* [PATCH v2] kho: align kho_scratch to MAX_ORDER_NR_PAGES pages
@ 2026-07-17 13:40 Michal Clapinski
2026-07-17 16:21 ` Pasha Tatashin
0 siblings, 1 reply; 3+ messages in thread
From: Michal Clapinski @ 2026-07-17 13:40 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Mike Rapoport, Pasha Tatashin, Pratyush Yadav, Alexander Graf,
Evangelos Petrongonas, kexec
Cc: linux-mm, linux-kernel, Michal Clapinski
While booting with KHO, the following crash was observed:
BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ff19164fffff8328
RIP: 0010:__free_one_page+0x1a1/0x6b0
Call Trace:
<TASK>
[<ffffffff913208bf>] free_one_page+0xaf/0x240
[<ffffffff93973288>] deferred_free_pages+0xa8/0xd0
[<ffffffff93971b4f>] deferred_init_memmap_chunk+0x10f/0x1b0
[<ffffffff9396e265>] padata_mt_helper+0x65/0xa0
[<ffffffff90fac402>] process_scheduled_works+0x202/0x410
[<ffffffff90fae739>] worker_thread+0x1f9/0x2d0
[<ffffffff90fb62fd>] kthread+0x27d/0x2f0
[<ffffffff90fae540>] ? __pfx_worker_thread+0x10/0x10
[<ffffffff90fb6080>] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10
[<ffffffff90efdc55>] ret_from_fork+0x145/0x280
[<ffffffff90fb6080>] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10
[<ffffffff90e2e46a>] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30
</TASK>
deferred_init_memmap_chunk() interleaves initialization of struct pages
with freeing them. This works fine without KHO because free regions
will never be neighbors. However, with KHO, free memory will be split
into (free && scratch) and (free && !scratch), which can be neighbors.
KHO scratch is aligned to CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_PAGES pages but buddy looks
at the neighborhood of MAX_ORDER_NR_PAGES pages. These values are
configurable but CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_PAGES is always less or equal to
MAX_ORDER_NR_PAGES. In the crashing configuration they were set as
follows:
CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_PAGES = 1 << 9
MAX_ORDER_NR_PAGES = 1 << 10
So while freeing one chunk, buddy accessed uninitialized struct pages
from another chunk, tried to merge the blocks and crashed.
To fix this, let's just align KHO scratch to MAX_ORDER_NR_PAGES pages.
Fixes: c6073743d0c7 ("kho: make preserved pages compatible with deferred struct page init")
Signed-off-by: Michal Clapinski <mclapinski@google.com>
---
Unfortunately, this is very hard to catch, so I don't have a good
reproducer. But I run the code with the fix through extensive testing
and it seems fine.
I think I've never caught it before because enabling HUGETLB is what
causes CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_PAGES to be 1 << 9, instead of 1 << 10.
If this passes review, please cherry-pick it to 7.2 so we don't release
a broken kernel.
---
kernel/liveupdate/kexec_handover.c | 22 ++++++++++++++++------
1 file changed, 16 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
diff --git a/kernel/liveupdate/kexec_handover.c b/kernel/liveupdate/kexec_handover.c
index 4834a809985a..175c08a6e41e 100644
--- a/kernel/liveupdate/kexec_handover.c
+++ b/kernel/liveupdate/kexec_handover.c
@@ -38,6 +38,16 @@
#include "../kexec_internal.h"
#include "kexec_handover_internal.h"
+/*
+ * This is the minimal alignment required by deferred struct page init.
+ * deferred_init_memmap_chunk frees memory to the buddy allocator, which looks
+ * at the neighboring pages (up to MAX_PAGE_ORDER) to merge them.
+ * If KHO scratch is not aligned to that value, buddy can access uninitialized
+ * struct pages, which can cause a crash.
+ */
+#define SCRATCH_ALIGNMENT_BYTES (PAGE_SIZE * MAX_ORDER_NR_PAGES)
+static_assert(SCRATCH_ALIGNMENT_BYTES >= CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_BYTES);
+
/* The magic token for preserved pages */
#define KHO_PAGE_MAGIC 0x4b484f50U /* ASCII for 'KHOP' */
@@ -640,8 +650,8 @@ static void __init scratch_size_update(void)
* Scratch areas are released as MIGRATE_CMA. Round them up to the right
* size.
