Re: i686 quirk for AMD Geode

H. Peter Anvin
2009-11-08T02:15:06Z

On 11/07/2009 03:11 AM, Matteo Croce wrote:
> --- /dev/null 1970-01-01 00:00:00.000000000 +0000
> +++ b/arch/x86/kernel/nopl_emu.c 2009-11-07 11:59:17.667748571 +0100
> @@ -0,0 +1,103 @@
> +/*
> + * linux/arch/x86/kernel/nopl_emu.c
> + *
> + * Copyright (C) 2002 Willy Tarreau
> + * Copyright (C) 2009 Matteo Croce
> + */
> +
> +#include <linux/linkage.h>
> +#include <asm/math_emu.h>
> +#include <asm/traps.h>
> +
> +/* This code can be used to allow the AMD Geode to hopefully correctly execute
> + * some code which was originally compiled for an i686, by emulating NOPL,
> + * the only missing i686 instruction in the CPU
> + *
> + * Willy Tarreau <willy@meta-x.org>
> + * Matteo Croce <technoboy85@gmail.com>
> + */
> +

If we're doing to introduce a missed-instruction interpreter (which is
what this is) in the kernel, it needs to handle all the subtleties of
x86 execution correctly; in particular I believe it needs to check the
code segment limits, permissions, and mode. Things it doesn't
understand it can SIGILL (or, if more appropriate, SIGSEGV) on, of course.

Personally I think the easiest is to verify that the code segment is
flat 32 bits or even more specifically CS == USER_CS, and SIGILL otherwise.

-hpa

--
H. Peter Anvin, Intel Open Source Technology Center
I work for Intel. I don't speak on their behalf.