How to use /dev/kmem? - c

Updated my post...
I got below program. It operates on /dev/kmem and /dev/mem.
I think I can learn something from the code. But when I run it on my Beagle Board, below result is given:
case 1: ( if(1) )
root#omap:/home/ubuntu/tom# ./kmem_mem /boot/System.map-3.0.4-x3
found jiffies at (0xc0870080) c0870080
/dev/kmem read buf = 319317
jiffies=319317 (read from virtual memory)
/dev/mem: the offset is 870080
the page size = 4096
mmap: Invalid argument
case 2: ( if(0) )
root#omap:/home/ubuntu/tom# ./kmem_mem /boot/System.map-3.0.4-x3
found jiffies at (0xc0870080) c0870080
/dev/kmem read buf = 333631
jiffies=333631 (read from virtual memory)
/dev/mem: the offset is 870080
/dev/mem read failed: Bad address
jiffies=0 (read from physical memory)
And I used below command so that mmap can use NULL as its first parameter.
root#omap:/home/ubuntu/tom# echo 0 > /proc/sys/vm/mmap_min_addr
root#omap:/home/ubuntu/tom# cat /proc/sys/vm/mmap_min_addr
0
As you can see, read_kmem() works fine but read_mem() doesn't work, and it seems that the 'offset' transferred to it is wrong. But kernel address - PAGE_OFFSET(0xC0000000) = physical address, is it wrong?
My questions are:
(1) Why "mmap: Invalid argument" in case 1?
(2) Why the mmap only maps PAGE_SIZE length space?
(3) What's wrong with read_mem?
Can anyone help?
Thanks!
/*
* getjiff.c
*
* this toolkit shows how to get jiffies value from user space:
* 1. find jiffies's address from kernel image.
* 2. access virtual address space to get jiffies value.
* 3. access physical address sapce to get jiffies value.
*
* demostrate following techniques:
* o get ELF object symbol address by calling nlist()
* o access virtual memory space from /dev/kmem
* o access virtual memory space from /dev/mem
*/
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h> //exit
#include <linux/a.out.h> //nlist
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/ioctl.h>
#include <sys/mman.h>
#include <memory.h>
#define LONG *(volatile unsigned long*)
/* read from virtual memory */
int read_kmem(off_t offset, void* buf, size_t count)
{
int fd;
int n;
fd = open("/dev/kmem", O_RDONLY);
if (fd < 0)
{
perror("open /dev/kmem failed");
return -1;
}
lseek(fd, offset, SEEK_SET);
n = read(fd, buf, count);
if (n != count)
perror("/dev/kmem read failed");
else
printf("/dev/kmem read buf = %ld\n", *(unsigned long *)buf);
close(fd);
return n;
}
/* read from physical memory */
int read_mem(off_t offset, void* buf, size_t count)
{
int fd;
int n;
int page_size;
void *map_base;
unsigned long value;
printf("/dev/mem: the offset is %lx\n", offset);
fd = open("/dev/mem", O_RDONLY);
if (fd < 0)
{
perror("open /dev/mem failed");
return -1;
}
if(1){
page_size = getpagesize();
printf("the page size = %d\n", page_size);
map_base = mmap(0,page_size,PROT_READ,MAP_SHARED,fd,offset);
if (map_base == MAP_FAILED){
perror("mmap");
exit(1);
}
value = LONG(map_base);
printf("/dev/mem: the value is %ld\n", value);
buf = (unsigned long *)map_base;
}
if(0){
lseek(fd, offset, SEEK_SET);
n = read(fd, buf, count);
if (n != count)
perror("/dev/mem read failed");
else
printf("/dev/mem read buf = %ld\n", *(unsigned long *)buf);
}
close(fd);
return n;
}
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
FILE *fp;
char addr_str[11]="0x";
char var[51];
unsigned long addr;
unsigned long jiffies;
char ch;
int r;
if (argc != 2) {
fprintf(stderr,"usage: %s System.map\n",argv[0]);
exit(-1);
}
if ((fp = fopen(argv[1],"r")) == NULL) {
perror("fopen");
exit(-1);
}
do {
r = fscanf(fp,"%8s %c %50s\n",&addr_str[2],&ch,var); // format of System.map
if (strcmp(var,"jiffies")==0)
break;
} while(r > 0);
if (r < 0) {
printf("could not find jiffies\n");
exit(-1);
}
addr = strtoul(addr_str,NULL,16); //Convert string to unsigned long integer
printf("found jiffies at (%s) %08lx\n",addr_str,addr);
read_kmem(addr, &jiffies, sizeof(jiffies));
printf("jiffies=%ld (read from virtual memory)\n\n", jiffies);
jiffies = 0; //reinit for checking read_mem() below
read_mem(addr-0xC0000000, &jiffies, sizeof(jiffies));
printf("jiffies=%ld (read from physical memory)\n", jiffies);
return 0;
}

