Compiled on Sierra 10.12. System restarts on kextload

[MacNB]

Recently upgraded 10.9.5 to 10.12.
CPU is Xeon E5450 (4 cores/4 threads)
On kextload, the screen clears to black and restarts.

CPU may not be supported but panic ?

[Piker-Alpha]

Sorry. I don't seem to get any notifications from Github.

Ok so I guess that your system is booting up fine and then you try to load the kext with kextload but that fails. Correct?

Did you compile the kext yourself or did you download it from some place?

[MacNB]

No problem.
Yes I compiled it myself.
OS: 10.12. All working fine.
Xcode: 7.0.1
In xcode I click Product->build for->Running.
Builds successfully.
i change owner & permissions for the built kext (0:0 & 755).
Load the kext with sudo kextload.
The screen clears and reboots the system.

[Piker-Alpha]

Ok. We need to find the code that fails. Have you tried to set logMSRs in the plist to false?
If this settings doesn't help, then all other the other settings (see README).

[mabellon]

@Piker-Alpha

I was able to use an early version before upgrading to Sierra. I recently upgraded my MacBook 2016 (Skylake Core m3) to Sierra and tried the latest AppleIntelInfo from GitHub. I was getting a kernel panic on kextload. After some debugging, and review of your commits over the last while it seems the issue is caused by: rdmsr64(MSR_THERM2_CTL). This was added in commit ce53c51. After removing this and subsequent THERM2 code everything seems fine.

I'm not sure if this is what everyone else was hitting or not, but it's definitely a bug in the current codebase. I can't understand what this would have to do with upgrading to Sierra and is likely just coincidence. My brief read of the Intel docs suggest that perhaps you need a CPUID check before reading this MSR.

Hope this helps.

[Piker-Alpha]

Excellent news. Can you please verify my latest commit

[MacNB]

Hi Piker-Alpha
Sorry I didn't get back to you.
Recap: Xeon E5450 CPU, on Sierra 10.12.3; on kextload of v2.1, system reboots.
Loading it on El Capitan 10.11.6, it's the same --- system reboots.

I turned off each of settings in Info.plist, one by one and on each load of the kext, it reboots the system.

Could not see anything the Console logs that indicated the fault. The fault seems so catastrophic that nothing gets logged.

I tried an older version 1.5 binary that I had, it is the same -- reboots the system.

[Piker-Alpha]

Please use my latest commit (AppleIntelInfo.kext v2.2) and disable the build settings (see new comment) because the kexts should load without crashing when all settings are zero. That is your first step. After that you can enable the build settings one by one. I think that your processor has some issues with MSR.

[MacNB]

Hi Piker-Alpha
I edited the AppleIntelInfo.h and changed the build settings as follows:

/*
 * Build settings (0 = disable feature / 1 = enable feature)
 */

#define REPORT_MSRS                      0
#define REPORT_IGPU_P_STATES      0
#define REPORT_C_STATES                0
#define REPORT_IPG_STYLE              0
#define REPORT_INTEL_REGS            0
#define ENABLE_HWP                         0

#define WRITE_LOG_REPORT		1

Build was successful but on loading the kext, system reboots.

Then I changed:
#define WRITE_LOG_REPORT 0
Now the system does not crash because kextutil cannot load the kext . There’s a libkern link error:

SR-Mac-530:~ MacNB$ sudo chown -R 0:0 /Users/MacNB/Downloads/AppleIntelInfo-master/AppleIntelInfo.kext 
Password:
SR-Mac-530:~ MacNB$ sudo chmod -R 755 /Users/MacNB/Downloads/AppleIntelInfo-master/AppleIntelInfo.kext 

