[PATCH v11 5/6] drm/panthor: Support sparse mappings

From: Adrián Larumbe

Date: Thu May 07 2026 - 17:52:22 EST


Allow UM to bind sparsely populated memory regions by cyclically mapping
virtual ranges over a kernel-allocated dummy BO. This alternative is
preferable to the old method of handling sparseness in the UMD, because it
relied on the creation of a buffer object to the same end, despite the fact
Vulkan sparse resources don't need to be backed by a driver BO.

The choice of backing sparsely-bound regions with a Panthor BO was made so
as to profit from the existing shrinker reclaim code. That way no special
treatment must be given to the dummy sparse BOs when reclaiming memory, as
would be the case if we had chosen a raw kernel page implementation.

A new dummy BO is allocated per open file context, because even though the
Vulkan spec mandates that writes into sparsely bound regions must be
discarded, our implementation is still a workaround over the fact Mali CSF
GPUs cannot support this behaviour on the hardware level, so writes still
make it into the backing BO. If we had a global one, then it could be a
venue for information leaks between file contexts, which should never
happen in DRM.

As a side note, care was put to adjust dummy BO offsets for sparse mappings
so that all addresses in the new VA are mapped aligned against it.

Signed-off-by: Adrián Larumbe <adrian.larumbe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
drivers/gpu/drm/panthor/panthor_gem.c | 18 +++
drivers/gpu/drm/panthor/panthor_gem.h | 2 +
drivers/gpu/drm/panthor/panthor_mmu.c | 179 +++++++++++++++++++++++---
include/uapi/drm/panthor_drm.h | 12 ++
4 files changed, 190 insertions(+), 21 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/panthor/panthor_gem.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/panthor/panthor_gem.c
index 13295d7a593d..c798ac2963e1 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/panthor/panthor_gem.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/panthor/panthor_gem.c
@@ -1345,6 +1345,24 @@ panthor_kernel_bo_create(struct panthor_device *ptdev, struct panthor_vm *vm,
return ERR_PTR(ret);
}

+/**
+ * panthor_dummy_bo_create() - Create a Panthor BO meant to back sparse bindings.
+ * @ptdev: Device.
+ *
+ * Return: A valid pointer in case of success, an ERR_PTR() otherwise.
+ */
+struct panthor_gem_object *
+panthor_dummy_bo_create(struct panthor_device *ptdev)
+{
+ /* Since even when the DRM device's mount point has enabled THP we have no guarantee
+ * that drm_gem_get_pages() will return a single 2MiB PMD, and also we cannot be sure
+ * that the 2MiB won't be reclaimed and re-allocated later on as 4KiB chunks, it doesn't
+ * make sense to pre-populate this object's page array, nor to fall back on a BO size
+ * of 4KiB. Sticking to a dummy object size of 2MiB lets us keep things simple for now.
+ */
+ return panthor_gem_create(&ptdev->base, SZ_2M, DRM_PANTHOR_BO_NO_MMAP, NULL, 0);
+}
+
static bool can_swap(void)
{
return get_nr_swap_pages() > 0;
diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/panthor/panthor_gem.h b/drivers/gpu/drm/panthor/panthor_gem.h
index ae0491d0b121..8639c2fa08e6 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/panthor/panthor_gem.h
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/panthor/panthor_gem.h
@@ -315,6 +315,8 @@ panthor_kernel_bo_create(struct panthor_device *ptdev, struct panthor_vm *vm,

void panthor_kernel_bo_destroy(struct panthor_kernel_bo *bo);

+struct panthor_gem_object *panthor_dummy_bo_create(struct panthor_device *ptdev);
+
#ifdef CONFIG_DEBUG_FS
void panthor_gem_debugfs_init(struct drm_minor *minor);
#endif
diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/panthor/panthor_mmu.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/panthor/panthor_mmu.c
index f54a60cd0ec4..f0425dd70d2c 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/panthor/panthor_mmu.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/panthor/panthor_mmu.c
@@ -112,6 +112,17 @@ struct panthor_mmu {
struct panthor_vm_pool {
/** @xa: Array used for VM handle tracking. */
struct xarray xa;
+
+ /**
+ * @dummy: Dummy object used for sparse mappings
+ *
+ * Sparse bindings map virtual address ranges onto a dummy
+ * BO in a modulo fashion. Even though sparse writes are meant
+ * to be discarded and reads undefined, writes are still reflected
+ * in the dummy buffer. That means we must keep a dummy object per
+ * file context, to avoid data leaks between them.
+ */
+ struct panthor_gem_object *dummy;
};

