Multidrop Bus addressing - bus

Currently I am reading the MDB_interface_specification( (https://namanow.org/wp-content/uploads/Multi-Drop-Bus-and-Internal-Communication-Protocol.pdf) Version 4. 3(July 2019). In Kapitel 2.3 page 34 they are talking about the Peripheral Address and I don't undrstand how the Address scheme has been built . One prototy of the address scheme look like this: 00101xxxB ( this can be 28H for example ). They upper five bits are used for addressing and the lower 3 bit are the command. If i considered this statement wih my example then the address ist 5 and the Command is 0. I am a little bit confuse can someone please explain me that?

OK. First, read this:
Then, we have value 0x00 as command to Energy Management System (huh, i never saw this kind of MBD device in the wild). MDB datasheet doesn't contain any references to this device yet, but seems it's just POLL command, device must respond to POLL with last status changes (if any) or just ACK with x100 - it's not mistake, it's 0x00 with 9th bit set. Don't read this datasheet unless you want to lose your mind. I am already read this awesome shit and put it (mostly) to hardware implementation see github repo with complete solution
Cheers.

Related

STM32F4 wont stay in Bootloader

Currently i am trying to get the STM32F405 to jump to bootloader from application code without the use of the boot0 and boot1 pins.
I did already try multiple things to get that done but it always ended with the the firmware jumping to the bootloader (at least it seems like it) and after approximate 18 seconds the firmware restarts (no Watchdog or similar things that could wake the chip up again are used as far as i know).
During those 18 seconds if i try to update the firmware the bootloader doesn't get found.
I tested things like:
1. (STM32F4 Jump to Bootloader via SoftReset and without BOOT0 and BOOT1 Pin)
Set a value in SRAM
Restart the STM32F405 with NVIC_SystemReset() to get the STM32F405 to close reset condition
Check for value in SRAM ( if it's set do the following )
Move stackpointer to bootloader address
Jump to bootloader address + 4 (0x1FFF0000 + 4)
2.
During runtime call function JumpToBootloader()
Within that function disable interupts, reset SysTick, reset SYSCLK, call RCC_DeInit()
Move stackpointer to bootlader address
Jump to bootloader address + 4 (0x1FFF0000 + 4)
One approach i found but couldn't test yet was to do basically what i discribed in try 1. but using assembler code within the STM32F4xx startup file.
The problem here is that the tutorial i found uses the KEIL assembler syntax which i cant use because i use the Atollic TrueSTUDIO and i have not enough knowlege about assembler to change the KEIL syntax to standard assembler syntax.
The thing that confuses me the most is that in an other project i use an STM32F3xx (cant remeber the correct number) and i do basically the same thing as in try 2. but with the the bootloader address of the STM32F3xx (0x1FFFD800) and it works perfectly fine and i can update the firmware via USB.
So the questions i have:
What could i try next to get the bootloader running?
What could be the cause in my current situation for the firmware to restart after X seconds?
A few days ago i found the cause of the problem i had.
Within the "system_stm32f4xx.c" the I2S clock got configurated and in my project that clocks doesnt get used.
Im not 100% sure why, but after removing this block of code everything works perfectly fine.
(sorry for late answer, kind of forgot about the post :D)

Intel Pin Tool: Get instruction from address

I'm using Intel's Pin Tool to do some binary instrumentation, and was wondering if there an API to get the instruction byte code at a given address.
Something like:
instruction = getInstructionatAddr(addr);
where addr is the desired address.
I know the function Instruction (used in many of the simple/manual examples) given by Pin gets the instruction, but I need to know the instructions at other addresses. I perused the web with no avail. Any help would be appreciated!
CHEERS
wondering if there an API to get the instruction byte code at a given
address
Yes, it's possible but in a somewhat contrived way: with PIN you are usually interested in what is executed (or manipulated through the executed instructions), so everything outside the code / data flow is not of any interest for PIN.
PIN is using (and thus ships with) Intel XED which is an instruction encoder / decoder.
In your PIN installation you should have and \extra folder with two sub-directories: xed-ia32 and xed-intel64 (choose the one that suits your architecture). The main include file for XED is xed-interface.h located in the \include folder of the aforementioned directories.
In your Pintool, given any address in the virtual space of your pintooled program, use the PIN_SafeCopy function to read the program memory (and thus bytes at the given address). The advantage of PIN_SafeCopy is that it fails graciously even if it can't read the memory, and can read "shadowed" parts of the memory.
Use XED to decode the instruction bytes for you.
For an example of how to decode an instruction with XED, see the first example program.
As the small example uses an hardcoded buffer (namely itext in the example program), replace this hardcoded buffer with the destination buffer you used in PIN_SafeCopy.
Obviously, you should make sure that the memory you are reading really contains code.
AFAIK, it is not possible to get an INS type (the usual type describing an instruction in PIN) from an arbitrary address as only addresses in the code flow will "generate" an INS type.
As a side note:
I know the function Instruction (used in many of the simple/manual
examples) given by Pin gets the instruction
The Instruction routine used in many PIN example is called an "Instrumentation routine": its name is not relevant in itself.
Pin_SafeCopy may help you. This API could copy memory content from the address space of target process to one specified buffer.

