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Peter Anvin" , "Thomas Gleixner" , linux-efi@vger.kernel.org, linux-mm@kvack.org, stable@vger.kernel.org Message-Id: In-Reply-To: <20260223075219.2348035-1-rppt@kernel.org> References: <20260223075219.2348035-1-rppt@kernel.org> Subject: Re: [PATCH] x86/efi: defer freeing of boot services memory Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Mike, On Mon, 23 Feb 2026, at 08:52, Mike Rapoport wrote: > From: "Mike Rapoport (Microsoft)" > > efi_free_boot_services() frees memory occupied by EFI_BOOT_SERVICES_CODE > and EFI_BOOT_SERVICES_DATA using memblock_free_late(). > > There are two issue with that: memblock_free_late() should be used for > memory allocated with memblock_alloc() while the memory reserved with > memblock_reserve() should be freed with free_reserved_area(). > > More acutely, with CONFIG_DEFERRED_STRUCT_PAGE_INIT=y > efi_free_boot_services() is called before deferred initialization of the > memory map is complete. > > Benjamin Herrenschmidt reports that this causes a leak of ~140MB of > RAM on EC2 t3a.nano instances which only have 512MB or RAM. > > If the freed memory resides in the areas that memory map for them is > still uninitialized, they won't be actually freed because > memblock_free_late() calls memblock_free_pages() and the latter skips > uninitialized pages. > > Using free_reserved_area() at this point is also problematic because > __free_page() accesses the buddy of the freed page and that again might > end up in uninitialized part of the memory map. > > Delaying the entire efi_free_boot_services() could be problematic > because in addition to freeing boot services memory it updates > efi.memmap without any synchronization and that's undesirable late in > boot when there is concurrency. > > More robust approach is to only defer freeing of the EFI boot services > memory. > > Make efi_free_boot_services() collect ranges that should be freed into > an array and add an initcall efi_free_boot_services_memory() that walks > that array and actually frees the memory using free_reserved_area(). > Instead of creating another table, could we just traverse the EFI memory map again in the arch_initcall(), and free all boot services code/data above 1M with EFI_MEMORY_RUNTIME cleared ? > Link: > https://lore.kernel.org/all/ec2aaef14783869b3be6e3c253b2dcbf67dbc12a.camel@kernel.crashing.org > Fixes: 916f676f8dc0 ("x86, efi: Retain boot service code until after > switching to virtual mode") > Cc: > Signed-off-by: Mike Rapoport (Microsoft) > --- > arch/x86/include/asm/efi.h | 2 +- > arch/x86/platform/efi/efi.c | 2 +- > arch/x86/platform/efi/quirks.c | 55 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++-- > drivers/firmware/efi/mokvar-table.c | 2 +- > 4 files changed, 55 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-) > > diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/efi.h b/arch/x86/include/asm/efi.h > index f227a70ac91f..51b4cdbea061 100644 > --- a/arch/x86/include/asm/efi.h > +++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/efi.h > @@ -138,7 +138,7 @@ extern void __init efi_apply_memmap_quirks(void); > extern int __init efi_reuse_config(u64 tables, int nr_tables); > extern void efi_delete_dummy_variable(void); > extern void efi_crash_gracefully_on_page_fault(unsigned long phys_addr); > -extern void efi_free_boot_services(void); > +extern void efi_unmap_boot_services(void); > > void arch_efi_call_virt_setup(void); > void arch_efi_call_virt_teardown(void); > diff --git a/arch/x86/platform/efi/efi.c b/arch/x86/platform/efi/efi.c > index d00c6de7f3b7..d84c6020dda1 100644 > --- a/arch/x86/platform/efi/efi.c > +++ b/arch/x86/platform/efi/efi.c > @@ -836,7 +836,7 @@ static void __init __efi_enter_virtual_mode(void) > } > > efi_check_for_embedded_firmwares(); > - efi_free_boot_services(); > + efi_unmap_boot_services(); > > if (!efi_is_mixed()) > efi_native_runtime_setup(); > diff --git a/arch/x86/platform/efi/quirks.c b/arch/x86/platform/efi/quirks.c > index 553f330198f2..35caa5746115 100644 > --- a/arch/x86/platform/efi/quirks.c > +++ b/arch/x86/platform/efi/quirks.c > @@ -341,7 +341,7 @@ void __init efi_reserve_boot_services(void) > > /* > * Because the following memblock_reserve() is paired > - * with memblock_free_late() for this region in > + * with free_reserved_area() for this region in > * efi_free_boot_services(), we must be extremely > * careful not to reserve, and subsequently free, > * critical regions of memory (like the kernel image) or > @@ -404,17 +404,33 @@ static void __init efi_unmap_pages(efi_memory_desc_t *md) > pr_err("Failed to unmap VA mapping for 0x%llx\n", va); > } > > -void __init efi_free_boot_services(void) > +struct efi_freeable_range { > + u64 start; > + u64 end; > +}; > + > +static struct efi_freeable_range *ranges_to_free; > + > +void __init efi_unmap_boot_services(void) > { > struct efi_memory_map_data data = { 0 }; > efi_memory_desc_t *md; > int num_entries = 0; > + int idx = 0; > + size_t sz; > void *new, *new_md; > > /* Keep all regions for /sys/kernel/debug/efi */ > if (efi_enabled(EFI_DBG)) > return; > > + sz = sizeof(*ranges_to_free) * efi.memmap.nr_map + 1; > + ranges_to_free = kzalloc(sz, GFP_KERNEL); > + if (!ranges_to_free) { > + pr_err("Failed to allocate storage for freeable EFI regions\n"); > + return; > + } > + > for_each_efi_memory_desc(md) { > unsigned long long start = md->phys_addr; > unsigned long long size = md->num_pages << EFI_PAGE_SHIFT; > @@ -471,7 +487,15 @@ void __init efi_free_boot_services(void) > start = SZ_1M; > } > > - memblock_free_late(start, size); > + /* > + * With CONFIG_DEFERRED_STRUCT_PAGE_INIT parts of the memory > + * map are still not initialized and we can't reliably free > + * memory here. > + * Queue the ranges to free at a later point. > + */ > + ranges_to_free[idx].start = start; > + ranges_to_free[idx].end = start + size; > + idx++; > } > > if (!num_entries) > @@ -512,6 +536,31 @@ void __init efi_free_boot_services(void) > } > } > > +static int __init efi_free_boot_services(void) > +{ > + struct efi_freeable_range *range = ranges_to_free; > + unsigned long freed = 0; > + > + if (!ranges_to_free) > + return 0; > + > + while (range->start) { > + void *start = phys_to_virt(range->start); > + void *end = phys_to_virt(range->end); > + > + free_reserved_area(start, end, -1, NULL); > + freed += (end - start); > + range++; > + } > + kfree(ranges_to_free); > + > + if (freed) > + pr_info("Freeing EFI boot services memory: %ldK\n", freed / SZ_1K); > + > + return 0; > +} > +arch_initcall(efi_free_boot_services); > + > /* > * A number of config table entries get remapped to virtual addresses > * after entering EFI virtual mode. However, the kexec kernel requires > diff --git a/drivers/firmware/efi/mokvar-table.c > b/drivers/firmware/efi/mokvar-table.c > index 4ff0c2926097..6842aa96d704 100644 > --- a/drivers/firmware/efi/mokvar-table.c > +++ b/drivers/firmware/efi/mokvar-table.c > @@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ static struct kobject *mokvar_kobj; > * as an alternative to ordinary EFI variables, due to > platform-dependent > * limitations. The memory occupied by this table is marked as > reserved. > * > - * This routine must be called before efi_free_boot_services() in order > + * This routine must be called before efi_unmap_boot_services() in > order > * to guarantee that it can mark the table as reserved. > * > * Implicit inputs: > > base-commit: 6de23f81a5e08be8fbf5e8d7e9febc72a5b5f27f > -- > 2.51.0