November 2022 - Devel - lists.sel4.systems

seL4 test on x86
by Yevgeny Lavrov 30 Jan '25

30 Jan '25

Hello, I'm new to seL4 and I'm just doing it for learning purpose. I'm trying to run seL4 test suite or simple hello world task from seL4 tutorials on the real hardware. So far I had no problems compiling seL4 test suite and running via QEMU for both x32 and x64 platforms. However, when I try to run it on the actual hardware following Running on real hardware tutorial for x86 I end up with no output at all and no error msgs that can give me a clue on where something went wrong. After compiling seL4test for x86, I ended up with two images in sel4_dir/images/ folder. Copied them over to /boot/sel4/ folder and created a new GRUB2 entry that looks like this menuentry “seL4 test suite” --class os { load video insmod gzio insmod part_msdos insmod ext2 set root=’(hd0,msdos5)’ multiboot /boot/sel4/kernel-ia32-pc99 module /boot/sel4/sel4test-driver-image-ia32-pc99 } update grub, restart and select the new entry from GRUB menu. I end up with blinking cursor on the top-left side of the screen. Please advise.

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Stuck during invalidate local TLB in Tx2
by Muneeswaran Rajendran 16 Oct '24

16 Oct '24

Hi seL4 Dev team, Can someone explain the reason (share the reference) to invalidate the local TLB during kernel vspace activation as part CPU initialisation. The Tx2 board stuck while performing this operation. As per my understanding both Tx1 and Tx2 are using same A57 core. so the TLB initialisation and invalidation remain same for Tx2 and should not stuck during invalidation.Please correct me if anything wrong here. I understand from that instruction (tlbi vmalle1) which is invalidating stage 1 entries associated to the current VMID. Also from arm mmu code the seL4 setting up (TCR_EL1) TCR register addressing space as 48bit, ASID as 16bit and page table setup 4k granular size. I am using MRS macro to dump the spsr_el1 and dspsr_el0 register to see the state of processor but its throwing synchronous exception. Do we have any other option to dump all the register content to see the state of processor like we have one in 'sel4debug_dump_registers' which is used in sel4test code. Regards, Muneeswaran R

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Questions about Memory Management in seL4
by Daniel Wang 19 May '23

19 May '23

Hi all, Sorry to bother, I have some basic questions about seL4 memory management. Can someone help me? 1. where is the kernel’s address space? I know there are basically three methods: a) separate virtual address space, e.g. through changing page tables on entry into privileged mode to access b) physical space, e.g. through disable automatic hardware translation of virtual addresses on entry into privilege mode c) privilege region in each process’s virtual address space, e.g. through page table to map kernel address into use-mode process. My question is which of this is being used by seL4 microkernel? 2. Objects like CSpace, VSpace, CNode, TCB, Endpoint, etc. are called kernel objects, but it seems all dynamically allocated in thread running/creating time. Are those objects (e.g. Figure 3.3 in seL4 manual) in kernel space or in user space? 3. I read that after the kernel boot up, it passes all resources, untyped memory to the first thread. Are those untyped memory physical memory or virtual memory in a single page? The reason I ask is I’m learning the code of the UNSW AOS project (two of the assignment projects are implementing frame and papers). I’m confused that before the implementation of frames and pages what kind of memory is passed to the the first thread? I saw int AOS project, it uses ut_table_init(), ut_steal_mem(), I wonder what kind of memory it operates on? Thanks -Dan

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Reminder seL4 developer hangout
by Birgit Brecknell 28 Nov '22

28 Nov '22

Hi all A friendly reminder that the seL4 developer hangout is on again this week: Tue, Nov 29, 9pm (UTC), Topics: (open) * Sydney: Wed, Nov 30, 8am * Central Europe: Tue, Nov 29, 10pm * US Pacific Time: Tue, Nov 29, 1pm Zoom link: https://unsw.zoom.us/j/82640784431 cheers Birg --- Dr. Birgit Brecknell Project Officer Trustworthy Systems, UNSW, birgit.brecknell(a)unsw.edu.au<mailto:birgit.brecknell@unsw.edu.au> seL4 Foundation, birgit(a)sel4.systems<mailto:birgit@sel4.systems> 0433 880 571 Mon 9am-5pm Wed 9am-12pm Fri 9am-5pm

