Re: PLEASE REVERT URGENTLY: Re: [PATCH v5 2/3] x86/boot: add acpi rsdp address to setup_header

[Juergen Gross]

On 09/11/2018 23:23, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> I just noticed this patch -- I missed it because the cover message
> seemed far more harmless so I didn't notice this change.
> 
> THIS PATCH IS FATALLY WRONG AND NEEDS TO BE IMMEDIATELY REVERTED BEFORE
> ANYONE STARTS RELYING ON IT; IT HAS THE POTENTIAL OF BREAKING THE
> BOOTLOADER PROTOCOL FOR ALL FUTURE.
> 
> It seems to be based on fundamental misconceptions about the various
> data structures in the protocol, and does so in a way that completely
> breaks the way the protocol is designed to work.
> 
> The protocol is specifically designed such that fields are not version
> dependencies. The version number is strictly to inform the boot loader
> about which capabilities the kernel has, so that the boot loader can
> know if a certain data field is meaningful and/or honored.
> 
>> +Protocol 2.14:	(Kernel 4.20) Added acpi_rsdp_addr holding the physical
>> +		address of the ACPI RSDP table.
>> +		The bootloader updates version with:
>> +		0x8000 | min(kernel-version, bootloader-version)
>> +		kernel-version being the protocol version supported by
>> +		the kernel and bootloader-version the protocol version
>> +		supported by the bootloader.
> 
> [...]
> 
>>  **** MEMORY LAYOUT
>>
>>  The traditional memory map for the kernel loader, used for Image or
>> @@ -197,6 +209,7 @@ Offset	Proto	Name		Meaning
>>  0258/8	2.10+	pref_address	Preferred loading address
>>  0260/4	2.10+	init_size	Linear memory required during initialization
>>  0264/4	2.11+	handover_offset	Offset of handover entry point
>> +0268/8	2.14+	acpi_rsdp_addr	Physical address of RSDP table
> 
> NO.
> 
> That is not how struct setup_header works, nor does this belong here.
> 
> struct setup_header contains *initialized data*, and has a length byte
> at offset 0x201.  The bootloader is responsible for copying the full
> structure into the appropriate offset (0x1f1) in struct boot_params.
> 
> The length byte isn't actually a requirement, since the maximum possible
> size of this structure is 144 bytes, and the kernel will (obviously) not
> look at the older fields anyway, but it is good practice. The kernel or
> any other entity is free to zero out the bytes past this length pointer.
> 
> There are only 24 bytes left in this structure, and this would occupy 8
> of them for no valid reason.  The *only* valid reason to put a
> zero-initialized field in struct setup_header is if it used by the
> 16-bit legacy BIOS boot, which is obviously not the case here.
> 
> This field thus belongs in struct boot_params, not struct setup_header.

Would you be okay with putting acpi_rsdp_addr at offset 0x0cc (_pad4)?


Juergen