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@@ -50,6 +50,65 @@ Also see [[device drivers and IO systems]].
* I/O MMU.
+
+### IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2012-08-15
+
+ <carli2> hi. does hurd support mesa?
+ <braunr> carli2: software only, but yes
+ <carli2> :(
+ <carli2> so you did not solve the problem with the CS checkers and GPU DMA
+ for microkernels yet, right?
+ <braunr> cs = ?
+ <carli2> control stream
+ <carli2> the data sent to the gpu
+ <braunr> no
+ <braunr> and to be honest we're not currently trying to
+ <carli2> well, a microkernel containing cs checkers for each hardware is
+ not a microkernel any more
+ <braunr> the problem is having the ability to check
+ <braunr> or rather, giving only what's necessary to delegate checking to
+ mmus
+ <carli2> but maybe the kernel could have a smaller interface like a
+ function to check if a memory block is owned by a process
+ <braunr> i'm not sure what you refer to
+ <carli2> about DMA-capable devices you can send messages to
+ <braunr> carli2: dma must be delegated to a trusted server
+ <carli2> linux checks the data sent to these devices, parses them and
+ checks all pointers if they are in a memory range that the client is
+ allowed to read/write from
+ <braunr> the client ?
+ <carli2> in linux, 3d drivers are in user space, so the kernel side checks
+ the pointer sent to the GPU
+ <youpi> carli2: mach could do that as well
+ <braunr> well, there is a rather large part in kernel space too
+ <carli2> so in hurd I trust some drivers to not do evil things?
+ <braunr> those in the kernel yes
+ <carli2> what does "in the kernel" mean? afaik a microkernel only has
+ memory manager and some basic memory sharing and messaging functionality
+ <braunr> did you read about the hurd ?
+ <braunr> mach is considered an hybrid kernel, not a true microkernel
+ <braunr> even with all drivers outside, it's still an hybrid
+ <youpi> although we're to move some parts into userlands :)
+ <youpi> braunr: ah, why?
+ <braunr> youpi: the vm part is too large
+ <youpi> ok
+ <braunr> the microkernel dogma is no policy inside the kernel
+ <braunr> "except scheduling because it's very complicated"
+ <braunr> but all modern systems have moved memory management outisde the
+ kernel, leaving just the kernel abstraction inside
+ <braunr> the adress space kernel abstraction
+ <braunr> and the two components required to make it work are what l4re
+ calls region mappers (the rough equivalent of our vm_map), which decides
+ how to allocate regions in an address space
+ <braunr> and the pager, like ours, which are already external
+ <carli2> i'm not a OS developer, i mostly develop games, web services and
+ sometimes I fix gpu drivers
+ <braunr> that was just FYI
+ <braunr> but yes, dma must be considered something privileged
+ <braunr> and the hurd doesn't have the infrastructure you seem to be
+ looking for
+
+
## I/O Ports
* Security considerations.
@@ -63,8 +122,13 @@ Also see [[device drivers and IO systems]].
* [[GNU Mach|microkernel/mach/gnumach]] is said to have a high overhead when
doing RPC calls.
+
## System Boot
+A similar problem is described in
+[[community/gsoc/project_ideas/unionfs_boot]], and needs to be implemented.
+
+
### IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2011-07-27
< braunr> btw, was there any formulation of the modifications required to
@@ -89,12 +153,270 @@ Also see [[device drivers and IO systems]].
< Tekk_> mhm
< braunr> s/disk/storage/
+
### IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2012-04-25
<youpi> btw, remember the initrd thing?
<youpi> I just came across task.c in libstore/ :)
+### IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2012-07-17
+
+ <bddebian> OK, here is a stupid question I have always had. If you move
+ PCI and disk drivers in to userspace, how do do initial bootstrap to get
+ the system booting?
+ <braunr> that's hard
+ <braunr> basically you make the boot loader load all the components you
+ need in ram
+ <braunr> then you make it give each component something (ports) so they can
+ communicate
+
+
+### IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2012-08-12
+
+ <antrik> braunr: so, about booting with userspace disk drivers
+ <antrik> after rereading the chapter in my thesis, I see that there aren't
+ really all than many interesting options...
