Re: [PATCH iwl-net] ice: fix infinite recursion in ice_cfg_tx_topo via ice_init_dev_hw

Jacob Keller
2026-04-15T21:22:19Z

On 4/15/2026 9:30 AM, Simon Horman wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 13, 2026 at 09:14:20PM +0200, Petr Oros wrote:
>> On certain E810 configurations where firmware supports Tx scheduler
>> topology switching (tx_sched_topo_comp_mode_en), ice_cfg_tx_topo()
>> may need to apply a new 5-layer or 9-layer topology from the DDP
>> package. If the AQ command to set the topology fails (e.g. due to
>> invalid DDP data or firmware limitations), the global configuration
>> lock must still be cleared via a CORER reset.
>>
>> Commit 86aae43f21cf ("ice: don't leave device non-functional if Tx
>> scheduler config fails") correctly fixed this by refactoring
>> ice_cfg_tx_topo() to always trigger CORER after acquiring the global
>> lock and re-initialize hardware via ice_init_hw() afterwards.
>>
>> However, commit 8a37f9e2ff40 ("ice: move ice_deinit_dev() to the end
>> of deinit paths") later moved ice_init_dev_hw() into ice_init_hw(),
>> breaking the reinit path introduced by 86aae43f21cf. This creates an
>> infinite recursive call chain:
>>
>> ice_init_hw()
>> ice_init_dev_hw()
>> ice_cfg_tx_topo() # topology change needed
>> ice_deinit_hw()
>> ice_init_hw() # reinit after CORER
>> ice_init_dev_hw() # recurse
>> ice_cfg_tx_topo()
>> ... # stack overflow
>>
>> Fix by moving ice_init_dev_hw() back out of ice_init_hw() and calling
>> it explicitly from ice_probe() and ice_devlink_reinit_up(). The third
>> caller, ice_cfg_tx_topo(), intentionally does not need ice_init_dev_hw()
>> during its reinit, it only needs the core HW reinitialization. This
>> breaks the recursion cleanly without adding flags or guards.
>>
>> The deinit ordering changes from commit 8a37f9e2ff40 ("ice: move
>> ice_deinit_dev() to the end of deinit paths") which fixed slow rmmod
>> are preserved, only the init-side placement of ice_init_dev_hw() is
>> reverted.
>>
>> Fixes: 8a37f9e2ff40 ("ice: move ice_deinit_dev() to the end of deinit paths")
>> Signed-off-by: Petr Oros <poros@redhat.com>
>
> Hi Petr,
>
> I don't intended to delay this patch.
> But could you follow-up by looking over the AI generated
> review of this patch on sashiko.dev?
>
> Thanks!

I'll take a look as well. I recently included this fix in Intel Wired
LAN update last night, so hopefully nothing too problematic...

Sashiko says:

> While this code wasn't introduced by this patch, the restructuring makes it
> more visible: can this cause a use-after-free if the nested hardware
> initialization fails?
> If ice_cfg_tx_topo() triggers a topology change, it performs a CORER reset
> followed by an unroll (ice_deinit_hw) and re-initialization (ice_init_hw). If
> that nested ice_init_hw() fails, its unroll path frees hw->port_info and
> destroys control queues and mutexes.
> Because ice_init_dev_hw() returns void, it swallows the -ENODEV error and
> falls back to safe mode. This allows ice_probe() to proceed with an unrolled
> and freed hardware struct, which would result in a use-after-free when memory
> like hw->port_info is accessed later.
> Should ice_init_dev_hw() be updated to return an error code so the caller can
> abort the probe when base hardware unrolls occur?

I think this suggestion might be good. We fail in probe if ice_init_hw()
fails regardless of "safe" mode, so having init_dev_hw() also fail if
the reinit fails makes some sense to me...

Thanks,
Jake