x86 segmentation, DOS, MZ file format, and disassembling

I'm disassembling "Test Drive III". It's a 1990 DOS game. The *.EXE has MZ format.
I've never dealt with segmentation or DOS, so I would be grateful if you answered some of my questions.
1) The game's system requirements mention 286 CPU, which has protected mode. As far as I know, DOS was 90% real mode software, yet some applications could enter protected mode. Can I be sure that the app uses the CPU in real mode only? IOW, is it guaranteed that the segment registers contain actual offset of the segment instead of an index to segment descriptor?
2) Said system requirements mention 1 MB of RAM. How is this amount of RAM even meant to be accessed if the uppermost 384 KB of the address space are reserved for stuff like MMIO and ROM? I've heard about UMBs (using holes in UMA to access RAM) and about HMA, but it still doesn't allow to access the whole 1 MB of physical RAM. So, was precious RAM just wasted because its physical address happened to be reserved for UMA? Or maybe the game uses some crutches like LIM EMS or XMS?
3) Is CS incremented automatically when the code crosses segment boundaries? Say, the IP reaches 0xFFFF, and what then? Does CS switch to the next segment before next instruction is executed? Same goes for SS. What happens when SP goes all the way down to 0x0000?
4) The MZ header of the executable looks like this:
signature 23117 "0x5a4d"
bytes_in_last_block 117
blocks_in_file 270
num_relocs 0
header_paragraphs 32
min_extra_paragraphs 3349
max_extra_paragraphs 65535
ss 11422
sp 128
checksum 0
ip 16
cs 8385
reloc_table_offset 30
overlay_number 0
Why does it have no relocation information? How is it even meant to run without address fixups? Or is it built as completely position-independent code consisting from program-counter-relative instructions? The game comes with a cheat utility which is also an MZ executable. Despite being much smaller (8448 bytes - so small that it fits into a single segment), it still has relocation information:
offset 1
segment 0
offset 222
segment 0
offset 272
segment 0
This allows IDA to properly disassemble the cheat's code. But the game EXE has nothing, even though it clearly has lots of far pointers.
5) Is there even such thing as 'sections' in DOS? I mean, data section, code (text) section etc? The MZ header points to the stack section, but it has no information about data section. Is data and code completely mixed in DOS programs?
6) Why even having a stack section in EXE file at all? It has nothing but zeroes. Why wasting disk space instead of just saying, "start stack from here"? Like it is done with BSS section?
7) MZ header contains information about initial values of SS and CS. What about DS? What's its initial value?
8) What does an MZ executable have after the exe data? The cheat utility has whole 3507 bytes in the end of the executable file which look like
__exitclean.__exit.__restorezero._abort.DGROUP#.__MMODEL._main._access.
_atexit._close._exit._fclose._fflush._flushall._fopen._freopen._fdopen
._fseek._ftell._printf.__fputc._fputc._fputchar.__FPUTN.__setupio._setvbuf
._tell.__MKNAME._tmpnam._write.__xfclose.__xfflush.___brk.___sbrk._brk._sbrk
.__chmod.__close._ioctl.__IOERROR._isatty._lseek.__LONGTOA._itoa._ultoa.
_ltoa._memcpy._open.__open._strcat._unlink.__VPRINTER.__write._free._malloc
._realloc.__REALCVT.DATASEG#.__Int0Vector.__Int4Vector.__Int5Vector.
__Int6Vector.__C0argc.__C0argv.__C0environ.__envLng.__envseg.__envSize
Is this some kind of debugging symbol information?
Thank you in advance for your help.
Re. 1. No, you can't be sure until you prove otherwise to yourself. One giveaway would be the presence of MOV CR0, ... in the code.
Re. 2. While marketing materials aren't to be confused with an engineering specification, there's a technical reason for this. A 286 CPU could address more than 1M of physical address space. The RAM was only "wasted" in real mode, and only if an EMM (or EMS) driver wasn't used. On 286 systems, the RAM past 640kb was usually "pushed up" to start at the 1088kb mark. The ISA and on-board peripherals' memory address space was mapped 1:1 into the 640-1024kb window. To use the RAM from the real mode needed an EMM or EMS driver. From protected mode, it was simply "there" as soon as you set up the segment descriptor correctly.
If the game actually needed the extra 384kb of RAM over the 640kb available in the real mode, it's a strong indication that it either switched to protected mode or required the services or an EMM or EMS driver.
Re. 3. I wish I remembered that. On reflection, I wish not :) Someone else please edit or answer separately. Hah, I did know it at some point in time :)
Re. 4. You say "[the code] has lots of instructions like call far ptr 18DCh:78Ch". This implies one of three things:
Protected mode is used and the segment part of the address is a selector into the segment descriptor table.
There is code there that relocates those instructions without DOS having to do it.
There is code there that forcibly relocates the game to a constant position in the address space. If the game doesn't use DOS to access on-disk files, it can remove DOS completely and take over, gaining lots of memory in the process. I don't recall whether you could exit from the game back to the command prompt. Some games where "play until you reboot".
Re. 5. The .EXE header does not "point" to any stack, there is no stack section you imply, the concept of sections doesn't exist as far as the .EXE file is concerned. The SS register value is obtained by adding the segment the executable was loaded at with the SS value from the header.
It's true that the linker can arrange sections contiguously in the .EXE file, but such sections' properties are not included in the .EXE header. They often can be reverse-engineered by inspecting the executable.
Re. 6. The SS and SP values in the .EXE header are not file pointers. The EXE file might have a part that maps to the stack, but that's entirely optional.
Re. 7. This is already asked and answered here.
Re. 8. This looks like a debug symbol list. The cheat utility was linked with the debugging information left in. You can have completely arbitrary data there - often it'd various resources (graphics, music, etc.).

