About ARM64 Kernel Instruction Trace
From: Steve Clevenger
Date: Tue Aug 29 2023 - 00:46:47 EST
Ampere has been using the following command sequence to generate a 'perf
record' kernel instruction trace on an AmpereOne AARCH64 based systems
using a 6.3.0 Fedora distribution with CoreSight related patches.
[root@sut01sys-b212 kernel]# uname -a
Linux sut01sys-b212.scc-lab.amperecomputing.com 6.3.0-coresight-enabled+
#9 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Fri Jun 30 12:54:14 PDT 2023 aarch64 aarch64
aarch64 GNU/Linux
[root@sut01sys-b212 kernel]#
[root@sut01sys-b212 kernel]# timeout 45s perf record --kcore -o kcore -e
cs_etm/@tmc_etr63/k --per-thread taskset --cpu-list 15 dd if=/dev/zero
of=/dev/null
[ perf record: Woken up 41 times to write data ]
[ perf record: Captured and wrote 144.056 MB kcore ]
[root@sut01sys-b212 kernel]#
[root@sut01sys-b212 kernel]# ls -l ~/linux/vmlinux
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 390426912 Jun 30 12:54 /home/stevec/linux/vmlinux*
[root@sut01sys-b212 kernel]#
[root@sut01sys-b212 kernel]# timeout 45s perf script --input
./kcore/data -s ../../scripts/arm-cs-trace-disasm.py -F
cpu,event,ip,addr,sym – -d objdump -k ~/linux/vmlinux > ./perf.itrace
[root@sut01sys-b212 kernel]#
[root@sut01sys-b212 kernel]# ls -l perf.itrace
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 485834744 Jul 17 14:18 perf.itrace
The executive summary is the code sections in vmlinux do not match the
actual code executing on the target due to self-modifying code
(alternate code sequences) in the kernel image. These sequences are
typically applied over nop place-holder instructions. This was verified
by comparing a location in the ./drivers/char/mem.c read_zero objdump
instruction stream to the memory resident instructions captured with the
TRACE32 ETM instruction trace feature. This particular instruction trace
example shows a disconnect. It displays a ‘b ffff800008ab8a70
<read_zero+0x168>’ instruction at address 0xffff800008ab89e8 which did
not branch. The actual instruction present at 0xffff800008ab89e8 is a ‘nop’.
.
.
ffff800008ab89a8: 1400000d b ffff800008ab89dc
<read_zero+0xd4>
dd 8774/8774 [0015] 0.000000000 read_zero+0xa0
ffff800008ab89dc <read_zero+0xd4>:
ffff800008ab89dc: 9248f840 and x0, x2,
#0xff7fffffffffffff
ffff800008ab89e0: aa1403e1 mov x1, x20
ffff800008ab89e4: 9418b6fb bl ffff8000090e65d0
<__arch_clear_user>
dd 8774/8774 [0015] 0.000000000 read_zero+0xdc
ffff8000090e65d0 <__arch_clear_user>:
ffff8000090e65d0: d503245f bti c
ffff8000090e65d4: 8b010002 add x2, x0, x1
ffff8000090e65d8: f1002021 subs x1, x1, #0x8
ffff8000090e65dc: 54000104 b.mi ffff8000090e65fc
<__arch_clear_user+0x2c> // b.first
ffff8000090e65e0: f800081f sttr xzr, [x0]
ffff8000090e65e4: 91002000 add x0, x0, #0x8
ffff8000090e65e8: f1002021 subs x1, x1, #0x8
ffff8000090e65ec: 54ffffa8 b.hi ffff8000090e65e0
<__arch_clear_user+0x10> // b.pmore
dd 8774/8774 [0015] 0.000000000
__arch_clear_user+0x1c
...vec/linux/arch/arm64/lib/clear_user.S 31 b.hi 1b
ffff8000090e65e0 <__arch_clear_user+0x10>:
ffff8000090e65e0: f800081f sttr xzr, [x0]
ffff8000090e65e4: 91002000 add x0, x0, #0x8
ffff8000090e65e8: f1002021 subs x1, x1, #0x8
ffff8000090e65ec: 54ffffa8 b.hi ffff8000090e65e0
<__arch_clear_user+0x10> // b.pmore
.
