Loading `libvulkan.so.1` on Linux with `std.ElfDynLib`
2025-02-10This was originally a topic on Ziggit.dev.
At the moment, my Linux application framwork seizer uses software rendering to achieve it’s goal of static linking. Long term, I’m not really satisfied with that as a solution. GPUs are amazingly powerful, and recreating everything they CPU side is just not possible. The stumbling block for seizer is that:
- Graphics libraries require dynamic linking or
dlopen. - Linux has no system
libc, so we must bring our owndlopento access graphics libraries. - Graphics libraries use functions from
glibcormusl. glibcandmusldon’t support this usecase; they only support being used with their own dynamic linker.
(See also this post in my topic for shimizu)
Currently, I have two ideas for getting around this problem:
- Work with the various upstreams (
mesa,glibc,musl, etc.) to support for being loaded by third partydlopenimplementations. - Write my own GPU library. (Been meaning to watch Raw dogging linux graphics (DRM) - YouTube)
For this topic, I am focused on idea 1.
Before filing any issues I want to make sure that I have something concrete to go off of. I’ve created a repo here with a small program that attempts to load libvulkan.so.1:
My first attempt looked something like this:
pub fn main() !void {
var vulkan_dynlib = try std.DynLib.open("libvulkan.so.1");
defer vulkan_dynlib.close();
const vkGetInstanceProcAddr = vulkan_dynlib.lookup(vk.PfnGetInstanceProcAddr, "vkGetInstanceProcAddr") orelse return error.vkGetInstanceProcAddrNotFound;
const vkb: VulkanBaseDispatch = try VulkanBaseDispatch.load(vkGetInstanceProcAddr);
std.log.debug("vkCreateInstance = {}", .{vkb});
}
const VulkanBaseDispatch = vk.BaseWrapper(vulkan_apis);
const vk = @import("vulkan");
const vulkan_apis: []const vk.ApiInfo = &.{
vk.features.version_1_0,
};
const dl_lib = @import("dlopen-mesa-with-zig_lib");
const std = @import("std");
Running the program gives us this output, and we are given a stark reminder of the uphill battle we may be facing:
error: ElfHashTableNotFound
/home/geemili/code/zig/build-master/stage3/lib/zig/std/dynamic_library.zig:346:45: 0x103e340 in open (dlopen-mesa-with-zig)
.hashtab = maybe_hashtab orelse return error.ElfHashTableNotFound,
^
/home/geemili/code/zig/build-master/stage3/lib/zig/std/dynamic_library.zig:32:28: 0x103b126 in open (dlopen-mesa-with-zig)
return .{ .inner = try InnerType.open(path) };
^
/home/geemili/code/dlopen-mesa-with-zig/src/main.zig:2:25: 0x103af78 in main (dlopen-mesa-with-zig)
var vulkan_dynlib = try std.DynLib.open("libvulkan.so.1");
^
My system libvulkan.so.1 contains no DT_HASH section, only a DT_GNU_HASH section. Glibc recently disabled DT_HASH by default. While the technical merits can be debated, what this unquestionably represents is a disregard for backwards compatibility. Issues similar to this is why seizer only supports a built-in software renderer at the moment. But I digress.
To solve Zig’s standard library not supporting DT_GNU_HASH, I copied ElfDynLib from Zig’s standard library and added support for looking up symbols using DT_GNU_HASH. I used “ELF: better symbol lookup via DT_GNU_HASH” by flapenguin.me for reference. (UPDATE: made a pull request adding DT_GNU_HASH support to Zig’s standard library)
Having shaved that yak, I replaced std.DynLib with our copy of ElfDynLib, and ran it again. This time we get:
~/code/dlopen-mesa-with-zig> zig build run
debug: bits found in bloom filter, symbol vkGetInstanceProcAddr may exist
debug: found hash match for 0x53f1e7aa
debug: found symbol "vkGetInstanceProcAddr"
Segmentation fault at address 0x0
???:?:?: 0x0 in ??? (???)
