[Qemu-devel] [PATCH] cputlb: don't cpu_abort() if guest tries to execute outside RAM or RAM

[Peter Maydell]

In get_page_addr_code(), if the guest program counter turns out not to
be in ROM or RAM, we can't handle executing from it, and we call
cpu_abort(). This results in the message
  qemu: fatal: Trying to execute code outside RAM or ROM at 0x08000000
followed by a guest register dump, and then QEMU dumps core.

This situation happens in one of two cases:
 (1) a guest kernel bug, where it jumped off into nowhere
 (2) a user command line mistake, where they tried to run an image for
     board A on a QEMU model of board B, or where they didn't provide
     an image at all, and QEMU executed through a ROM or RAM full of
     NOP instructions and then fell off the end

In either case, a core dump of QEMU itself is entirely useless, and
only confuses users into thinking that this is a bug in QEMU rather
than a bug in the guest or a problem with their command line. (This
is a variation on the general idea that we shouldn't assert() on
something the user can accidentally provoke.)

Replace the cpu_abort() with something that explains the situation
a bit better and exits QEMU without dumping core.

(See LP:1062220 for several examples of confused users.)

Signed-off-by: Peter Maydell <address@hidden>
---
I've been meaning to do this for a while now...hopefully the
expanded error message should reduce user confusion.

 cputlb.c | 39 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
 1 file changed, 37 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/cputlb.c b/cputlb.c
index 23c9b91..079e497 100644
--- a/cputlb.c
+++ b/cputlb.c
@@ -30,6 +30,8 @@
 #include "exec/ram_addr.h"
 #include "exec/exec-all.h"
 #include "tcg/tcg.h"
+#include "qemu/error-report.h"
+#include "exec/log.h"
 
 /* DEBUG defines, enable DEBUG_TLB_LOG to log to the CPU_LOG_MMU target */
 /* #define DEBUG_TLB */
@@ -427,6 +429,39 @@ void tlb_set_page(CPUState *cpu, target_ulong vaddr,
                             prot, mmu_idx, size);
 }
 
+static void report_bad_exec(CPUState *cpu, target_ulong addr)
+{
+    /* Accidentally executing outside RAM or ROM is quite common for
+     * several user-error situations, so report it in a way that
+     * makes it clear that this isn't a QEMU bug and provide suggestions
+     * about what a user could do to fix things.
+     */
+    error_report("Trying to execute code outside RAM or ROM at 0x"
+                 TARGET_FMT_lx, addr);
+    error_printf("This usually means one of the following happened:\n\n"
+                 "(1) You told QEMU to execute a kernel for the wrong machine "
+                 "type, and it crashed on startup (eg trying to run a "
+                 "raspberry pi kernel on a versatilepb QEMU machine)\n"
+                 "(2) You didn't give QEMU a kernel or BIOS filename at all, "
+                 "and QEMU executed a ROM full of no-op instructions until "
+                 "it fell off the end\n"
+                 "(3) Your guest kernel has a bug and crashed by jumping "
+                 "off into nowhere\n\n"
+                 "This is almost always one of the first two, so check your "
+                 "command line and that you are using the right type of kernel 
"
+                 "for this machine.\n"
+                 "If you think option (3) is likely then you can try debugging 
"
+                 "your guest with the -d debug options; in particular "
+                 "-d guest_errors will cause the log to include a dump of the "
+                 "guest register state at this point.\n\n"
+                 "Execution cannot continue; stopping here.\n\n");
+
+    /* Report also to the logs, with more detail including register dump */
+    qemu_log_mask(LOG_GUEST_ERROR, "qemu: fatal: Trying to execute code "
+                  "outside RAM or ROM at 0x" TARGET_FMT_lx "\n", addr);
+    log_cpu_state_mask(LOG_GUEST_ERROR, cpu, CPU_DUMP_FPU | CPU_DUMP_CCOP);
+}
+
 /* NOTE: this function can trigger an exception */
 /* NOTE2: the returned address is not exactly the physical address: it
  * is actually a ram_addr_t (in system mode; the user mode emulation
@@ -455,8 +490,8 @@ tb_page_addr_t get_page_addr_code(CPUArchState *env1, 
target_ulong addr)
         if (cc->do_unassigned_access) {
             cc->do_unassigned_access(cpu, addr, false, true, 0, 4);
         } else {
-            cpu_abort(cpu, "Trying to execute code outside RAM or ROM at 0x"
-                      TARGET_FMT_lx "\n", addr);
+            report_bad_exec(cpu, addr);
+            exit(1);
         }
     }
     p = (void *)((uintptr_t)addr + 
env1->tlb_table[mmu_idx][page_index].addend);
-- 
1.9.1