.
ffff8000090e65f0: f81f885f sttr xzr, [x2, #-8]
ffff8000090e65f4: d2800000 mov x0, #0x0
// #0
ffff8000090e65f8: d65f03c0 ret
dd 8774/8774 [0015] 0.000000000
__arch_clear_user+0x28
...vec/linux/arch/arm64/lib/clear_user.S 34 ret
ffff800008ab89e8 <read_zero+0xe0>:
ffff800008ab89e8: 14000022 b ffff800008ab8a70
<read_zero+0x168>
ffff800008ab89ec: d503201f nop
dd 8774/8774 [0015] 0.000000000 read_zero+0xe4
/home/stevec/linux/drivers/char/mem.c 521
left = clear_user(buf + cleared, chunk);
ffff800008ab8a18 <read_zero+0x110>:
ffff800008ab8a18: 8b14035a add x26, x26, x20
ffff800008ab8a1c: b5000360 cbnz x0,
ffff800008ab8a88 <read_zero+0x180>
ffff800008ab8a20: f9400320 ldr x0, [x25]
ffff800008ab8a24: cb140273 sub x19, x19, x20
.
.
Ostensibly, the ‘perf record –kcore’ option produces a representative
image of the kernel. But this option does not produce suitable output to
generate ARM64 kernel instruction trace. perf doesn’t disassemble ARM64,
so the arm-cs-trace-disasm.py python script is used with the native
objdump utility to provide ARM64 disassembly from CoreSight trace
capture. objdump itself requires an ELF/DWARF file image + symbols to
generate the symbolic (+ line information for mixed source) disassembly.
The linux vmlinux image + symbols file is typically used for this
purpose. The kallsyms file is not formatted for objdump use. As an
experiment, I patched the executable code sections in a local copy of
vmlinux with the corresponding executable code segments extracted from
the kcore image using an Ampere internal ELF patch utility.
This patch utility leverages the (MIT Licensed) ELFIO open source
library API. These were the commands.
[root@sut01sys-b212 kernel]# timeout 30s perf record --kcore -o kcore -e
cs_etm/@tmc_etr63/k --per-thread taskset --cpu-list 15 dd if=/dev/zero
of=/dev/null
[ perf record: Woken up 25 times to write data ]
[ perf record: Captured and wrote 88.053 MB kcore ]
[root@sut01sys-b212 kernel]#
[root@sut01sys-b212 kernel]# ls -l ~/linux/vmlinux
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 390426912 Jun 30 12:54 /home/stevec/linux/vmlinux*
[root@sut01sys-b212 kernel]# cp ~/linux/vmlinux .
[root@sut01sys-b212 kernel]# patch-elf --help
patch-elf overlays the kernel image from a local copy of
'/proc/kcore' to the corresponding (by address) ELF sections
in a local copy of the vmlinux ELF file.
A local '/proc/kcore' is created by:
'perf report --kcore -e cs_etm/@tmc_etr1/k ...'
The local (patched) vmlinux copy is used by:
'perf script -s arm-cs-trace-disasm.py ...'
See the CoreSight Hardware-Assisted Trace Application Note for
use of the 'perf report' and 'perf script' commands.
Usage: patch-elf <--verbose> kcore_file vmlinux_file
[root@sut01sys-b212 kernel]#
[root@sut01sys-b212 kernel]# patch-elf kcore/kcore_dir/kcore ./vmlinux
ELF File kcore Properties
ELF file class: ELF64
ELF file encoding: Little endian
Machine: ARM AArch64
Type: Core file
Number of segments: 3
Number of sections: 0
ELF File vmlinux Properties
ELF file class: ELF64
ELF file encoding: Little endian
Machine: ARM AArch64
Type: Shared object file
Number of segments: 3
Number of sections: 43
Patching section[ 2] ffff800008010000 17997936 bytes
Patching section[15] ffff800009a31000 20480 bytes
Patching section[16] ffff800009a40000 612372 bytes
Patching section[17] ffff800009ad5818 24752 bytes
[root@sut01sys-b212 kernel]# ls -l ./vmlinux
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 390426908 Jul 19 11:14 ./vmlinux*
[root@sut01sys-b212 kernel]#
[root@sut01sys-b212 kernel]# timeout 45s perf script --input
./kcore/data -s ../../scripts/arm-cs-trace-disasm.py -F
cpu,event,ip,addr,sym – -d objdump -k ./vmlinux > ./perf.itrace
[root@sut01sys-b212 kernel]#
[root@sut01sys-b212 kernel]# ls -l perf.itrace
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 32142060 Jul 19 11:18 perf.itrace
Here is the representative kernel instruction trace using a patched vmlinux.
