[PATCH 5.15.y] driver core: Don't let a device probe until it's ready

Douglas Anderson
2026-04-27T17:01:54Z

The moment we link a "struct device" into the list of devices for the
bus, it's possible probe can happen. This is because another thread
can load the driver at any time and that can cause the device to
probe. This has been seen in practice with a stack crawl that looks
like this [1]:

really_probe()
__driver_probe_device()
driver_probe_device()
__driver_attach()
bus_for_each_dev()
driver_attach()
bus_add_driver()
driver_register()
__platform_driver_register()
init_module() [some module]
do_one_initcall()
do_init_module()
load_module()
__arm64_sys_finit_module()
invoke_syscall()

As a result of the above, it was seen that device_links_driver_bound()
could be called for the device before "dev->fwnode->dev" was
assigned. This prevented __fw_devlink_pickup_dangling_consumers() from
being called which meant that other devices waiting on our driver's
sub-nodes were stuck deferring forever.

It's believed that this problem is showing up suddenly for two
reasons:
1. Android has recently (last ~1 year) implemented an optimization to
the order it loads modules [2]. When devices opt-in to this faster
loading, modules are loaded one-after-the-other very quickly. This
is unlike how other distributions do it. The reproduction of this
problem has only been seen on devices that opt-in to Android's
"parallel module loading".
2. Android devices typically opt-in to fw_devlink, and the most
noticeable issue is the NULL "dev->fwnode->dev" in
device_links_driver_bound(). fw_devlink is somewhat new code and
also not in use by all Linux devices.

Even though the specific symptom where "dev->fwnode->dev" wasn't
assigned could be fixed by moving that assignment higher in
device_add(), other parts of device_add() (like the call to
device_pm_add()) are also important to run before probe. Only moving
the "dev->fwnode->dev" assignment would likely fix the current
symptoms but lead to difficult-to-debug problems in the future.

Fix the problem by preventing probe until device_add() has run far
enough that the device is ready to probe. If somehow we end up trying
to probe before we're allowed, __driver_probe_device() will return
-EPROBE_DEFER which will make certain the device is noticed.

In the race condition that was seen with Android's faster module
loading, we will temporarily add the device to the deferred list and
then take it off immediately when device_add() probes the device.

Instead of adding another flag to the bitfields already in "struct
device", instead add a new "flags" field and use that. This allows us
to freely change the bit from different thread without worrying about
corrupting nearby bits (and means threads changing other bit won't
corrupt us).

[1] Captured on a machine running a downstream 6.6 kernel
[2] https://cs.android.com/android/platform/superproject/main/+/main:system/core/libmodprobe/libmodprobe.cpp?q=LoadModulesParallel

Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Fixes: 2023c610dc54 ("Driver core: add new device to bus's list before probing")
Reviewed-by: Alan Stern <stern@rowland.harvard.edu>
Reviewed-by: Rafael J. Wysocki (Intel) <rafael@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Danilo Krummrich <dakr@kernel.org>
Acked-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
Acked-by: Marek Szyprowski <m.szyprowski@samsung.com>
Signed-off-by: Douglas Anderson <dianders@chromium.org>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260406162231.v5.1.Id750b0fbcc94f23ed04b7aecabcead688d0d8c17@changeid
Signed-off-by: Danilo Krummrich <dakr@kernel.org>
(cherry picked from commit a2225b6e834a838ae3c93709760edc0a169eb2f2)
Signed-off-by: Douglas Anderson <dianders@chromium.org>
---
drivers/base/core.c | 15 ++++++++++++++
drivers/base/dd.c | 20 +++++++++++++++++++
include/linux/device.h | 44 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
3 files changed, 79 insertions(+)

diff --git a/drivers/base/core.c b/drivers/base/core.c
index 4fc62624a95e..dde0f54bba0c 100644
--- a/drivers/base/core.c
+++ b/drivers/base/core.c
@@ -3409,6 +3409,21 @@ int device_add(struct device *dev)
fw_devlink_link_device(dev);
}

+ /*
+ * The moment the device was linked into the bus's "klist_devices" in
+ * bus_add_device() then it's possible that probe could have been
+ * attempted in a different thread via userspace loading a driver
+ * matching the device. "ready_to_probe" being unset would have
+ * blocked those attempts. Now that all of the above initialization has
+ * happened, unblock probe. If probe happens through another thread
+ * after this point but before bus_probe_device() runs then it's fine.
+ * bus_probe_device() -> device_initial_probe() -> __device_attach()
+ * will notice (under device_lock) that the device is already bound.
+ */
+ device_lock(dev);
+ dev_set_ready_to_probe(dev);
+ device_unlock(dev);
+
bus_probe_device(dev);

