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soc:ideas [2010/02/13 09:35]
rwcr
soc:ideas [2010/02/14 20:15]
mdc Remove rom-o-matic tasks
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 ==== Automated regression testing ==== ==== Automated regression testing ====
  
-:-/ :-/ :-/ :-/ :-/ gPXE has a relatively large feature set given the code size.  Many features are rarely used, and there has been a tendency for parts of the code to suffer from bit-rot. ​ The measures we have taken so far will ensure that we never end up with unbuildable code; we now avoid the use of #ifdef wherever possible, and have automated tests in place to identify missing or redundant symbols. ​ However, we do not have any systematic method for functional testing. ​+:-/ :-/ :-/ :-/ gPXE has a relatively large feature set given the code size.  Many features are rarely used, and there has been a tendency for parts of the code to suffer from bit-rot. ​ The measures we have taken so far will ensure that we never end up with unbuildable code; we now avoid the use of #ifdef wherever possible, and have automated tests in place to identify missing or redundant symbols. ​ However, we do not have any systematic method for functional testing. ​
  
 We would ideally like to be able to run a series of tests to verify different functional units (e.g. http download, Linux kernel booting, PXE booting, serial console support, etc.). ​ Most of these tests can be carried out inside a virtual machine such as bochs or qemu.  Some tests (e.g. specific device driver tests) will need to be carried out on real hardware. ​ The tests should be fully automated, and should produce a clear pass/fail status indicator. ​ It should be possible for a developer to simply run “make test” and, some time later, receive an overall pass/fail status, together with a list of any failed tests. We would ideally like to be able to run a series of tests to verify different functional units (e.g. http download, Linux kernel booting, PXE booting, serial console support, etc.). ​ Most of these tests can be carried out inside a virtual machine such as bochs or qemu.  Some tests (e.g. specific device driver tests) will need to be carried out on real hardware. ​ The tests should be fully automated, and should produce a clear pass/fail status indicator. ​ It should be possible for a developer to simply run “make test” and, some time later, receive an overall pass/fail status, together with a list of any failed tests.
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 Having such an automated test suite would enable us to offer quality control guarantees; we could then be confident that upgrades would not break existing functionality. Having such an automated test suite would enable us to offer quality control guarantees; we could then be confident that upgrades would not break existing functionality.
 +
 +==== Improved TCP performance ====
 +
 +:-/ :-/ :-/ gPXE includes support for the Transmission Control Protocol underlying most of the Internet'​s traffic, enabling network boot files to be loaded over reliable protocols like HTTP and iSCSI. To keep the code small, though, gPXE's TCP stack is very simple, and does not support many TCP features such as out-of-order packet recovery, selective ACK, window scaling, or congestion control. Implementing some of these features would allow much better performance in downloads of large network boot images.
 +
 +You would analyze the performance benefits and code size costs of several TCP features, and choose a few to implement in gPXE's TCP stack to best improve performance without compromising gPXE's ability to fit into ROM.
 +
 +==== Security improvements ====
 +
 +:-/ :-/ :-/ (:-/) gPXE currently supports loading boot files over a TLS-secured HTTP connection (''​%%https://​%%''​ URI), but the implementation is sufficiently skeletal that its security is much less than that of a typical Web browser:
 +  * gPXE has no boot-time source of entropy, so its random numbers are not really random and could be guessed fairly easily by an attacker. You would implement a cryptographically strong random number generator (algorithms for several are publicly available), using entropy from timing jitter in the system clock or the timing of packet arrivals on the network.
 +  * We do not verify the server'​s certificate,​ so there is no way to be sure traffic to the secure server is not being hijacked by a third party. You would implement support for compiling gPXE with a root Certificate Authority, such that it would only allow secured connections to servers bearing certificates signed by that authority. This would require parsing the x509 certificate'​s ASN1 representation to extract the cryptographic data necessary for verification,​ and performing the appropriate signature verification to ensure the certificate really was signed by the CA.
 +
 +Either of these projects would require either a preexisting familiarity with cryptography or a week or two of research into the necessary methods and data formats. Familiarity with C is required, and a moderate mathematical background probably helpful. The results would enable sites with stringent data security requirements to begin using gPXE to boot their systems over the network.
  
 ==== Linux Distribution network installation ==== ==== Linux Distribution network installation ====
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 gPXE is structured to allow easy addition of IPv6: the IPv4 layer is cleanly separated from both the transport layers (TCP and UDP) and the link layers (Ethernet and others). ​ Adding IPv6 support would require implementation of the basic IPv6 network layer protocol plus any ancillary protocols required for IPv6 operation such as NDP.  The existing DNS protocol support should be extended to cover IPv6 AAAA records, and it would also potentially be useful to support DHCPv6. gPXE is structured to allow easy addition of IPv6: the IPv4 layer is cleanly separated from both the transport layers (TCP and UDP) and the link layers (Ethernet and others). ​ Adding IPv6 support would require implementation of the basic IPv6 network layer protocol plus any ancillary protocols required for IPv6 operation such as NDP.  The existing DNS protocol support should be extended to cover IPv6 AAAA records, and it would also potentially be useful to support DHCPv6.
- 
-==== Protocols ==== 
- 
-gPXE already supports several common (and less common) protocols, including TFTP, FTP, HTTP, HTTPS, DNS, iSCSI and AoE.  There are several more (mostly fairly esoteric) protocols that people may find useful. ​ You could add support for: 
- 
-  * :-/ :-/ Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) 
- 
-  * :-/ :-/ Novell'​s Remote Program Load (RPL) 
- 
-  * :-/ :-/ iSCSI extensions for RDMA (iSER) 
  