I've tried combinations or offset and bs for dd and found this solution:
On PC, in build directory I've found location of jiffies.
grep -w jiffies System.map
c04660c0 D jiffies
On PandaBoard:
In /proc/iomem you can see:
80000000-9c7fffff : System RAM
80008000-80435263 : Kernel code
80464000-804d0d97 : Kernel data
a0000000-bfefffff : System RAM
RAM starts from physical 80000000, and Kernel data start on 80464000. Looks similar to address of jiffies.
Then convert from virtual address to phys: virt - 0xC000000 + 0x8000000.
dd if=/dev/mem skip=$((0x804660c)) bs=$((0x10)) count=1 2> /dev/null | hexdump
0000000 02b9 0002 0001 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0000010
Try several times and see how the value is incrementing.
Summary: /dev/mem uses phys address, RAM starts at phys address 0x8000000

For the invalid argument in case 1, the problem is offset being non-page aligned. mmap(2) works by manipulating page tables, and such works only on multiplies of page-size for both size and offset
As for the second case, I'm not sure if you're guaranteed to have kernel space begin at 3G boundary. Also, I'm pretty sure that's the boundary of kernel's virtual space, not location in physical memory - so on beagle board, quite possibly you ended up with a wrapped-around offset pointing who-knows-where.
I think what you might need is PHYS_OFFSET, not PAGE_OFFSET.

Related

mmap behaviour changed after OS upgrade?

