Re: [Qemu-ppc] [PATCH v2 2/2] ppc/spapr_hcall: Implement H_RANDOM hypercall in QEMU

[Amit Shah]

On (Mon) 31 Aug 2015 [20:46:02], Thomas Huth wrote:
> The PAPR interface provides a hypercall to pass high-quality
> hardware generated random numbers to guests. So let's provide
> this call in QEMU, too, so that guests that do not support
> virtio-rnd yet can get good random numbers, too.

virtio-rng, not rnd.

Can you elaborate what you mean by 'guests that do not support
virtio-rng yet'?  The Linux kernel has had the virtio-rng driver since
2.6.26, so I'm assuming that's not the thing you're alluding to.

Not saying this hypercall isn't a good idea, just asking why.  I think
there's are valid reasons like the driver fails to load, or the driver
is compiled out, or simply is loaded too late in the boot cycle.

> Please note that this hypercall should provide "good" random data
> instead of pseudo-random, so the function uses the RngBackend to
> retrieve the values instead of using a "simple" library function
> like rand() or g_random_int(). Since there are multiple RngBackends
> available, the user must select an appropriate backend via the
> "h-random" property of the the machine state to enable it, e.g.
> 
>  qemu-system-ppc64 -M pseries,h-random=rng-random ...
> 
> to use the /dev/random backend, or "h-random=rng-egd" to use the
> Entropy Gathering Daemon instead.

I was going to suggest using -object here, but already I see you and
David have reached an agreement for that.

Out of curiosity: what does the host kernel use for its source when
going the hypercall route?

> +static void random_recv(void *dest, const void *src, size_t size)
> +{
> +    HRandomData *hrcrdp = dest;
> +
> +    if (src && size > 0) {
> +        memcpy(&hrcrdp->val.v8[hrcrdp->received], src, size);
> +        hrcrdp->received += size;
> +    }
> +    qemu_sem_post(&hrcrdp->sem);
> +}
> +
> +static target_ulong h_random(PowerPCCPU *cpu, sPAPRMachineState *spapr,
> +                             target_ulong opcode, target_ulong *args)
> +{
> +    HRandomData hrcrd;
> +
> +    if (!hrandom_rng) {
> +        return H_HARDWARE;
> +    }
> +
> +    qemu_sem_init(&hrcrd.sem, 0);
> +    hrcrd.val.v64 = 0;
> +    hrcrd.received = 0;
> +
> +    qemu_mutex_unlock_iothread();
> +    while (hrcrd.received < 8) {
> +        rng_backend_request_entropy((RngBackend *)hrandom_rng,
> +                                    8 - hrcrd.received, random_recv, &hrcrd);
> +        qemu_sem_wait(&hrcrd.sem);
> +    }

Is it possible for a second hypercall to arrive while the first is
waiting for the backend to provide data?

> +    qemu_mutex_lock_iothread();
> +
> +    qemu_sem_destroy(&hrcrd.sem);
> +    args[0] = hrcrd.val.v64;
> +
> +    return H_SUCCESS;
> +}

                Amit