*/
- scratch_size_lowmem = round_up(scratch_size_lowmem, CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_BYTES);
- scratch_size_global = round_up(scratch_size_global, CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_BYTES);
+ scratch_size_lowmem = round_up(scratch_size_lowmem, SCRATCH_ALIGNMENT_BYTES);
+ scratch_size_global = round_up(scratch_size_global, SCRATCH_ALIGNMENT_BYTES);
}
static phys_addr_t __init scratch_size_node(int nid)
@@ -656,7 +666,7 @@ static phys_addr_t __init scratch_size_node(int nid)
size = scratch_size_pernode;
}
- return round_up(size, CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_BYTES);
+ return round_up(size, SCRATCH_ALIGNMENT_BYTES);
}
/**
@@ -692,7 +702,7 @@ static void __init kho_reserve_scratch(void)
* next kernel
*/
size = scratch_size_lowmem;
- addr = memblock_phys_alloc_range(size, CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_BYTES, 0,
+ addr = memblock_phys_alloc_range(size, SCRATCH_ALIGNMENT_BYTES, 0,
ARCH_LOW_ADDRESS_LIMIT);
if (!addr) {
pr_err("Failed to reserve lowmem scratch buffer\n");
@@ -705,7 +715,7 @@ static void __init kho_reserve_scratch(void)
/* reserve large contiguous area for allocations without nid */
size = scratch_size_global;
- addr = memblock_phys_alloc(size, CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_BYTES);
+ addr = memblock_phys_alloc(size, SCRATCH_ALIGNMENT_BYTES);
if (!addr) {
pr_err("Failed to reserve global scratch buffer\n");
goto err_free_scratch_areas;
@@ -721,7 +731,7 @@ static void __init kho_reserve_scratch(void)
*/
for_each_node_state(nid, N_MEMORY) {
size = scratch_size_node(nid);
- addr = memblock_alloc_range_nid(size, CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_BYTES,
+ addr = memblock_alloc_range_nid(size, SCRATCH_ALIGNMENT_BYTES,
0, MEMBLOCK_ALLOC_ACCESSIBLE,
nid, true);
if (!addr) {
--
2.55.0.229.g6434b31f56-goog
^ permalink raw reply related [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread* Re: [PATCH v2] kho: align kho_scratch to MAX_ORDER_NR_PAGES pages
2026-07-17 13:40 [PATCH v2] kho: align kho_scratch to MAX_ORDER_NR_PAGES pages Michal Clapinski
@ 2026-07-17 16:21 ` Pasha Tatashin
2026-07-17 17:25 ` Michał Cłapiński
0 siblings, 1 reply; 3+ messages in thread
From: Pasha Tatashin @ 2026-07-17 16:21 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Michal Clapinski
Cc: Mike Rapoport, Pasha Tatashin, Pratyush Yadav, Alexander Graf,
Evangelos Petrongonas, kexec, linux-mm, linux-kernel
On 07-17 15:40, Michal Clapinski wrote:
> While booting with KHO, the following crash was observed:
>
> BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ff19164fffff8328
> RIP: 0010:__free_one_page+0x1a1/0x6b0
> Call Trace:
> <TASK>
> [<ffffffff913208bf>] free_one_page+0xaf/0x240
> [<ffffffff93973288>] deferred_free_pages+0xa8/0xd0
> [<ffffffff93971b4f>] deferred_init_memmap_chunk+0x10f/0x1b0
> [<ffffffff9396e265>] padata_mt_helper+0x65/0xa0
> [<ffffffff90fac402>] process_scheduled_works+0x202/0x410
> [<ffffffff90fae739>] worker_thread+0x1f9/0x2d0
> [<ffffffff90fb62fd>] kthread+0x27d/0x2f0
> [<ffffffff90fae540>] ? __pfx_worker_thread+0x10/0x10
> [<ffffffff90fb6080>] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10
> [<ffffffff90efdc55>] ret_from_fork+0x145/0x280
> [<ffffffff90fb6080>] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10
> [<ffffffff90e2e46a>] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30
> </TASK>
>
> deferred_init_memmap_chunk() interleaves initialization of struct pages
> with freeing them. This works fine without KHO because free regions
> will never be neighbors. However, with KHO, free memory will be split
> into (free && scratch) and (free && !scratch), which can be neighbors.
