This is the fifth part of the `Kernel booting process` series. We saw transition to the 64-bit mode in the previous [part](https://github.com/0xAX/linux-insides/blob/master/Booting/linux-bootstrap-4.md#transition-to-the-long-mode) and we will continue from this point in this part. We will see the last steps before we jump to the kernel code as preparation for kernel decompression, relocation and directly kernel decompression. So... let's start to dive in the kernel code again.
We stopped right before the jump on the `64-bit` entry point - `startup_64` which is located in the [arch/x86/boot/compressed/head_64.S](https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/16f73eb02d7e1765ccab3d2018e0bd98eb93d973/arch/x86/boot/compressed/head_64.S) source code file. We already saw the jump to the `startup_64` in the `startup_32`:
in the previous part. Since we loaded the new `Global Descriptor Table` and there was CPU transition in other mode (`64-bit` mode in our case), we can see the setup of the data segments:
The `rbp` contains the decompressed kernel start address and after this code executes `rbx` register will contain address to relocate the kernel code for decompression. We already saw code like this in the `startup_32` ( you can read about it in the previous part - [Calculate relocation address](https://github.com/0xAX/linux-insides/blob/master/Booting/linux-bootstrap-4.md#calculate-relocation-address)), but we need to do this calculation again because the bootloader can use 64-bit boot protocol and `startup_32` just will not be executed in this case.
As you can see above, the `rbx` register contains the start address of the kernel decompressor code and we just put this address with `boot_stack_end` offset to the `rsp` register which represents pointer to the top of the stack. After this step, the stack will be correct. You can find definition of the `boot_stack_end` in the end of [arch/x86/boot/compressed/head_64.S](https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/16f73eb02d7e1765ccab3d2018e0bd98eb93d973/arch/x86/boot/compressed/head_64.S) assembly source code file:
It located in the end of the `.bss` section, right before the `.pgtable`. If you will look into [arch/x86/boot/compressed/vmlinux.lds.S](https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/16f73eb02d7e1765ccab3d2018e0bd98eb93d973/arch/x86/boot/compressed/vmlinux.lds.S) linker script, you will find Definition of the `.bss` and `.pgtable` there.
As we set the stack, now we can copy the compressed kernel to the address that we got above, when we calculated the relocation address of the decompressed kernel. Before details, let's look at this assembly code:
First of all we push `rsi` to the stack. We need preserve the value of `rsi`, because this register now stores a pointer to the `boot_params` which is real mode structure that contains booting related data (you must remember this structure, we filled it in the start of kernel setup). In the end of this code we'll restore the pointer to the `boot_params` into `rsi` again.
The next two `leaq` instructions calculates effective addresses of the `rip` and `rbx` with `_bss - 8` offset and put it to the `rsi` and `rdi`. Why do we calculate these addresses? Actually the compressed kernel image is located between this copying code (from `startup_32` to the current code) and the decompression code. You can verify this by looking at the linker script - [arch/x86/boot/compressed/vmlinux.lds.S](https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/16f73eb02d7e1765ccab3d2018e0bd98eb93d973/arch/x86/boot/compressed/vmlinux.lds.S):
And `.rodata..compressed` contains the compressed kernel image. So `rsi` will contain the absolute address of `_bss - 8`, and `rdi` will contain the relocation relative address of `_bss - 8`. As we store these addresses in registers, we put the address of `_bss` in the `rcx` register. As you can see in the `vmlinux.lds.S` linker script, it's located at the end of all sections with the setup/kernel code. Now we can start to copy data from `rsi` to `rdi`, `8` bytes at the time, with the `movsq` instruction.
Note that there is an `std` instruction before data copying: it sets the `DF` flag, which means that `rsi` and `rdi` will be decremented. In other words, we will copy the bytes backwards. At the end, we clear the `DF` flag with the `cld` instruction, and restore `boot_params` structure to `rsi`.
In the previous paragraph we saw that the `.text` section starts with the `relocated` label. The first thing it does is clearing the `bss` section with:
We need to initialize the `.bss` section, because we'll soon jump to [C](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_%28programming_language%29) code. Here we just clear `eax`, put the address of `_bss` in `rdi` and `_ebss` in `rcx`, and fill it with zeros with the `rep stosq` instruction.