+ <antrik> I pondered some variants involving a temporary boot filesystem
+ with handoff to the real root FS; but ultimately concluded with another
+ option that is slightly less elegant but probably gets a much better
+ usefulness/complexity ratio:
+ <antrik> just start the root filesystem as the first process as we used to;
+ only hack it so that initially it doesn't try to access the disk, but
+ instead gets the files from GRUB
+ <antrik> once the disk driver is operational, we flip a switch, and the
+ root filesystem starts reading stuff from disk normally
+ <antrik> transparently for all other processes
+ <bddebian> How does grub access the disk without drivers?
+ <antrik> bddebian: GRUB obviously has its own drivers... that's how it
+ loads the kernel and modules
+ <antrik> bddebian: basically, it would have to load additional modules for
+ all the components necessary to get the Hurd disk driver going
+ <bddebian> Right, why wouldn't that be possible?
+ <antrik> (I have some more crazy ideas too -- but these are mostly
+ orthogonal :-) )
+ <antrik> ?
+ <antrik> I'm describing this because I'm pretty sure it *is* possible :-)
+ <bddebian> That grub loads the kernel and whatever server/module gets
+ access to the disk
+ <antrik> not sure what you mean
+ <bddebian> Well as usual I probably don't know the proper terminology but
+ why could grub load gnumach and the hurd "disk server" that contains the
+ userspace drivers?
+ <antrik> disk server?
+ <bddebian> Oh FFS whatever contains the disk drivers :)
+ <bddebian> diskdde, whatever :)
+ <antrik> actually, I never liked the idea of having a big driver blob very
+ much... ideally each driver should have it's own file
+ <antrik> but that's admittedly beside the point :-)
+ <antrik> its
+ <antrik> so to restate: in addition to gnumach, ext2fs.static, and ld.so,
+ in the new scenario GRUB will also load exec, the disk driver, any
+ libraries these two depend upon, and any additional infrastructure
+ involved in getting the disk driver running (for automatic probing or
+ whatever)
+ <antrik> probably some other Hurd core servers too, so we can have a more
+ complete POSIX environment for the disk driver to run in
+ <bddebian> There ya go :)
+ <antrik> the interesting part is modifying ext2fs so it will access only
+ the GRUB-provided files, until it is told that it's OK now to access the
+ real disk
+ <antrik> (and the mechanism how ext2 actually gets at the GRUB-provided
+ files)
+ <bddebian> Or write some new really small ext2fs? :)
+ <antrik> ?
+ <bddebian> I'm just talking out my butt. Something temporary that gets
+ disposed of when the real disk is available :)
+ <antrik> well, I mentioned above that I considered some handoff
+ schemes... but they would probably be more complex to implement than
+ doing the switchover internally in ext2
+ <bddebian> Ah
+ <bddebian> boot up in a ramdisk? :)
+ <antrik> (and the temporary FS would *not* be an ext2 obviously, but rather
+ some special ramdisk-like filesystem operating from GRUB-loaded files...)
+ <antrik> again, that would require a complicated handoff-scheme
+ <bddebian> Bah, what do I know? :)
+ <antrik> (well, you could of course go with a trivial chroot()... but that
+ would be ugly and inefficient, as the initial processes would still run
+ from the ramdisk)
+ <bddebian> Aren't most things running in memory initially anyway? At what
+ point must it have access to the real disk?
+ <braunr> antrik: but doesn't that require that disk drivers be statically
+ linked ?
+ <braunr> and having all disk drivers in separate tasks (which is what we
+ prefer to blobs as you put it) seems to pretty much forbid using static
+ linking
+ <braunr> hm actually, i don't see how any solution could work without
+ static linking, as it would create a recursion
+ <braunr> and the only one required is the one used by the root file system
+ <braunr> others can be run from the dynamically linked version
+ <braunr> antrik: i agree, it's a good approach, requiring only a slightly
+ more complicated boot script/sequence
+ <antrik> bddebian: at some point we have to access the real disk so we
+ don't have to work exclusively with stuff loaded by grub... but there is
+ no specific point where it *has* to happen. generally speaking, the
+ sooner the better
+ <antrik> braunr: why wouldn't that work with a dynamically linked disk
+ driver? we only need to make sure all required libraries are loaded by
+ grub too
+ <braunr> antrik: i have a problem with that approach :p
+ <braunr> antrik: it would probably require a reboot when those libraries
+ are upgraded, wouldn't it ?