.
.
ffff800008ab89a8: 1400000d b ffff800008ab89dc
<read_zero+0xd4>
dd 8774/8774 [0015] 0.000000000 read_zero+0xa0
ffff800008ab89dc <read_zero+0xd4>:
ffff800008ab89dc: 9248f840 and x0, x2,
#0xff7fffffffffffff
ffff800008ab89e0: aa1403e1 mov x1, x20
ffff800008ab89e4: 9418b6fb bl ffff8000090e65d0
<__arch_clear_user>
dd 8774/8774 [0015] 0.000000000 read_zero+0xdc
ffff8000090e65d0 <__arch_clear_user>:
ffff8000090e65d0: d503245f bti c
ffff8000090e65d4: 8b010002 add x2, x0, x1
ffff8000090e65d8: f1002021 subs x1, x1, #0x8
ffff8000090e65dc: 54000104 b.mi ffff8000090e65fc
<__arch_clear_user+0x2c> // b.first
ffff8000090e65e0: f800081f sttr xzr, [x0]
ffff8000090e65e4: 91002000 add x0, x0, #0x8
ffff8000090e65e8: f1002021 subs x1, x1, #0x8
ffff8000090e65ec: 54ffffa8 b.hi ffff8000090e65e0
<__arch_clear_user+0x10> // b.pmore
dd 8774/8774 [0015] 0.000000000
__arch_clear_user+0x1c
ffff8000090e65e0 <__arch_clear_user+0x10>:
ffff8000090e65e0: f800081f sttr xzr, [x0]
ffff8000090e65e4: 91002000 add x0, x0, #0x8
ffff8000090e65e8: f1002021 subs x1, x1, #0x8
ffff8000090e65ec: 54ffffa8 b.hi ffff8000090e65e0
<__arch_clear_user+0x10> // b.pmore
.
.
ffff8000090e65f0: f81f885f sttr xzr, [x2, #-8]
ffff8000090e65f4: d2800000 mov x0, #0x0
// #0
ffff8000090e65f8: d65f03c0 ret
dd 8774/8774 [0015] 0.000000000
__arch_clear_user+0x28
...vec/linux/arch/arm64/lib/clear_user.S 34 ret
ffff800008ab89e8 <read_zero+0xe0>:
ffff800008ab89e8: d503201f nop
ffff800008ab89ec: 1400000b b ffff800008ab8a18
<read_zero+0x110>
dd 8774/8774 [0015] 0.000000000 read_zero+0xe4
/home/stevec/linux/drivers/char/mem.c 521
left = clear_user(buf + cleared, chunk);
ffff800008ab8a18 <read_zero+0x110>:
ffff800008ab8a18: 8b14035a add x26, x26, x20
ffff800008ab8a1c: b5000360 cbnz x0,
ffff800008ab8a88 <read_zero+0x180>
ffff800008ab8a20: f9400320 ldr x0, [x25]
ffff800008ab8a24: cb140273 sub x19, x19, x20
.
.
.
This begs the question what perf enhancements could be added to make
ARM64 kernel instruction trace easier to use? The process I’ve followed
is cumbersome, but could be done behind the scenes by perf. The caveat
is it requires a vmlinux which might not be available to an end user.
Here are 2 options.
1. 'perf report -kcore'could use the process I’ve used here
transparently in the background. The plus side is the objdump feature of
mixed disassembly is available based on the current vmlinux.
2. 'perf report -kcore' generates an ELF + symbols file based on
kallsyms (and/or System.map). No vmlinux patching, so intermixed source
and disassembly wouldn’t be available. It’s a reasonable alternative
without relying on vmlinux.
It makes sense performance-wise to use an ARM64 disassembler directly
through perf. perf-script use of the arm-cs-trace-disasm.py python
script can be slow. I’m unfamiliar with the Intel implementation, but
perf-annotate uses objdump. Unfortunately, I can't seem to get annotate
to work for me. A patch operation is still be required if vmlinux is used.
I suspect the CoreSight/perf communities are aware of these issues.
Is there any ongoing work not known to the outside world?
Thanks and regards,
Steve C.