Re: [RFC PATCH 4/4] firmware: arm_ffa: check pkvm initailised when initailise ffa driver

Yeoreum Yun
2026-04-20T15:04:59Z

On Mon, Apr 20, 2026 at 02:20:35PM +0000, Sebastian Ene wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 20, 2026 at 01:46:47PM +0100, Marc Zyngier wrote:
> > On Mon, 20 Apr 2026 13:32:32 +0100,
> > Sebastian Ene <sebastianene@google.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > On Fri, Apr 17, 2026 at 06:57:59PM +0100, Yeoreum Yun wrote:
> > >
> > > Hello Yeoreum,
> > >
> > >
> > > > When pKVM is enabled, the FF-A driver must be initialized after pKVM.
> > > > Otherwise, pKVM cannot negotiate the FF-A version or
> > > > obtain RX/TX buffer information, leading to failures in FF-A calls.
> > >
> > > At the moment this already happens after you move back ffa_init() to
> > > device_initcall().
> >
> > But relying on this sort of ordering is just making things more
> > fragile.
> >
>
> Thanks for letting me know. Since this is not a solid construct we will have
> to change the driver init code to come after pKVM in this case.
>
> > >
> > > >
> > > > During FF-A driver initialization, check whether pKVM has been initialized.
> > > > If not, defer probing of the FF-A driver.
> > > >
> > >
> > > I don't think you need to add this dependency. pKVM is
> > > installed through KVM's module_init() which ends up calling hyp_ffa_init() to
> > > do the proxy initialization. The ARM-FFA driver comes after it (since
> > > pKVM is arch specific code). We don't have to call finalize_pkvm(..) to
> > > be able to handle smc(FF-A) calls in the hyp-proxy.
> >
> > You do. Without the finalisation, SMCs are not trapped by EL2.
> >
> > And even if it did, relying on such hack is just wrong.
> >
>
> That makes it an even stronger argument to move the driver init at a
> later stage. I was relying on this to trap early ff-a when the
> ARM FF-A driver was used.

I don’t think moving the FF-A driver initialization to a later stage is
a viable solution. For example, even if it is moved to device_initcall_sync,
it still relies on fragile ordering.

Similarly, moving it to late_initcall is problematic.
Since deferred_probe_initcall() runs at the same level, if it is invoked first,
devices that depend on FF-A (e.g. tpm_ffa_crb) may not be probed correctly,
leading to deferred devices not being handled properly.

Therefore, the FF-A driver should be able to detect when pKVM has been
initialized and perform its initialization accordingly otherwise,
just relying on the trap after kvm_arm_initialised.

--
Sincerely,
Yeoreum Yun