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Uvmm, the virtual machine monitor

Uvmm provides a virtual machine for running an unmodified guest in non-privileged mode.

## Command Line Options

uvmm provides the following command line options:

- -c, --cmdline=<guest command line>

  Command line that is passed to the guest on boot.

- -k, --kernel=<kernel image name>

  The name of the guest-kernel image file present in the ROM namespace.

- -d, --dtb=<DTB overlay>

  The name of the device tree file present in the ROM namespace. The device tree will be placed in the upmost region of guest memory. Optionally, a user may use an additional parameter in the form of "<DTB overlay>:limit=0xffffffff" to set an upper limit for the device tree location.

- -r, --ramdisk=<RAM disk name>

  The name of the RAM disk file present in the ROM namespace

- -b, --rambase=<Base address of the guest RAM>

  Physical start address for the guest RAM. This value is platform specific.

- -D, --debug=[<component>=][level]

  Control the verbosity level of the uvmm. Possible level values are: quiet, warn, info, trace

  Using the component prefix, the verbosity level of each uvmm component is configurable. The component names are: core, cpu, mmio, irq, dev, pm, vbus_event

  For example, the following command line sets the verbosity of all uvmm components to info except for IRQ handling, which is set to trace.

      uvmm -D info -D irq=trace

- -f, --fault-mode

  Control the handling of guest reads/writes to non-existing memory. Possible values are:

  - ignore - Invalid writes are ignored. Invalid reads either return 0 or are skipped. The guest may experience undefined behaviour.
  - halt - Halt the VM on the first invalid memory access.
  - inject - Try to forward the invalid access to the guest. This is not supported on all architectures. Falls back to halt if the error could not be forwarded to the guest.

  Defaults to ignore.

- -q, --quiet

  Silence all uvmm output.

- -v, --verbose

  Increase the verbosity of the uvmm. Repeating the option increases the verbosity by another level.

- -W, --wakeup-on-system-resume

  When set, the uvmm resumes when the host system resumes after a suspend call.

- -i

  When set, the option forces the guest RAM to be mapped to its corresponding host-physical addresses.

Note
  Options -q, --quiet, -v, --verbose and -D, --debug cancel each other out.

## Setting up guest memory

In the most simple setup, memory for the guest can be provided via a simple dataspace. In your ned script, create a new dataspace of the required size and hand it into uvmm as the ram capability:

    local ramds = L4.Env.user_factory:create(L4.Proto.Dataspace, 60 * 1024 * 1024)

    L4.default_loader::startv({caps = {ram = ramds:m("rw")}}, "rom/uvmm")

The memory will be mapped to the most appropriate place and a memory node added to the device tree, so that the guest can find the memory.

For a more complex setup, the memory can be configured via the device tree. uvmm scans for memory nodes and tries to set up the memory from them. A memory device node should look like this:

    memory@0 {
      device_type = "memory";
      reg = <0x00000000 0x00100000
             0x00200000 0xffffffff>;
      l4vmm,dscap = "memcap";
      dma-ranges = <>;
    };

The device_type property is mandatory and needs to be set to memory.

l4vmm,dscap contains the name of the capability containing the dataspace to be used for the RAM. reg describe the memory regions to use for the memory. The regions will be filled up to the size of the supplied dataspace. If they are larger, then the remaining area will be cut.

If the optional dma-ranges property is given, the host-physical address ranges for the memory regions will be added here. Note that the property is not cleared first, so it should be left empty.

For more details see RAM configuration.

### Memory layout

uvmm populates the RAM with the following data:

- kernel binary
- (optional) ramdisk
- (optional) device tree

The kernel binary is put at the predefined address. For ELF binaries, this is an absolute physical address. If the binary supports relative addressing, the binary is put to the requested offset relative to beginning of the first 'memory' region defined in the device tree.

The ramdisk and device tree are placed as far as possible to the end of the regions defined in the first 'memory' node.

If there is a part of RAM that must remain empty, then define an extra memory node for it in the device tree. uvmm only writes to memory in the first memory node it finds.

