Subject: Re: [PATCH v4 4/4] arm64: errata: Work around early CME DVMSync acknowledgement

From: Catalin Marinas <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 3 Apr 2026 12:37:12 +0100

Some sashiko.dev feedback below:

On Thu, Apr 02, 2026 at 11:12:44AM +0100, Catalin Marinas wrote:
> +static inline void sme_dvmsync_add_pending(struct arch_tlbflush_unmap_batch *batch,
> +					   struct mm_struct *mm)
> +{
> +	if (!alternative_has_cap_unlikely(ARM64_WORKAROUND_4193714))
> +		return;
> +
> +	/*
> +	 * Order the mm_cpumask() read after the hardware DVMSync.
> +	 */
> +	dsb(ish);
> +	if (cpumask_empty(mm_cpumask(mm)))
> +		return;

Mentioned in the cover letter already but sashiko highlighted it as
well: the dsb here adds a possible overhead. I did not notice any
difference in some hand/AI-crafted benchmarks using
madvise(MADV_PAGEOUT). In practice, this erratum affects systems with a
small number of CPUs, so the eager DVMSync won't matter.

> +void sme_enable_dvmsync(void)
> +{
> +	/*
> +	 * stop_machine() will invoke this function concurrently on all
> +	 * affected CPUs. Serialise the initialisation.
> +	 */
> +	raw_spin_lock(&sme_dvmsync_init_lock);
> +	if (!cpumask_available(sme_dvmsync_cpus) &&
> +	    !zalloc_cpumask_var(&sme_dvmsync_cpus, GFP_ATOMIC))
> +		panic("Unable to allocate cpumasks for the SME DVMSync erratum");
> +	raw_spin_unlock(&sme_dvmsync_init_lock);
> +
> +	cpumask_set_cpu(smp_processor_id(), sme_dvmsync_cpus);
> +}

I don't think sashiko is correct here. It said that zalloc_cpumask_var()
may sleep on PREEMPT_RT kernels but I thought passing GFP_ATOMIC should
be sufficient.

> diff --git a/arch/arm64/kernel/process.c b/arch/arm64/kernel/process.c
> index 489554931231..88426d8ae11c 100644
> --- a/arch/arm64/kernel/process.c
> +++ b/arch/arm64/kernel/process.c
> @@ -26,6 +26,7 @@
>  #include <linux/reboot.h>
>  #include <linux/interrupt.h>
>  #include <linux/init.h>
> +#include <linux/cpumask.h>
>  #include <linux/cpu.h>
>  #include <linux/elfcore.h>
>  #include <linux/pm.h>
> @@ -339,8 +340,41 @@ void flush_thread(void)
>  	flush_gcs();
>  }
>  
> +#ifdef CONFIG_ARM64_ERRATUM_4193714
> +
> +static int arch_dup_tlbbatch_mask(struct task_struct *dst)
> +{
> +	if (!alternative_has_cap_unlikely(ARM64_WORKAROUND_4193714))
> +		return 0;
> +
> +	if (!zalloc_cpumask_var(&dst->tlb_ubc.arch.cpumask, GFP_KERNEL))
> +		return -ENOMEM;
> +
> +	return 0;
> +}
> +
> +static void arch_release_tlbbatch_mask(struct task_struct *tsk)
> +{
> +	if (alternative_has_cap_unlikely(ARM64_WORKAROUND_4193714))
> +		free_cpumask_var(tsk->tlb_ubc.arch.cpumask);
> +}
> +
> +#else
> +
> +static int arch_dup_tlbbatch_mask(struct task_struct *dst)
> +{
> +	return 0;
> +}
> +
> +static void arch_release_tlbbatch_mask(struct task_struct *tsk)
> +{
> +}
> +
> +#endif /* CONFIG_ARM64_ERRATUM_4193714 */
> +
>  void arch_release_task_struct(struct task_struct *tsk)
>  {
> +	arch_release_tlbbatch_mask(tsk);
>  	fpsimd_release_task(tsk);
>  }
>  
> @@ -356,6 +390,9 @@ int arch_dup_task_struct(struct task_struct *dst, struct task_struct *src)
>  
>  	*dst = *src;
>  
> +	if (arch_dup_tlbbatch_mask(dst))
> +		return -ENOMEM;

This may indeed leak if the caller of arch_dup_task_struct() fails.
dup_task_struct() calls free_task_struct() on failure but not the
arch_release_task_struct().

The simplest fix is to just allocate the tlbbatch mask lazily via
arch_tlbbatch_add_pending(). The downside is that we need a GFP_ATOMIC
in there but that's only theoretical, such systems are built with
CPUMASK_OFFSTACK=n already and no allocation necessary anyway. The diff
on top would be:

diff --git a/arch/arm64/kernel/process.c b/arch/arm64/kernel/process.c
index 88426d8ae11c..88904e47c7d9 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/kernel/process.c
+++ b/arch/arm64/kernel/process.c
@@ -342,15 +342,14 @@ void flush_thread(void)
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_ARM64_ERRATUM_4193714
 
-static int arch_dup_tlbbatch_mask(struct task_struct *dst)
+static void arch_dup_tlbbatch_mask(struct task_struct *dst)
 {
-	if (!alternative_has_cap_unlikely(ARM64_WORKAROUND_4193714))
-		return 0;
-
-	if (!zalloc_cpumask_var(&dst->tlb_ubc.arch.cpumask, GFP_KERNEL))
-		return -ENOMEM;
-
-	return 0;
+	/*
+	 * Clear any inherited batch state. The cpumask is allocated lazily if
+	 * CPUMASK_OFFSTACK=y.
+	 */
+	if (alternative_has_cap_unlikely(ARM64_WORKAROUND_4193714))
+		memset(&dst->tlb_ubc.arch, 0, sizeof(dst->tlb_ubc.arch));
 }
 
 static void arch_release_tlbbatch_mask(struct task_struct *tsk)
@@ -361,9 +360,8 @@ static void arch_release_tlbbatch_mask(struct task_struct *tsk)
 
 #else
 
-static int arch_dup_tlbbatch_mask(struct task_struct *dst)
+static void arch_dup_tlbbatch_mask(struct task_struct *dst)
 {
-	return 0;
 }
 
 static void arch_release_tlbbatch_mask(struct task_struct *tsk)
@@ -390,8 +388,7 @@ int arch_dup_task_struct(struct task_struct *dst, struct task_struct *src)
 
 	*dst = *src;
 
-	if (arch_dup_tlbbatch_mask(dst))
-		return -ENOMEM;
+	arch_dup_tlbbatch_mask(dst);
 
 	/*
 	 * Drop stale reference to src's sve_state and convert dst to

-- 
Catalin