Re: [PATCH 00/13] KVM: MMU: fast page fault

[Xiao Guangrong <xiaoguangrong@linux.vnet.ibm.com>]

On 04/09/2012 09:20 PM, Avi Kivity wrote:

> On 04/06/2012 08:24 AM, Xiao Guangrong wrote:
>>
>> Foolish me, i should be crazy. Sorry for my mistake. :(
>>
>> Unfortunately, it can not work, we can not get a stable gfn from gpte or
>> sp->gfns[]. For example:
>>
>> beginning:
>> Gpte = Gfn1
>> gfn_to_pfn(Gfn1) = Pfn
>> Spte = Pfn
>> Gfn1 is write-free
>> Gfn2 is write-protected
>>
>>
>> VCPU 0                              VCPU 1                     VCPU 2
>>
>> fault on gpte
>> fast page fault path:
>>   set Spte.fast_pf
>>   get Gfn1 from Gpte/sp->gfns[]
>>   if (Gfn1 is writable)
>>                                 Pfn is swapped out:
>> 					Spte = 0
>> 				Gpte is modified to Gfn2,
>>                                 and Pfn is realloced and remapped
>>                                 to Gfn2, so:
>>                                         Spte = Pfn
>>
>>                                                           fast page fault path:
>>                                                              set Spte.fast_pf
>>
>>          cmpxchg  Spte+w
>>             OOPS!!!
>>   <we see Spte is not changed and
>>    happily make it writable, so gfn2 can be writable>
>>
>> It seems only a unique identification can prevent this. :(
>>
> 
> Ouch.
> 
> What about restricting this to role.direct=1?  Then gfn is stable?
> 


Yes.

The gfn of direct sp is stable since it is calculated by sp->gfn which is
independent with gpte.