Running it with lldb we can see the segmentation fault occurs in vkGetInstanceProcAddr:
~/code/dlopen-mesa-with-zig> lldb ./zig-out/bin/dlopen-mesa-with-zig
(lldb) target create "./zig-out/bin/dlopen-mesa-with-zig"
Current executable set to '/home/geemili/code/dlopen-mesa-with-zig/zig-out/bin/dlopen-mesa-with-zig' (x86_64).
(lldb) run
Process 3009743 launched: '/home/geemili/code/dlopen-mesa-with-zig/zig-out/bin/dlopen-mesa-with-zig' (x86_64)
debug: bits found in bloom filter, symbol vkGetInstanceProcAddr may exist
debug: found hash match for 0x53f1e7aa
debug: found symbol "vkGetInstanceProcAddr"
debug: vkGetInstanceProcAddr = fn (vk.Instance, [*:0]const u8) callconv(.c) ?*const fn () callconv(.c) void@7ffff7f0e4e0
Process 3009743 stopped
* thread #1, name = 'dlopen-mesa-wit', stop reason = signal SIGSEGV: address not mapped to object (fault address: 0x0)
frame #0: 0x0000000000000000
error: memory read failed for 0x0
(lldb) bt
* thread #1, name = 'dlopen-mesa-wit', stop reason = signal SIGSEGV: address not mapped to object (fault address: 0x0)
* frame #0: 0x0000000000000000
frame #1: 0x00007ffff7f0e51b
frame #2: 0x000000000103d7d3 dlopen-mesa-with-zig`vk.BaseWrapper(loader=0x00007ffff7f0e4e0).load__anon_4774 at vk.zig:27075:27
frame #3: 0x000000000103be42 dlopen-mesa-with-zig`main.main at main.zig:8:64
frame #4: 0x000000000103bc9b dlopen-mesa-with-zig`start.posixCallMainAndExit [inlined] start.callMain at start.zig:656:37
frame #5: 0x000000000103bc81 dlopen-mesa-with-zig`start.posixCallMainAndExit [inlined] start.callMainWithArgs at start.zig:616:20
frame #6: 0x000000000103bc08 dlopen-mesa-with-zig`start.posixCallMainAndExit(argc_argv_ptr=0x00007fffffffe3e0) at start.zig:571:36
frame #7: 0x000000000103b84e dlopen-mesa-with-zig`start._start at start.zig:271:5
(lldb) fr sel 1
frame #1: 0x00007ffff7f0e51b
-> 0x7ffff7f0e51b: testl %eax, %eax
0x7ffff7f0e51d: jne 0x7ffff7f0e550
0x7ffff7f0e51f: movq 0x603e2(%rip), %rbx
0x7ffff7f0e526: movq -0x38(%rbp), %rax
(lldb) disassemble -s 0x7ffff7f0e4e0 -e 0x7ffff7f0e51b+16
0x7ffff7f0e4e0: endbr64
0x7ffff7f0e4e4: pushq %rbp
0x7ffff7f0e4e5: movq %rsp, %rbp
0x7ffff7f0e4e8: pushq %r15
0x7ffff7f0e4ea: pushq %r14
0x7ffff7f0e4ec: pushq %r13
0x7ffff7f0e4ee: leaq 0x3352c(%rip), %r13
0x7ffff7f0e4f5: pushq %r12
0x7ffff7f0e4f7: movq %rdi, %r12
0x7ffff7f0e4fa: pushq %rbx
0x7ffff7f0e4fb: subq $0x18, %rsp
0x7ffff7f0e4ff: movq %fs:0x28, %rbx
0x7ffff7f0e508: movq %rbx, -0x38(%rbp)
0x7ffff7f0e50c: movq %rsi, %rbx
0x7ffff7f0e50f: movq %r13, %rsi
0x7ffff7f0e512: movq %rbx, %rdi
0x7ffff7f0e515: callq *0x6055d(%rip)
-> 0x7ffff7f0e51b: testl %eax, %eax
0x7ffff7f0e51d: jne 0x7ffff7f0e550
0x7ffff7f0e51f: movq 0x603e2(%rip), %rbx
0x7ffff7f0e526: movq -0x38(%rbp), %rax
0x7ffff7f0e52a: fs
(lldb)
vkGetInstanceProcAddr is loaded at 0x7ffff7f0e4e0, and the return pointer in the backtrace points at 0x7ffff7f0e51b.
