[PATCH v3] dma-mapping: move dma_map_resource() sanity check into debug code

Jianpeng Chang posted 1 patch 1 month ago
kernel/dma/debug.c   | 9 ++++++++-
kernel/dma/mapping.c | 4 ----
2 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
[PATCH v3] dma-mapping: move dma_map_resource() sanity check into debug code
Posted by Jianpeng Chang 1 month ago
dma_map_resource() uses pfn_valid() to ensure the range is not RAM.
However, pfn_valid() only checks for availability of the memory map for
a PFN but it does not ensure that the PFN is actually backed by RAM. On
ARM64 with SPARSEMEM (128MB section granularity), MMIO addresses that
share a section with RAM will falsely trigger the WARN_ON_ONCE and cause
dma_map_resource() to return DMA_MAPPING_ERROR.

This causes a WARNING on Raspberry Pi 4 during spi_bcm2835 probe because
the SPI FIFO register (0xfe204004) falls in the same sparsemem section
as the end of RAM (0xf8000000-0xfbffffff), both in section 31
(0xf8000000-0xffffffff).

Move the sanity check from dma_map_resource() into debug_dma_map_phys()
and replace the unreliable pfn_valid() with pfn_valid() &&
!PageReserved(), which correctly identifies actual usable RAM without
false positives for MMIO regions that happen to have struct pages.

Since dma_map_resource() is dma_map_phys(DMA_ATTR_MMIO), the check
applies equally to both APIs. Any non-reserved page represents kernel
memory to a sufficient degree that using DMA_ATTR_MMIO on it is almost
certainly wrong and risks breaking coherency on non-coherent platforms.
ZONE_DEVICE pages used for PCI P2P DMA (MEMORY_DEVICE_PCI_P2PDMA) have
PageReserved set, so they will not trigger a false positive.

The check no longer blocks the mapping and uses err_printk() to
integrate with dma-debug filtering.

Fixes: f7326196a781 ("dma-mapping: export new dma_*map_phys() interface")
Reviewed-by: Robin Murphy <robin.murphy@arm.com>
Signed-off-by: Jianpeng Chang <jianpeng.chang.cn@windriver.com>
---
v3:
  - WARN_ONCE -> err_printk()
  - move the MMIO check down, and delete the return
v2: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260511083133.1096171-1-jianpeng.chang.cn@windriver.com/
   - move check to debug_dma_map_phys and replace pfn_valid() with
     pfn_valid() && !PageReserved() as Robin suggested.
   - update commit message to explain why PageReserved is safe for
     ZONE_DEVICE PCI_P2PDMA pages
v1: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260507032120.4072283-1-jianpeng.chang.cn@windriver.com/

 kernel/dma/debug.c   | 9 ++++++++-
 kernel/dma/mapping.c | 4 ----
 2 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/dma/debug.c b/kernel/dma/debug.c
index 1a725edbbbf6..3248f8b4d096 100644
--- a/kernel/dma/debug.c
+++ b/kernel/dma/debug.c
@@ -1251,7 +1251,14 @@ void debug_dma_map_phys(struct device *dev, phys_addr_t phys, size_t size,
 	entry->direction = direction;
 	entry->map_err_type = MAP_ERR_NOT_CHECKED;
 
-	if (!(attrs & DMA_ATTR_MMIO)) {
+	if (attrs & DMA_ATTR_MMIO) {
+		unsigned long pfn = PHYS_PFN(phys);
+
+		if (pfn_valid(pfn) && !PageReserved(pfn_to_page(pfn)))
+			err_printk(dev, entry,
+				   "dma_map_resource called for RAM address %pa\n",
+				   &phys);
+	} else {
 		check_for_stack(dev, phys);
 
 		if (!PhysHighMem(phys))
diff --git a/kernel/dma/mapping.c b/kernel/dma/mapping.c
index 23ed8eb9233e..e6b07f160d20 100644
--- a/kernel/dma/mapping.c
+++ b/kernel/dma/mapping.c
@@ -365,10 +365,6 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL(dma_unmap_sg_attrs);
 dma_addr_t dma_map_resource(struct device *dev, phys_addr_t phys_addr,
 		size_t size, enum dma_data_direction dir, unsigned long attrs)
 {
-	if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_DMA_API_DEBUG) &&
-	    WARN_ON_ONCE(pfn_valid(PHYS_PFN(phys_addr))))
-		return DMA_MAPPING_ERROR;
-
 	return dma_map_phys(dev, phys_addr, size, dir, attrs | DMA_ATTR_MMIO);
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(dma_map_resource);
-- 
2.51.2
Re: [PATCH v3] dma-mapping: move dma_map_resource() sanity check into debug code
Posted by Marek Szyprowski 3 weeks, 4 days ago
On 13.05.2026 09:22, Jianpeng Chang wrote:
> dma_map_resource() uses pfn_valid() to ensure the range is not RAM.
> However, pfn_valid() only checks for availability of the memory map for
> a PFN but it does not ensure that the PFN is actually backed by RAM. On
> ARM64 with SPARSEMEM (128MB section granularity), MMIO addresses that
> share a section with RAM will falsely trigger the WARN_ON_ONCE and cause
> dma_map_resource() to return DMA_MAPPING_ERROR.
>
> This causes a WARNING on Raspberry Pi 4 during spi_bcm2835 probe because
> the SPI FIFO register (0xfe204004) falls in the same sparsemem section
> as the end of RAM (0xf8000000-0xfbffffff), both in section 31
> (0xf8000000-0xffffffff).
>
> Move the sanity check from dma_map_resource() into debug_dma_map_phys()
> and replace the unreliable pfn_valid() with pfn_valid() &&
> !PageReserved(), which correctly identifies actual usable RAM without
> false positives for MMIO regions that happen to have struct pages.
>
> Since dma_map_resource() is dma_map_phys(DMA_ATTR_MMIO), the check
> applies equally to both APIs. Any non-reserved page represents kernel
> memory to a sufficient degree that using DMA_ATTR_MMIO on it is almost
> certainly wrong and risks breaking coherency on non-coherent platforms.
> ZONE_DEVICE pages used for PCI P2P DMA (MEMORY_DEVICE_PCI_P2PDMA) have
> PageReserved set, so they will not trigger a false positive.
>
> The check no longer blocks the mapping and uses err_printk() to
> integrate with dma-debug filtering.
>
> Fixes: f7326196a781 ("dma-mapping: export new dma_*map_phys() interface")
> Reviewed-by: Robin Murphy <robin.murphy@arm.com>
> Signed-off-by: Jianpeng Chang <jianpeng.chang.cn@windriver.com>

Applied to dma-mapping-fixes, thanks!

Best regards
-- 
Marek Szyprowski, PhD
Samsung R&D Institute Poland
Re: [PATCH v3] dma-mapping: move dma_map_resource() sanity check into debug code
Posted by Leon Romanovsky 3 weeks, 5 days ago
On Wed, May 13, 2026 at 03:22:09PM +0800, Jianpeng Chang wrote:
> dma_map_resource() uses pfn_valid() to ensure the range is not RAM.
> However, pfn_valid() only checks for availability of the memory map for
> a PFN but it does not ensure that the PFN is actually backed by RAM. On
> ARM64 with SPARSEMEM (128MB section granularity), MMIO addresses that
> share a section with RAM will falsely trigger the WARN_ON_ONCE and cause
> dma_map_resource() to return DMA_MAPPING_ERROR.
> 
> This causes a WARNING on Raspberry Pi 4 during spi_bcm2835 probe because
> the SPI FIFO register (0xfe204004) falls in the same sparsemem section
> as the end of RAM (0xf8000000-0xfbffffff), both in section 31
> (0xf8000000-0xffffffff).
> 
> Move the sanity check from dma_map_resource() into debug_dma_map_phys()
> and replace the unreliable pfn_valid() with pfn_valid() &&
> !PageReserved(), which correctly identifies actual usable RAM without
> false positives for MMIO regions that happen to have struct pages.
> 
> Since dma_map_resource() is dma_map_phys(DMA_ATTR_MMIO), the check
> applies equally to both APIs. Any non-reserved page represents kernel
> memory to a sufficient degree that using DMA_ATTR_MMIO on it is almost
> certainly wrong and risks breaking coherency on non-coherent platforms.
> ZONE_DEVICE pages used for PCI P2P DMA (MEMORY_DEVICE_PCI_P2PDMA) have
> PageReserved set, so they will not trigger a false positive.
> 
> The check no longer blocks the mapping and uses err_printk() to
> integrate with dma-debug filtering.
> 
> Fixes: f7326196a781 ("dma-mapping: export new dma_*map_phys() interface")
> Reviewed-by: Robin Murphy <robin.murphy@arm.com>
> Signed-off-by: Jianpeng Chang <jianpeng.chang.cn@windriver.com>
> ---
> v3:
>   - WARN_ONCE -> err_printk()
>   - move the MMIO check down, and delete the return
> v2: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260511083133.1096171-1-jianpeng.chang.cn@windriver.com/
>    - move check to debug_dma_map_phys and replace pfn_valid() with
>      pfn_valid() && !PageReserved() as Robin suggested.
>    - update commit message to explain why PageReserved is safe for
>      ZONE_DEVICE PCI_P2PDMA pages
> v1: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260507032120.4072283-1-jianpeng.chang.cn@windriver.com/
> 

Thanks,
Reviewed-by: Leon Romanovsky <leonro@nvidia.com>