[PATCH v4 1/8] KVM: PPC: Ultravisor: Introduce the MSR_S bit
Nicholas Piggin
npiggin at gmail.com
Fri Jul 12 10:59:54 AEST 2019
Michael Ellerman's on July 11, 2019 10:57 pm:
> Claudio Carvalho <cclaudio at linux.ibm.com> writes:
>> From: Sukadev Bhattiprolu <sukadev at linux.vnet.ibm.com>
>>
>> The ultravisor processor mode is introduced in POWER platforms that
>> supports the Protected Execution Facility (PEF). Ultravisor is higher
>> privileged than hypervisor mode.
>>
>> In PEF enabled platforms, the MSR_S bit is used to indicate if the
>> thread is in secure state. With the MSR_S bit, the privilege state of
>> the thread is now determined by MSR_S, MSR_HV and MSR_PR, as follows:
>>
>> S HV PR
>> -----------------------
>> 0 x 1 problem
>> 1 0 1 problem
>> x x 0 privileged
>> x 1 0 hypervisor
>> 1 1 0 ultravisor
>> 1 1 1 reserved
>
> What are you trying to express with the 'x' value?
>
> I guess you mean it as "either" or "don't care" - but then you have
> cases where it could only have one value, such as hypervisor. I think it
> would be clearer if you spelled it out more explicitly.
>
>> The hypervisor doesn't (and can't) run with the MSR_S bit set, but a
>> secure guest and the ultravisor firmware do.
>
> I know you're trying to be helpful, but this comment is really just
> confusing to someone who doesn't have all the documentation.
>
> I'd really like to see something in Documentation/powerpc describing at
> least the outline of how the system works. I'm pretty sure most of that
> is public, so even if it's mostly a list of references to other
> documentations or presentations that would be fine. But I'm not really
> happy with a whole new processor mode appearing with zero documentation
> in the tree.
>
>> Signed-off-by: Sukadev Bhattiprolu <sukadev at linux.vnet.ibm.com>
>> Signed-off-by: Ram Pai <linuxram at us.ibm.com>
>> [ Update the commit message ]
>
> It's normal to prefix these comments with your handle to make it clear
> who is saying it.
>
>> Signed-off-by: Claudio Carvalho <cclaudio at linux.ibm.com>
>> ---
>> arch/powerpc/include/asm/reg.h | 3 +++
>> 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+)
>>
>> diff --git a/arch/powerpc/include/asm/reg.h b/arch/powerpc/include/asm/reg.h
>> index 10caa145f98b..39b4c0a519f5 100644
>> --- a/arch/powerpc/include/asm/reg.h
>> +++ b/arch/powerpc/include/asm/reg.h
>> @@ -38,6 +38,7 @@
>> #define MSR_TM_LG 32 /* Trans Mem Available */
>> #define MSR_VEC_LG 25 /* Enable AltiVec */
>> #define MSR_VSX_LG 23 /* Enable VSX */
>> +#define MSR_S_LG 22 /* Secure VM bit */
>
> I don't think that's the best description, because it's also the
> Ultravisor bit when MSR[HV] = 1.
>
> So "Secure state" as you have below would be better IMO.
Ooops I see Michael covered everything I wrote, sorry for the noise
I missed the thread.
Thanks,
Nick
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