Warning: uvmm does not touch any unpopulated memory. In particular, it does not ensure that the memory is cleared. It is the responsibility of the provider of the RAM dataspace to make sure that no data leakage can happen. Normally this is not an issue because dataspaces are guaranteed to be cleaned when they are newly created but users should be careful when reusing memory or dataspaces, for example, when restarting the uvmm.

## Forwarding hardware resources to the guest

Hardware resources must be specified in two places: the device tree contains the description of all hardware devices the guest could see and the Vbus describes which resources are actually available to the uvmm.

The vbus allows the uvmm access to hardware resources in the same way as any other L4 application. uvmm expects a capability named 'vbus' where it can access its hardware resources. It is possible to leave out the capability for purely virtual guests (Note that this is not actually practical on some architectures. On ARM, for example, the guest needs hardware access to the interrupt controller. Without a 'vbus' capability, interrupts will not work.) For information on how to configure a vbus, see the IO documentation.

The device tree needs to contain the hardware description the guest should see. For hardware devices this usually means to use a device tree that would also be used when running the guest directly on hardware.

On startup, uvmm scans the device tree for any devices that require memory or interrupt resources and compares the required resources with the ones available from its vbus. When all resources are available, it sets up the appropriate forwarding, so that the guest now has direct access to the hardware. If the resources are not available, the device will be marked as 'disabled'. This mechanism allows to work with a standard device tree for all guests in the system while handling the actual resource allocation in a flexible manner via the vbus configuration.

The default mechanism assigns all resources 1:1, i.e. with the same memory address and interrupt number as on hardware. It is also possible to map a hardware device to a different location. In this case, the assignment between vbus device and device tree device must be known in advance and marked in the device tree using the l4vmm,vbus-dev property.

The following device will for example be bound with the vbus device with the HID 'l4-test,dev':

    test@e0000000 {
        compatible = "memdev,bar";
        reg = <0 0xe0000000 0 0x50000>,
              <0 0xe1000000 0 0x50000>;
        l4vmm,vbus-dev = "l4-test,dev";
        interrupts-extended = <&gic 0 139 4>;
    };

Resources are then matched by name. Memory resources in the vbus must be named reg0 to reg9 to match against the address ranges in the device tree reg property. Interrupts must be called irq0 to irq9 and will be matched against interrupts or interrupts-extended entries in the device tree. The vbus must expose resources for all resources defined in the device tree entry or the initialisation will fail.

An appropriate IO entry for the above device would thus be:

    MEM = Io.Hw.Device(function()
        Property.hid = "l4-test,dev"
        Resource.reg0 = Io.Res.mmio(0x41000000, 0x4104ffff)
        Resource.reg1 = Io.Res.mmio(0x42000000, 0x4204ffff)
        Resource.irq0 = Io.Res.irq(134);
    end)

Please note that HIDs on the vbus are not necessarily unique. If multiple devices with the HID given in l4vmm,vbus-dev are available on the vbus, then one device is chosen at random.

If no vbus device with the given HID is available, the device is disabled.

## How to enable guest suspend/resume

Note
  Currently only supported on ARM. It should work fine with Linux version 4.4 or newer.

Uvmm (partially) implements the power state coordination interface (PSCI), which is the standard ARM power management interface. To make use of this interface, you have to announce its availability to the guest operating system via the device tree like so:

    psci {
          compatible = "arm,psci-0.2";
          method = "hvc";
    };

The Linux guest must be configured with at least these options:

    CONFIG_SUSPEND=y
    CONFIG_ARM_PSCI=y

## How to communicate power management (PM) events

Uvmm can be instructed to inform a PM manager of PM events through the L4::Platform_control interface. To that end, uvmm may be equipped with a pfc cap. On suspend, uvmm will call l4_platform_ctl_system_suspend().

The pfc cap can also be implemented by IO. In that case the guest can start a machine suspend/shutdown/reboot.