SR-Mac-530:~ MacNB$ sudo kextutil -v 2 /Users/MacNB/Downloads/AppleIntelInfo-master/AppleIntelInfo.kext 
Defaulting to kernel file '/System/Library/Kernels/kernel'
Diagnostics for /Users/MacNB/Downloads/AppleIntelInfo-master/AppleIntelInfo.kext:
Code Signing Failure: not code signed
/Users/MacNB/Downloads/AppleIntelInfo-master/AppleIntelInfo.kext appears to be loadable (not including linkage for on-disk libraries).
kext-dev-mode allowing invalid signature -67062 0xFFFFFFFFFFFEFA0A for kext "/Users/MacNB/Downloads/AppleIntelInfo-master/AppleIntelInfo.kext"
kext signature failure override allowing invalid signature -67062 0xFFFFFFFFFFFEFA0A for kext "/Users/MacNB/Downloads/AppleIntelInfo-master/AppleIntelInfo.kext"
Loading /Users/MacNB/Downloads/AppleIntelInfo-master/AppleIntelInfo.kext.
Reading load info for 6 kexts.
Created mkext for architecture x86_64 containing 1 kexts.
Loading /Users/MacNB/Downloads/AppleIntelInfo-master/AppleIntelInfo.kext.
(kernel) Received request from user space to load kext com.pikeralpha.driver.AppleIntelInfo.
(kernel) Loading kext com.pikeralpha.driver.AppleIntelInfo.
(kernel) Allocated link buffer for kext com.pikeralpha.driver.AppleIntelInfo at 0xffffff7f92d3d000 (20480 bytes).
(kernel) kxld[com.pikeralpha.driver.AppleIntelInfo]: The following symbols are unresolved for this kext:
(kernel) kxld[com.pikeralpha.driver.AppleIntelInfo]: 	__ZN14AppleIntelInfo11writeReportEv
(kernel) Can't load kext com.pikeralpha.driver.AppleIntelInfo - link failed.
(kernel) Failed to load executable for kext com.pikeralpha.driver.AppleIntelInfo.
(kernel) Kext com.pikeralpha.driver.AppleIntelInfo failed to load (0xdc008016).
(kernel) Failed to load kext com.pikeralpha.driver.AppleIntelInfo (error 0xdc008016).
Failed to load /Users/MacNB/Downloads/AppleIntelInfo-master/AppleIntelInfo.kext - (libkern/kext) link error.
Failed to load /Users/MacNB/Downloads/AppleIntelInfo-master/AppleIntelInfo.kext - (libkern/kext) link error.
Check library declarations for your kext with kextlibs(8).

Ran kextlibs:

SR-Mac-530:~ MacNB$ kextlibs -undef /Users/MacNB/Downloads/AppleIntelInfo-master/AppleIntelInfo.kext
For all architectures:
    com.apple.kpi.iokit = 16.4
    com.apple.kpi.libkern = 16.4

For x86_64:
    2 symbols not found in any library kext:
	_vfs_context_current
	__ZN14AppleIntelInfo11writeReportEv

SR-Mac-530:~ MacNB$ 

1. So disabling build settings still restarts the system.
2. setting #define WRITE_LOG_REPORT 0 makes the kext unloadble.

[Piker-Alpha]

@MacNB,

Setting WRITE_LOG_REPORT to 0 is currently still unsupported – the output of log show --predicate 'senderImagePath CONTAINS "AppleIntelInfo"' --info --last Xm is still a mess – but it should get fixed/be improved with a future update. Also. You should run sudo kextlibs with -unsupported

The call to vfs_context_current(); should be replaced with vfs_context_create(NULL); and we should also add a few lines to stop()

	if (mCtx)
	{
		vfs_context_rele(mCtx);
	} 

Note: Note all MSR's are supported on all processors, and that is likely the cause of the crash. We need to figure out the problematic spots.

@bigkahuna666,

The file: /tmp/AppleIntelInfo.dat will only be there if the kext loads without crashing/throwing out errors. This is not the case right now and thus we need to solve that first.

[MacNB]

Thx Piker-Alpha.
I made the following changes:

bool AppleIntelInfo::start(IOService *provider)
{
	if (IOService::start(provider))
	{
		simpleLock = IOSimpleLockAlloc();

		if (simpleLock)
		{
			// mCtx = vfs_context_current(); <== removed and added statement below
            		mCtx = vfs_context_create(NULL);

and

void AppleIntelInfo::stop(IOService *provider)
{
    if (mCtx)
    {
        vfs_context_rele(mCtx);
    }

and now there are no kernlib errors. Of course, the system still reboots.

I have two such systems (Dell Inspiron 530). One has the Xeon E5450 (Harpertown arch) and the other has Core-2-Quad Q9300 (Yorkfield arch) running El Capitan. Both run fine.

I downloaded MacCPUID app from Intel.
The chipset is P33 [8086:29c0]
MacCPUID tells me that both CPU's have MSR feature (but not which ones).
I ran the kext on Q9300 based system and it too reboots the system on kextload.

Could it be a platform issue as opposed to a CPU issue ?
How do we find the spot of reboot within the kext (I know how to build a kext but not debug it) ?

[Piker-Alpha]

@MacNB

What is the lowest version number of the kext that worked for you?

Also. I made some changes for AppleIntelInfo v1.6 and the RAPL MSR's are likely to trigger a reboot/crash. In short. Take the oldest version possible and work your way up from there.

Please note that I have plans to take care of the RAPL MSR's in a next update, but I cannot say when that version will be released. I have to do all this in spare time at work.

