[PATCH v2] gpu: nova-core: falcon: pad firmware DMA object size to required block alignment
From: Alexandre Courbot
Date: Sat Apr 04 2026 - 22:23:15 EST
Commit a88831502c8f ("gpu: nova-core: falcon: use dma::Coherent")
dropped the nova-local `DmaObject` device memory type for the
kernel-global `Coherent` one.
This switch had a side-effect: `DmaObject` always aligned the requested
size to `PAGE_SIZE`, and also reported that adjusted size when queried.
`Coherent`, on the other hand, does page-align allocation sizes but only
allows CPU access on the exact size provided by the caller.
This change runs into a limitation of falcon DMA copies, namely that DMA
accesses are done on blocks of exactly 256 bytes. If the provided data
does not have a length that is a multiple of 256, `dma_wr` returns
an error.
It was expected that all firmwares would present the proper adjusted
size, but this is not the case at least on my GA107:
NovaCore 0000:08:00.0: DMA transfer goes beyond range of DMA object
NovaCore 0000:08:00.0: Failed to load FWSEC firmware: EINVAL
NovaCore 0000:08:00.0: probe with driver NovaCore failed with error -22
Fix this by padding the `Coherent`'s size to `MEM_BLOCK_ALIGNMENT` (i.e.
256) when allocating it and filling it with zeroes, before copying the
firmware on top of it.
Fixes: a88831502c8f ("gpu: nova-core: falcon: use dma::Coherent")
Reviewed-by: John Hubbard <jhubbard@xxxxxxxxxx>
Reviewed-by: Gary Guo <gary@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Alexandre Courbot <acourbot@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
Changes in v2:
- Replace incorrect use of "alignment" with "padding" (thanks John!).
- Use more concise range syntax (thanks Gary!).
- Collect tags.
- Link to v1: https://patch.msgid.link/20260404-falcon-dma-roundup-v1-1-1f56d808b091@xxxxxxxxxx
---
drivers/gpu/nova-core/falcon.rs | 21 +++++++++++++++++++--
1 file changed, 19 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/drivers/gpu/nova-core/falcon.rs b/drivers/gpu/nova-core/falcon.rs
index e0315fda576b..33927af4134c 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/nova-core/falcon.rs
+++ b/drivers/gpu/nova-core/falcon.rs
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
},
dma::{
Coherent,
+ CoherentBox,
DmaAddress,
DmaMask, //
},
@@ -613,8 +614,24 @@ fn dma_load<F: FalconFirmware<Target = E> + FalconDmaLoadable>(
bar: &Bar0,
fw: &F,
) -> Result {
- // Create DMA object with firmware content as the source of the DMA engine.
- let dma_obj = Coherent::from_slice(dev, fw.as_slice(), GFP_KERNEL)?;
+ // DMA object with firmware content as the source of the DMA engine.
+ let dma_obj = {
+ let fw_slice = fw.as_slice();
+
+ // DMA copies are done in chunks of `MEM_BLOCK_ALIGNMENT`, so pad the length
+ // accordingly and fill with `0`.
+ let mut dma_obj = CoherentBox::zeroed_slice(
+ dev,
+ fw_slice.len().next_multiple_of(MEM_BLOCK_ALIGNMENT),
+ GFP_KERNEL,
+ )?;
+
+ // PANIC: `dma_obj` has been created with a length equal to or larger than
+ // `fw_slice.len()`, so the range `..fw_slice.len()` is valid.
+ dma_obj[..fw_slice.len()].copy_from_slice(fw_slice);
+
+ dma_obj.into()
+ };
self.dma_reset(bar);
bar.update(regs::NV_PFALCON_FBIF_TRANSCFG::of::<E>().at(0), |v| {
---
base-commit: 7c50d748b4a635bc39802ea3f6b120e66b1b9067
change-id: 20260404-falcon-dma-roundup-0edd764a9840
Best regards,
--
Alexandre Courbot <acourbot@xxxxxxxxxx>