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Survey about the seL4 summit 2023's location
by June Andronick (seL4 Foundation) 21 Nov '22

21 Nov '22

Dear seL4 friends, With the great success of the seL4 summit 2022 behind us, we are now already looking at the seL4 summit 2023! This should happen around Sep/Oct 2023. We have started investigating options for the location, and we would like your feedback. We would very much appreciate if you could fill in this very short survey to tell us your opinion between USA (likely Minneapolis) and Australia (likely Sydney) or any other feedback you have: https://forms.gle/k4XxYaYeudYUie9U8 <https://forms.gle/k4XxYaYeudYUie9U8> Please do so by Nov 22nd 2022. Feel free to forward to anyone you believe may want to attend the summit next year. Many thanks! June -- June Andronick CEO of the seL4 Foundation https://sel4.systems/Foundation

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Experimental project on seL4 microbenchmarking
by Nataliya Korovkina 20 Nov '22

20 Nov '22

Hi seL4 friends, I’d like to share an experimental project on seL4 microbenchmarking inspired with my experience with sel4bench suite. Your thoughts on the concept and its practical use will be greatly appreciated. Motivation (informal) Measuring execution times of short code paths, which we can meet in seL4 microbenchmarking, is a good way to immerse oneself into the domain of compiler and microarchitectural optimizations. Implementation of “early processing” measurement methodology in sel4bench suite (for Notification delivery case, as a trial step; PR #26) was an amazing experience in that respect. So, I gladly share the work highlights to explain my motivation. First, latencies of some microarchitectural events can be comparable with execution time of a measured code path. So, if microarchitectural event not planned by a benchmark design happens during a measuring period, deviation of the observed value considerably increases. Second, the both kinds of optimizations of instrumental code cause instability of measured values from one measurement iteration to another. Third, debugging the instrumental code is very challenging. Injection of diagnostic code into it changes effects of the both types of optimizations; therefore, initially witnessed symptoms effectively transform to other ones. When you think about how to control optimizations effects, the situation appears uninspiring, considering the need to treat various microarchitectures and optimization features. As a result, the situation left me with the question on hands: how to distance a benchmark design from necessity to control optimizations effects in instrumental code that impair repeatability? Eventually, it reduced to the foundational one: What we measure, and Why? This experimental work is attempt to find and try the solution for the challenge: designing more predictable measurement context. The work was published in github. Description paper https://github.com/malus-brandywine/sel4KanataBench-papers/blob/main/Kanata… Project repository https://github.com/malus-brandywine/sel4KanataBench Project manifest repository https://github.com/malus-brandywine/sel4KanataBench-manifest Tables of data collected on four TS platforms: files KBenchTable-xxxx.pdf in https://github.com/malus-brandywine/sel4KanataBench-papers Thank you!

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Reminder seL4 developer hangout
by Birgit Brecknell 14 Nov '22

14 Nov '22

Hi all A friendly reminder that the seL4 developer hangout is on again this week: Wed, Nov 16, 6am (UTC), Topics: (open) * Sydney: Wed, Nov 16, 5pm * Central Europe: Wed, Nov 16, 7am * US Pacific Time: Tue, Nov 15, 10pm Zoom link: https://unsw.zoom.us/j/82640784431 cheers Birg --- Dr. Birgit Brecknell Project Officer Trustworthy Systems, UNSW, birgit.brecknell(a)unsw.edu.au<mailto:birgit.brecknell@unsw.edu.au> seL4 Foundation, birgit(a)sel4.systems<mailto:birgit@sel4.systems> 0433 880 571 Mon 9am-5pm Wed 9am-12pm Fri 9am-5pm

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