Questions about Kernel Memory that I didn't find answers in Google - Please Help

Peter Teoh htmldeveloper at gmail.com
Mon Aug 4 23:31:36 EDT 2014


And Q2:

Just want to comment that the load address has to be fixed initially,
because unlike normal ELF, after loading ELF, there is a relocation tasks
done by the linker.   In vmlinuz we cannot have relocation, before
executing the kernel is the BIOS / uboot / bootloader etc.   One possible
answer.   Others:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.os.linux.embedded/0-SAzCqQKFM

And perhaps some of the links below may help you:

http://jianggmulab.blogspot.sg/2010_01_01_archive.html

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5647279/why-does-the-module-start-from-address-0xbf000000

http://www.arm.linux.org.uk/developer/memory.txt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_memory

bottomline: keep googling.

Q6 and 7 makes no sense to me....sorry.



On Mon, Aug 4, 2014 at 11:22 PM, Lucas Tanure <tanure at linux.com> wrote:

> Thanks!
>
> A quick look in all of that show me that there a lot of information
> about how kernel manage memory.
> But, I will find the answer for question 2, 6 and 7 in it ?
>
> Thanks!
> --
> Lucas Tanure
> +55 (19) 988176559
>
>
> On Sun, Aug 3, 2014 at 8:58 PM, Peter Teoh <htmldeveloper at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > I like your curiosities and interests in Linux
> > kernel.
> http://virtuallyhyper.com/2013/07/rhcsa-and-rhce-chapter-10-the-kernel/
> >
> > Instead of answering one by one, I think I will just identify the
> knowledge
> > you are lacking:
> >
> > Memory management (from both x86/intel and linux kernel perspective).
> >
> > There are many many resources out there for you in these area, eg:
> >
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page_table
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64
> >
> > (both boring, but just understand it well enough)
> >
> > http://wiki.osdev.org/Paging   (good explanation....understand it very
> very
> > well).
> >
> > The ultimate classic ebook:
> >
> > https://www.kernel.org/doc/gorman/pdf/understand.pdf
> >
> > And this blog site has tons of good info on intel/memory etc:
> >
> > http://duartes.org/gustavo/blog/post/cpu-rings-privilege-and-protection/
> > http://duartes.org/gustavo/blog/post/anatomy-of-a-program-in-memory/
> >
> > http://virtuallyhyper.com/2013/07/rhcsa-and-rhce-chapter-10-the-kernel/
> >
> > http://www.cse.psu.edu/~anand/spring01/linux/memory.ppt
> >
> > One more thing:
> >
> > "readelf -S -W vmlinux" shows u the sections and the address where the
> > different sections are supposed to be loaded in memory.   If u replace
> the
> > vmlinux with the kernel module, eg: ip_tables.ko, then it says:
> >
> > starting at offset 0x328c blah blah....
> >
> > so the loaded address is with respect to ZERO, but then the actual module
> > address is:
> >
> > sudo cat /proc/modules |grep ip_table
> >
> > ip_tables 18106 1 iptable_filter, Live 0xf8bf5000
> >
> > So all the output from your readelf, just add 0xf8bf5000 to it and you
> will
> > get the actual virtual address of that section IN MEMORY.
> >
> > Just only in memory.   In file, the file offset of the section is
> different.
> > And many parts inside the ELF is also different from memory too:   you
> will
> > need to add the virtual load address (above) to the offset as specified
> > inside the relocation tables (objdump -r), and for each section there is
> a
> > separate relocation table (all independent from another, meaning that the
> > different section CAN BE loaded to different parts in memory).
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Aug 3, 2014 at 11:59 PM, Lucas Tanure <tanure at linux.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> I'm looking for some site, pdf, book etc, that can answer this
> questions.
> >> For now I have :
> >>
> >>
> http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/5124/what-does-the-virtual-kernel-memory-layout-in-dmesg-imply