## Ram block device support

The example ramdisk works by loading a file system into RAM, which needs RAM block device support to work. In the Linux kernel configuration add: CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM=y

## Framebuffer support for uvmm/amd64 guests

Uvmm can be instructed to pass along a framebuffer to the Linux guest. To enable this three things need to be done:

1. Configure Linux to support a simple framebuffer by enabling CONFIG_FB_SIMPLE=y CONFIG_X86_SYSFB=y

2. Configure a simple framebuffer device in the device tree (currently only read by uvmm, linearer framebuffer at [0xf0000000 - 0xf1000000])

   simplefb { compatible = "simple-framebuffer"; reg = <0x0 0xf0000000 0x0 0x1000000>; l4vmm,fbcap = "fb"; };

3. Start a framebuffer instance and connect it to uvmm e.g. – Start fb-drv (but only if we need to) local fbdrv_fb = L4.Env.vesa; if (not fbdrv_fb) then fbdrv_fb = l:new_channel(); l:start({ caps = { vbus = io_busses.fbdrv, fb = fbdrv_fb:svr(), }, log = { "fbdrv", "r" }, }, "rom/fb-drv"); end vmm.start_vm{ ext_caps = { fb = fbdrv_fb }, – ...

## Requirements on the Fiasco.OC configuration on amd64

The kernel configuration must feature CONFIG_SYNC_TSC=y in order for the emulated timers to reach a sufficiently high resolution.

## Recommended Linux configuration options for uvmm/amd64 guests

The following options are recommended in additon to the amd64 defaults provided by a make defconfig:

Virtio support is required to access virtual devices provided by uvmm:

     CONFIG_VIRTIO=y
     CONFIG_VIRTIO_PCI=y
     CONFIG_VIRTIO_BLK=y
     CONFIG_BLK_MQ_VIRTIO=y
     CONFIG_VIRTIO_CONSOLE=y
     CONFIG_VIRTIO_INPUT=y
     CONFIG_VIRTIO_NET=y

It is highly recommended to use the X2APIC, which needs virtualization awareness to work under uvmm:

     CONFIG_X86_X2APIC=y
     CONFIG_PARAVIRT=y
     CONFIG_PARAVIRT_SPINLOCKS=y

## KVM clock for uvmm/amd64 guests

When executing L4Re + uvmm on QEMU, the PIT as clock source is not reliable. The paravirtualized KVM clock provides the guest with a stable clock source.

A KVM clock device is available to the guest, if the device tree contains the corresponding entry:

    kvm_clock {
        compatible = "kvm-clock";
        reg = <0x0 0x0 0x0 0x0>;
    };

To make use of this clock, the Linux guest must be built with the following configuration options:

    CONFIG_HYPERVISOR_GUEST=y
    CONFIG_KVM_GUEST=y
    CONFIG_PTP_1588_CLOCK_KVM is not set

Note: KVM calls besides the KVM clock are unhandled and lead to failure in the uvmm, e.g. vmcall 0x9 for the PTP_1588_CLOCK_KVM.

This is considered a development feature. The KVM clock is not required when running on physical hardware as TSC calibration via the PIT works as expected.

## Development notes for amd64

When you are developing on Linux using QEMU please note that nested virtualization support is necessary on your host system to run uvmm guests. Your host Linux version should be 4.12 or greater, excluding 4.20.

Check if your KVM module has nested virtualization enabled via:

    > cat /sys/module/kvm_intel/parameters/nested
    Y

In case it shows N instead of Y enable nested virtualization support via:

    modprobe kvm_intel nested=1

On AMD platforms the module name is kvm_amd.

## QEMU network setup for a uvmm guest on amd64

qemu-system-x86_64 -M q35 -cpu host -enable-kvm -device intel-iommu -device e1000e,netdev=net0 -netdev bridge,id=net0,br=virbr0

where 'virbr0' is the name of the host's bridge device. The line 'allow virbr0' needs to be present in /etc/qemu/bridge.conf. The bridge can either be created via the network manager or via the command line:

    brctl addbr virbr0
    ip addr add 192.168.124.1/24 dev virbr0
    ip link set up dev virbr0

In the guest linux with eth0 as network device:

    ip a a 192.168.124.5/24 dev eth0
    ip li se up dev eth0

Now the host and guest can ping each other using their respective IPs.

