Dec 192017
Text file released by Borland International on Compuserve. Describes the conditions that may cause General Protection Faults and crashing of the Protected mode compiler (bcx.exe). | |||
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File Name | File Size | Zip Size | Zip Type |
GPFAULT.TXT | 11112 | 4546 | deflated |
Download File GPFAUL.ZIP Here
Contents of the GPFAULT.TXT file
WHAT? GENERAL PROTECTION ERROR!
Protected mode development tools permit much larger programs to be compiled
faster than their real mode counterparts. They accomplish this by allowing
the use of a vastly larger memory area than is available to real mode
tools. There is a cost for this increased capability, however; many of us
will have to change the coding practices and strategies we grew to depend
on with the relatively tolerant real mode development tools.
Central to this change is the increasingly notorious "General Protection
Fault" . A GP Fault is generated by what one might think of as a debugger
built into the CPU and is enabled any time a program is operating in
protected mode. This debugger-in-a-CPU is very, very uncompromising with
regard to the rules which a program must obey while availing itself of
protected mode capabilities.
For example, suppose a block of memory is allocated for use. Further
suppose that we code an errant read or write outside this block. In
real mode this may show up in a variety of more-or-less unacceptable
ways; many of these we can choose to ignore.
The same program executed in protected mode will, in all probably, display
a General Protection Fault error message and immediately exit to DOS.
This illustrates the cost of operating in protected mode; our right to
ignore coding problems is seriously limited.
There is an upside to this, however: any program that runs for any length
of time in protected mode is likely to be far more bug free than an
equivalent program executed only in real mode.
General Protection Faults are generated, however, by more than just
reads or writes outside proper memory areas.
The following list, extracted from the "Intel 386 Programmer's Reference
Manual", serves to suggest the level of "protection": which we may expect
while operating in protected mode:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
All protection violations which do not cause another exception cause a
General-Protection Fault. This includes (but is not limited to):
a. Exceeding the segment limit when using CS, DS, ES, FS, or GS segments.
b. Exceeding the segment limit when referencing a descriptor table.
c. Transferring execution to a segment which is not executable.
d. Writing to a read-only data segment or a code segment.
e. Reading from an execute-only code segment.
f. Loading the SS register with a selector for a read-only segment
(unless the selector comes from a TSS during a task switch, in
which case an invalid-TSS exception occurs).
g. Loading the SS, DS, ES, FS, or GS register with a selector for a
system segment.
h. Loading the DS, ES, FS, or GS register with a selector for an
execute-only code segment.
i. Loading the SS register with the selector of an executable segment.
j. Accessing memory using the DS, ES, FS, or GS register when it contains
a null selector.
k. Switching to a busy task.
l. Violating privilege rules.
m. Exceeding the instruction length limit of 15 bytes (this only can
occur when redundant prefixes are placed before an instruction).
n. Loading the CRO register with a set PG bit (paging enabled) and a
clear PE bit (protection disabled).
o. Interrupt or exception through an interrupt or trap gate from
virtual-8086 mode to a handler at a privilege level other than 0.
p. The general-protection exception is a fault. In response to a
general-protection exception, the processor pushes an error code onto
the exception handler's stack. If loading a descriptor causes the
exception, the error code contains a selector to the descriptor;
otherwise, the error code is null. The source of the selector in an
error code may be any of the following:
1. An operand of the instruction.
2. A selector from a gate which is the operand of the instruction.
3. A selector from a TSS involved in a task switch.
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PROGRAM OR DEVELOPMENT TOOL?
Obviously if your applications are going to be subject to GP Fault errors
it stands to reason that the development tools themselves must abide by
the same rules and are subject to this demanding debugger-in-a-CPU.
It is unlikely that any significant program has ever been bug-free and
Borland's development tools are no different. As you might expect, we
are dedicated to eliminating any bugs that can be identified. One might
guess that this would be an easy task.
Unfortunately the protected mode mechanism does not distinguish between
problems in the code being developed under the tools and problems with
the tools themselves. Consequently, it becomes necessary for the
developer to take additional steps to assure that their code is not
the cause. Although there is little that Borland can do to make this
process easier, we can supply you with a list of known problems in
the BC++ tools that generate reproducible GP Fault errors. If you
find a problem you are encountering on this list you can eliminate your
program as the culprit.
- Moving the mouse while BCX is setting up to run your program can
cause a GP Fault. This can happen if the mouse is moving when BCX
switches from compiling to linking also but not nearly as often as
choosing RUN|RUN and moving the mouse after the link or dependency
check.