+ <antrik> I'd actually wish we could run with a dynamically linked ext2fs as
+ well... but that would require a separated boot filesystem and some kind
+ of handoff approach, which would be much more complicated I fear...
+ <braunr> and if a driver is restarted, would it use those libraries too ?
+ and if so, how to find them ?
+ <braunr> but how can you run a dynamically linked root file system ?
+ <braunr> unless the libraries it uses are provided by something else, as
+ you said
+ <antrik> braunr: well, if you upgrade the libraries, *and* want the disk
+ driver to use the upgraded libraries, you are obviously in a tricky
+ situation ;-)
+ <braunr> yes
+ <antrik> perhaps you could tell ext2 to preload the new libraries before
+ restarting the disk driver...
+ <antrik> but that's a minor quibble anyways IMHO
+ <braunr> but that case isn't that important actually, since upgrading these
+ libraries usually means we're upgrading the system, which can imply a
+ reoobt
+ <braunr> i don't think it is
+ <braunr> it looks very complicated to me
+ <braunr> think of restart as after a crash :p
+ <braunr> you can't preload stuff in that case
+ <antrik> uh? I don't see anything particularily complicated. but my point
+ was more that it's not a big thing if that's not implemented IMHO
+ <braunr> right
+ <braunr> it's not that important
+ <braunr> but i still think statically linking is better
+ <braunr> although i'm not sure about some details
+ <antrik> oh, you mean how to make the root filesystem use new libraries
+ without a reboot? that would be tricky indeed... but this is not possible
+ right now either, so that's not a regression
+ <braunr> i assume that, when statically linking, only the .o providing the
+ required symbols are included, right ?
+ <antrik> making the root filesystem restartable is a whole different epic
+ story ;-)
+ <braunr> antrik: not the root file system, but the disk driver
+ <braunr> but i guess it's the same
+ <antrik> no, it's not
+ <braunr> ah
+ <antrik> for the disk driver it's really not that hard I believe
+ <antrik> still some extra effort, but definitely doable
+ <braunr> with the preload you mentioned
+ <antrik> yes
+ <braunr> i see
+ <braunr> i don't think it's worth the trouble actually
+ <braunr> statically linking looks way simpler and should make for smaller
+ binaries than if libraries were loaded by grub
+ <antrik> no, I really don't want statically linked disk drivers
+ <braunr> why ?
+ <antrik> again, I'd prefer even ext2fs to be dynamic -- only that would be
+ much more complicated
+ <braunr> the point of dynamically linking is sharing
+ <antrik> while dynamic disk drivers do not require any extra effort beyond
+ loading the libraries with grub
+ <braunr> but if it means sharing big files that are seldom used (i assume
+ there is a lot of code that simply isn't used by hurd servers), i don't
+ see the point
+ <antrik> right. and with the approach I proposed that will work just as it
+ should
+ <antrik> err... what big files?
+ <braunr> glibc ?
+ <antrik> I don't get your point
+ <antrik> you prefer statically linking everything needed before the disk
+ driver runs (which BTW is much more than only the disk driver itself) to
+ using normal shared libraries like the rest of the system?...
+ <braunr> it's not "like the rest of the system"
+ <braunr> the libraries loaded by grub wouldn't be back by the ext2fs server
+ <braunr> they would be wired in memory
+ <braunr> you'd have two copies of them, the one loaded by grub, and the one
+ shared by normal executables
+ <antrik> no
+ <braunr> i prefer static linking because, if done correctly, the combined
+ size of the root file system and the disk driver should be smaller than
+ that of the rootfs+disk driver and libraries loaded by grub
+ <antrik> apparently I was not quite clear how my approach would work :-(
+ <braunr> probably not
+ <antrik> (preventing that is actually the reason why I do *not* want as
+ simple boot filesystem+chroot approach)
+ <braunr> and initramfs can be easily freed after init
+ <braunr> an*
+ <braunr> it wouldn't be a chroot but something a bit more involved like
+ switch_root in linux
+ <antrik> not if various servers use files provided by that init filesystem
+ <antrik> yes, that's the complex handoff I'm talking about
+ <braunr> yes
+ <braunr> that's one approach
+ <antrik> as I said, that would be a quite elegant approach (allowing a
+ dynamically linked ext2); but it would be much more complicated to
+ implement I believe
+ <braunr> how would it allow a dynamically linked ext2 ?
