Microsoft KB Archive/157472

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Debugging Windows NT Kernel STOPs on RISC-Based Platforms

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Q157472

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The information in this article applies to:


 * Microsoft Windows NT Server version 3.1
 * Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 3.1
 * Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server, version 3.1
 * Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 3.5, 3.51, 4.0
 * Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.5, 3.51, 4.0

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SUMMARY
This article discusses the basic steps involved in reading and interpreting the kernel stack on RISC platforms, using the DEC Alpha AXP as a base example. The following basic areas are covered


 * What you will see on the stack.
 * Finding the trap frame and getting the stack before the exception.
 * Tracing function call arguments.

MORE INFORMATION
It is assumed that the reader has a basic understanding of kernel debugging Windows NT on Intel-based systems, as that is used as a basis for comparison. Any debug commands listed should work in WINDBG as well as the KD debuggers (ALPHAKD, MIPSKD, PPCKD).

Part 1: The Windows NT Stack on a RISC System
On an Intel-based system, a stack dump using the KB or KV command gives you a wealth of information. This is because of three things that are done in Intel assembly when a function call occurs:


 * Before the call, all arguments are pushed onto the stack (with a few exceptions).
 * During the call, the return address of the function making the call is pushed on the stack.
 * After the call occurs, most functions push the base pointer (EBP) onto the stack.

These three steps allow the debugger to display a stack showing the first three arguments passed to each function, as well as other information (such as trap frames). On a RISC system, the frame pointers (equivalent to the EBP) are present as are the return addresses. However, arguments are passed in special argument registers and cannot be found on the stack. RISC systems will use the stack for more permanent storage of variables (as you will see later).

On MIPs-based and Dec Alpha-based systems, the arguments are passed in order, first to last, in registers labeled a0, a1, a2 and so on (referred to as the argument registers). There are 4 such registers on MIPs systems (a0 - a3) and 6 on an Alpha (a0 - a5). If there are more arguments than can fit in the aX registers, both types of systems use the temporary (t0 - t7) registers. On PPC systems, the arguments are passed in order, first to last, in the registers r3, r4, r5 - r31.

The following examples show an Intel system and an Alpha system stack (using the KB and KV command on the Intel system, the KB command only on the alpha):

  KDx86> kb   FramePtr  RetAddr   Param1   Param2   Function Name fcbc69ac 80128bfb  fcc86588 fcdb3808 NT!KiTrap0E+0x252 fcbc6a58 8013b26b  00000001 f8bc6ee0 NT!MmAccessFault+0x1cd fcbc6a58 80102af6  00000001 f8bc6ee0 NT!KiTrap0E+0xa7 fcbc6af8 801bc367  fcc83000 fa4e6000 NT!@IofCompleteRequest@8+0x15c fcbc6b04 801bd84b  fcbc6c80 fcbc6c84 NTFS!NtfsCompleteRequest+0x58 fcbc6b14 801bdb7b  fcdb3808 fcd75020 NTFS!NtfsCommonWrite+0xee8 fcdb3808 fcbc6d34  00000043 00000000 NTFS!NtfsCommonWrite+0x1218

KDx86> kv  fcbc69ac  80128bfb  NT!KiTrap0E+0x252 (FPO: [0,0] TrapFrame @ fcbc69ac) fcbc6a58 8013b26b  NT!MmAccessFault+0x1cd fcbc6a58 80102af6  NT!KiTrap0E+0xa7 (FPO: [0,0] TrapFrame @ fcbc6a6c) fcbc6af8 801bc367  NT!@IofCompleteRequest@8+0x15c fcbc6b04 801bd84b  NTFS!NtfsCompleteRequest+0x58 (FPO: [3,0,2]) fcbc6b14 801bdb7b  NTFS!NtfsCommonWrite+0xee8 (FPO: [seh] [0,0,0]) fcdb3808 fcbc6d34  NTFS!NtfsCommonWrite+0x1218

KDalpha> kb  FramePtr  RetAddr   Param1   Param2   Function Name f18a6f20 80554ca8  818e20a0 001901ac NT!KeBugCheckEx+0x58 f18a7220 8056c920  818e20a0 001901ac NTFS!NtfsExceptionFilter+0x118 f18a7250 800b0dc8  001901ac 001901ac NTFS!NtfsCommonFileSystemControl+0xa0 f18a7260 800d8ef0  001901ac 001901ac NT!OtsCSpecificHandler+0x78 f18a72b0 800b08cc  001901ac 001901ac NT!RtlpExecuteHandlerForException+0x10 f18a72c0 800c4360  001901ac 001901ac NT!RtlDispatchException+0xec f18a7600 800c2840  001901ac 001901ac NT!KiDispatchException+0x3f0 f18a7900 800c2980  001901ac 001901ac NT!KiExceptionDispatch+0x50 f18a79a0 80082f80  001901ac 001901ac NT!KiMemoryManagementException+0xc8 f18a7ba0 80552c94  001901ac 001901ac NT!ExFreePool+0x270 f18a7bf0 800a758c  001901ac 001901ac NTFS!NtfsFreeFcbTableEntry+0xa4

NOTE: In the above stacks, the Param3 column was removed for readability.