/**
@@ -391,6 +402,15 @@ struct panthor_vm {
*/
struct list_head lru_node;
} reclaim;
+
+ /**
+ * @dummy: Dummy object used for sparse mappings.
+ *
+ * VM's must keep a reference to the file context-wide dummy BO because
+ * they can outlive the file context, which includes the VM pool holding
+ * the original dummy BO reference.
+ */
+ struct panthor_gem_object *dummy;
};

/**
@@ -1020,6 +1040,30 @@ panthor_vm_map_pages(struct panthor_vm *vm, u64 iova, int prot,
return 0;
}

+static int
+panthor_vm_map_sparse(struct panthor_vm *vm, u64 iova, int prot,
+ struct sg_table *sgt, u64 size)
+{
+ u64 mapped = 0;
+ int ret;
+
+ while (mapped < size) {
+ u64 addr = iova + mapped;
+ u32 chunk_size = min(size - mapped, SZ_2M - (addr & (SZ_2M - 1)));
+
+ ret = panthor_vm_map_pages(vm, addr, prot, sgt,
+ addr % SZ_2M, chunk_size);
+ if (ret) {
+ panthor_vm_unmap_pages(vm, iova, mapped);
+ return ret;
+ }
+
+ mapped += chunk_size;
+ }
+
+ return 0;
+}
+
static int flags_to_prot(u32 flags)
{
int prot = 0;
@@ -1262,6 +1306,7 @@ static int panthor_vm_op_ctx_prealloc_pts(struct panthor_vm_op_ctx *op_ctx)
(DRM_PANTHOR_VM_BIND_OP_MAP_READONLY | \
DRM_PANTHOR_VM_BIND_OP_MAP_NOEXEC | \
DRM_PANTHOR_VM_BIND_OP_MAP_UNCACHED | \
+ DRM_PANTHOR_VM_BIND_OP_MAP_SPARSE | \
DRM_PANTHOR_VM_BIND_OP_TYPE_MASK)

static int panthor_vm_prepare_map_op_ctx(struct panthor_vm_op_ctx *op_ctx,
@@ -1269,6 +1314,7 @@ static int panthor_vm_prepare_map_op_ctx(struct panthor_vm_op_ctx *op_ctx,
struct panthor_gem_object *bo,
const struct drm_panthor_vm_bind_op *op)
{
+ bool is_sparse = op->flags & DRM_PANTHOR_VM_BIND_OP_MAP_SPARSE;
struct drm_gpuvm_bo *preallocated_vm_bo;
struct sg_table *sgt = NULL;
int ret;
@@ -1280,8 +1326,21 @@ static int panthor_vm_prepare_map_op_ctx(struct panthor_vm_op_ctx *op_ctx,
(op->flags & DRM_PANTHOR_VM_BIND_OP_TYPE_MASK) != DRM_PANTHOR_VM_BIND_OP_TYPE_MAP)
return -EINVAL;

- /* Make sure the VA and size are in-bounds. */
- if (op->size > bo->base.size || op->bo_offset > bo->base.size - op->size)
+ /* uAPI mandates sparsely bound regions must not be executable. */
+ if (is_sparse && !(op->flags & DRM_PANTHOR_VM_BIND_OP_MAP_NOEXEC))
+ return -EINVAL;
+
+ /* For non-sparse, make sure the VA and size are in-bounds.
+ * For sparse, this is not applicable, because the dummy BO is
+ * repeatedly mapped over a potentially wider VA range.
+ */
+ if (!is_sparse && (op->size > bo->base.size || op->bo_offset > bo->base.size - op->size))
+ return -EINVAL;
+
+ /* For sparse, we don't expect any user BO, the BO we get passed
+ * is the dummy BO attached to the VM pool.
+ */
+ if (is_sparse && (op->bo_handle || op->bo_offset))
return -EINVAL;

