[PATCH v2 05/15] mach-snapdragon: fix reserved memory carveout

Sumit Garg sumit.garg at kernel.org
Thu May 7 09:45:32 CEST 2026


On Tue, May 05, 2026 at 02:39:35PM +0200, Casey Connolly wrote:
> 
> 
> On 05/05/2026 14:25, Sumit Garg wrote:
> > On Mon, May 04, 2026 at 08:57:33PM +0200, Casey Connolly wrote:
> >> The memory carveout logic was fairly limited and had a few issues,
> >> rework it and teach it not to unmap regions that have a compatible
> >> property (since they may be used in U-Boot) or that don't have the
> >> no-map property.
> >>
> >> The carveout process adds ~100ms to the boot time depending on the
> >> platform.
> >>
> >> This prepares us for using SMEM as a source of truth and improving
> >> support for U-boot as a first stage bootloader since SMEMs memory map
> >> doesn't already carve out some regions like ABL does.
> >>
> >> Signed-off-by: Casey Connolly <casey.connolly at linaro.org>
> >> ---
> >>  arch/arm/mach-snapdragon/board.c | 86 +++++++++++++++++++++++++---------------
> >>  1 file changed, 53 insertions(+), 33 deletions(-)
> >>
> >> diff --git a/arch/arm/mach-snapdragon/board.c b/arch/arm/mach-snapdragon/board.c
> >> index 829a0109ac78..e12d3d00caa4 100644
> >> --- a/arch/arm/mach-snapdragon/board.c
> >> +++ b/arch/arm/mach-snapdragon/board.c
> >> @@ -622,27 +622,36 @@ u64 get_page_table_size(void)
> >>  {
> >>  	return SZ_1M;
> >>  }
> >>  
> >> +struct mem_resource_attrs {
> >> +	fdt_addr_t start;
> >> +	fdt_addr_t size;
> >> +	u64 attrs;
> >> +};
> > 
> > Let's move the struct declaration towards the top.
> 
> it's only used by this one function, it felt easier to keep things
> readable this way. Probably we'll move this stuff to its own file at
> some point.
> 
> > 
> >> +
> >>  static int fdt_cmp_res(const void *v1, const void *v2)
> > 
> > This API should now be renamed as mem_cmp_resources(), no?
> 
> yeah
> 
> > 
> >>  {
> >> -	const struct fdt_resource *res1 = v1, *res2 = v2;
> >> +	const struct mem_resource_attrs *res1 = v1, *res2 = v2;
> >>  
> >>  	return res1->start - res2->start;
> >>  }
> >>  
> >> -#define N_RESERVED_REGIONS 32
> >> +#define N_RESERVED_REGIONS 64
> >>  
> >> -/* Mark all no-map regions as PTE_TYPE_FAULT to prevent speculative access.
> >> +/* Map and unmap reserved memory regions as appropriate.
> >> + * Mark all no-map regions as PTE_TYPE_FAULT to prevent speculative access.
> >>   * On some platforms this is enough to trigger a security violation and trap
> >>   * to EL3.
> >> + * Regions that may be accessed by drivers get mapped explicitly.
> >>   */
> >> -static void carve_out_reserved_memory(void)
> >> +static void configure_reserved_memory(void)
> >>  {
> >> -	static struct fdt_resource res[N_RESERVED_REGIONS] = { 0 };
> >> +	static struct mem_resource_attrs res[N_RESERVED_REGIONS] = { 0 };
> >>  	int parent, rmem, count, i = 0;
> >>  	phys_addr_t start;
> >>  	size_t size;
> >> +	u64 attrs;
> >>  
> >>  	/* Some reserved nodes must be carved out, as the cache-prefetcher may otherwise
> >>  	 * attempt to access them, causing a security exception.
> >>  	 */
> >> @@ -651,14 +660,19 @@ static void carve_out_reserved_memory(void)
> >>  		log_err("No reserved memory regions found\n");
> >>  		return;
> >>  	}
> >>  
> >> -	/* Collect the reserved memory regions */
> >> +	/* Collect the reserved memory regions and appropriate attrs */
> >>  	fdt_for_each_subnode(rmem, gd->fdt_blob, parent) {
> >>  		const fdt32_t *ptr;
> >> -		int len;
> >> +		attrs = PTE_TYPE_FAULT;
> >> +		/* If the no-map property isn't set then the region is valid */
> >>  		if (!fdt_getprop(gd->fdt_blob, rmem, "no-map", NULL))
> >> -			continue;
> >> +			attrs = PTE_TYPE_VALID | PTE_BLOCK_MEMTYPE(MT_NORMAL);
> >> +		/* If the compatible property is set then this region may be accessed by drivers and should
> >> +		 * be marked valid too. */