> >>
> >>
> >> I want to understand a few things about the memory and the execution
> >> of Linux kernel.
> >> Taking from a X86 and grub I have:
> >>
> >> 1) Grub loads kernel and root file system in memory, and the vmlinux
> >> has the code to decompress it self, right ? linux
> >>
> >> 2) The address of load kernel is always the same ? And It's at
> >> compilation time that is chosen ?
> >>
> >> 2a) The kernel takes places in 3g-4g memory place, and user space from 0
> >> to 3gb.
> >> But if the pc has only 256mb of memory ?
> >> And when pc has 16gb of memory, the user space will be split in two ?
> >>
> >> 2b) And if kernel has soo many modules that needs more than 1gb to run ?
> >>
> >> 2c) How we configure all of that memory configs ? make menuconfig and
> >> friends ?
> >>
> >> 3) The function A will call functon B. B is at 0xGGGGGG in .text
> >> section, but kernel was loaded in address 0xJJJJJJJJJJ, how A will
> >> find B ?
> >>
> >> 4) Please consider this:
> >> $ readelf -S -W vmlinux
> >> There are 37 section headers, starting at offset 0xe05718:
> >>
> >> Section Headers:
> >>   [Nr] Name                           Type              Address
> >>                 Off             Size          ES Flg Lk Inf Al
> >>   [ 0]                                      NULL
> >> 0000000000000000    000000      000000     00      0   0  0
> >>   [ 1] .text                             PROGBITS
> >> ffffffff81000000          200000     53129a      00  AX  0   0 4096
> >>   [ 2] .notes                          NOTE
> >> ffffffff8153129c          73129c     0001d8      00  AX  0   0  4
> >>   [ 3] __ex_table                   PROGBITS        ffffffff81531480
> >>        731480     002018      00   A  0   0  8
> >>   [ 4] .rodata                         PROGBITS
> >> ffffffff81600000          800000     1655ee     00   A  0   0 64
> >>   [ 5] __bug_table                 PROGBITS        ffffffff817655f0
> >>        9655f0      005424     00   A  0   0  1
> >>   [ 6] .pci_fixup                     PROGBITS        ffffffff8176aa18
> >>          96aa18     002f88      00   A  0   0  8
> >>   [ 7] .tracedata                    PROGBITS        ffffffff8176d9a0
> >>         96d9a0     00003c     00   A  0   0  1
> >>   [ 8] __ksymtab                   PROGBITS        ffffffff8176d9e0
> >>       96d9e0     00e710     00   A  0   0 16
> >>   [ 9] __ksymtab_gpl             PROGBITS        ffffffff8177c0f0
> >>     97c0f0      00a150      00   A  0   0 16
> >>   [10] __kcrctab                     PROGBITS        ffffffff81786240
> >>        986240     007388     00   A  0   0  8
> >>   [11] __kcrctab_gpl              PROGBITS        ffffffff8178d5c8
> >>      98d5c8     0050a8     00   A  0   0  8
> >>   [12] __ksymtab_strings      PROGBITS        ffffffff81792670
> >>  992670     01cb42   00   A  0   0  1
> >>   [13] __init_rodata               PROGBITS        ffffffff817af1c0
> >>        9af1c0      0000e8   00   A  0   0 32
> >>   [14] __param                      PROGBITS        ffffffff817af2a8
> >>         9af2a8     000b00   00   A  0   0  8
> >>   [15] __modver                    PROGBITS        ffffffff817afda8
> >>        9afda8     000258   00   A  0   0  8
> >>   [16] .data                            PROGBITS
> >> ffffffff81800000          a00000     0e1180   00  WA  0   0 4096
> >>   [17] .vvar                            PROGBITS
> >> ffffffff818e2000          ae2000     001000   00  WA  0   0 16
> >>   [18] .data..percpu               PROGBITS        0000000000000000
> >> c00000     015300   00  WA  0   0 4096
> >>   [19] .init.text                       PROGBITS
> >> ffffffff818f9000           cf9000      0503ea   00  AX  0   0 16
> >>   [20] .init.data                      PROGBITS
> >> ffffffff8194a000           d4a000    09e4c8   00  WA  0   0 4096
> >>   [21] .x86_cpu_dev.init        PROGBITS        ffffffff819e84c8
> >>     de84c8    000018   00   A  0   0  8