ATXmega change fuse

I have an ATXMEGAA3BU processor and I use a CrossPack on my MacOS. I would like to use my old USBASP pragrammer which is "configured" to programm the CPU through the PDI interface - that is not a problem.
The problem is that I do not know how to setup the FUSES on this ATXmega.
For ordinary CPU like ATMega8 the sequence in the Make file was simple.Just use this: FUSES = -U hfuse:w:0xd9:m -U lfuse:w:0x24:m
But the Xmega has five FUSEBYTES and I have a problem with them... so the simple question is "how to change e.g. JTAGEN from 0 to 1"? It is located in teh FUSEBYTE4 as bit 0. How to tell the CrossPack (avr-dude) to change this or other from e.g. FUSEBYTE0?
Thank you...
Maybe this is related to Robotics StackExchange.
But I will try to answer here.
If it's possible for you to switch to windows, The fuse bit changing progress is very easily done with CodevisionAVR. With just some single clicks it's done. and it doesn't have the headaches of this terminal commands.
Please refer to the datasheet for xmega a3bu at : http://www.atmel.com/Images/Atmel-8331-8-and-16-bit-AVR-Microcontroller-XMEGA-AU_Manual.pdf
The name of the fuse bytes are: FUSEBYTE0, FUSEBYTE1, ... FUSEBYTE5. There's no FUSEBYTE3. Have you tried
-U fusebyte0:w:0xd9:m -U fusebyte1:w:0x24:m -U fusebyte2:w:0x24:m and so on. You could give it a shot with exercise precaution while calculating the fuse bits and the lock bits.
I know this is probably too late for OP, but for others (like me) who come across this question, you can also add
FUSES =
{
0x00,//sets jtag address
0xAA,//fuse byte 1
0x9D,//f byte 2
0x00,//unused
0xDE,//f byte 4
0x1E //f byte 5
};
to the top of your main.c file and the compiler / programmer will take care of flashing them.
Tested on xmegaA4.

grdb not working variables

i know this is kinda retarded but I just can't figure it out. I'm debugging this:
xor eax,eax
mov ah,[var1]
mov al,[var2]
call addition
stop: jmp stop
var1: db 5
var2: db 6
addition:
add ah,al
ret
the numbers that I find on addresses var1 and var2 are 0x0E and 0x07. I know it's not segmented, but that ain't reason for it to do such escapades, because the addition call works just fine. Could you please explain to me where is my mistake?
I see the problem, dunno how to fix it yet though. The thing is, for some reason the instruction pointer starts at 0x100 and all the segment registers at 0x1628. To address the instruction the used combination is i guess [cs:ip] (one of the segment registers and the instruction pointer for sure). The offset to var1 is 0x10 (probably because from the begining of the code it's the 0x10th byte in order), i tried to examine the memory and what i got was:
1628:100 8 bytes
1628:108 8 bytes
1628:110 <- wtf? (assume another 8 bytes)
1628:118 ...
whatever tricks are there in the memory [cs:var1] points somewhere else than in my code, which is probably where the label .data would usually address ds.... probably.. i don't know what is supposed to be at 1628:10
ok, i found out what caused the assness and wasted me whole fuckin day. the behaviour described above is just correct, the code is fully functional. what i didn't know is that grdb debugger for some reason sets the begining address to 0x100... the sollution is to insert the directive ORG 0x100 on the first line and that's the whole thing. the code was working because instruction pointer has the right address to first instruction and goes one by one, but your assembler doesn't know what effective address will be your program stored at so it pretty much remains relative to first line of the code which means all the variables (if not using label for data section) will remain pointing as if it started at 0x0. which of course wouldn't work with DOS. and grdb apparently emulates some DOS features... sry for the language, thx everyone for effort, hope this will spare someone's time if having the same problem...
heheh.. at least now i know the reason why to use .data section :))))
Assuming that is x86 assembly, var1 and var2 must reside in the .data section.
Explanation: I'm not going to explain exactly how the executable file is structured (not to mention this is platform-specific), but here's a general idea as to why what you're doing is not working.
Assembly code must be divided into data sections due to the fact that each data section corresponds directly (or almost directly) to a specific part of the binary/executable file. All global variables must be defined in the .data sections since they have a corresponding location in the binary file which is where all global data resides.
Defining a global variable (or a globally accessed part of the memory) inside the code section will lead to undefined behavior. Some x86 assemblers might even throw an error on this.

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