>
> KHO scratch is aligned to CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_PAGES pages but buddy looks
> at the neighborhood of MAX_ORDER_NR_PAGES pages. These values are
> configurable but CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_PAGES is always less or equal to
> MAX_ORDER_NR_PAGES. In the crashing configuration they were set as
> follows:
> CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_PAGES = 1 << 9
> MAX_ORDER_NR_PAGES = 1 << 10
>
> So while freeing one chunk, buddy accessed uninitialized struct pages
> from another chunk, tried to merge the blocks and crashed.
>
> To fix this, let's just align KHO scratch to MAX_ORDER_NR_PAGES pages.
>
> Fixes: c6073743d0c7 ("kho: make preserved pages compatible with deferred struct page init")
> Signed-off-by: Michal Clapinski <mclapinski@google.com>
> ---
> Unfortunately, this is very hard to catch, so I don't have a good
> reproducer. But I run the code with the fix through extensive testing
> and it seems fine.
> I think I've never caught it before because enabling HUGETLB is what
> causes CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_PAGES to be 1 << 9, instead of 1 << 10.
>
> If this passes review, please cherry-pick it to 7.2 so we don't release
> a broken kernel.
A changelog would be super helful here.
Pasha
> ---
> kernel/liveupdate/kexec_handover.c | 22 ++++++++++++++++------
> 1 file changed, 16 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/kernel/liveupdate/kexec_handover.c b/kernel/liveupdate/kexec_handover.c
> index 4834a809985a..175c08a6e41e 100644
> --- a/kernel/liveupdate/kexec_handover.c
> +++ b/kernel/liveupdate/kexec_handover.c
> @@ -38,6 +38,16 @@
> #include "../kexec_internal.h"
> #include "kexec_handover_internal.h"
>
> +/*
> + * This is the minimal alignment required by deferred struct page init.
> + * deferred_init_memmap_chunk frees memory to the buddy allocator, which looks
> + * at the neighboring pages (up to MAX_PAGE_ORDER) to merge them.
> + * If KHO scratch is not aligned to that value, buddy can access uninitialized
> + * struct pages, which can cause a crash.
> + */
> +#define SCRATCH_ALIGNMENT_BYTES (PAGE_SIZE * MAX_ORDER_NR_PAGES)
> +static_assert(SCRATCH_ALIGNMENT_BYTES >= CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_BYTES);
> +
> /* The magic token for preserved pages */
> #define KHO_PAGE_MAGIC 0x4b484f50U /* ASCII for 'KHOP' */
>
> @@ -640,8 +650,8 @@ static void __init scratch_size_update(void)
> * Scratch areas are released as MIGRATE_CMA. Round them up to the right
> * size.
> */
> - scratch_size_lowmem = round_up(scratch_size_lowmem, CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_BYTES);
> - scratch_size_global = round_up(scratch_size_global, CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_BYTES);
> + scratch_size_lowmem = round_up(scratch_size_lowmem, SCRATCH_ALIGNMENT_BYTES);
> + scratch_size_global = round_up(scratch_size_global, SCRATCH_ALIGNMENT_BYTES);
> }
>
> static phys_addr_t __init scratch_size_node(int nid)
> @@ -656,7 +666,7 @@ static phys_addr_t __init scratch_size_node(int nid)
> size = scratch_size_pernode;
> }
>
> - return round_up(size, CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_BYTES);
> + return round_up(size, SCRATCH_ALIGNMENT_BYTES);
> }
>
> /**
> @@ -692,7 +702,7 @@ static void __init kho_reserve_scratch(void)
> * next kernel
> */
> size = scratch_size_lowmem;
> - addr = memblock_phys_alloc_range(size, CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_BYTES, 0,
> + addr = memblock_phys_alloc_range(size, SCRATCH_ALIGNMENT_BYTES, 0,
> ARCH_LOW_ADDRESS_LIMIT);
> if (!addr) {
> pr_err("Failed to reserve lowmem scratch buffer\n");
> @@ -705,7 +715,7 @@ static void __init kho_reserve_scratch(void)
>
> /* reserve large contiguous area for allocations without nid */
> size = scratch_size_global;
