Re: [tip:x86/urgent] x86-64, modify_ldt: Ban 16-bit segments on 64-bit kernels

Brian Gerst
2014-04-11T18:35:09Z

On Fri, Apr 11, 2014 at 2:29 PM, H. Peter Anvin <hpa@zytor.com> wrote:
> On 04/11/2014 11:27 AM, Brian Gerst wrote:
>> Is this bug really still present in modern CPUs? This change breaks
>> running 16-bit apps in Wine. I have a few really old games I like to
>> play on occasion, and I don't have a copy of Win 3.11 to put in a VM.
>
> It is not a bug, per se, but an architectural definition issue, and it
> is present in all x86 processors from all vendors.
>
> Yes, it does break running 16-bit apps in Wine, although Wine could be
> modified to put 16-bit apps in a container. However, this is at best a
> marginal use case.

Marginal or not, it is still userspace breakage.