+ <braunr> how can the root file system be linked with code backed by itself
+ ?
+ <braunr> unless it requires wiring all its memory ?
+ <antrik> it would be loaded from the init filesystem before the handoff
+ <braunr> init sn't the problem here
+ <braunr> i understand how it would boot
+ <braunr> but then, you need to make sure the root fs is never used to
+ service page faults on its own address space
+ <braunr> or any address space it depends on, like the disk driver
+ <braunr> so this basically requires wiring all the system libraries, glibc
+ included
+ <braunr> why not
+ <antrik> ah. yes, that's something I covered in a separate section in my
+ thesis ;-)
+ <braunr> eh :)
+ <antrik> we have to do that anyways, if we want *any* dynamically linked
+ components (such as the disk driver) in the paging path
+ <braunr> yes
+ <braunr> and it should make swapping more reliable too
+ <antrik> so that adds a couple MiB of wired memory... I guess we will just
+ have to live with that
+ <braunr> yes it seems acceptable
+ <braunr> thanks
+ <antrik> (it is actually one reason why I want to avoid static linking as
+ much as possible... so at least we have to wire these libraries only
+ *once*)
+ <antrik> anyways, back to my "simpler" approach
+ <antrik> the idea is that a (static) ext2fs would still be the first task
+ running, and immediately able to serve filesystem access requests -- only
+ it would serve these requests from files preloaded by GRUB rather than
+ the actual disk driver
+ <braunr> i understand now
+ <antrik> until a switch is flipped telling it that now the disk driver (and
+ anything it depends upon) is operational
+ <braunr> you still need to make sure all this is wired
+ <antrik> yes
+ <antrik> that's orthogonal
+ <antrik> which is why I have a separate section about it :-)
+ <braunr> what was the relation with ggi ?
+ <antrik> none strictly speaking
+ <braunr> i'll rephrase it: how did it end up in your thesis ?
+ <antrik> I just covered all aspects of userspace drivers in one of the
+ "introduction" sections of my thesis
+ <braunr> ok
+ <antrik> before going into specifics of KGI
+ <antrik> (and throwing in along the way that most of the issues described
+ do not matter for KGI ;-) )
+ <braunr> hehe
+ <braunr> i'm wondering, do we have mlockall on the hurd ? it seems not
+ <braunr> that's something deeply missing in mach
+ <antrik> well, bootstrap in general *is* actually relevant for KGI as well,
+ because of console messages during boot... but the filesystem bootstrap
+ is mostly irrelevant there ;-)
+ <antrik> braunr: oh? that's a problem then... I just assumed we have it
+ <braunr> well, it's possible to implement MCL_CURRENT, but not MCL_FUTURE
+ <braunr> or at least, it would be a bit difficult
+ <braunr> every allocation would need to be aware of that property
+ <braunr> it's better to have it managed by the vm system
+ <braunr> mach-defpager has its own version of vm_allocate for that
+ <antrik> braunr: I don't think we care about MCL_FUTURE here
+ <antrik> hm, wait... MCL_CURRENT is fine for code, but it might indeed be a
+ problem for dynamically allocated memory :-(
+ <braunr> yes
+
+
# Plan
* Examine what other systems are doing.
@@ -116,6 +438,112 @@ Also see [[device drivers and IO systems]].
and parallel port drivers, using `libtrivfs`.
+## I/O Server
+
+### IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2012-08-10
+
+ <braunr> usually you'd have an I/O server, and serveral device drivers
+ using it
+ <bddebian> Well maybe that's my question. Should there be unique servers
+ for say ISA, PCI, etc or could all of that be served by one "server"?
+ <braunr> forget about ISA
+ <bddebian> How? Oh because the ISA bus is now served via a PCI bridge?