Opening libvulkan.so.1 with rizin, we can seek to sym.vkGetInstanceProcAddr at 0x000284e0:
~/code/dlopen-mesa-with-zig> rizin /usr/lib/libvulkan.so.1
ERROR: Cannot determine entrypoint, using 0x00007040.
-- The unix-like reverse engineering framework.
[0x00007040]> aaa
[x] Analyze all flags starting with sym. and entry0 (aa)
[x] Analyze function calls
[x] Analyze len bytes of instructions for references
[x] Check for classes
[x] Analyze local variables and arguments
[x] Type matching analysis for all functions
[x] Applied 0 FLIRT signatures via sigdb
[x] Propagate noreturn information
[x] Integrate dwarf function information.
[x] Resolve pointers to data sections
[x] Use -AA or aaaa to perform additional experimental analysis.
[0x00007040]> s sym.vkGetInstanceProcAddr
[0x000284e0]>
Doing a bit of math we can determine that the instruction we want to see is at:
0x000284e0 + (0x7ffff7f0e51b - 0x7ffff7f0e4e0)0x000284e0 + 590x00028515
[0x000284e0]> pd 20
;-- vkGetInstanceProcAddr:
┌ sym.vkGetInstanceProcAddr(int64_t arg1, const char *s1);
│ ; arg int64_t arg1 @ rdi
│ ; arg const char *s1 @ rsi
│ ; var int var_48h @ stack - 0x48
│ ; var int64_t var_40h @ stack - 0x40
│ 0x000284e0 endbr64 ; RELOC TARGET 64 vkGetInstanceProcAddr @ 0x000284e0
│ 0x000284e4 push rbp
│ 0x000284e5 mov rbp, rsp
│ 0x000284e8 push r15
│ 0x000284ea push r14
│ 0x000284ec push r13
│ 0x000284ee lea r13, [str.vkGetInstanceProcAddr] ; 0x5ba21 ; "vkGetInstanceProcAddr"
│ 0x000284f5 push r12
│ 0x000284f7 mov r12, rdi ; arg1
│ 0x000284fa push rbx
│ 0x000284fb sub rsp, 0x18
│ 0x000284ff mov rbx, qword fs:[0x28]
│ 0x00028508 mov qword [var_40h], rbx
│ 0x0002850c mov rbx, rsi ; arg2
│ 0x0002850f mov rsi, r13 ; const char *s2
│ 0x00028512 mov rdi, rbx ; const char *s1
│ 0x00028515 call qword [reloc.strcmp] ; [reloc.strcmp:8]=0x892b8 reloc.target.strcmp
│ 0x0002851b test eax, eax
│ ┌─< 0x0002851d jne 0x28550
│ │ 0x0002851f mov rbx, qword [reloc.vkGetInstanceProcAddr.88908] ; [0x88908:8]=0x284e0 sym.vkGetInstanceProcAddr
rizin helpfully informs us that 0x00028515 is a call to reloc.target.strcmp.
0x00028515 call qword [reloc.strcmp] ; [reloc.strcmp:8]=0x892b8 reloc.target.strcmp
This is no doubt a missing feature of std.DynLib. As far as I can tell it doesn’t have ElfDynLib doesn’t support relocations or recursively loading dynamic libraries.
Anyway, that’s all for now. I’ll pick up from here when/if I get around to it.