/* If the BO has an exclusive VM attached, it can't be mapped to other VMs. */
@@ -1430,7 +1489,9 @@ panthor_vm_get_bo_for_va(struct panthor_vm *vm, u64 va, u64 *bo_offset)
if (vma && vma->base.gem.obj) {
drm_gem_object_get(vma->base.gem.obj);
bo = to_panthor_bo(vma->base.gem.obj);
- *bo_offset = vma->base.gem.offset + (va - vma->base.va.addr);
+ *bo_offset = !(vma->flags & DRM_PANTHOR_VM_BIND_OP_MAP_SPARSE) ?
+ vma->base.gem.offset + (va - vma->base.va.addr) :
+ va & (SZ_2M - 1);
}
mutex_unlock(&vm->op_lock);

@@ -1543,6 +1604,9 @@ int panthor_vm_pool_create_vm(struct panthor_device *ptdev,
return ret;
}

+ drm_gem_object_get(&pool->dummy->base);
+ vm->dummy = pool->dummy;
+
args->user_va_range = kernel_va_start;
return id;
}
@@ -1634,6 +1698,8 @@ void panthor_vm_pool_destroy(struct panthor_file *pfile)
xa_for_each(&pfile->vms->xa, i, vm)
panthor_vm_destroy(vm);

+ if (pfile->vms->dummy)
+ drm_gem_object_put(&pfile->vms->dummy->base);
xa_destroy(&pfile->vms->xa);
kfree(pfile->vms);
}
@@ -1646,12 +1712,28 @@ void panthor_vm_pool_destroy(struct panthor_file *pfile)
*/
int panthor_vm_pool_create(struct panthor_file *pfile)
{
+ struct panthor_gem_object *dummy;
+ int ret;
+
pfile->vms = kzalloc_obj(*pfile->vms);
if (!pfile->vms)
return -ENOMEM;

xa_init_flags(&pfile->vms->xa, XA_FLAGS_ALLOC1);
+
+ dummy = panthor_dummy_bo_create(pfile->ptdev);
+ if (IS_ERR(dummy)) {
+ ret = PTR_ERR(dummy);
+ goto err_destroy_vm_pool;
+ }
+
+ pfile->vms->dummy = dummy;
+
return 0;
+
+err_destroy_vm_pool:
+ panthor_vm_pool_destroy(pfile);
+ return ret;
}

/* dummy TLB ops, the real TLB flush happens in panthor_vm_flush_range() */
@@ -1987,6 +2069,9 @@ static void panthor_vm_free(struct drm_gpuvm *gpuvm)

free_io_pgtable_ops(vm->pgtbl_ops);

+ if (vm->dummy)
+ drm_gem_object_put(&vm->dummy->base);
+
drm_mm_takedown(&vm->mm);
kfree(vm);
}
@@ -2146,7 +2231,30 @@ static void panthor_vma_init(struct panthor_vma *vma, u32 flags)
#define PANTHOR_VM_MAP_FLAGS \
(DRM_PANTHOR_VM_BIND_OP_MAP_READONLY | \
DRM_PANTHOR_VM_BIND_OP_MAP_NOEXEC | \
- DRM_PANTHOR_VM_BIND_OP_MAP_UNCACHED)
+ DRM_PANTHOR_VM_BIND_OP_MAP_UNCACHED | \
+ DRM_PANTHOR_VM_BIND_OP_MAP_SPARSE)
+
+static void
+panthor_fix_sparse_map_offset(struct drm_gpuva_op_map *op, u32 flags)
+{
+ if (op && (flags & DRM_PANTHOR_VM_BIND_OP_MAP_SPARSE))
+ op->gem.offset = op->va.addr & (SZ_2M - 1);
+}
+
+static int
+panthor_vm_exec_map_op(struct panthor_vm *vm, u32 flags,
+ const struct drm_gpuva_op_map *op)
+{
+ struct panthor_gem_object *bo = to_panthor_bo(op->gem.obj);
+ int prot = flags_to_prot(flags);
+
+ if (flags & DRM_PANTHOR_VM_BIND_OP_MAP_SPARSE)
+ return panthor_vm_map_sparse(vm, op->va.addr, prot,
+ bo->dmap.sgt, op->va.range);
+
+ return panthor_vm_map_pages(vm, op->va.addr, prot, bo->dmap.sgt,
+ op->gem.offset, op->va.range);
+}

static int panthor_gpuva_sm_step_map(struct drm_gpuva_op *op, void *priv)
{
@@ -2159,10 +2267,9 @@ static int panthor_gpuva_sm_step_map(struct drm_gpuva_op *op, void *priv)
return -EINVAL;

panthor_vma_init(vma, op_ctx->flags & PANTHOR_VM_MAP_FLAGS);
+ panthor_fix_sparse_map_offset(&op->map, vma->flags);