+ <braunr> the I/O server would merely be there to help device drivers map
+ only what they require, and avoid conflicts
+ <braunr> because it's a relic of the past :p
+ <braunr> and because it requires too high privileges
+ <bddebian> But still exists in several PCs :)
+ <braunr> so usually, you'd directly ask the kernel for the I/O ports you
+ need
+ <mel-> so do floppy drives
+ <mel-> :)
+ <braunr> if i'm right, even the l4 guys do it that way
+ <braunr> he's right, some devices are still considered ISA
+ <bddebian> But that is where my confusion lies. Something has to figure
+ out what/where those I/O ports are
+ <braunr> and that's why i tell you to forget about it
+ <braunr> ISA has both statically allocated ports (the historical ones) and
+ others usually detected through PnP, when it works
+ <braunr> PCI is much cleaner, and memory mapped I/O is both better and much
+ more popular currently
+ <bddebian> So let's say I have a PCI SCSI card. I need some device driver
+ to know how to talk to that, right?
+ <bddebian> something is going to enumerate all the PCI devices and map them
+ to and address space
+ <braunr> bddebian: that would be the I/O server
+ <braunr> we'll call it the PCI server
+ <bddebian> OK, that is where I am headed. What if everything isn't PCI?
+ Is the "I/O server" generic enough?
+ <youpi> nowadays everything is PCI
+ <bddebian> So we are completely ignoring legacy hardware?
+ <braunr> we could have separate servers using a shared library that would
+ provide allocation routines like resource maps
+ <braunr> yes
+ <youpi> for what is not, the translator just needs to be run as root
+ <youpi> to get i/o perm from the kernel
+ <braunr> the idea for projects like ours, where the user base is very small
+ is: don't implement what you can't test
+ <youpi> bddebian: legacy can not be supported in a nice way, so for them we
+ can just afford a bad solution
+ <youpi> i.e. leave the driver in kernel
+ <braunr> right
+ <youpi> e.g. the keyboard
+ <bddebian> Well what if I have a USB keyboard? :-P
+ <braunr> that's a different matter
+ <youpi> USB keyboard is not legacy hardware
+ <youpi> it's usb
+ <youpi> which can be enumerated like pci
+ <braunr> and USB uses PCI
+ <youpi> and pci could be on usb :)
+ <braunr> so it's just a separate stack on top of the PCI server
+ <bddebian> Sure so would SCSI in my example above but is still a seperate
+ bus
+ <braunr> netbsd has a very nice way of attaching drivers to buses
+ <youpi> bddebian: also, yes, and it can be enumerated
+ <bddebian> Which was my original question. This magic I/O server handles
+ all of the buses?
+ <youpi> no, just PCI, and then you'd have other servers for other busses
+ <braunr> i didn't mean that there would be *one* I/O server instance
+ <bddebian> So then it isn't a generic I/O server is it?
+ <bddebian> Ahhhh
+ <youpi> that way you can even put scsi over ppp or other crazy things
+ <braunr> it's more of an idea
+ <braunr> there would probably be a generic interface for basic stuff
+ <braunr> and i assume it could be augmented with specific (e.g. USB)
+ interfaces for servers that need more detailed communication
+ <braunr> (well, i'm pretty sure of it)
+ <bddebian> So the I/O server generalizes all functions, say read and write,
+ and then the PCI, USB, SCIS, whatever servers are contacted by it?
+ <braunr> no, not read and write
+ <braunr> resource allocation rather
+ <youpi> and enumeration
+ <braunr> probing perhaps
+ <braunr> bddebian: the goal of the I/O server is to make it possible for
+ device drivers to access the resources they need without a chance to
+ interfere with other device drivers
+ <braunr> (at least, that's one of the goals)
+ <braunr> so a driver would request the bus space matching the device(s) and
+ obtain that through memory mapping
+ <bddebian> Shouldn't that be in the "global address space"? SOrry if I am
+ using the wrong terminology
+ <youpi> well, the i/o server should also trigger the start of that driver
+ <youpi> bddebian: address space is not a matter for drivers
+ <braunr> bddebian: i'm not sure what you think of with "global address
+ space"
+ <youpi> bddebian: it's just a matter for the pci enumerator when (and if)
+ it places the BARs in physical address space
+ <youpi> drivers merely request mapping that, they don't need to know about
+ actual physical addresses
+ <braunr> i'm almost sure you lost him at BARs
+ <braunr> :(
+ <braunr> youpi: that's what i meant with probing actually
+ <bddebian> Actually I know BARs I have been reading on PCI :)
+ <bddebian> I suppose physicall address space is more what I meant when I
+ used "global address space"
+ <braunr> i see
+ <youpi> bddebian: probably, yes
+
+
# Documentation
* [An Architecture for Device Drivers Executing as User-Level