The first two stacks are from a STOP 0xA on an Intel system. In the KB command output, the first two parameters passed to each function can be seen on the stack and you would normally see the third parameter as well. In the KV command, trap frames associated with the function call also show up.

The third stack is from a STOP 0x24 occurring on a DEC Alpha system. The frame pointers and the return addresses are all valid, however, the parameters, although they may appear to be valid addresses, are not necessarily arguments. Generally, the parameters are values that are pushed on the stack by the functions themselves.

Part 2: Finding the Trap Frame On a Windows NT RISC System
On a RISC system, the KV command will not show the trap frame as it will on an Intel system; more work is required to find the trap frame. In most cases, the frame pointer from one of the exception handling routines will be used as a trap frame and will need to identify the correct function. If that is not possible, you might also be able to identify a function which passed the trap frame as an argument.

Here is an example from the STOP 0x24 stack listed above:

  KDalpha> kb   FramePtr  RetAddr   Function Name f18a6f20 80554ca8  NT!KeBugCheckEx+0x58 f18a7220 8056c920  NTFS!NtfsExceptionFilter+0x118 f18a7250 800b0dc8  NTFS!NtfsCommonFileSystemControl+0xa0 f18a7260 800d8ef0  NT!OtsCSpecificHandler+0x78 f18a72b0 800b08cc  NT!RtlpExecuteHandlerForException+0x10 f18a72c0 800c4360  NT!RtlDispatchException+0xec f18a7600 800c2840  NT!KiDispatchException+0x3f0 f18a7900 800c2980  NT!KiExceptionDispatch+0x50 f18a79a0 80082f80  NT!KiMemoryManagementException+0xc8 f18a7ba0 80552c94  NT!ExFreePool+0x270 f18a7bf0 800a758c  NTFS!NtfsFreeFcbTableEntry+0xa4 f18a7c20 80580a80  NT!RtlDeleteElementGenericTable+0x6c

First, recognize where the exception handling code starts and ends. This indicates what portion of the stack is exception handling code and where the trap occurred. In the above stack, the first exception handling routine is NT!KiMemoryManagementException, the rest of the stack is all exception code. This means that the actual line which caused the trap is NT!ExFreePool+0x270.

Next, walk through the code for each function, starting with KiMemoryManagementException until you find one that deals with the trap frame. There are two ways in this stack - first the FramePtr of KiMemoryManagementException should point to the trap frame. Additionally, the trap frame is passed to KiDispatchException as its third parameter.

Doing a !Trap on the FramePointer for KiMemoryManagementException shows the following:

  KDalpha> !trap f18a79a0 Debugger extension library [kdextalp.dll] loaded v0 = 00000000 00000040    a0 = 00000000 00000000 t0 = 00000000 00000000    a1 = 00000000 00000001 t1 = 00000000 0002f89c    a2 = ffffffff e1836048 t2 = 00000000 00000000    a3 = ffffffff 81918008 t3 = 00000000 00000000    a4 = ffffffff e19d69ec t4 = 00000000 00000001    a5 = 00000000 0039a014 t5 = 00000000 00000000    t8 = ffffffff e1b10f88 t6 = ffffffff c1b11008    t9 = ffffffff e188af8c t7 = 00000000 000003c0   t10 = ffffffff e188af8c t11 = ffffffff 809fcb08 ra = ffffffff 80082ed0 t12 = ffffffff 809fcb08 at = ffffffff 818e0065 gp = ffffffff 800ee088 fp = 00000000 00000004    sp = ffffffff f18a7ba0 fir= ffffffff 80082f80 ExFreePool+0x270 0x80082f80 a0e70000         ldl         t6,0x0(t6)

Part 3: Tracing the Function Call Arguments
Despite the fact that the arguments are not pushed on the stack on a RISC system, it is still possible to trace the arguments as they are passed from function to function; although it will require some knowledge of the assembly language used to do so. The only thing that makes it possible is the fact that in RISC assembly, most function calls initially save off several of the commonly used registers on to more permanent storage locations on the stack. This means that it can be possible to trace the arguments by performing the following steps:


 * 1) Disassemble each function on the stack in two places, at the very beginning and before the call to the next function.
 * 2) Look at what is being put into the argument registers before each function call, and what happens to both the argument registers and any other registers in use after the function call.

In most cases, you will find one of two things; either the argument registers themselves are pushed on the stack at the beginning of the call, or the registers whose values where loaded on to the argument registers were pushed on the stack.