- ret = panthor_vm_map_pages(vm, op->map.va.addr, flags_to_prot(vma->flags),
- op_ctx->map.bo->dmap.sgt, op->map.gem.offset,
- op->map.va.range);
+ ret = panthor_vm_exec_map_op(vm, vma->flags, &op->map);
if (ret) {
panthor_vm_op_ctx_return_vma(op_ctx, vma);
return ret;
@@ -2194,6 +2301,8 @@ static void
unmap_hugepage_align(const struct drm_gpuva_op_remap *op,
u64 *unmap_start, u64 *unmap_range)
{
+ struct panthor_vma *unmap_vma = container_of(op->unmap->va, struct panthor_vma, base);
+ bool is_sparse = unmap_vma->flags & DRM_PANTHOR_VM_BIND_OP_MAP_SPARSE;
u64 aligned_unmap_start, aligned_unmap_end, unmap_end;

unmap_end = *unmap_start + *unmap_range;
@@ -2201,11 +2310,15 @@ unmap_hugepage_align(const struct drm_gpuva_op_remap *op,
aligned_unmap_end = ALIGN(unmap_end, SZ_2M);

/* If we're dealing with a huge page, make sure the unmap region is
- * aligned on the start of the page.
+ * aligned on the start of the page. If the unmapped VMA stands for
+ * a sparse mapping, always assume the backing storage is a THP, since
+ * the overhead of unmapping 2MiB worth of 4KiB pages and remapping
+ * some of them is offset by the logic of working out whether it's
+ * the opposite case right below. This also holds true for op->next.
*/
if (op->prev && aligned_unmap_start < *unmap_start &&
op->prev->va.addr <= aligned_unmap_start &&
- iova_mapped_as_huge_page(op->prev, *unmap_start)) {
+ (is_sparse || iova_mapped_as_huge_page(op->prev, *unmap_start))) {
*unmap_range += *unmap_start - aligned_unmap_start;
*unmap_start = aligned_unmap_start;
}
@@ -2215,7 +2328,7 @@ unmap_hugepage_align(const struct drm_gpuva_op_remap *op,
*/
if (op->next && aligned_unmap_end > unmap_end &&
op->next->va.addr + op->next->va.range >= aligned_unmap_end &&
- iova_mapped_as_huge_page(op->next, unmap_end - 1)) {
+ (is_sparse || iova_mapped_as_huge_page(op->next, unmap_end - 1))) {
*unmap_range += aligned_unmap_end - unmap_end;
}
}
@@ -2232,6 +2345,11 @@ static int panthor_gpuva_sm_step_remap(struct drm_gpuva_op *op,

drm_gpuva_op_remap_to_unmap_range(&op->remap, &unmap_start, &unmap_range);

+ /* op->remap.prev's BO offset is always the same as the unmap va's, but
+ * that of op->remap.next must be adjusted so as to remain < SZ_2M
+ */
+ panthor_fix_sparse_map_offset(op->remap.next, unmap_vma->flags);
+
/*
* ARM IOMMU page table management code disallows partial unmaps of huge pages,
* so when a partial unmap is requested, we must first unmap the entire huge
@@ -2251,14 +2369,19 @@ static int panthor_gpuva_sm_step_remap(struct drm_gpuva_op *op,
}

if (op->remap.prev) {
- struct panthor_gem_object *bo = to_panthor_bo(op->remap.prev->gem.obj);
u64 offset = op->remap.prev->gem.offset + unmap_start - op->remap.prev->va.addr;
u64 size = op->remap.prev->va.addr + op->remap.prev->va.range - unmap_start;

