Re: [PATCH] x86/purgatory: Switch to the position-independent small code model

[Jiri Slaby]

On 18. 04. 24, 22:17, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:
> From: Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@xxxxxxxxxx>
>
> On x86, the ordinary, position dependent 'small' and 'kernel' code models only
> support placement of the executable in 32-bit addressable memory, due to
> the use of 32-bit signed immediates to generate references to global
> variables. For the kernel, this implies that all global variables must
> reside in the top 2 GiB of the kernel virtual address space, where the
> implicit address bits 63:32 are equal to sign bit 31.
>
> This means the kernel code model is not suitable for other bare metal
> executables such as the kexec purgatory, which can be placed arbitrarily
> in the physical address space, where its address may no longer be
> representable as a sign extended 32-bit quantity. For this reason,
> commit
>
>    e16c2983fba0 ("x86/purgatory: Change compiler flags from -mcmodel=kernel to -mcmodel=large to fix kexec relocation errors")
>
> switched to the 'large' code model, which uses 64-bit immediates for all
> symbol references, including function calls, in order to avoid relying
> on any assumptions regarding proximity of symbols in the final
> executable.
>
> The large code model is rarely used, clunky and the least likely to
> operate in a similar fashion when comparing GCC and Clang, so it is best
> avoided. This is especially true now that Clang 18 has started to emit
> executable code in two separate sections (.text and .ltext), which
> triggers an issue in the kexec loading code at runtime.
>
> Instead, use the position independent small code model, which makes no
> assumptions about placement but only about proximity, where all
> referenced symbols must be within -/+ 2 GiB, i.e., in range for a
> RIP-relative reference. Use hidden visibility to suppress the use of a
> GOT, which carries absolute addresses that are not covered by static ELF
> relocations, and is therefore incompatible with the kexec loader's
> relocation logic.

FWIW:

Fixes: https://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1211853

thanks,
--
js
suse labs