This patch extends the RAM session interface with the ability to
allocate DMA buffers. The client specifies the type of RAM dataspace to
allocate via the new 'cached' argument of the 'Ram_session::alloc()'
function. By default, 'cached' is true, which correponds to the common
case and the original behavior. When setting 'cached' to 'false', core
takes the precautions needed to register the memory as uncached in the
page table of each process that has the dataspace attached.
Currently, the support for allocating DMA buffers is implemented for
Fiasco.OC only. On x86 platforms, it is generally not needed. But on
platforms with more relaxed cache coherence (such as ARM), user-level
device drivers should always use uncacheable memory for DMA transactions.
This commit introduces a Cap_index class for Fiasco.OC's capabilities.
A Cap_index is a combination of the global capability id, that is used by Genode
to correctly identify a kernel-object, and a corresponding entry in a
protection-domain's (kernel-)capability-space. The cap-indices are non-copyable,
unique objects, that are held in a Cap_map. The Cap_map is used to re-find
capabilities already present in the protection-domain, when a capability is
received via IPC. The retrieval of capabilities effectively fixes issue #112,
meaning the waste of capability-space entries.
Because Cap_index objects are non-copyable (their address indicates the position
in the capability-space of the pd), they are inappropriate to use as
Native_capability. Therefore, Native_capability is implemented as a reference
to Cap_index objects. This design seems to be a good pre-condition to implement
smart-pointers for entries in the capability-space, and thereby closing existing
leaks (please refer to issue #32).
Cap_index, Cap_map, and the allocator for Cap_index objects are designed in a way,
that it should be relatively easy to apply the same concept to NOVA also. By now,
these classes are located in the `base-foc` repository, but they intentionally
contain no Fiasco.OC specific elements.
The previously explained changes had extensive impact on the whole Fiasco.OC
platform implementation, due to various dependencies. The following things had to
be changed:
* The Thread object's startup and destruction routine is re-arranged, to
enable another thread (that calls the Thread destructor) gaining the
capability id of the thread's gate to remove it from the Cap_map, the
thread's UTCB had to be made available to the caller, because there
is the current location of that id. After having the UTCB available
in the Thread object for that reason, the whole thread bootstrapping
could be simplified.
* In the course of changing the Native_capability's semantic, a new Cap_mapping
class was introduced in core, that facilitates the establishment and
destruction of capability mappings between core and it's client's, especially
mappings related to Platform_thread and Platform_task, that are relevant to
task and thread creation and destruction. Thereby, the destruction of
threads had to be reworked, which effectively removed a bug (issue #149)
where some threads weren't destroyed properly.
* In the quick fix for issue #112, something similar to the Cap_map was
introduced available in all processes. Moreover, some kind of a capability
map already existed in core, to handle cap-session request properly. The
introduction of the Cap_map unified both structures, so that the
cap-session component code in core had to be reworked too.
* The platform initialization code had to be changed sligthly due to the
changes in Native_capability
* The vcpu initialization in the L4Linux support library had to be adapted
according to the already mentioned changes in the Thread object's bootstrap
code.
This patch unifies the Native_capability classes for the different kernel
platforms by introducing an appropriate template, and eliminating naming
differences. Please refer issue #145.
