[virtio_pci?] WARNING: possible circular locking dependency detected

From: Zenghui Yu

Date: Tue Sep 22 2026 - 08:44:25 EST


Hi folks,

I hit the following lockdep splat in an arm64 guest whose PCI devices sit
behind an SMMUv3.

======================================================
WARNING: possible circular locking dependency detected
7.3.0-rc1+ #84 Not tainted
------------------------------------------------------
kworker/u34:0/57 is trying to acquire lock:
ffff800104f83ee8 (&md->mutex){+.+.}-{4:4}, at: msi_domain_get_virq+0xf0/0x118

but task is already holding lock:
ffffc00081edd930 (cpu_hotplug_lock){++++}-{0:0}, at: cpus_read_lock+0x10/0x1c

which lock already depends on the new lock.

Chain exists of:
&md->mutex --> &group->mutex --> cpu_hotplug_lock

The cycle is built from three dependencies:

* cpu_hotplug_lock -> &md_mutex (which triggers the splat). virtio_net's
init_vqs() calls cpus_read_lock() around virtnet_set_affinity(), which
reaches vp_set_vq_affinity(). That calls pci_irq_vector(), which takes
the per-device MSI mutex (&dev->msi.data->mutex) via
msi_domain_get_virq().

* &md->mutex -> &domain->mutex -> &group->mutex. MSI-X allocation of any
device behind the IOMMU holds the MSI mutex while allocating interrupts
through the IRQ domain hierarchy. The MSI parent domain (GICv2m, or ITS
likewise) calls iommu_dma_prepare_msi() from its .alloc() to map the MSI
doorbell, which takes the IOMMU group mutex.

* &group->mutex -> cpu_hotplug_lock. bus_iommu_probe() calls
iommu_setup_dma_ops() under the group mutex; initializing the IOVA
rcaches registers a cpuhp instance, which takes cpu_hotplug_lock.

The cycle only became complete since commit 288683c92b1a ("iommu: Make
iommu_dma_prepare_msi() into a generic operation"), where
iommu_dma_prepare_msi() switched to use the group mutex.

Caching the IRQ number in virtio_pci_vq_info {} (and making
vp_set_vq_affinity() use the cached value) removes the first dependency.
But I'm not sure if this is an appropriate fix. Please have a look.

---8<---

diff --git a/drivers/virtio/virtio_pci_common.c b/drivers/virtio/virtio_pci_common.c
index b90c174450b2..2f42300a8a84 100644
--- a/drivers/virtio/virtio_pci_common.c
+++ b/drivers/virtio/virtio_pci_common.c
@@ -224,6 +224,16 @@ static struct virtqueue *vp_setup_vq(struct virtio_device *vdev, unsigned int in
goto out_info;

info->vq = vq;
+
+ /*
+ * Cache the Linux IRQ number so that later users (e.g.
+ * vp_set_vq_affinity() from cpu hotplug locked contexts)
+ * don't have to take the MSI mutex via pci_irq_vector().
+ */
+ info->virq = 0;
+ if (msix_vec != VIRTIO_MSI_NO_VECTOR)
+ info->virq = pci_irq_vector(vp_dev->pci_dev, msix_vec);
+
if (callback) {
spin_lock_irqsave(&vp_dev->lock, flags);
if (!vp_is_slow_path_vector(msix_vec))
@@ -571,7 +581,7 @@ int vp_set_vq_affinity(struct virtqueue *vq, const struct cpumask *cpu_mask)

if (vp_dev->msix_enabled) {
mask = vp_dev->msix_affinity_masks[info->msix_vector];
- irq = pci_irq_vector(vp_dev->pci_dev, info->msix_vector);
+ irq = info->virq;
if (!cpu_mask)
irq_update_affinity_hint(irq, NULL);
else {
diff --git a/drivers/virtio/virtio_pci_common.h b/drivers/virtio/virtio_pci_common.h
index 8cd01de27baf..18b15a5f84ae 100644
--- a/drivers/virtio/virtio_pci_common.h
+++ b/drivers/virtio/virtio_pci_common.h
@@ -40,6 +40,9 @@ struct virtio_pci_vq_info {

/* MSI-X vector (or none) */
unsigned int msix_vector;
+
+ /* Linux IRQ number of msix_vector, or 0 if not mapped */
+ unsigned int virq;
};

struct virtio_pci_admin_vq {

Thanks,
Zenghui