After a major OS upgrade this C code behaviour has changed:
...
if ((fd = open(argv[1], O_RDWR | O_SYNC)) == -1)
FATAL;
printf("character device %s opened.\n", argv[1]);
fflush(stdout);
/* map one page */
map_base = mmap(0xe0000000, MAP_SIZE, PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED, fd, 0);
if (map_base == (void *)-1)
FATAL;
printf("Memory mapped at address %p.\n", map_base);
...
With a binary inherited from an old OS, "old mmap" returns a virtual address 0x7fb20d725000. If I rebuild the same C file on a new OS, it returns 0xe0000000 which seems to be a physical, and subsequent code - which uses this returned address - now fails with a segmentation fault.
How to force mmap to work as before without downgrading the OS or using old binary? Any modern flags for gcc or mmap itself?
Run a code example below with sudo ./test /dev/zero 0x01000000 : (/dev/zero instead of a real device gives the same results)
#include <stdint.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <byteswap.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <signal.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <ctype.h>
#include <termios.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/mman.h>
/* ltoh: little to host */
/* htol: little to host */
#if __BYTE_ORDER == __LITTLE_ENDIAN
#define ltohl(x) (x)
#define ltohs(x) (x)
#define htoll(x) (x)
#define htols(x) (x)
#elif __BYTE_ORDER == __BIG_ENDIAN
#define ltohl(x) __bswap_32(x)
#define ltohs(x) __bswap_16(x)
#define htoll(x) __bswap_32(x)
#define htols(x) __bswap_16(x)
#endif
#define FATAL do { fprintf(stderr, "Error at line %d, file %s (%d) [%s]\n", __LINE__, __FILE__, errno, strerror(errno)); exit(1); } while(0)
#define MAP_SIZE (16*1024*1024UL)
#define MAP_MASK (MAP_SIZE - 1)
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
int fd;
void *map_base, *virt_addr;
uint32_t read_result, writeval;
off_t target;
char *device;
if (argc != 3) {
fprintf(stderr,
"\nUsage:\t%s <device> <address> [[type] data]\n"
"\tdevice : character device to access\n"
"\taddress : memory address to access\n\n",
argv[0]);
exit(1);
}
device = strdup(argv[1]);
target = strtoul(argv[2], 0, 0);
fprintf("argc = %d, device: %s, address: 0x%08x\n", argc, device, (unsigned int)target);
if ((fd = open(argv[1], O_RDWR | O_SYNC)) == -1)
FATAL;
fprintf(stdout, "character device %s opened.\n", argv[1]);
fflush(stdout);
/* map one page */
map_base = mmap(0xe0000000, MAP_SIZE, PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED, fd, 0);
if (map_base == (void *)-1)
FATAL;
fprintf(stdout, "Memory mapped at address %p.\n", map_base);
fflush(stdout);
/* calculate the virtual address to be accessed */
virt_addr = map_base + target;
/* read only */
read_result = *((uint32_t *) virt_addr);
/* swap 32-bit endianess if host is not little-endian */
read_result = ltohl(read_result);
printf("Read 32-bit value at address 0x%08x (%p): 0x%08x\n",
(unsigned int)target, virt_addr, (unsigned int)read_result);
if (munmap(map_base, MAP_SIZE) == -1)
FATAL;
close(fd);
return 0;
}
You seem to be confusing virtual and physical addresses. User programs usually only work with virtual addresses. The mmap syscall accepts an hint as first argument: a desired virtual address for the requested mapped area. See man 2 mmap for more information.
What was most likely happening with your previous program was that the call to mmap was probably something like:
map_area = mmap(NULL, /* same arguments here */);
This way, the operating system will choose an appropriate address and return it.
What you are doing in the new program instead, is letting the OS know that you would prefer a specific address (0xe...), and the OS will map memory at that address if possible (very likely). You really shouldn't need this, the program works regardless of the position of the mapped area, but in any case you can keep it.
The reason why you are getting a segmentation fault is because you are mapping an area of 16 * 1024 * 1024 bytes (0x01000000), but then you are accessing memory at an higher offset than the specified size (target >= 0x01000000).
The correct way to do what you are trying to do is to use the offset argument of mmap to request a map that starts at an appropriate offset in the file. Requesting a mapping of two pages starting at that offset will ensure that what you want to read or write will be correctly mapped (assuming the file is big enough, otherwise MAP_FAILED will be returned).
Here's how it should be done:
offset = target & 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFF000; // align target to page size
// Map two pages starting at 0xe... and corresponding to the calculated offset in the file.
map_base = mmap((void *)0xe0000000, 0x1000 * 2, PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE, fd, offset);
// ...
virt_addr = map_base + (target & 0xfff); // cut target to get offset within the mapped pages
read_result = *((uint32_t *) virt_addr);
read_result = ltohl(read_result);
printf("Read 32-bit value at address 0x%08x (%p): 0x%08x\n",
(unsigned int)target, virt_addr, (unsigned int)read_result);