> - addr = memblock_phys_alloc(size, CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_BYTES);
> + addr = memblock_phys_alloc(size, SCRATCH_ALIGNMENT_BYTES);
> if (!addr) {
> pr_err("Failed to reserve global scratch buffer\n");
> goto err_free_scratch_areas;
> @@ -721,7 +731,7 @@ static void __init kho_reserve_scratch(void)
> */
> for_each_node_state(nid, N_MEMORY) {
> size = scratch_size_node(nid);
> - addr = memblock_alloc_range_nid(size, CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_BYTES,
> + addr = memblock_alloc_range_nid(size, SCRATCH_ALIGNMENT_BYTES,
> 0, MEMBLOCK_ALLOC_ACCESSIBLE,
> nid, true);
> if (!addr) {
> --
> 2.55.0.229.g6434b31f56-goog
>
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread* Re: [PATCH v2] kho: align kho_scratch to MAX_ORDER_NR_PAGES pages
2026-07-17 16:21 ` Pasha Tatashin
@ 2026-07-17 17:25 ` Michał Cłapiński
0 siblings, 0 replies; 3+ messages in thread
From: Michał Cłapiński @ 2026-07-17 17:25 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Pasha Tatashin
Cc: Mike Rapoport, Pratyush Yadav, Alexander Graf,
Evangelos Petrongonas, kexec, linux-mm, linux-kernel
On Fri, Jul 17, 2026 at 6:21 PM Pasha Tatashin
<pasha.tatashin@soleen.com> wrote:
>
> On 07-17 15:40, Michal Clapinski wrote:
> > While booting with KHO, the following crash was observed:
> >
> > BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ff19164fffff8328
> > RIP: 0010:__free_one_page+0x1a1/0x6b0
> > Call Trace:
> > <TASK>
> > [<ffffffff913208bf>] free_one_page+0xaf/0x240
> > [<ffffffff93973288>] deferred_free_pages+0xa8/0xd0
> > [<ffffffff93971b4f>] deferred_init_memmap_chunk+0x10f/0x1b0
> > [<ffffffff9396e265>] padata_mt_helper+0x65/0xa0
> > [<ffffffff90fac402>] process_scheduled_works+0x202/0x410
> > [<ffffffff90fae739>] worker_thread+0x1f9/0x2d0
> > [<ffffffff90fb62fd>] kthread+0x27d/0x2f0
> > [<ffffffff90fae540>] ? __pfx_worker_thread+0x10/0x10
> > [<ffffffff90fb6080>] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10
> > [<ffffffff90efdc55>] ret_from_fork+0x145/0x280
> > [<ffffffff90fb6080>] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10
> > [<ffffffff90e2e46a>] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30
> > </TASK>
> >
> > deferred_init_memmap_chunk() interleaves initialization of struct pages
> > with freeing them. This works fine without KHO because free regions
> > will never be neighbors. However, with KHO, free memory will be split
> > into (free && scratch) and (free && !scratch), which can be neighbors.
> >
> > KHO scratch is aligned to CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_PAGES pages but buddy looks
> > at the neighborhood of MAX_ORDER_NR_PAGES pages. These values are
> > configurable but CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_PAGES is always less or equal to
> > MAX_ORDER_NR_PAGES. In the crashing configuration they were set as
> > follows:
> > CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_PAGES = 1 << 9
> > MAX_ORDER_NR_PAGES = 1 << 10
> >
> > So while freeing one chunk, buddy accessed uninitialized struct pages
> > from another chunk, tried to merge the blocks and crashed.
> >
> > To fix this, let's just align KHO scratch to MAX_ORDER_NR_PAGES pages.
> >
> > Fixes: c6073743d0c7 ("kho: make preserved pages compatible with deferred struct page init")
> > Signed-off-by: Michal Clapinski <mclapinski@google.com>
> > ---
> > Unfortunately, this is very hard to catch, so I don't have a good
> > reproducer. But I run the code with the fix through extensive testing
> > and it seems fine.
> > I think I've never caught it before because enabling HUGETLB is what
> > causes CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_PAGES to be 1 << 9, instead of 1 << 10.
> >
> > If this passes review, please cherry-pick it to 7.2 so we don't release
> > a broken kernel.
>
> A changelog would be super helful here.
Sorry, forgot.