Of course, uvmm needs to be connected to Io and Io needs a vbus configuration for the uvmm client like this:

    Io.add_vbusses
    {
      vm_pci = Io.Vi.System_bus(function ()
        Property.num_msis = 6
        PCI = Io.Vi.PCI_bus(function ()
          pci_net = wrap(Io.system_bus():match("PCI/CC_0200"))
        end)
      end)
    }

## QEMU emulated VirtIO devices and IO-MMU on amd64

QEMU does not route VirtIO devices through the IO-MMU per default. To use QEMU emulated VirtIO devices add the disable-legacy=on,disable-modern=off,iommu_platform=on flags to the option list of the device. The e1000e card in the network example above can be replaced with an virtio-net-pci card like this:

    -device virtio-net-pci,disable-legacy=on,disable-modern=off,
            iommu_platform=on,netdev=net0

For more information on VirtIO devices and their options see https://wiki.qemu.org/Features/VT-d.

## Using the uvmm monitor interface

Uvmm implements an interface with which parts of the guest's state can be queried and manipulated at runtime. This monitor interface needs to be enabled during compilation as well as during startup of uvmm. This is described in detail below.

### Compiling uvmm with monitor interface support

To compile uvmm with monitor interface support pass the CONFIG_MONITOR=y, option during the make step (or set in in the Makefile.config). This option is available on all architectures but note that the set of available monitor interface features may vary significantly between them. Also note that the monitor interface will always be disabled in release mode, i.e. if CONFIG_RELEASE_MODE=y.

### Enabling the monitor interface at runtime

When starting a uvmm instance from inside a ned script using the vmm.start_vm function, the mon argument controls whether the monitor interface is enabled at runtime. There are three cases to distinguish:

- mon=true (default): The monitor interface is enabled but no server implementing the client side of the monitor interface is started. The monitor interface can still be utilized via cons but no readline functionality will be available.
- mon='some_binary': If a string is passed as the value of mon, the monitor interface is enabled and the string is interpreted as the name of a server binary which implements the client side of the monitor interface. This server is automatically started and has access to a vcon capability named mon at startup through which it can make use of the monitor interface. Unless you have written your own server you should specify 'uvmm_cli' which is a server implementing a simple readline interface.
- mon=false: The monitor interface is disabled at runtime.

### Using the monitor interface

If the monitor interface was enabled you can connect to it via cons under the name mon<n> where <n> is a unique integer for every uvmm instance that is started with the monitor interface enabled (numbered starting from one in order of corresponding vmm.start_vm calls). If mon='uvmm_cli' was specified, readline functionality such as command completion and history will be available. Enter a command followed by enter to run that command. To obtain a list of all available commands issue the help command, to obtain usage information for a specific command foo issue help foo.

Note
  Some commands will modify the guests state. Since it should be obvious to which ones this applies this is usually not specifically highlighted. Exercise reasonable caution.

### Using the guest debugger

The guest debugger provides monitoring functionality akin to a very bare-bone GDB interface, e.g. guest RAM and page table dumping, breakpointing and single stepping. Additional functionality might be added in the future.

Note
  The guest debugger is currently still under development. The guest debugger may also not be available on all architectures. To check whether the guest debugger is available check if help dbg returns usage information.

If the guest debugger is available, you have to manually load it at runtime using the monitor interface. This saves resources if the guest debugger is not used. To enable the guest debugger, issue the dbg on monitor command. Once enabled, the guest debugger can not be disabled again.

To list available guest debugger subcommands, issue dbg help after dbg on.

Note
  When using SMP, most guest debugger subcommands require you to explicitly specify a guest vcpu using an index starting from zero.