Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCHv2] Fix virtio-serial migration on bi-endian targets

[Amit Shah]

On (Tue) 16 Dec 2014 [15:33:54], David Gibson wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 16, 2014 at 09:43:30AM +0530, Amit Shah wrote:
> > On (Fri) 12 Dec 2014 [16:26:35], David Gibson wrote:
> > > On a bi-endian target, with a guest in the non-default endian mode,
> > > attempting to migrate twice in a row with a virtio-serial device wil
> > > cause a qemu SEGV on the second outgoing migration.
> > > 
> > > The problem is that virtio_serial_save_device() (and other places) expect
> > > VirtIOSerial->config to be in current guest endianness.  On a fresh boot,
> > > virtio_serial_device_realize() will initialize VirtIOSerial->config in
> > > default endianness.  It's assumed the guest OS will make its true
> > > endianness known before the device is reset and initialized, then
> > > vser_reset adjusts VirtIOSerial->config into the new endianness.
> > > 
> > > But on an incoming migration, the device isn't reset (after all the guest
> > > has a running driver as far as it's concerned), which means that
> > > VirtIOSerial->config retains its default endianness value from
> > > virtio_serial_device_realize().
> > > 
> > > On a subsequent outgoing migration, virtio_serial_save_device() attempts
> > > to interpret VirtIOSerial->config.max_nr_ports in current endianness when
> > > its actually in default endianness and then runs off the end of the
> > > ports_map array in the loop immediately afterwards.
> > > 
> > > We could fix this by adjusting VirtIOSerial->config into the correct
> > > current endianness after an incoming migration.  But a better fix is just
> > > to get rid of VirtIOSerial->config entirely:
> > >  * The virtio-serial config space is not settable, it always contains the
> > >    values set at initialization
> > >  * AFAICT "rows" and "cols" have never actually been used for anything and
> > >    are always zero.
> > 
> > There were patches on the list a few years back to add resizing
> > support.
> 
> Well, apparently they were never merged, because I can't see a thing
> in the git history.

Yes, the submitter didn't follow up after review.

> > Also, ppc and s390 people were using this feature (why else would it
> > have been implemented?) -- since you're saying they're not in use, I
> > suppose ppc doesn't use it.  CC'ing s390 people for comment.
> > 
> > >  * "max_nr_ports" is initialized from
> > >    VirtIOSerial->serial.max_virtserial_ports (host endian)
> > > 
> > > So instead of maintaining this pointless guest-endian cache of the config
> > > data, we can just construct it directly into the correct current guest
> > > endian in the get_config hook.  Current users of ->config can instead use
> > > the sources from which the config values were derived, which means they
> > > don't have to mess about with converting from guest endian at all.
> > 
> > I'd agree with this approach when I have confirmation no one actually
> > uses the {rows,cols}.
> 
> I've grepped the tree and searched through git history.  I'm pretty
> sure they're not used.
> 
> And even if we do want to use them, this approach would still be sound
> - it would make more sense to hold the rows and cols info in host
> endian (which is well defined and static, at least) and just byteswap
> it on get_config() where necessary.
> 
> > Since qemu doesn't use the rows and cols, it doesn't matter what
> > settings the dest host has; otherwise the dest host would have had to
> > adjust the guest to use the dest's settings for rows and cols after a
> > migration.  Also, for "new" guests, they should use the control vq
> > command to adjust the rows and cols -- and they're not migrated since
> > they're not guest state.
> 
> Right, I came to the same conclusion (see my reply to agraf).
> 
> [snip]
> > > @@ -552,14 +552,14 @@ static void virtio_serial_save_device(VirtIODevice 
> > > *vdev, QEMUFile *f)
> > >      uint32_t nr_active_ports;
> > >      unsigned int i, max_nr_ports;
> > >  
> > > -    /* The config space */
> > > -    qemu_put_be16s(f, &s->config.cols);
> > > -    qemu_put_be16s(f, &s->config.rows);
> > > +    max_nr_ports = s->serial.max_virtserial_ports;
> > >  
> > > -    qemu_put_be32s(f, &s->config.max_nr_ports);
> > > +    /* Used to be config space, now redundant */
> > > +    qemu_put_be16(f, 0);
> > > +    qemu_put_be16(f, 0);
> > > +    qemu_put_be32(f, virtio_tswap32(vdev, max_nr_ports));
> > 
> > Can you split this patch so the config change and the max_nr_ports
> > change are separate?  The max_nr_ports could similarly be ignored by
> > dest, right?
> 
> Um.. I'm not exactly sure where you're drawing the distinction between
> the two parts.  Are you thinking
>     patch 1) make config.max_nr_ports unused, by using
>              max_virtserial_ports instead
>     patch 2) eliminate the config field entirely

For this patch, I'm just suggesting to only touch cols and rows, and
lines that touch the max_nr_ports can be put in 2/2.  Eliminating
config entirely may not be desirable, but if you want to do that, and
mark all fields as 'unused' in the savevm/loadvm functions, go for
it :-)

                Amit