Robert Allan JamesandClaude Sonnet 5
70421bdd43
The interpreter_enabled guard added in the previous commit (662ef44) was a
real but incomplete fix -- re-running the exact repro against it still
panicked (this time as a raw #PF page fault), proving something deeper
was wrong.
Root cause, found via targeted console_puts probes (not GDB --
starkernel_kernel.elf's symbols don't correspond to the actual running
starkernel_loader.efi binary for this monolithic build, same gotcha
already on record from the 2026-08-18 aarch64 investigation):
sk_repl_run()'s main loop captures `active` once, before calling
sk_console_readline(), which then blocks for the next full line. If the
identity `active` points at is killed while that read is still blocked,
the bailout meant to catch this (sk_console_identity_present()) only
checks a generic "is anyone attached" boolean, not "is the specific
identity active belonged to still attached" -- a fast detach of one
identity followed by attach of a different one never produces an
observable gap in that boolean, so the bailout never fires. The stale
`active`, now pointing at freed memory, gets dispatched into.
Fix: re-resolve `active` fresh from g_repl_active_vm immediately before
dispatch, right after sk_console_readline() returns. One line, no
registry lookup, no dereference of the stale pointer -- closes the race
regardless of whether the bailout catches it first.
Verified: rebuilt amd64 clean, reproduced the exact same attach/USE/
detach/attach/USE sequence against the fixed build -- clean switch, no
fault, exerciser runs correctly afterward.
FABRIC-3.md §XII.2 also corrected to stop claiming the interpreter_
enabled guard alone closed the crash -- it didn't, per the above.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01EXieurDfDSsDFdnSyusuWo
src/starkernel/
LithosAnanke — the bare-metal UEFI kernel that boots StarForth directly on
hardware (amd64/aarch64/riscv64). Built only via Makefile.starkernel; the
only valid acceptance test is the three-arch QEMU boot (see
.claude/CLAUDE.md), never make test.
kernel_main.c— kernel entry point, driving the boot milestones (console init, PMM, VMM, interrupts, timers, kmalloc heap, VM bootstrap).repl.c— kernel REPL.doe_log.c— kernel-side DoE (Design of Experiments) metrics logging.
Subdirectories:
arch/{amd64,aarch64,riscv64}/— per-architecture support (APIC/GIC/ PLIC interrupt controller, timers, boot/ISR assembly).boot/— UEFI loader, ELF loading, kernel command-line parsing.capsule/— capsule birth/run/load/validate pipeline.hal/— hardware-abstraction-layer implementation (console, framebuffer, VT100, memory, host services).hash/— XXHash64 content-addressing implementation.math/— kernel-build Q48.16 fixed-point arithmetic.memory/— physical/virtual memory managers and the kernel heap.pci/— PCI bus enumeration.virtio/— VirtIO block device driver.vm/— kernel VM subsystem (bootstrap, core interpreter, parity logging, capsule arena).
See include/starkernel/README.md for the corresponding headers.