how to properly use posix_memalign

I'am struggling to find out how to proper use the pread and pwrite.
In this case, I am trying to read only 256 bytes using pread.
However, that whenever I try to read less than 512 bytes pread will not return anything.
I believe that this problem has to be with the SECTOR argument that I am assigning to posix_memalign...
Is there some obvious info that I have to be aware of?
#define BUF_SIZE 256
#define SECTOR 512
#define FILE_SIZE 1024 * 1024 * 1024 //1G
int main( int argc, char **argv ){
int fd, nr;
char fl_nm[]={"/dev/nvme0n1p1"};
char* aligned_buf_w = NULL;
char* aligned_buf_r = NULL;
void* ad = NULL;
if (posix_memalign(&ad, SECTOR, BUF_SIZE)) {
perror("posix_memalign failed"); exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
}
aligned_buf_w = (char *)(ad);
ad = NULL;
if (posix_memalign(&ad, SECTOR, BUF_SIZE)) {
perror("posix_memalign failed"); exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
}
aligned_buf_r = (char *)(ad);
memset(aligned_buf_w, '*', BUF_SIZE * sizeof(char));
printf("BEFORE READ BEGIN\n");
printf("\t aligned_buf_w::%ld\n",strlen(aligned_buf_w));
printf("\t aligned_buf_r::%ld\n",strlen(aligned_buf_r));
printf("BEFORE READ END\n");
fd = open(fl_nm, O_RDWR | O_DIRECT);
pwrite(fd, aligned_buf_w, BUF_SIZE, 0);
//write error checking
if(nr == -1){
perror("[error in write 2]\n");
}
nr = pread(fd, aligned_buf_r, BUF_SIZE, 0);
//read error checking
if(nr == -1){
perror("[error in read 2]\n");
}
printf("AFTER READ BEGIN\n");
printf("\taligned_buf_r::%ld \n",strlen(aligned_buf_r));
printf("AFTER READ END\n");
//error checking for close process
if(close(fd) == -1){
perror("[error in close]\n");
}else{
printf("[succeeded in close]\n");
}
return 0;
}
Here is the output when I read and write 512 bytes
BEFORE READ BEGIN
aligned_buf_w::512
aligned_buf_r::0
BEFORE READ END
AFTER READ BEGIN
aligned_buf_r::512
AFTER READ END
[succeeded in close]
and here is the result when I try to read 256 bytes
BEFORE READ BEGIN
aligned_buf_w::256
aligned_buf_r::0
BEFORE READ END
[error in read 2]
: Invalid argument
AFTER READ BEGIN
aligned_buf_r::0
AFTER READ END
[succeeded in close]
While using O_DIRECT "the kernel will do DMA directly from/to the physical memory pointed by the userspace buffer passed as parameter" - https://www.ukuug.org/events/linux2001/papers/html/AArcangeli-o_direct.html - so you have to observe some restrictions - http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man8/raw.8.html
All I/Os must be correctly aligned in memory and on disk: they must start at a sector
offset on disk, they must be an exact number of sectors long, and the
data buffer in virtual memory must also be aligned to a multiple of
the sector size. The sector size is 512 bytes for most devices.
With buffered IO you do not care of that. The following sample illustrates that while reading a HDD (/dev/sda9) :
#define _GNU_SOURCE
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#define SECTOR 512
int main( int argc, char **argv ){
int fd, nr, BUF_SIZE;
char fl_nm[]={"/dev/sda9"};
char* buf = NULL;
if (argc>1) {
BUF_SIZE = atoi(argv[1]);
// BUFFERED IO
printf("Buffered IO -------\n");
if ((buf = (char*)malloc(BUF_SIZE)) == NULL) perror("[malloc]");
else {
if ((fd = open(fl_nm, O_RDONLY)) == -1) perror("[open]");
if((nr = pread(fd, buf, BUF_SIZE, 4096)) == -1) perror("[pread]");
else
printf("%i bytes read %.2x %.2x ...\n",nr,buf[0],buf[1]);
free(buf);
if(close(fd) == -1) perror("[close]");
}
// DIRECT IO
printf("Direct IO ---------\n");
if (posix_memalign((void *)&buf, SECTOR, BUF_SIZE)) {
perror("posix_memalign failed");
}
else {
if ((fd = open(fl_nm, O_RDONLY | O_DIRECT)) == -1) perror("[open]");
/* buf size , buf alignment and offset has to observe hardware restrictions */
if((nr = pread(fd, buf, BUF_SIZE, 4096)) == -1) perror("[pread]");
else
printf("%i bytes read %.2x %.2x ...\n",nr,buf[0],buf[1]);
free(buf);
if(close(fd) == -1) perror("[close]");
}
}
return 0;
}
You can verify the following behaviour :
$ sudo ./testodirect 512
Buffered IO -------
512 bytes read 01 04 ...
Direct IO ---------
512 bytes read 01 04 ...
$ sudo ./testodirect 4
Buffered IO -------
4 bytes read 01 04 ...
Direct IO ---------
[pread]: Invalid argument
By the way O_DIRECT is not in flavour of everybody https://yarchive.net/comp/linux/o_direct.html
512B is the smallest unit you can read from a storage device

