A developer for Collabora, the open source consultancy firm that works with the likes of Valve has sent in a Linux Kernel patch aimed at helping Windows games run on Linux through Wine.
From what's noted in the patch titled "[PATCH RFC] seccomp: Implement syscall isolation based on memory areas", which was sent in for gathering comments (RFC = Request for comments), it seems more and more modern Windows applications / games are sidestepping the actual Windows API. The result? It breaks Wine compatibility as "it doesn't have a chance to intercept and emulate these syscalls before they are submitted to Linux".
What they're going for is an addition to the Linux Kernel, to enable them to filter and find out if the calls being done are from Wine itself or from the Windows application being run. They're proposing using the seccomp function, used usually for security purposes but this is in no way a security feature it's just how they're building the functionality for Wine while re-using what's available.
Their new way will avoid some harsh performance penalties too. An existing method would have added a 10% overhead but they say this averages around 1.5% which is a pretty dramatic difference, for something as performance critical as this. Reading over comments and how it's done, it's possible this can help anti-cheat systems too but as always, don't go getting hopes up over early work that's not complete or merged in yet.
You can see the patch here on the mailing list.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: XpanderThe title is a bit weird. like "gets". Nothing is there yet, its just a patch that isn't accepted yet. Interesting stuff though.To get something is to receive something, seems perfectly appropriate. It mentions clearly it's a patch (doesn't say merged or anything) and notes its 'RFC' directly in the title. A title is just a title, the key is as always the text that accompanies it.
Quoting: PatolaDoes anyone know of any current use cases for this patch? Which Windows applications/games skip WinAPI calls to do syscalls directly?i think its more to do with all those anticheat and drm protection systems, rather than games itself
Quoting: Liam DaweTo get something is to receive something, seems perfectly appropriate. It mentions clearly it's a patch (doesn't say merged or anything) and notes its 'RFC' directly in the title. A title is just a title, the key is as always the text that accompanies it.
I'm not native english speaker, true. but wouldnt it be better to use "might get" ? :)
i know its request for comments but its not inside the kernel yet lol...
Last edited by Xpander on 1 June 2020 at 7:17 am UTC
how is that even possible?
Quoting: XpanderIt got the patch, it received it, it hasn't yet done anything with it. The title is factually correct. Splitting hairs at this point. As always, if you have issues it's better to use the correction report system. Edit: However, I have edited to ensure it's as clear as possible.Quoting: Liam DaweTo get something is to receive something, seems perfectly appropriate. It mentions clearly it's a patch (doesn't say merged or anything) and notes its 'RFC' directly in the title. A title is just a title, the key is as always the text that accompanies it.
I'm not native english speaker, true. but wouldnt it be better to use "might get" ? :)
i know its request for comments but its not inside the kernel yet lol...
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 1 June 2020 at 7:47 am UTC
Quoting: PatolaDoes anyone know of any current use cases for this patch? Which Windows applications/games skip WinAPI calls to do syscalls directly?
The two I read about a little while ago here were Detroit: Become Human and Red Dead Redemption 2. I saw reference to some other culprits elsewhere, too, but I can't remember which they were right now.
Quoting: BeamboomIsn't this to punch holes in the os layer and open up for instabilities, hardware conflicts and massive security issues?
The opposite. It's so that when a Windows application blindly uses Windows system calls on Linux they can be bounced back to Wine to be interpreted properly rather than naïvely followed or dropped. The seccomp framework already exists for trapping system calls, this is just to handle things more sensibly for this use case so that only Windows system calls need processing and Wine system calls can function unmolested. As I understand it.
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