Here is an example from an Alpha dump file. The portion of the stack you wish to trace is:

  FramePtr  RetAddr Function Name f16c7550 ec138ae8 NTFS!BinarySearchIndex+0x134 f16c7670 ec133254 NTFS!FindFirstIndexEntry+0xf8 f16c76d0 ec13ba00 NTFS!NtfsRestartIndexEnumeration+0xe4 f16c7830 ec1375f4 NTFS!NtfsQueryDirectory+0x728 f16c7a50 ec12d930 NTFS!NtfsCommonDirectoryControl+0x124 f16c7a90 8008607c NTFS!NtfsFsdDirectoryControl+0xe0 f16c7b10 ec324d40 NT!IofCallDriver+0x8c

Starting with the first function, BinarySearchIndex, the code shows 5 parameters, which means that on an Alpha, registers a0 through a4 will be used to pass them.

Now disassemble the function which called BinarySearchIndex, right before the return address. This will reveal where the values in the a0 through a4 registers came from:

NTFS!FindFirstIndexEntry+0xe4: 0xec138ad4 47ea0411         bis          zero,s1,a1 0xec138ad8 a21e0054         ldl          a0,0x54(sp) 0xec138adc 47eb0413         bis          zero,s2,a3 0xec138ae0 47ec0414         bis          zero,s3,a4 0xec138ae4 47e90412         bis          zero,s0,a2 0xec138ae8 d3401c29         bsr          ra,BinarySearchIndex

The above assembly instructions would be read as follows:


 * 1) bis zero,s1,a1: bis is the mnemonic for a logical or, zero is a reference to a special register on the Alpha that always holds the value zero. This instruction is a fast copy from one register to another, in this case s1 to a1. The other three bis instructions accomplish the same purpose with different registers.
 * 2) ldl a0,0x54(sp): ldl is the mnemonic for load long, which loads the long (dword) value from the memory address in operand 2 into the register in operand 1. 0x54(sp) is the Alpha equivalent of the Intel instruction dword ptr [ebp+54].
 * 3) bsr ra,BinarySearchindex: bsr is a branch subroutine command, this is effectively the same as a call on an Intel system.

Based on the above assembly, the following values are being placed in argument registers:

a0 = 0x54(SP) a1 = s1 a2 = s0 a3 = s2 a4 = s4

Now disassemble the beginning of BinarySearchIndex to see what is done with all of the above registers:

NTFS!BinarySearchIndex+0x0: 0xec13fb90 23defee0         lda          sp,-0x120(sp) 0xec13fb94 b53e0000         stq          s0,0x0(sp) 0xec13fb98 b55e0008         stq          s1,0x8(sp) 0xec13fb9c b57e0010         stq          s2,0x10(sp) 0xec13fba0 b59e0018         stq          s3,0x18(sp) 0xec13fba4 b5be0020         stq          s4,0x20(sp) 0xec13fba8 b5de0028         stq          s5,0x28(sp) 0xec13fbac b5fe0030         stq          fp,0x30(sp) KDalpha> u NTFS!BinarySearchIndex+0x20: 0xec13fbb0 b75e0038         stq          ra,0x38(sp) 0xec13fbb4 47f1040a         bis          zero,a1,s1 0xec13fbb8 b21e0040         stl          a0,0x40(sp)  In the above code, you are saving off a number of the registers using the instructions stq (store quadword) and stl (store longword)(dword). These instructions work similarly to load longword(ldl) but in reverse: the value in the register is written out to the memory address specified by the memory location. In the first seven instructions, the s0 through s5 registers are written out to various locations on the stack, and later a0 is also written out on to the stack. You now know the following:

a0 = 0x40(sp) a1 = s1 = 0x8(sp) a2 = s0 = 0x0(sp) a3 = s2 = 0x10(sp) a4 = s4 = 0x20(sp)

At the beginning of a function like this, the sp is equal to the FramePtr value given in the stack dump for this function(f16c7550), you can use that to dump out the values for the following arguments:

KDalpha> dd f16c7550+40 l1   Argument 1 0xF16C7590 80da1848 KDalpha> dd f16c7550+8 l1    Argument 2 0xF16C7558 e18d95c8 KDalpha> dd f16c7550 l1      Argument 3 0xF16C7550 e1ce9a40 KDalpha> dd f16c7550+10 l1   Argument 4 0xF16C7560 80e3f948 KDalpha> dd f16c7550+20 l1   Argument 5 0xF16C7570 e1ce9a08 To verify that you have found the correct values, check the function code to determine the variable types, and use that information to determine if you have the correct values. This method will work for tracing the values of most arguments passed from function to function, although occasionally you might have to follow a variable through a couple of functions before you find it pushed out onto the stack in an identifiable location.

Additional query words: csu/dsu debugref

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Issue type : kbinfo

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