On Mon, Mar 19, 2007 at 07:23:25AM -0400, linux-os (Dick Johnson) wrote:
>
> On Sun, 18 Mar 2007, Ahmed S. Darwish wrote:
>
> > Hi list,
> >
> > Reading the kernel threads initialization code I see:
> >
> > int kernel_thread(...) {
> >
> > struct pt_regs regs;
> > memset(®s, 0, sizeof(regs));
> > [...]
> > ** regs.xds = __USER_DS;
> > ** regs.xes = __USER_DS;
> > [...]
> > /* Ok, create the new process.. */
> > return do_fork(flags | CLONE_VM | CLONE_UNTRACED, 0, ®s, \
> > 0, NULL, NULL);
> >
> > Continuing with the code, the threads stack (beginning from %esp) is
> > initialized with the passed *regs from do_fork:
> >
> > int copy_thread(..., struct task_struct *p, struct pt_regs *regs) {
> >
> > struct pt_regs * childregs;
> > struct task_struct *tsk;
> > childregs = task_pt_regs(p);
> > ** *childregs = *regs;
> > [...]
> > ** p->thread.esp = (unsigned long) childregs;
> >
> >
> > So the question is what will a _kernel_ thread do with the Usermode Segment
> > address ?
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > P.S. I've tried commenting out both lines which led to a non functional
> > init,
> > Also setting them to __USER_DS made init start but stopped issuing the
> > error:
> > `Panic: Segment violation at 0x8049798 - Sleeping for 30 seconds'
> >
Sorry, I meant "setting them to __KERNEL_DS" here.
>
> You might be confusing two routines. The kernel thread routine sets
> DS and ES to the kernel data segment, __KERNEL_DS, not the user data
> segment.
And that's what's _not_ happening in the code as I mentioned in original post.
> This is so the kernel thread can access the kernel data. Note
> that this is done by putting the values in the pt_regs structure so
> it doesn't happen 'now', but after the fork.
I've searched the code for such case (setting xds to __KERNEL_DS _After_
copy_thread()) with no success. As I understand, the kernel thread
executes the passed function immediately (when given control by scheduler):
i386/kernel/process::kernel_thread():
** regs.ebx = (unsigned long) fn;
regs.edx = (unsigned long) arg;
regs.xds = __USER_DS;
regs.xes = __USER_DS;
regs.xfs = __KERNEL_PDA;
regs.orig_eax = -1;
** regs.eip = (unsigned long) kernel_thread_helper;
do_fork(...)
entry.S::kernel_thread_helper (removing CFI_* pseudo ops):
ENTRY(kernel_thread_helper)
pushl $0
movl %edx,%eax
push %edx
** call *%ebx
push %eax
call do_exit
Am I interpreting the forking process completely wrong?. I'm just curious why
the __USER_DS is playing a vital rule in kernel threads regs/stack ?
Thanks alot,
--
Ahmed S. Darwish
http://darwish.07.googlepages.com
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