* [RFC PATCH 1/2] KVM: arm64: Add stage2_clean_old_pte()
2026-07-17 13:08 [RFC PATCH 0/2] KVM: arm64: Support BBM level 3 Mostafa Saleh
@ 2026-07-17 13:08 ` Mostafa Saleh
2026-07-17 13:09 ` [RFC PATCH 2/2] KVM: arm64: Support BBM level 3 Mostafa Saleh
1 sibling, 0 replies; 3+ messages in thread
From: Mostafa Saleh @ 2026-07-17 13:08 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: linux-kernel, kvmarm, linux-arm-kernel
Cc: maz, oupton, seiden, joey.gouly, suzuki.poulose, yuzenghui,
catalin.marinas, will, vdonnefort, tabba, Mostafa Saleh
At the moment, the pgtable code rely on BBM in SW which looks like:
Break: stage2_try_break_pte()
1) Break PTE and lock it
2) TLBI
3) Put the ref on the old PTE
Make: stage2_make_pte()
1) Get a ref on the new PTE
2) Install the live PTE
With BBML3, the sequence will look as
1) Get ref on the new PTE
2) Install new PTE
3) TLBI
4) Put the ref on the old PTE
Which requires moving step #2 #3 from the break function to the make
function, although it is possible to do that for SW BBM also, that
means the stage2_try_break_pte() did not fully break the PTE as it
is referenced in TLBs, although that works it seems fragile.
Instead, move this logic to a new function stage2_clean_old_pte()
that can be called from BBML3.
Signed-off-by: Mostafa Saleh <smostafa@google.com>
---
arch/arm64/kvm/hyp/pgtable.c | 67 ++++++++++++++++++++----------------
1 file changed, 37 insertions(+), 30 deletions(-)
diff --git a/arch/arm64/kvm/hyp/pgtable.c b/arch/arm64/kvm/hyp/pgtable.c
index 91a7dfad6686..127b7f9541b1 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/kvm/hyp/pgtable.c
+++ b/arch/arm64/kvm/hyp/pgtable.c
@@ -810,39 +810,10 @@ static bool stage2_try_set_pte(const struct kvm_pgtable_visit_ctx *ctx, kvm_pte_
return cmpxchg(ctx->ptep, ctx->old, new) == ctx->old;
}
-/**
- * stage2_try_break_pte() - Invalidates a pte according to the
- * 'break-before-make' requirements of the
- * architecture.
- *
- * @ctx: context of the visited pte.
- * @mmu: stage-2 mmu
- *
- * Returns: true if the pte was successfully broken.
- *
- * If the removed pte was valid, performs the necessary serialization and TLB
- * invalidation for the old value. For counted ptes, drops the reference count
- * on the containing table page.
- */
-static bool stage2_try_break_pte(const struct kvm_pgtable_visit_ctx *ctx,
+static void stage2_clean_old_pte(const struct kvm_pgtable_visit_ctx *ctx,
struct kvm_s2_mmu *mmu)
{
struct kvm_pgtable_mm_ops *mm_ops = ctx->mm_ops;
- kvm_pte_t locked_pte;
-
- if (stage2_pte_is_locked(ctx->old)) {
- /*
- * Should never occur if this walker has exclusive access to the
- * page tables.
- */
- WARN_ON(!kvm_pgtable_walk_shared(ctx));
- return false;
- }
-
- locked_pte = FIELD_PREP(KVM_INVALID_PTE_TYPE_MASK,
- KVM_INVALID_PTE_TYPE_LOCKED);
- if (!stage2_try_set_pte(ctx, locked_pte))
- return false;
if (!kvm_pgtable_walk_skip_bbm_tlbi(ctx)) {
/*
@@ -862,6 +833,42 @@ static bool stage2_try_break_pte(const struct kvm_pgtable_visit_ctx *ctx,
if (stage2_pte_is_counted(ctx->old))
mm_ops->put_page(ctx->ptep);
+}
+
+/**
+ * stage2_try_break_pte() - Invalidates a pte according to the
+ * 'break-before-make' requirements of the
+ * architecture.
+ *
+ * @ctx: context of the visited pte.
+ * @mmu: stage-2 mmu
+ *
+ * Returns: true if the pte was successfully broken.
+ *
+ * If the removed pte was valid, performs the necessary serialization and TLB
+ * invalidation for the old value. For counted ptes, drops the reference count
+ * on the containing table page.
+ */
+static bool stage2_try_break_pte(const struct kvm_pgtable_visit_ctx *ctx,
+ struct kvm_s2_mmu *mmu)
+{
+ kvm_pte_t locked_pte;
+
+ if (stage2_pte_is_locked(ctx->old)) {
+ /*
+ * Should never occur if this walker has exclusive access to the
+ * page tables.
+ */
+ WARN_ON(!kvm_pgtable_walk_shared(ctx));
+ return false;
+ }
+
+ locked_pte = FIELD_PREP(KVM_INVALID_PTE_TYPE_MASK,
+ KVM_INVALID_PTE_TYPE_LOCKED);
+ if (!stage2_try_set_pte(ctx, locked_pte))
+ return false;
+
+ stage2_clean_old_pte(ctx, mmu);
return true;
}
--
2.55.0.229.g6434b31f56-goog
^ permalink raw reply related [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread* [RFC PATCH 2/2] KVM: arm64: Support BBM level 3
2026-07-17 13:08 [RFC PATCH 0/2] KVM: arm64: Support BBM level 3 Mostafa Saleh
2026-07-17 13:08 ` [RFC PATCH 1/2] KVM: arm64: Add stage2_clean_old_pte() Mostafa Saleh
@ 2026-07-17 13:09 ` Mostafa Saleh
1 sibling, 0 replies; 3+ messages in thread
From: Mostafa Saleh @ 2026-07-17 13:09 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: linux-kernel, kvmarm, linux-arm-kernel
Cc: maz, oupton, seiden, joey.gouly, suzuki.poulose, yuzenghui,
catalin.marinas, will, vdonnefort, tabba, Mostafa Saleh
If the system supports hardware Break-Before-Make (BBM) level 3, use it
to replace stage-2 PTEs directly instead of falling back to the software
break-before-make sequence.