segmentation fault in virtual address to physical address

When i run the binary file of this code it throws an segmentation fault core dumped error. And the dmesg is:
segfault at 0 ip b7651747 sp bfb312d0 error 4 in libc-2.21.so[b75e9000+1b4000]
The code is for translation of virtual address to physical address.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/mman.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <stdint.h>
// ORIG_BUFFER will be placed in memory and will then be changed to NEW_BUFFER
// They must be the same length
#define ORIG_BUFFER "Hello, World!"
#define NEW_BUFFER "Hello, Linux!"
// The page frame shifted left by PAGE_SHIFT will give us the physcial address of the frame
// Note that this number is architecture dependent. For me on x86_64 with 4096 page sizes,
// it is defined as 12. If you're running something different, check the kernel source
// for what it is defined as.
#define PAGE_SHIFT 12
#define PAGEMAP_LENGTH 8
void* create_buffer(void);
unsigned long get_page_frame_number_of_address(void *addr);
int open_memory(void);
void seek_memory(int fd, unsigned long offset);
int main(void) {
// Create a buffer with some data in it
void *buffer = create_buffer();
// Get the page frame the buffer is on
unsigned int page_frame_number = get_page_frame_number_of_address(buffer);
printf("Page frame: 0x%x\n", page_frame_number);
// Find the difference from the buffer to the page boundary
unsigned int distance_from_page_boundary = (unsigned long)buffer %
getpagesize();
// Determine how far to seek into memory to find the buffer
uint64_t offset = (page_frame_number << PAGE_SHIFT) + distance_from_page_boundary;
// Open /dev/mem, seek the calculated offset, and
// map it into memory so we can manipulate it
// CONFIG_STRICT_DEVMEM must be disabled for this
int mem_fd = open_memory();
seek_memory(mem_fd, offset);
printf("Buffer: %s\n", buffer);
puts("Changing buffer through /dev/mem...");
// Change the contents of the buffer by writing into /dev/mem
// Note that since the strings are the same length, there's no purpose in
// copying the NUL terminator again
if(write(mem_fd, NEW_BUFFER, strlen(NEW_BUFFER)) == -1) {
fprintf(stderr, "Write failed: %s\n", strerror(errno));
}
printf("Buffer: %s\n", buffer);
// Clean up
free(buffer);
close(mem_fd);
return 0;
}
void* create_buffer(void) {
size_t buf_size = strlen(ORIG_BUFFER) + 1;
// Allocate some memory to manipulate
void *buffer = malloc(buf_size);
if(buffer == NULL) {
fprintf(stderr, "Failed to allocate memory for buffer\n");
exit(1);
}
// Lock the page in memory
// Do this before writing data to the buffer so that any copy-on-write
// mechanisms will give us our own page locked in memory
if(mlock(buffer, buf_size) == -1) {
fprintf(stderr, "Failed to lock page in memory: %s\n", strerror(errno));
exit(1);
}
// Add some data to the memory
strncpy(buffer, ORIG_BUFFER, strlen(ORIG_BUFFER));
return buffer;
}
unsigned long get_page_frame_number_of_address(void *addr) {
// Open the pagemap file for the current process
FILE *pagemap = fopen("/proc/self/pagemap", "rb");
// Seek to the page that the buffer is on
unsigned long offset = (unsigned long)addr / getpagesize() * PAGEMAP_LENGTH;
if(fseek(pagemap, (unsigned long)offset, SEEK_SET) != 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "Failed to seek pagemap to proper location\n");
exit(1);
}
// The page frame number is in bits 0-54 so read the first 7 bytes and clear the 55th bit
unsigned long page_frame_number = 0;
fread(&page_frame_number, 1, PAGEMAP_LENGTH-1, pagemap);
page_frame_number &= 0x7FFFFFFFFFFFFF;
fclose(pagemap);
return page_frame_number;
}
int open_memory(void) {
// Open the memory (must be root for this)
int fd = open("/dev/mem", O_RDWR);
if(fd == -1) {
fprintf(stderr, "Error opening /dev/mem: %s\n", strerror(errno));
exit(1);
}
return fd;
}
void seek_memory(int fd, unsigned long offset) {
unsigned pos = lseek(fd, offset, SEEK_SET);
if(pos == -1) {
fprintf(stderr, "Failed to seek /dev/mem: %s\n", strerror(errno));
exit(1);
}
}
In function get_page_frame_number_of_address.
Please confirm open file success.
FILE *pagemap = fopen("/proc/self/pagemap", "rb");
Check the pagemap is NULL or not.

