Besides a printk() the main effect is slight corruption of the start
info magic: While that's meant to be xen-3.0-x86_64, it wrongly ended
up as xen-3.0-x86_64p.

Note that no known users exist that would have developed a dependency on
the bogus magic string. In particular Linux, NetBSD, and mini-os have
been checked.

Fixes: 460060f83d41 ("libelf: use for x86 dom0 builder")
Signed-off-by: Jan Beulich <jbeulich@suse.com>
---
RFC: While Linux works fine with the adjustment, I'm not entirely
     certain of external tools (crash?) having grown a dependency. It
     may be worth noting that XenoLinux and its forward ports never had
     this ELF note in 64-bit kernels, so in principle it may be
     reasonable to expect that no such dependency exists anywhere.

Prior to "x86/PV32: restore PAE-extended-CR3 logic" that (meaningless
for 64-bit domains) VM-assist could also be engaged, based on the ELF
note's value. I expect that change to go in first, at which point the
description here is going to be correct (in not mentioning this VM-
assist aspect).
---
v2: Extend description.

--- a/xen/arch/x86/pv/dom0_build.c
+++ b/xen/arch/x86/pv/dom0_build.c
@@ -459,8 +459,13 @@ int __init dom0_construct_pv(struct doma
     compat = is_pv_32bit_domain(d);
 
     if ( elf_64bit(&elf) && machine == EM_X86_64 )
+    {
         compatible = true;
 
+        /* Zap meaningless setting which kernels may carry by mistake. */
+        parms.pae = 0;
+    }
+
     if ( elf_msb(&elf) )
         compatible = false;

On 04/04/2023 10:19 am, Jan Beulich wrote:
> Besides a printk() the main effect is slight corruption of the start
> info magic: While that's meant to be xen-3.0-x86_64, it wrongly ended
> up as xen-3.0-x86_64p.
>
> Note that no known users exist that would have developed a dependency on
> the bogus magic string. In particular Linux, NetBSD, and mini-os have
> been checked.
>
> Fixes: 460060f83d41 ("libelf: use for x86 dom0 builder")
> Signed-off-by: Jan Beulich <jbeulich@suse.com>

Acked-by: Andrew Cooper <andrew.cooper3@citrix.com>

On Tue, Apr 04, 2023 at 11:19:08AM +0200, Jan Beulich wrote:
> Besides a printk() the main effect is slight corruption of the start
> info magic: While that's meant to be xen-3.0-x86_64, it wrongly ended
> up as xen-3.0-x86_64p.
> 
> Note that no known users exist that would have developed a dependency on
> the bogus magic string. In particular Linux, NetBSD, and mini-os have
> been checked.
> 
> Fixes: 460060f83d41 ("libelf: use for x86 dom0 builder")
> Signed-off-by: Jan Beulich <jbeulich@suse.com>

Acked-by: Roger Pau Monné <roger.pau@citrix.com>

> ---
> RFC: While Linux works fine with the adjustment, I'm not entirely
>      certain of external tools (crash?) having grown a dependency. It
>      may be worth noting that XenoLinux and its forward ports never had
>      this ELF note in 64-bit kernels, so in principle it may be
>      reasonable to expect that no such dependency exists anywhere.
> 
> Prior to "x86/PV32: restore PAE-extended-CR3 logic" that (meaningless
> for 64-bit domains) VM-assist could also be engaged, based on the ELF
> note's value. I expect that change to go in first, at which point the
> description here is going to be correct (in not mentioning this VM-
> assist aspect).

Will look at it now.

Thanks, Roger.