| Filename | Latest commit message | Latest commit date |
|---|---|---|
1e52cb591b
Boot died straight after "exiting boot services" with a KVM internal error,
RIP=0x801a5dc5 and RBX=0x80000000 -- the framebuffer base. The bytes at RIP were
0x0C0E13 and 0xD1D5DC: SCH_BG and a grey from the splash's metal gradient. The
machine was executing the picture of itself starting up.
The hand-off to the kernel writes rbx and did not say so:
"mov %1, %%rbx\n\t" <- writes rbx
"jmp *%2\n\t"
: : "r"(PML4_ADDR), "r"(fb), "r"(entry)
: "memory"); <- rbx not declared clobbered
With rbx absent from the clobber list the compiler may allocate an input there,
and clang 21 allocated `entry`:
movq %rax, %cr3
movq %rcx, %rbx <- the framebuffer, into rbx
jmpq *%rbx <- %2 was rbx, and now holds the framebuffer
Declaring "rbx" forbids the allocation. Verified in the generated assembly
rather than by reasoning: jmpq *%rbx became jmpq *%r14, and the machine now
boots through to schinit: ready.
This had been latent since the loader was written. It worked only because every
compiler that had built it happened to choose a different register, and it
surfaced the first time the binary was relinked with a different clang -- which
only happened because the previous commit fixed the Makefile dependency that had
been leaving the loader stale. A stale artifact hides the bug the fresh one
reveals.
It is also the third time this project has been broken by a register the code
depends on but never asks for: docs/history/kernel.md section 4 (the BIOS
loader passing the framebuffer in EAX by luck) and section 8 (%fs:0 used as
scratch when the ABI reserves it). Written up as section 7b, with the one-line
recipe that settles all three -- read the generated assembly.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01VQ7Qx8E1q1M1bbCq8QLHS2
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| .. | ||
| efi.h | ||
| main.c | ||
| README.md | ||
| startup.nsh | ||
UEFI loader
The loader. This directory once existed only so the BIOS path could be moved
into boot/bios/ without pretending the split was hypothetical; it is now the
only path there is.
See ../README.md for the hand-off contract a loader has to satisfy. The
short version: the kernel wants long mode with paging on, its ELF segments
placed, a 24-byte-entry E820-shaped memory map, and framebuffer geometry — and
it does not care which firmware produced them.
What this will need, in rough order:
- A PE/COFF target. clang can emit one directly
(
--target=x86_64-unknown-windows -fuse-ld=lld-link), so no new toolchain: the same LLVM install already builds every other target here. - The handful of UEFI structures actually used — the system table, boot
services,
LOADED_IMAGE,SIMPLE_FILE_SYSTEM,GRAPHICS_OUTPUT. Written from the specification rather than by importing gnu-efi or EDK II, which is both a licence question and a large dependency for something this small. GetMemoryMaptranslated into the same 24-byte entriese820.calready parses. Not a second format for the kernel to learn.ExitBootServicesbefore touching the memory it described.- Graphics Output Protocol for the framebuffer, filling the same
VBE_INFO_ADDRstructure the kernel reads.
The image goes at EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI on a FAT ESP, which also means the
ISO carries a single El Torito EFI entry.