 ==== ProxyDHCP server for Linux ==== ==== ProxyDHCP server for Linux ====
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 Having a powerful scripting language would make it possible to customize network boot behavior without being an expert in low-level C programming and gPXE internals. Having a powerful scripting language would make it possible to customize network boot behavior without being an expert in low-level C programming and gPXE internals.
  
-==== R.O.M. - Rom-O-Matic ​==== +==== Improved debugging support ​====
- +
-:-/ Rom-O-Matic is the web / graphical fronted to creating Etherboot & gPXE roms, there are several things that need to be worked on within the code base to make it better & more user friendly +
- +
-  * Updating and merging of the new configuration file reading code originally done by John '​Warthog9'​ Hawley +
-  * Updating configuration files to include, inline, syntax information hints for things like R.O.M. +
-  * Trivial ROM creation based on relative place in gPXE source tree +
-  * User Interface clean-ups +
- +
-Knowledge of gPXE building & configuration,​ ability to read and understand C and programing in PHP are required. +
- +
-==== boot.kernel.org - Universal remote network booting for the masses ==== +
- +
-**Note:** This is a cross posting on both Etherboot.org and Syslinux as the project is, literally, a cross disciplinary project. ​ Please also see [[http://​syslinux.zytor.com/​wiki/​index.php/​Google_Summer_of_Code_Ideas|Syslinux'​s SOC]] idea's page as an applicant will be working closely with both projects.+
  
-:-/ :-/ The basic idea for boot.kernel.org is to provide a universal location for basic computer system tasks such as: +:-/ :-/ :-:-/ :-/ gPXE, running as it does in an environment with nothing by way of memory protection or operating ​system ​servicescan be very difficult ​to debug. We have a GDB stub to allow remote debugging over a serial cable or UDPbut for architectural reasons it'​s ​impossible to detect invalid memory accesses or interrupt infinite loops with itThere are couple of ways of making this work:
-  * Run Diagnostics +
-    * Memory Testers +
-    * Hard Drive Testers +
-    * CPU Memory "burn-in" testers +
-  * Get System information +
-    * Display PCI Layouts +
-    * Display Hardware attached to the system +
-  * Install network installable OSes +
-    * Linux - a specific and primary goallistings should ​be able to auto-updateetc +
-      * Fedora +
-      * CentOS +
-      * Debian +
-      * Ubuntu +
-      * OpenSuse (**NOTE:** assuming this can be done sanely) +
-      * Classic Distros +
-      * etc, specific emphasis on distro'​s ​available at mirrors.kernel.org +
-    * Other OSes could be added but not explicitly ​requirement +
-      * BSD based distro'​s +
-      * OpenSolaris +
-      * etc +
-The work that would need to go into making this happen is going to be based on an existing project called [[http://​pxeknife.erebor.org|PXE Knife]] which is already in the process of breaking up it's components into various states to allow for a subset to be included on Kernel.org+
  
-boot.kernel.org will need to provide a simple and easy mechanism to generate a custom CDfloppy or usb stick image that can be trivially loaded by an end user This custom CD will be based on the Etherboot project'​s ​gPXE code and may include additions from the Syslinux project as well.+  * Allow gPXE to run with paging enabledidentity-mapping only those parts of the address space that are valid. This would require significant expertise in low-level x86 internals; ​gPXE interacts with them even more than a typical operating system, because it has to regularly switch between real and protected mode to perform BIOS calls.
  
-This is very interdisciplinary projectneeding and involving ​an understanding of the entirety of Syslinux (configuration of both text and graphical interfaces including menu.c32 and vesamenu.c32, memdisk, etc), Web programing ​for customized menuing options (preference for php or perl), a solid understanding of gPXE and how network ​booting works, along with good understanding ​of Linux network booting.+  * Allow gPXE to run as user-mode application under Linux. Obviously network card drivers would be difficult to test in this environmentbut most other parts of gPXE could be run in an environment with built-in memory protection ​and useful tools like ''​valgrind''​ easily availableThe cleanest way to do this would be to create another x86 "​platform",​ alongside the existing PC-BIOS ​and EFI, that performs low-level Linux system calls to perform platform-specific operationsA Linux kernel module could be used to enable DMA for testing ​network ​card drivers. The prospective implementor would need fair amount ​of low-level ​Linux kernel experience.
  
 ===== What you will need ===== ===== What you will need =====

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