>>>>>>> case another guest was running on that same memory before.
>>>>>>>>> Fortunately, we don't have that mode available in upstream QEMU :).
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> How is QEMU loading images different if it's /dev/mem versus ordinary
>>>>>>>> anonymous memory?  You probably won't have stale icache data in the
>>>>>>>> latter case (which makes it less likely to be a problem in pratice), 
>>>>>>>> but
>>>>>>>> in theory you could have data that still hasn't left the dcache.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> It's the same. I just talked to Ben about this today in a different 
>>>>>>> context and we should be safe :).
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Safe how?
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> If it's truly the same, we're definitely not safe, since I had problems
>>>>>> with this using /dev/mem (particularly when changing the kernel image
>>>>>> without a host reboot) before I put in the icache flush patch.
>>>>> 
>>>>> QEMU needs to icache flush everything it puts into guest memory.
>>>> 
>>>> Yes.  I thought you meant we should be safe as things are now.
>>> 
>>> Hrm. What happened to your patch that flushes the icache on 
>>> cpu_physical_memory_rw?
> 
> IIRC Ben wanted it conditionalized to not slow things down on
> icache-coherent systems, and I never got around to respinning it.

No, he was saying that DMA doesn't flush the icache:

  http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.emulators.qemu/119022/focus=119086

> 
>> Ah, if I read Ben's comment correctly we only need it for rom loads, not 
>> always for cpu_physical_memory_rw.
> 
> Why?

Because guest Linux apparently assumes that DMA'd memory needs to be icache 
flushed.


Alex

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