Changelog:
- functionally it's exactly the same
- changed SCRATCH_ALIGNMENT_BYTES to be calculated using
multiplication instead of binary shift
- updated the commit msg as Mike asked
- rebased on top of liveupdate/next
> Pasha
>
> > ---
> > kernel/liveupdate/kexec_handover.c | 22 ++++++++++++++++------
> > 1 file changed, 16 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
> >
> > diff --git a/kernel/liveupdate/kexec_handover.c b/kernel/liveupdate/kexec_handover.c
> > index 4834a809985a..175c08a6e41e 100644
> > --- a/kernel/liveupdate/kexec_handover.c
> > +++ b/kernel/liveupdate/kexec_handover.c
> > @@ -38,6 +38,16 @@
> > #include "../kexec_internal.h"
> > #include "kexec_handover_internal.h"
> >
> > +/*
> > + * This is the minimal alignment required by deferred struct page init.
> > + * deferred_init_memmap_chunk frees memory to the buddy allocator, which looks
> > + * at the neighboring pages (up to MAX_PAGE_ORDER) to merge them.
> > + * If KHO scratch is not aligned to that value, buddy can access uninitialized
> > + * struct pages, which can cause a crash.
> > + */
> > +#define SCRATCH_ALIGNMENT_BYTES (PAGE_SIZE * MAX_ORDER_NR_PAGES)
> > +static_assert(SCRATCH_ALIGNMENT_BYTES >= CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_BYTES);
> > +
> > /* The magic token for preserved pages */
> > #define KHO_PAGE_MAGIC 0x4b484f50U /* ASCII for 'KHOP' */
> >
> > @@ -640,8 +650,8 @@ static void __init scratch_size_update(void)
> > * Scratch areas are released as MIGRATE_CMA. Round them up to the right
> > * size.
> > */
> > - scratch_size_lowmem = round_up(scratch_size_lowmem, CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_BYTES);
> > - scratch_size_global = round_up(scratch_size_global, CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_BYTES);
> > + scratch_size_lowmem = round_up(scratch_size_lowmem, SCRATCH_ALIGNMENT_BYTES);
> > + scratch_size_global = round_up(scratch_size_global, SCRATCH_ALIGNMENT_BYTES);
> > }
> >
> > static phys_addr_t __init scratch_size_node(int nid)
> > @@ -656,7 +666,7 @@ static phys_addr_t __init scratch_size_node(int nid)
> > size = scratch_size_pernode;
> > }
> >
> > - return round_up(size, CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_BYTES);
> > + return round_up(size, SCRATCH_ALIGNMENT_BYTES);
> > }
> >
> > /**
> > @@ -692,7 +702,7 @@ static void __init kho_reserve_scratch(void)
> > * next kernel
> > */
> > size = scratch_size_lowmem;
> > - addr = memblock_phys_alloc_range(size, CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_BYTES, 0,
> > + addr = memblock_phys_alloc_range(size, SCRATCH_ALIGNMENT_BYTES, 0,
> > ARCH_LOW_ADDRESS_LIMIT);
> > if (!addr) {
> > pr_err("Failed to reserve lowmem scratch buffer\n");
> > @@ -705,7 +715,7 @@ static void __init kho_reserve_scratch(void)
> >
> > /* reserve large contiguous area for allocations without nid */
> > size = scratch_size_global;
> > - addr = memblock_phys_alloc(size, CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_BYTES);
> > + addr = memblock_phys_alloc(size, SCRATCH_ALIGNMENT_BYTES);
> > if (!addr) {
> > pr_err("Failed to reserve global scratch buffer\n");
> > goto err_free_scratch_areas;
> > @@ -721,7 +731,7 @@ static void __init kho_reserve_scratch(void)
> > */
> > for_each_node_state(nid, N_MEMORY) {
> > size = scratch_size_node(nid);
> > - addr = memblock_alloc_range_nid(size, CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_BYTES,
> > + addr = memblock_alloc_range_nid(size, SCRATCH_ALIGNMENT_BYTES,
> > 0, MEMBLOCK_ALLOC_ACCESSIBLE,
> > nid, true);
> > if (!addr) {
> > --
> > 2.55.0.229.g6434b31f56-goog
> >
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread
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2026-07-17 13:40 [PATCH v2] kho: align kho_scratch to MAX_ORDER_NR_PAGES pages Michal Clapinski
2026-07-17 16:21 ` Pasha Tatashin
2026-07-17 17:25 ` Michał Cłapiński
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