- if (!unmap_vma->evicted) {
- ret = panthor_vm_map_pages(vm, unmap_start,
- flags_to_prot(unmap_vma->flags),
- bo->dmap.sgt, offset, size);
+ if (!unmap_vma->evicted && size > 0) {
+ struct drm_gpuva_op_map map_op = {
+ .va.addr = unmap_start,
+ .va.range = size,
+ .gem.obj = op->remap.prev->gem.obj,
+ .gem.offset = offset,
+ };
+ panthor_fix_sparse_map_offset(&map_op, unmap_vma->flags);
+
+ ret = panthor_vm_exec_map_op(vm, unmap_vma->flags, &map_op);
if (ret)
return ret;
}
@@ -2269,14 +2392,19 @@ static int panthor_gpuva_sm_step_remap(struct drm_gpuva_op *op,
}

if (op->remap.next) {
- struct panthor_gem_object *bo = to_panthor_bo(op->remap.next->gem.obj);
u64 addr = op->remap.next->va.addr;
u64 size = unmap_start + unmap_range - op->remap.next->va.addr;

- if (!unmap_vma->evicted) {
- ret = panthor_vm_map_pages(vm, addr, flags_to_prot(unmap_vma->flags),
- bo->dmap.sgt, op->remap.next->gem.offset,
- size);
+ if (!unmap_vma->evicted && size > 0) {
+ struct drm_gpuva_op_map map_op = {
+ .va.addr = addr,
+ .va.range = size,
+ .gem.obj = op->remap.next->gem.obj,
+ .gem.offset = op->remap.next->gem.offset,
+ };
+ panthor_fix_sparse_map_offset(&map_op, unmap_vma->flags);
+
+ ret = panthor_vm_exec_map_op(vm, unmap_vma->flags, &map_op);
if (ret)
return ret;
}
@@ -2835,7 +2963,13 @@ panthor_vm_bind_prepare_op_ctx(struct drm_file *file,

switch (op->flags & DRM_PANTHOR_VM_BIND_OP_TYPE_MASK) {
case DRM_PANTHOR_VM_BIND_OP_TYPE_MAP:
- gem = drm_gem_object_lookup(file, op->bo_handle);
+ if (!(op->flags & DRM_PANTHOR_VM_BIND_OP_MAP_SPARSE)) {
+ gem = drm_gem_object_lookup(file, op->bo_handle);
+ } else {
+ gem = &vm->dummy->base;
+ drm_gem_object_get(&vm->dummy->base);
+ }
+
ret = panthor_vm_prepare_map_op_ctx(op_ctx, vm,
gem ? to_panthor_bo(gem) : NULL,
op);
@@ -3043,6 +3177,9 @@ int panthor_vm_map_bo_range(struct panthor_vm *vm, struct panthor_gem_object *bo
struct panthor_vm_op_ctx op_ctx;
int ret;

+ if (drm_WARN_ON(&vm->ptdev->base, flags & DRM_PANTHOR_VM_BIND_OP_MAP_SPARSE))
+ return -EINVAL;
+
ret = panthor_vm_prepare_map_op_ctx(&op_ctx, vm, bo, &op);
if (ret)
return ret;
diff --git a/include/uapi/drm/panthor_drm.h b/include/uapi/drm/panthor_drm.h
index 14a93a4ef6ff..a2ff0f4ec691 100644
--- a/include/uapi/drm/panthor_drm.h
+++ b/include/uapi/drm/panthor_drm.h
@@ -614,6 +614,18 @@ enum drm_panthor_vm_bind_op_flags {
*/
DRM_PANTHOR_VM_BIND_OP_MAP_UNCACHED = 1 << 2,

+ /**
+ * @DRM_PANTHOR_VM_BIND_OP_MAP_SPARSE: Sparsely map a virtual memory range
+ *
+ * Only valid with DRM_PANTHOR_VM_BIND_OP_TYPE_MAP.
+ *
+ * When this flag is set, the whole vm_bind range is mapped over a dummy object in a cyclic
+ * fashion, and all GPU reads from addresses in the range return undefined values. This flag
+ * being set means drm_panthor_vm_bind_op::bo_offset and drm_panthor_vm_bind_op::bo_handle
+ * must both be set to 0. DRM_PANTHOR_VM_BIND_OP_MAP_NOEXEC must also be set.
+ */
+ DRM_PANTHOR_VM_BIND_OP_MAP_SPARSE = 1 << 3,
+
/**
* @DRM_PANTHOR_VM_BIND_OP_TYPE_MASK: Mask used to determine the type of operation.
*/
--
2.53.0