Re: [PATCH 12/12] hw/xen: add support for Xen primary console in emulated mode

[David Woodhouse]

On Tue, 2023-10-24 at 17:25 +0100, Paul Durrant wrote:
> On 24/10/2023 16:49, David Woodhouse wrote:
> > On Tue, 2023-10-24 at 16:39 +0100, Paul Durrant wrote:
> > > On 24/10/2023 16:37, David Woodhouse wrote:
> > > > On Tue, 2023-10-24 at 15:20 +0100, Paul Durrant wrote:
> > > > > On 16/10/2023 16:19, David Woodhouse wrote:
> > > > > > From: David Woodhouse <dwmw@amazon.co.uk>
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > The primary console is special because the toolstack maps a page at 
> > > > > > a
> > > > > > fixed GFN and also allocates the guest-side event channel. Add 
> > > > > > support
> > > > > > for that in emulated mode, so that we can have a primary console.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Add a *very* rudimentary stub of foriegnmem ops for emulated mode, 
> > > > > > which
> > > > > > supports literally nothing except a single-page mapping of the 
> > > > > > console
> > > > > > page. This might as well have been a hack in the xen_console 
> > > > > > driver, but
> > > > > > this way at least the special-casing is kept within the Xen 
> > > > > > emulation
> > > > > > code, and it gives us a hook for a more complete implementation 
> > > > > > if/when
> > > > > > we ever do need one.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > Why can't you map the console page via the grant table like the 
> > > > > xenstore
> > > > > page?
> > > > 
> > > > I suppose we could, but I didn't really want the generic xen-console
> > > > device code having any more of a special case for 'Xen emulation' than
> > > > it does already by having to call xen_primary_console_create().
> > > > 
> > > 
> > > But doesn't is save you the whole foreignmem thing? You can use the
> > > grant table for primary and secondary consoles.
> > 
> > Yes. And I could leave the existing foreignmem thing just for the case
> > of primary console under true Xen. It's probably not that awful a
> > special case, in the end.
> > 
> > Then again, I was surprised I didn't *already* have a foreignmem ops
> > for the emulated case, and we're probably going to want to continue
> > fleshing it out later, so I don't really mind adding it.
> > 
> 
> True. We'll need it for some of the other more fun protocols like vkbd 
> or fb. Still, I think it'd be nicer to align the xenstore and primary
> console code to look similar and punt the work until then :-)

I don't think it ends up looking like xenstore either way, does it?
Xenstore is special because it gets to use the original pointer to its
own page.

I don't think I want to hack the xen_console code to explicitly call a
xen_console_give_me_your_page() function. If not foreignmem, I think
you were suggesting that we actually call the grant mapping code to get
a pointer to the underlying page, right? 

I could kind of live with that... except that Xen has this ugly
convention that the "ring-ref" frontend node for the primary console
actually has the *MFN* not a grant ref. Which I don't understand since
the toolstack *does* populate the grant table for it (just as it does
for the xenstore page). But we'd have to add a special case exception
to that special case, so that in the emu case it's an actual grant ref
again. I think I prefer just having a stub of foreignmem, TBH.

(I didn't yet manage to get Xen to actually create a primary console of
type iomem, FWIW)

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