Again we set `rdi` to a pointer to the `boot_params` structure and preserve it on the stack. In the same time we set `rsi` to point to the area which should be used for kernel uncompression. The last step is preparation of the `extract_kernel` parameters and call of this function which will uncompres the kernel. The `extract_kernel` function is defined in the [arch/x86/boot/compressed/misc.c](https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/16f73eb02d7e1765ccab3d2018e0bd98eb93d973/arch/x86/boot/compressed/misc.c) source code file and takes six arguments:
*`rmode` - pointer to the [boot_params](https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/16f73eb02d7e1765ccab3d2018e0bd98eb93d973//arch/x86/include/uapi/asm/bootparam.h#L114) structure which is filled by bootloader or during early kernel initialization;
All arguments will be passed through the registers according to [System V Application Binary Interface](http://www.x86-64.org/documentation/abi.pdf). We've finished all preparation and can now look at the kernel decompression.
As we saw in previous paragraph, the `extract_kernel` function is defined in the [arch/x86/boot/compressed/misc.c](https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/16f73eb02d7e1765ccab3d2018e0bd98eb93d973/arch/x86/boot/compressed/misc.c) source code file and takes six arguments. This function starts with the video/console initialization that we already saw in the previous parts. We need to do this again because we don't know if we started in [real mode](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_mode) or a bootloader was used, or whether the bootloader used the `32` or `64-bit` boot protocol.
where the `heap` is the second parameter of the `extract_kernel` function which we got in the [arch/x86/boot/compressed/head_64.S](https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/16f73eb02d7e1765ccab3d2018e0bd98eb93d973/arch/x86/boot/compressed/head_64.S):
After heap pointers initialization, the next step is the call of the `choose_random_location` function from [arch/x86/boot/compressed/kaslr.c](https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/16f73eb02d7e1765ccab3d2018e0bd98eb93d973/arch/x86/boot/compressed/kaslr.c#L425) source code file. As we can guess from the function name, it chooses the memory location where the kernel image will be decompressed. It may look weird that we need to find or even `choose` location where to decompress the compressed kernel image, but the Linux kernel supports [kASLR](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Address_space_layout_randomization) which allows decompression of the kernel into a random address, for security reasons.
Now let's back to [misc.c](https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/16f73eb02d7e1765ccab3d2018e0bd98eb93d973/arch/x86/boot/compressed/misc.c#L404). After getting the address for the kernel image, there need to be some checks to be sure that the retrieved random address is correctly aligned and address is not wrong:
which will decompress the kernel. The implementation of the `__decompress` function depends on what decompression algorithm was chosen during kernel compilation:
After kernel is decompressed, the last two functions are `parse_elf` and `handle_relocations`. The main point of these functions is to move the uncompressed kernel image to the correct memory place. The fact is that the decompression will decompress [in-place](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-place_algorithm), and we still need to move kernel to the correct address. As we already know, the kernel image is an [ELF](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executable_and_Linkable_Format) executable, so the main goal of the `parse_elf` function is to move loadable segments to the correct address. We can see loadable segments in the output of the `readelf` program:
The goal of the `parse_elf` function is to load these segments to the `output` address we got from the `choose_random_location` function. This function starts with checking the [ELF](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executable_and_Linkable_Format) signature:
and if it's not valid, it prints an error message and halts. If we got a valid `ELF` file, we go through all program headers from the given `ELF` file and copy all loadable segments with correct address to the output buffer:
From this moment, all loadable segments are in the correct place.
The next step after the `parse_elf` function is the call of the `handle_relocations` function. Implementation of this function depends on the `CONFIG_X86_NEED_RELOCS` kernel configuration option and if it is enabled, this function adjusts addresses in the kernel image, and is called only if the `CONFIG_RANDOMIZE_BASE` configuration option was enabled during kernel configuration. Implementation of the `handle_relocations` function is easy enough. This function subtracts value of the `LOAD_PHYSICAL_ADDR` from the value of the base load address of the kernel and thus we obtain the difference between where the kernel was linked to load and where it was actually loaded. After this we can perform kernel relocation as we know actual address where the kernel was loaded, its address where it was linked to run and relocation table which is in the end of the kernel image.
After the kernel is relocated, we return back from the `extract_kernel` to [arch/x86/boot/compressed/head_64.S](https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/16f73eb02d7e1765ccab3d2018e0bd98eb93d973/arch/x86/boot/compressed/head_64.S).
This is the end of the fifth part about linux kernel booting process. We will not see posts about kernel booting anymore (maybe updates to this and previous posts), but there will be many posts about other kernel internals.
**Please note that English is not my first language, And I am really sorry for any inconvenience. If you find any mistakes please send me PR to [linux-insides](https://github.com/0xAX/linux-internals).**