> >>   [22] .parainstructions         PROGBITS        ffffffff819e84e0
> >>      de84e0    00bd3c   00   A  0   0  8
> >>   [23] .altinstructions            PROGBITS        ffffffff819f4220
> >>         df4220     005f40   00   A  0   0  1
> >>   [24] .altinstr_replacement  PROGBITS        ffffffff819fa160
> >>   dfa160     001a69   00  AX  0   0  1
> >>   [25] .iommu_table              PROGBITS        ffffffff819fbbd0
> >>      dfbbd0     0000f0   00   A  0   0  8
> >>   [26] .apicdrivers                 PROGBITS        ffffffff819fbcc0
> >>          dfbcc0     000020   00  WA  0   0  8
> >>   [27] .exit.text                     PROGBITS        ffffffff819fbce0
> >>            dfbce0     0009bc   00  AX  0   0  1
> >>   [28] .smp_locks                  PROGBITS        ffffffff819fd000
> >>         dfd000    005000   00   A  0   0  4
> >>   [29] .data_nosave              PROGBITS        ffffffff81a02000
> >>      e02000    001000   00  WA  0   0  4
> >>   [30] .bss                             NOBITS
> >> ffffffff81a03000            e03000    122000   00  WA  0   0 4096
> >>   [31] .brk                              NOBITS
> >> ffffffff81b25000           e03000    425000   00  WA  0   0  1
> >>   [32] .comment                   PROGBITS        0000000000000000
> >> e03000    000027   01  MS  0   0  1
> >>   [33] .debug_frame             PROGBITS        0000000000000000
> >> e03028    002560   00      0   0  8
> >>   [34] .shstrtab                     STRTAB
> >> 0000000000000000     e05588    00018a 00      0   0  1
> >>   [35] .symtab                      SYMTAB            0000000000000000
> >>     e06058    1a29f8 18     36 43659  8
> >>   [36] .strtab                         STRTAB
> >> 0000000000000000     fa8a50    180d92 00      0   0  1
> >> Key to Flags:
> >>   W (write), A (alloc), X (execute), M (merge), S (strings), l (large)
> >>   I (info), L (link order), G (group), T (TLS), E (exclude), x (unknown)
> >>   O (extra OS processing required) o (OS specific), p (processor
> specific)
> >>
> >> So the vmlinux is loaded in memory like a dd ?
> >>
> >> 5) In my function A, inside the module that I wrote, a non-initialized
> >> variable will take place in non-initialized section that was loaded in
> >> memory ?
> >> Or my modules has a new sections for it's own use, and my module is
> >> loaded my memory like a process, with all his sections?
> >> So how another module or kernel code will fin my exported
> >> variable/function ?
> >>
> >>
> >> 6) Let's suppose:
> >> I have a int variable, with 17 as content, and the address is 0xGGGGGG.
> >> If I stop the linux in this time, read my memory at address 0xGGGGGG I
> >> will got 17, right ?
> >> 0xGGGGGGG will be bigger than 0xc0000000 always,  right ?
> >>
> >>
> >> 7) Now take int from question and change for:
> >> struct mystruct * foo = (struct mystruct* ) kmalloc(sizeof(struct
> >> mystruct));
> >>
> >> I will be able to read at address 0xGGGGGG the struct that created,
> >> and it address will be greater than 0xc0000000, right ?
> >> But for this struct, the memory will be allocated for ever, until I
> >> free the pointer, right ?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Well, this just a start. I really want to understand how kernel is
> >> run, loaded etc. Any help is appreciate, answering my questions, links
> >> to read, books to read.
> >> Actually, I didn't find any book with that kind of information .
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Lucas Tanure
> >> +55 (19) 988176559
> >>
> >> --
> >> To unsubscribe, send a message with 'unsubscribe linux-mm' in
> >> the body to majordomo at kvack.org.  For more info on Linux MM,
> >> see: http://www.linux-mm.org/ .
> >> Don't email: <a href=mailto:"dont at kvack.org"> email at kvack.org </a>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Regards,
> > Peter Teoh
>



-- 
Regards,
Peter Teoh
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