/*
diff --git a/drivers/base/dd.c b/drivers/base/dd.c
index 0bd166ad6f13..daa5ef3f38e9 100644
--- a/drivers/base/dd.c
+++ b/drivers/base/dd.c
@@ -740,6 +740,26 @@ static int __driver_probe_device(struct device_driver *drv, struct device *dev)
if (dev->driver)
return -EBUSY;

+ /*
+ * In device_add(), the "struct device" gets linked into the subsystem's
+ * list of devices and broadcast to userspace (via uevent) before we're
+ * quite ready to probe. Those open pathways to driver probe before
+ * we've finished enough of device_add() to reliably support probe.
+ * Detect this and tell other pathways to try again later. device_add()
+ * itself will also try to probe immediately after setting
+ * "ready_to_probe".
+ */
+ if (!dev_ready_to_probe(dev))
+ return dev_err_probe(dev, -EPROBE_DEFER, "Device not ready to probe\n");
+
+ /*
+ * Set can_match = true after calling dev_ready_to_probe(), so
+ * driver_deferred_probe_add() won't actually add the device to the
+ * deferred probe list when dev_ready_to_probe() returns false.
+ *
+ * When dev_ready_to_probe() returns false, it means that device_add()
+ * will do another probe() attempt for us.
+ */
dev->can_match = true;
pr_debug("bus: '%s': %s: matched device %s with driver %s\n",
drv->bus->name, __func__, dev_name(dev), drv->name);
diff --git a/include/linux/device.h b/include/linux/device.h
index 89864b918546..58211946b132 100644
--- a/include/linux/device.h
+++ b/include/linux/device.h
@@ -372,6 +372,21 @@ struct dev_links_info {
enum dl_dev_state status;
};

+/**
+ * enum struct_device_flags - Flags in struct device
+ *
+ * Each flag should have a set of accessor functions created via
+ * __create_dev_flag_accessors() for each access.
+ *
+ * @DEV_FLAG_READY_TO_PROBE: If set then device_add() has finished enough
+ * initialization that probe could be called.
+ */
+enum struct_device_flags {
+ DEV_FLAG_READY_TO_PROBE = 0,
+
+ DEV_FLAG_COUNT
+};
+
/**
* struct device - The basic device structure
* @parent: The device's "parent" device, the device to which it is attached.
@@ -462,6 +477,7 @@ struct dev_links_info {
* and optionall (if the coherent mask is large enough) also
* for dma allocations. This flag is managed by the dma ops
* instance from ->dma_supported.
+ * @flags: DEV_FLAG_XXX flags. Use atomic bitfield operations to modify.
*
* At the lowest level, every device in a Linux system is represented by an
* instance of struct device. The device structure contains the information
@@ -576,8 +592,36 @@ struct device {
#ifdef CONFIG_DMA_OPS_BYPASS
bool dma_ops_bypass : 1;
#endif
+
+ DECLARE_BITMAP(flags, DEV_FLAG_COUNT);
};

+#define __create_dev_flag_accessors(accessor_name, flag_name) \
+static inline bool dev_##accessor_name(const struct device *dev) \
+{ \
+ return test_bit(flag_name, dev->flags); \
+} \
+static inline void dev_set_##accessor_name(struct device *dev) \
+{ \
+ set_bit(flag_name, dev->flags); \
+} \
+static inline void dev_clear_##accessor_name(struct device *dev) \
+{ \
+ clear_bit(flag_name, dev->flags); \
+} \
+static inline void dev_assign_##accessor_name(struct device *dev, bool value) \
+{ \
+ assign_bit(flag_name, dev->flags, value); \
+} \
+static inline bool dev_test_and_set_##accessor_name(struct device *dev) \
+{ \
+ return test_and_set_bit(flag_name, dev->flags); \
+}
+
+__create_dev_flag_accessors(ready_to_probe, DEV_FLAG_READY_TO_PROBE);
+
+#undef __create_dev_flag_accessors
+
/**
* struct device_link - Device link representation.
* @supplier: The device on the supplier end of the link.
--
2.54.0.545.g6539524ca2-goog