> >> +		if (fdt_getprop(gd->fdt_blob, rmem, "compatible", NULL))
> >> +			attrs = PTE_TYPE_VALID | PTE_BLOCK_MEMTYPE(MT_NORMAL);
> >>  
> >>  		if (i == N_RESERVED_REGIONS) {
> >>  			log_err("Too many reserved regions!\n");
> >>  			break;
> >> @@ -667,50 +681,55 @@ static void carve_out_reserved_memory(void)
> >>  		/* Read the address and size out from the reg property. Doing this "properly" with
> >>  		 * fdt_get_resource() takes ~70ms on SDM845, but open-coding the happy path here
> >>  		 * takes <1ms... Oh the woes of no dcache.
> >>  		 */
> >> -		ptr = fdt_getprop(gd->fdt_blob, rmem, "reg", &len);
> >> +		ptr = fdt_getprop(gd->fdt_blob, rmem, "reg", NULL);
> >>  		if (ptr) {
> >>  			/* Qualcomm devices use #address/size-cells = <2> but all reserved regions are within
> >>  			 * the 32-bit address space. So we can cheat here for speed.
> >>  			 */
> >>  			res[i].start = fdt32_to_cpu(ptr[1]);
> >> -			res[i].end = res[i].start + fdt32_to_cpu(ptr[3]);
> >> +			res[i].size = fdt32_to_cpu(ptr[3]);
> >> +			res[i].attrs = attrs;
> >>  			i++;
> >>  		}
> >>  	}
> >>  
> >>  	/* Sort the reserved memory regions by address */
> >>  	count = i;
> >> -	qsort(res, count, sizeof(struct fdt_resource), fdt_cmp_res);
> >> +	qsort(res, count, sizeof(res[0]), fdt_cmp_res);
> >> +	debug("Mapping %d regions!\n", count);
> >>  
> >>  	/* Now set the right attributes for them. Often a lot of the regions are tightly packed together
> >> -	 * so we can optimise the number of calls to mmu_change_region_attr() by combining adjacent
> >> +	 * so we can optimise the number of calls to mmu_change_region_attr_nobreak() by combining adjacent
> >>  	 * regions.
> >>  	 */
> >> -	start = ALIGN_DOWN(res[0].start, SZ_2M);
> >> -	size = ALIGN(res[0].end - start, SZ_2M);
> >> +	start = res[0].start;
> >> +	size = res[0].size;
> >> +	attrs = res[0].attrs;
> >> +	/* For each region after the first one, either increase the `size` to eventually be mapped or
> >> +	 * map the region we have and start a new one, this allows us to reduce the number of calls to
> >> +	 * mmu_map_region(). The loop is therefore "lagging" behind by one iteration. */
> >>  	for (i = 1; i <= count; i++) {
> >> -		/* We ideally want to 2M align everything for more efficient pagetables, but we must avoid
> >> -		 * overwriting reserved memory regions which shouldn't be mapped as FAULT (like those with
> >> -		 * compatible properties).
> >> -		 * If within 2M of the previous region, bump the size to include this region. Otherwise
> >> -		 * start a new region.
> >> -		 */
> >> -		if (i == count || start + size < res[i].start - SZ_2M) {
> >> -			debug("  0x%016llx - 0x%016llx: reserved\n",
> >> -			      start, start + size);
> >> -			mmu_change_region_attr(start, size, PTE_TYPE_FAULT);
> >> -			/* If this is the final region then quit here before we index
> >> -			 * out of bounds...
> >> -			 */
> >> +		/* If i == count we are done, just map the last region. If the last region is
> >> +		 * too far away or the attrs don't match then map the meta-region we have and
> >> +		 * start a new one. */
> >> +		if (i == count || start + size < res[i].start - SZ_8K || attrs != res[i].attrs) {
> > 
> > I suppose this SZ_8K instead of SZ_2M is intentional here? It works now
> > due to page table optimization I guess?
> 
> I realised there was a possibility for incorrectly mapping stuff with
> 2M. Probably not with the logic as it is but e.g. if you don't
> explicitly map reserved regions that need to be mapped then they can get
> unmapped here.

I think we rather need to unmap all the no-map regions first via
aligning to 2MB block mappings and then map regions required to be
mapped with the needed granularity. This way we can optimize the page
tables usage.

-Sumit


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