Re: framebuffer corruption due to overlapping stp instructions on arm64

[Mikulas Patocka]

On Mon, 6 Aug 2018, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:

> On 6 August 2018 at 19:09, Mikulas Patocka <mpatocka@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> >
> > On Mon, 6 Aug 2018, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:
> >
> >> On 6 August 2018 at 14:42, Robin Murphy <robin.murphy@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> >> > On 06/08/18 11:25, Mikulas Patocka wrote:
> >> > [...]
> >> >>>
> >> >>> None of this explains why some transactions fail to make it across
> >> >>> entirely. The overlapping writes in question write the same data to
> >> >>> the memory locations that are covered by both, and so the ordering in
> >> >>> which the transactions are received should not affect the outcome.
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >> You're right that the corruption couldn't be explained just by reordering
> >> >> writes. My hypothesis is that the PCIe controller tries to disambiguate
> >> >> the overlapping writes, but the disambiguation logic was not tested and it
> >> >> is buggy. If there's a barrier between the overlapping writes, the PCIe
> >> >> controller won't see any overlapping writes, so it won't trigger the
> >> >> faulty disambiguation logic and it works.
> >> >>
> >> >> Could the ARM engineers look if there's some chicken bit in Cortex-A72
> >> >> that could insert barriers between non-cached writes automatically?
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > I don't think there is, and even if there was I imagine it would have a
> >> > pretty hideous effect on non-coherent DMA buffers and the various other
> >> > places in which we have Normal-NC mappings of actual system RAM.
> >> >
> >>
> >> Looking at the A72 manual, there is one chicken bit that looks like it
> >> may be related:
> >>
> >> CPUACTLR_EL1 bit #50:
> >>
> >> 0 Enables store streaming on NC/GRE memory type. This is the reset value.
> >> 1 Disables store streaming on NC/GRE memory type.
> >>
> >> so putting something like
> >>
> >> mrs x0, S3_1_C15_C2_0
> >> orr x0, x0, #(1 << 50)
> >> msr S3_1_C15_C2_0, x0
> >>
> >> in __cpu_setup() would be worth a try.
> >
> > It won't boot.
> >
> > But if i write the same value that was read, it also won't boot.
> >
> > I created a simple kernel module that reads this register and it has bit
> > 32 set, all other bits clear. But when I write the same value into it, the
> > core that does the write is stuck in infinite loop.
> >
> > So, it seems that we are writing this register from a wrong place.
> >
> 
> Ah, my bad. I didn't look closely enough at the description:
> 
> """
> The accessibility to the CPUACTLR_EL1 by Exception level is:
> 
> EL0              -
> EL1(NS)          RW (a)
> EL1(S)           RW (a)
> EL2              RW (b)
> EL3(SCR.NS = 1)  RW
> EL3(SCR.NS = 0)  RW
> 
> (a) Write access if ACTLR_EL3.CPUACTLR is 1 and ACTLR_EL2.CPUACTLR is
> 1, or ACTLR_EL3.CPUACTLR is 1 and SCR.NS is 0.
> """
> 
> so you'll have to do this from ARM Trusted Firmware. If you're
> comfortable rebuilding that:
> 
> diff --git a/include/lib/cpus/aarch64/cortex_a72.h
> b/include/lib/cpus/aarch64/cortex_a72.h
> index bfd64918625b..a7b8cf4be0c6 100644
> --- a/include/lib/cpus/aarch64/cortex_a72.h
> +++ b/include/lib/cpus/aarch64/cortex_a72.h
> @@ -31,6 +31,7 @@
>  #define CORTEX_A72_ACTLR_EL1                   S3_1_C15_C2_0
> 
>  #define CORTEX_A72_ACTLR_DISABLE_L1_DCACHE_HW_PFTCH    (1 << 56)
> +#define CORTEX_A72_ACTLR_DIS_NC_GRE_STORE_STREAMING    (1 << 50)
>  #define CORTEX_A72_ACTLR_NO_ALLOC_WBWA         (1 << 49)
>  #define CORTEX_A72_ACTLR_DCC_AS_DCCI           (1 << 44)
>  #define CORTEX_A72_ACTLR_EL1_DIS_INSTR_PREFETCH                (1 << 32)
> diff --git a/lib/cpus/aarch64/cortex_a72.S b/lib/cpus/aarch64/cortex_a72.S
> index 55e508678284..5914d6ee3ba6 100644
> --- a/lib/cpus/aarch64/cortex_a72.S
> +++ b/lib/cpus/aarch64/cortex_a72.S
> @@ -133,6 +133,15 @@ func cortex_a72_reset_func
>         orr     x0, x0, #CORTEX_A72_ECTLR_SMP_BIT
>         msr     CORTEX_A72_ECTLR_EL1, x0
>         isb
> +
> +       /* ---------------------------------------------
> +        * Disables store streaming on NC/GRE memory type.
> +        * ---------------------------------------------
> +        */
> +       mrs     x0, CORTEX_A72_ACTLR_EL1
> +       orr     x0, x0, #CORTEX_A72_ACTLR_DIS_NC_GRE_STORE_STREAMING
> +       msr     CORTEX_A72_ACTLR_EL1, x0
> +       isb
>         ret x19
>  endfunc cortex_a72_reset_func

Unfortunatelly, it doesn't work. I verified that the bit is set after 
booting Linux, but the memcpy corruption was still present.

I also tried the other chicken bits, it slowed down the system noticeably, 
but had no effect on the memcpy corruption.

Mikulas