[PATCH] arm64: drop unnecessary cache+tlb maintenance

[PATCH] arm64: drop unnecessary cache+tlb maintenance

[Mark Rutland]

In paging_init, we call flush_cache_all, but this is backed by Set/Way
operations which may not achieve anything in the presence of cache line
migration and/or system caches. If the caches are already in an
inconsistent state at this point, there is nothing we can do (short of
flushing the entire physical address space by VA) to empty architected
and system caches. As such, flush_cache_all only serves to mask other
potential bugs. Hence, this patch removes the boot-time call to
flush_cache_all.

Immediately after the cache maintenance we flush the TLBs, but this is
also unnecessary. Before enabling the MMU, the TLBs are invalidated, and
thus are initially clean. When changing the contents of active tables
(e.g. in fixup_executable() for DEBUG_RODATA) we perform the required
TLB maintenance following the update, and therefore no additional
maintenance is required to ensure the new table entries are in effect.
Since activating the MMU we will not have modified system register
fields permitted to be cached in a TLB, and therefore do not need
maintenance for any cached system register fields. Hence, the TLB flush
is unnecessary.

Shortly after the unnecessary TLB flush, we update TTBR0 to point to an
empty zero page rather than the idmap, and flush the TLBs. This
maintenance is necessary to remove the global idmap entries from the
TLBs (as they would conflict with userspace mappings), and is retained.

Signed-off-by: Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com>
Acked-by: Marc Zyngier <marc.zyngier@arm.com>
Cc: Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@arm.com>
Cc: Steve Capper <steve.capper@linaro.org>
Cc: Will Deacon <will.deacon@arm.com>
---
 arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c | 7 -------
 1 file changed, 7 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c b/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c
index 29fe8aa..88f7ac2 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c
+++ b/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c
@@ -431,13 +431,6 @@ void __init paging_init(void)
 	map_mem();
 	fixup_executable();
 
-	/*
-	 * Finally flush the caches and tlb to ensure that we're in a
-	 * consistent state.
-	 */
-	flush_cache_all();
-	flush_tlb_all();
-
 	/* allocate the zero page. */
 	zero_page = early_alloc(PAGE_SIZE);
 
-- 
1.9.1

[PATCH] arm64: drop unnecessary cache+tlb maintenance

[Steve Capper]

On Tue, Jan 27, 2015 at 04:52:50PM +0000, Mark Rutland wrote:
> In paging_init, we call flush_cache_all, but this is backed by Set/Way
> operations which may not achieve anything in the presence of cache line
> migration and/or system caches. If the caches are already in an
> inconsistent state at this point, there is nothing we can do (short of
> flushing the entire physical address space by VA) to empty architected
> and system caches. As such, flush_cache_all only serves to mask other
> potential bugs. Hence, this patch removes the boot-time call to
> flush_cache_all.
> 
> Immediately after the cache maintenance we flush the TLBs, but this is
> also unnecessary. Before enabling the MMU, the TLBs are invalidated, and
> thus are initially clean. When changing the contents of active tables
> (e.g. in fixup_executable() for DEBUG_RODATA) we perform the required
> TLB maintenance following the update, and therefore no additional
> maintenance is required to ensure the new table entries are in effect.
> Since activating the MMU we will not have modified system register
> fields permitted to be cached in a TLB, and therefore do not need
> maintenance for any cached system register fields. Hence, the TLB flush
> is unnecessary.
> 
> Shortly after the unnecessary TLB flush, we update TTBR0 to point to an
> empty zero page rather than the idmap, and flush the TLBs. This
> maintenance is necessary to remove the global idmap entries from the
> TLBs (as they would conflict with userspace mappings), and is retained.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com>
> Acked-by: Marc Zyngier <marc.zyngier@arm.com>
> Cc: Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@arm.com>
> Cc: Steve Capper <steve.capper@linaro.org>
> Cc: Will Deacon <will.deacon@arm.com>

Hi Mark,

This looks reasonable to me.

Please feel free to add:

Acked-by: Steve Capper <steve.capper@linaro.org>

Cheers,
-- 
Steve

> ---
>  arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c | 7 -------
>  1 file changed, 7 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c b/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c
> index 29fe8aa..88f7ac2 100644
> --- a/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c
> +++ b/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c
> @@ -431,13 +431,6 @@ void __init paging_init(void)
>  	map_mem();
>  	fixup_executable();
>  
> -	/*
> -	 * Finally flush the caches and tlb to ensure that we're in a
> -	 * consistent state.
> -	 */
> -	flush_cache_all();
> -	flush_tlb_all();
> -
>  	/* allocate the zero page. */
>  	zero_page = early_alloc(PAGE_SIZE);
>  
> -- 
> 1.9.1
>