[PATCH] UML on UML fixed: it did not start

From: Renzo Davoli
Date: Fri Mar 06 2009 - 14:49:35 EST


It is currently impossible to run a user-mode linux machine inside another user-mode
linux (UML on UML). It breaks after a few instructions. When it tries to check
whether SYSEMU is installed (the inner) UML receives an inconsistent result
(from the outer UML).

This is the output of a broken attempt:
$ ./linux mem=256m ubd0=cow
Locating the bottom of the address space ... 0x0
Locating the top of the address space ... 0xc0000000
Core dump limits :
soft - 0
hard - NONE
Checking that ptrace can change system call numbers...OK
Checking ptrace new tags for syscall emulation...unsupported
Checking syscall emulation patch for ptrace...check_sysemu : expected SIGTRAP, got status = 256
$

The problem is the following:
PTRACE_SYSCALL/SINGLESTEP is currently managed inside arch_ptrace for ARCH=um.

PTRACE_SYSEMU/SUSEMU_SINGLESTEP is not captured in arch_ptrace's switch, therefore
it is erroneously passed back to ptrace_request (in kernel/ptrace).

This simple patch simply forces ptrace to return an error on PTRACE_SYSEMU/SUSEMU_SINGLESTEP
as it is unsupported on ARCH=um, and fixes the problem.

I posted the same patch one month ago. I just tested it again against the latest kernel.

renzo

Signed-off-by: Renzo Davoli <renzo@xxxxxxxxxxx>
---
diff -Naur linux-2.6.29-rc7/arch/um/kernel/ptrace.c linux-2.6.29-rc7-umluml/arch/um/kernel/ptrace.c
--- linux-2.6.29-rc7/arch/um/kernel/ptrace.c 2008-12-25 00:26:37.000000000 +0100
+++ linux-2.6.29-rc7-umluml/arch/um/kernel/ptrace.c 2009-03-06 20:27:51.000000000 +0100
@@ -64,6 +64,11 @@
ret = poke_user(child, addr, data);
break;

+ case PTRACE_SYSEMU:
+ case PTRACE_SYSEMU_SINGLESTEP:
+ ret=-EIO;
+ break;
+
/* continue and stop at next (return from) syscall */
case PTRACE_SYSCALL:
/* restart after signal. */
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/