It is impossible to have a zero length segment in descriptor tables using "normal" segments. One of many ways to properly protect segments to zero length is to map the base to an umapped page. Create a nicer way to do this, and stop subtracting 1 from the length passed to set_limit (note calling set limit with a zero limit does something very bad! - not anymore). Signed-off-by: Zachary Amsden <zach@vmware.com> Index: linux-2.6.14-zach-work/include/asm-i386/desc.h ==================================================================--- linux-2.6.14-zach-work.orig/include/asm-i386/desc.h 2005-11-04 17:45:02.000000000 -0800 +++ linux-2.6.14-zach-work/include/asm-i386/desc.h 2005-11-05 00:28:08.000000000 -0800 @@ -158,6 +158,15 @@ static inline unsigned long get_desc_bas return base; } +static inline void prepare_protected_segment(int cpu, int gdt_entry, void *base, u32 size) +{ + struct desc_struct *gdt = get_cpu_gdt_table(cpu); + + /* Forced zero-length segments to 1-byte access at unmapped page zero */ + set_base(gdt[gdt_entry], size > 0 ? (u32)base : 0); + set_limit(gdt[gdt_entry], size > 0 ? size - 1 : 0); +} + struct bios_segment_save { struct desc_struct save_desc_40; struct desc_struct *gdt; Index: linux-2.6.14-zach-work/include/asm-i386/system.h ==================================================================--- linux-2.6.14-zach-work.orig/include/asm-i386/system.h 2005-11-04 17:18:05.000000000 -0800 +++ linux-2.6.14-zach-work/include/asm-i386/system.h 2005-11-05 00:28:10.000000000 -0800 @@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ __asm__ __volatile__ ("movw %%dx,%1\n\t" ); } while(0) #define set_base(ldt,base) _set_base( ((char *)&(ldt)) , (base) ) -#define set_limit(ldt,limit) _set_limit( ((char *)&(ldt)) , ((limit)-1) ) +#define set_limit(ldt,limit) _set_limit( ((char *)&(ldt)) , (limit) ) static inline unsigned long _get_base(char * addr) { Index: linux-2.6.14-zach-work/drivers/pnp/pnpbios/bioscalls.c ==================================================================--- linux-2.6.14-zach-work.orig/drivers/pnp/pnpbios/bioscalls.c 2005-11-04 17:45:02.000000000 -0800 +++ linux-2.6.14-zach-work/drivers/pnp/pnpbios/bioscalls.c 2005-11-05 00:28:08.000000000 -0800 @@ -103,10 +103,8 @@ static inline u16 call_pnp_bios(u16 func spin_lock_irqsave(&pnp_bios_lock, flags); /* The lock prevents us bouncing CPU here */ - if (ts1_size) - Q2_SET_SEL(smp_processor_id(), PNP_TS1, ts1_base, ts1_size); - if (ts2_size) - Q2_SET_SEL(smp_processor_id(), PNP_TS2, ts2_base, ts2_size); + prepare_protected_segment(smp_processor_id(), GDT_ENTRY_PNPBIOS_TS1, ts1_base, ts1_size); + prepare_protected_segment(smp_processor_id(), GDT_ENTRY_PNPBIOS_TS2, ts2_base, ts2_size); __asm__ __volatile__( "pushl %%ebp\n\t"