Issues mmaping the same file twice

I'm using a Raspberry Pi B+, and I'm trying to mmap two different sections of /dev/mem - the first to be able to set two pins' functions from location 0x2020 0004 (0x04 bytes long), the other to manipulate the BSC Slave functions on the BCM2835 chip on the Pi from location 0x2021 4000 (0x1C bytes long).
static uint32_t * initMapMem(int fd, uint32_t addr, uint32_t len)
{
return (uint32_t *) mmap((void*)0x0, len,
PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE|PROT_EXEC,
MAP_SHARED|MAP_LOCKED,
fd, addr);
}
int initialise(void) {
int fd;
fd = open("/dev/mem", O_RDWR | O_SYNC) ;
if (fd < 0)
{
fprintf(stderr, "This program needs root privileges. Try using sudo.\n");
return 1;
}
pinReg = initMapMem(fd, 0x20200004, 0x4);
bscReg = initMapMem(fd, 0x20214000, 0x1C);
close(fd);
if (bscReg == MAP_FAILED)
{
fprintf(stderr, "Bad, mmap failed.\n");
return 1;
}
if (pinReg == MAP_FAILED)
{
fprintf(stderr, "Bad, mmap failed.\n");
return 1;
}
return 0;
}
initialise() is called out of main(). Stepping through the program with gdb I find that bscReg gets positioned right, but pinReg returns as MAP_FAILED (aka 0xFFFFFFFF) with errno set to EINVAL. Doesn't matter which way it's done, either - pinReg always finds itself as MAP_FAILED when mmaped first or second.
How do I get pinReg to a valid value?
The first mmap() is failing because the offset you're trying to map (0x20200004) isn't page-aligned. Create a mapping at 0x20200000 with a size of at least 8, then write to it at an offset of 0x4.

How to validate data read from LBA is correct?

I have this program which reads data from LBA (logical block address), but everytime whatever the LBA number i provide, it gives the same output.
How do i validate it?
#include <stdio.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <linux/fs.h>
//#include "common.h"
typedef unsigned long long int var64;
int getSectorSize(int handle)
{
int sectorSize = 0;
//get the physical sector size of the disk
if (ioctl(handle, BLKSSZGET, &sectorSize)) {
printf("getSectorSize: Reading physical sector size failed.\n");
sectorSize = 512;
}
return sectorSize;
}
var64 readLBA(int handle, var64 lba, void* buf, var64 bytes)
{
int ret = 0;
int sectorSize = getSectorSize(handle);
var64 offset = lba * sectorSize;
printf("readFromLBA: entered.\n");
lseek64(handle, offset, SEEK_SET);
ret = read(handle, buf, bytes);
if(ret != bytes) {
printf("read LBA: read failed.\n");
return -1;
}
printf("read LBA: retval: %lld.\n", ret);
return ret;
}
int main()
{
int sectorSize, fd;
char buff[100];
printf("Calling getSectorSize\n");
fd = open("/dev/sda1", O_RDONLY);
if(fd == -1)
{
printf("open /dev/sda1 failed");
exit(1);
}
sectorSize = getSectorSize(fd);
printf("Sector size = %u\n", sectorSize);
memset(buff, 0, sizeof(buff));
readLBA(fd, 1, buff, 2); // if i put the 2nd arg as -12378 gives same answer
}
Here is the output:
sles10-sp3:~ # gcc getSectorSizeMain.c
getSectorSizeMain.c: In function ‘main’:
getSectorSizeMain.c:75: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘memset’
sles10-sp3:~ # ./a.out
Calling getSectorSize
Sector size = 512
read LBA: entered.
read LBA: retval: 8589934594. // This is always constant, how to validate? If i tell to read an invalid LBA number like -123456 the answer remains same. How to validate?
retval doesn't contain the data you are interested in, but the count of bytes read() has stored into your buffer, so it's natural it always contains the same value. But in your test output you try to print it using "%lld" (long long int), even when it's just a plain int, so printf will combine its value with whatever it finds next to it on the stack (notice that 8589934594==0x200000002 - the last digit is your value, the first one propably garbage).
The data you want to check/use/whatever are inside the array buff.

Resources