1) Get a reference count on the containing table for the new PTE.
2) Atomically update the PTE with the new valid descriptor.
3) Invalidate the TLB for the old PTE.
4) Drop the reference count holding the old PTE.
One interesting case, as BBML3 will update the PTE atomically, it
can only know it raced with another core at the point of the cmpxchg
failing, unlike the SW implementation which locks the PTE first.
And as we must issue CMOs to the new mapped page before the update,
that means with BBML3 racing cores will issue redundant CMOs,
to improve this:
- We only use BBML3 if the old PTE was live.
- To reduce the window of the race, an early check is added before
the CMO to exit early, but that does not eliminate the race.
Signed-off-by: Mostafa Saleh <smostafa@google.com>
---
arch/arm64/kvm/hyp/pgtable.c | 53 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----
1 file changed, 46 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)
diff --git a/arch/arm64/kvm/hyp/pgtable.c b/arch/arm64/kvm/hyp/pgtable.c
index 127b7f9541b1..69d52308236f 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/kvm/hyp/pgtable.c
+++ b/arch/arm64/kvm/hyp/pgtable.c
@@ -838,7 +838,8 @@ static void stage2_clean_old_pte(const struct kvm_pgtable_visit_ctx *ctx,
/**
* stage2_try_break_pte() - Invalidates a pte according to the
* 'break-before-make' requirements of the
- * architecture.
+ * architecture, if BMML3 is supported it
+ * will be used, otherwise fallback to SW.
*
* @ctx: context of the visited pte.
* @mmu: stage-2 mmu
@@ -854,6 +855,18 @@ static bool stage2_try_break_pte(const struct kvm_pgtable_visit_ctx *ctx,
{
kvm_pte_t locked_pte;
+ if (system_supports_bbml3() && kvm_pte_valid(ctx->old)) {
+ kvm_pte_t curr_pte = READ_ONCE(*ctx->ptep);
+
+ /*
+ * All handled in stage2_make_pte(). However exit early if we already
+ * lost the race to avoid extra CMOs.
+ */
+ if (curr_pte != ctx->old)
+ return false;
+ return true;
+ }
+
if (stage2_pte_is_locked(ctx->old)) {
/*
* Should never occur if this walker has exclusive access to the
@@ -873,16 +886,35 @@ static bool stage2_try_break_pte(const struct kvm_pgtable_visit_ctx *ctx,
return true;
}
-static void stage2_make_pte(const struct kvm_pgtable_visit_ctx *ctx, kvm_pte_t new)
+/* Must be paired with stage2_try_break_pte() */
+static bool stage2_make_pte(const struct kvm_pgtable_visit_ctx *ctx, struct kvm_s2_mmu *mmu,
+ kvm_pte_t new)
{
struct kvm_pgtable_mm_ops *mm_ops = ctx->mm_ops;
- WARN_ON(!stage2_pte_is_locked(*ctx->ptep));
-
if (stage2_pte_is_counted(new))
mm_ops->get_page(ctx->ptep);
+ if (system_supports_bbml3() && kvm_pte_valid(ctx->old)) {
+ /*
+ * Barrier is required because stage2_try_set_pte() uses
+ * WRITE_ONCE for non-shared walks, lacking release semantics
+ * used in the software BBM case.
+ */
+ smp_wmb();
+ if (!stage2_try_set_pte(ctx, new)) {
+ if (stage2_pte_is_counted(new))
+ mm_ops->put_page(ctx->ptep);
+ return false;
+ }
+
+ stage2_clean_old_pte(ctx, mmu);
+ return true;
+ }
+
+ WARN_ON(!stage2_pte_is_locked(*ctx->ptep));
smp_store_release(ctx->ptep, new);
+ return true;
}
static bool stage2_unmap_defer_tlb_flush(struct kvm_pgtable *pgt)
@@ -1014,7 +1046,8 @@ static int stage2_map_walker_try_leaf(const struct kvm_pgtable_visit_ctx *ctx,
stage2_pte_executable(new))
mm_ops->icache_inval_pou(kvm_pte_follow(new, mm_ops), granule);
- stage2_make_pte(ctx, new);
+ if (!stage2_make_pte(ctx, data->mmu, new))
+ return -EAGAIN;
return 0;
}
@@ -1069,7 +1102,10 @@ static int stage2_map_walk_leaf(const struct kvm_pgtable_visit_ctx *ctx,
* will be mapped lazily.
*/
new = kvm_init_table_pte(childp, mm_ops);
- stage2_make_pte(ctx, new);
+ if (!stage2_make_pte(ctx, data->mmu, new)) {
+ mm_ops->put_page(childp);
+ return -EAGAIN;
+ }
return 0;
}
@@ -1557,7 +1593,10 @@ static int stage2_split_walker(const struct kvm_pgtable_visit_ctx *ctx,
* writes the PTE using smp_store_release().
*/
new = kvm_init_table_pte(childp, mm_ops);
- stage2_make_pte(ctx, new);
+ if (!stage2_make_pte(ctx, mmu, new)) {
+ kvm_pgtable_stage2_free_unlinked(mm_ops, childp, level);
+ return -EAGAIN;
+ }
return 0;
}
--
2.55.0.229.g6434b31f56-goog
^ permalink raw reply related [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread