Re: [PATCH] arm64: mm: Defer read-only remap of data/bss linear alias

[Kevin Brodsky <kevin.brodsky@arm.com>]

On 19/06/2026 18:39, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:
> From: Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@kernel.org>
>
> Fuad reports that in some cases, the KVM init code may apply relocations
> to variables that reside in .data, and does so via the linear map. This
> means that remapping .data read-only beforehand is a bad idea, and
> results in an early boot crash.
>
> These variables in .data are only present when CONFIG_NVHE_EL2_DEBUG or
> CONFIG_NVHE_EL2_TRACING are enabled, which is why it was not spotted in
> testing.
>
> So move the remap to mark_rodata_ro(), which is a reasonable place to
> put this, and ensures that it happens much later during the boot. It
> also means that rodata=off is now taken into account, and so the linear
> alias will remain writable in that case.
>
> Cc: Fuad Tabba <fuad.tabba@linux.dev>
> Fixes: f2ba877402e5 ("arm64: mm: Map the kernel data/bss read-only in the linear map")
> Signed-off-by: Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@kernel.org>
> ---
>  arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c | 11 ++++++-----
>  1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c b/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c
> index 9f354971b7e4..1f7eca86b5c1 100644
> --- a/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c
> +++ b/arch/arm64/mm/mmu.c
> @@ -1198,11 +1198,6 @@ static void __init map_mem(void)
>  		__map_memblock(start, end, pgprot_tagged(PAGE_KERNEL),
>  			       flags);
>  	}
> -
> -	/* Map the kernel data/bss read-only in the linear map */
> -	__map_memblock(init_end, kernel_end, PAGE_KERNEL_RO, flags);
> -	flush_tlb_kernel_range((unsigned long)lm_alias(__init_end),
> -			       (unsigned long)lm_alias(__bss_stop));
>  }
>  
>  void mark_rodata_ro(void)
> @@ -1221,6 +1216,12 @@ void mark_rodata_ro(void)
>  	update_mapping_prot(__pa_symbol(_text), (unsigned long)_text,
>  			    (unsigned long)_stext - (unsigned long)_text,
>  			    PAGE_KERNEL_RO);
> +
> +	/* Map the kernel data/bss read-only in the linear map */
> +	update_mapping_prot(__pa_symbol(__init_end),
> +			    (unsigned long)lm_alias(__init_end),
> +			    (unsigned long)__bss_stop - (unsigned long)__init_end,
> +			    PAGE_KERNEL_RO);

I was rather confused by this patch until I saw in master:

f102131c842d Revert "arm64: mm: Unmap kernel data/bss entirely from the
linear map"
81479b6888f8 Revert "arm64: mm: Defer remap of linear alias of data/bss"

... which explains the diff, but it looks like there are multiple issues
here. Is my understanding correct that these reverts fix kvm_arm_init()
because it needs to *read* from the linear map, while this new patch
fixes some KVM configurations that need to *write* to the linear map?

If so it might be good to give a recap in the commit message, because
the reverts are easy to miss.

It would also be good to explain why we can't do this in
mark_linear_text_alias_ro() (presumably because this is too early). I do
agree that honouring rodata=off is a good thing, though.

BTW, if only kvm_arm_init() needs to read the data/bss via the linear
map, maybe we can still unmap it later?

- Kevin