- Window Resize/Move- Clicking the mouse almost anywhere outside of a
BCX window set up for resizing or moving ( green bordered)
- Using the ,m (memory dump) option in a BCX watch window
- Doing a Repaint Desktop in BCX with a HERCULES card attached (and
many video cards doing Hercules simulation)
- Compiling a program under BCX using the ternary operator with the
second or third variables undefined
- Compiling a program with the OPTIONS|DIRECTORY|INCLUDE box filled
to its maximum
- Inspecting on a static member of a class with the BCX debugger
- Compiling the DLLDEMO examples program under BCX using different
segment names for BSS or DATA
Ok, so the problem can't be in your application because you have reduced
it to the point where all it does is print "Hello, world" and it's still
giving you a GP Fault; and it's not on the list of known problems.
There are two final sources of General Protection Faults that have little
to do with either the tools or the application under development; the
Operating System configuration, the configuration of the hardware and,
on occasion, the hardware itself.
OPERATING SYSTEM CONFIGURATION?
GP Faults generated by OS configuration are not uncommon. Most of them
find their cause in the variety of memory management standards (or lack
thereof) which characterize use of extended and expanded (EMS) memory.
Since the advent of the IBM PC the industry has progressed from the
total absence of a standard, as exemplified by IBM's VDISK, through
VCPI to today's most likely candidate, the DPMI standard. However,
even DPMI remains unfinished at revision 0.9.
As you might guess, writing a development tool or application which
will not clash with any potential user of memory is very difficult,
if not impossible, to do without an industry-accepted memory standard.
To resolve these inevitable incompatibilities, the user is at the
mercy of the contending utilities. If they can be manually configured
to avoid conflict, the problem can be resolved; otherwise, the user
must assure they they are never loaded at the same time. Many modern
utilities (e.g., QEMM & MAX386) provide the options necessary to
resolve such contentiousness. Many older utilities (e.g., VDISK)
do not.
To quickly eliminate OS configuration (device drivers, TSR's, etc) as a
source of difficulty, simply boot your computer from a vanilla DOS disk.
If a vanilla DOS disk isn't available, rename your system's CONFIG.SYS
and AUTOEXEC.BAT to something else (e.g., CONFIG.TMP and AUTOEXEC.TMP)
and reboot your computer. Note that "vanilla" means without any drivers
or TSRs INCLUDING the mouse driver. For some of us, running for any
length of time without a mouse is excruciating; you will simply have to
grin and bear it for a short time.
Now execute the offending process; if the problem persists, contact
Borland Technical Support (see final section for procedures). If the
problem seems to have been eliminated, however, you will need to begin
the tedious but rather undemanding process of identifying the offending
driver/TSR through stepwise restoration of your normal operating
configuration.
HARDWARE DEPENDENCIES?
Finally, there are some GP Fault problems which cannot be resolved
without replacing the computer or some part of the computer. Often
the problem revolves around the system BIOS or some unique aspect
of the computer's architecture.
For instance, a problem that occurs often enough to be well known
involves GP Faults generated when the UPARROW and DOWNARROW keys are
pressed with NUM LOCK enabled. For some computers, the manufacturer
provides a ROM BIOS update which solves the problem.
In addition, any 80x286 based computer is more likely to be affected
by GP Fault errors in protected mode than are 80x386 or 80x486
computers. This is largely due to the speed with which these
computers can switch between protected mode and real mode. For
instance, use of a mouse in protected mode represents hundreds of
protected/real mode exchanges per second; any failure on the part
of the hardware to realize this demand will inevitably result in
a GP Fault error.
Identification of this type of problem usually requires running the
failing installation on a different computer, trying to change as
little as possible. Although such "in vivo" testing is unlikely to
be absolutely conclusive, it will often serve as a tie-breaker for
a final decision.
REPORTING A GENERAL PROTECTION FAULT PROBLEM
Assuming that the problem is independent of the program you are develop-
ing, occurs under a vanilla operating system as well as under your normal
operating system configuration and is not on the list of known GP fault
problems, it is time to contact Borland Technical Support. When contact-
Technical Support regarding a GP Fault, it will be most efficient if
you have the following information available:
1. A set of steps to reproduce the problem (including any code that
may be required).
2. A description of the problem
3. The GP information which was displayed just prior to the exit to
DOS. It looks like:
GP at 0020 0FC8
The following information may also be requested by the Technical Support
Engineer, depending on the problem:
4. BIOS date, manufacturer and revision
5. Computer make and model
6. Memory configuration
7. Operating system revision
8. Graphics adapter make, model and Video BIOS revision/date
December 19, 2017
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