[PATCH] mm/vmalloc: Do not warn on -ENOMEM from va_alloc()

From: Uladzislau Rezki (Sony)

Date: Sun Aug 02 2026 - 06:46:42 EST


Since vmalloc() accepts non-blocking GFP flags, allocation
requests may fail when callers pass restrictive GFP masks.

va_clip() may return -ENOMEM when its GFP_NOWAIT fallback
allocation fails during NE_FIT_TYPE splitting. This is an
expected failure, so va_alloc() should return the error
without triggering a kernel splat.

Reported-by: syzbot+61c997e6be1d9bb300ba@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Uladzislau Rezki (Sony) <urezki@xxxxxxxxx>
---
mm/vmalloc.c | 13 ++++++-------
1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

diff --git a/mm/vmalloc.c b/mm/vmalloc.c
index 1afca3568b9b..7a0cbba3d29d 100644
--- a/mm/vmalloc.c
+++ b/mm/vmalloc.c
@@ -1817,8 +1817,10 @@ va_alloc(struct vmap_area *va,

/* Update the free vmap_area. */
ret = va_clip(root, head, va, nva_start_addr, size);
- if (WARN_ON_ONCE(ret))
+ if (ret) {
+ WARN_ON_ONCE(ret != -ENOMEM);
return ret;
+ }

return nva_start_addr;
}
@@ -1891,12 +1893,9 @@ preload_this_cpu_lock(spinlock_t *lock, gfp_t gfp_mask, int node)

/*
* Preload this CPU with one extra vmap_area object. It is used
- * when fit type of free area is NE_FIT_TYPE. It guarantees that
- * a CPU that does an allocation is preloaded.
- *
- * We do it in non-atomic context, thus it allows us to use more
- * permissive allocation masks to be more stable under low memory
- * condition and high memory pressure.
+ * when fit type of free area is NE_FIT_TYPE. It is best effort
+ * pre-loading. If it fails va_clip() may return -ENOMEM from its
+ * GFP_NOWAIT fallback.
*/
if (!this_cpu_read(ne_fit_preload_node))
va = kmem_cache_alloc_node(vmap_area_cachep, gfp_mask, node);
--
2.47.3