Edit: Version 2.3 is out and includes the RAPL compatibility checks.

[MacNB]

@Piker-Alpha
Many thanks (as always) for spending your precious spare time for the community.

The new version builds fine but has dependency issues and does not load at all.

SR-Mac-530:~ MacNB$ sudo kextutil -I -v 2 /Users/MacNB/Downloads/AppleIntelInfo-master-2/AppleIntelInfo.kext 
Defaulting to kernel file '/System/Library/Kernels/kernel'
/Users/MacNB/Downloads/AppleIntelInfo-master-2/AppleIntelInfo.kext - no compatible dependency found for com.apple.kpi.mach.
/Users/MacNB/Downloads/AppleIntelInfo-master-2/AppleIntelInfo.kext - no compatible dependency found for com.apple.kpi.iokit.
/Users/MacNB/Downloads/AppleIntelInfo-master-2/AppleIntelInfo.kext - no compatible dependency found for com.apple.kpi.libkern.
/Users/MacNB/Downloads/AppleIntelInfo-master-2/AppleIntelInfo.kext - no compatible dependency found for com.apple.kpi.bsd.
/Users/MacNB/Downloads/AppleIntelInfo-master-2/AppleIntelInfo.kext - no compatible dependency found for com.apple.kpi.mach.
/Users/MacNB/Downloads/AppleIntelInfo-master-2/AppleIntelInfo.kext - no compatible dependency found for com.apple.kpi.iokit.
/Users/MacNB/Downloads/AppleIntelInfo-master-2/AppleIntelInfo.kext - no compatible dependency found for com.apple.kpi.libkern.
/Users/MacNB/Downloads/AppleIntelInfo-master-2/AppleIntelInfo.kext - no compatible dependency found for com.apple.kpi.bsd.
/Users/MacNB/Downloads/AppleIntelInfo-master-2/AppleIntelInfo.kext - no compatible dependency found for com.apple.kpi.mach.
/Users/MacNB/Downloads/AppleIntelInfo-master-2/AppleIntelInfo.kext - no compatible dependency found for com.apple.kpi.iokit.
/Users/MacNB/Downloads/AppleIntelInfo-master-2/AppleIntelInfo.kext - no compatible dependency found for com.apple.kpi.libkern.
/Users/MacNB/Downloads/AppleIntelInfo-master-2/AppleIntelInfo.kext - no compatible dependency found for com.apple.kpi.bsd.
Diagnostics for /Users/MacNB/Downloads/AppleIntelInfo-master-2/AppleIntelInfo.kext:
Dependency Resolution Failures: 
    Only incompatible kexts found for these libraries: 
        com.apple.kpi.mach
        com.apple.kpi.iokit
        com.apple.kpi.libkern
        com.apple.kpi.bsd

Code Signing Failure: not code signed
SR-Mac-530:~ MacNB$

I changed the Info.plist dependencies from 16.5 to 15.6 and it it's same as before -- reboots my system.

So I tried it my laptop (Sandybridge i5-2410M CPU) after changing the dependencies in the Info.plist and it too reboots the laptop. The previous version (v2.2) worked fine on the same laptop.

[Piker-Alpha]

Sorry. My fault. I didn't pay enough attention to a question from a co-worker who compiled it in XCode. Changes undone in one of the latest commits. Thanks.

[MacNB]

@Piker-Alpha
Thx. Dependencies fixed but this new v2.3 reboots my laptop (Sandybridge i5-2410M CPU).
I went back to v2.2 on the laptop and that works fine.

On the two desktops (Xeon E5450 and Q9300), they also reboot on load with this new v2.3.
EDIT:
I tried it with build settings to:

/*
 * Build settings (0 = disable feature / 1 = enable feature)
 */

#define REPORT_RAPL_MSRS		0
#define REPORT_MSRS			0
#define REPORT_IGPU_P_STATES		0
#define REPORT_C_STATES			0
#define REPORT_IPG_STYLE		0
#define REPORT_INTEL_REGS		0
#define ENABLE_HWP			0

#define WRITE_LOG_REPORT		1

but makes no difference -- still reboots the system.

I can't remember running previous old versions on these desktops so cannot tell if the old version ran or not.
I did find a binary for v1.0 and v1.5 and they both do same -- reboot the system.

EDIT:
For the laptop CPU model is 2A:

sysctl -x machdep.cpu.model
machdep.cpu.model: 0x0000002a

For the Xeon E5450 and Q9300 CPUs, the model is

sysctl -x machdep.cpu.model
machdep.cpu.model: 0x00000017