Re: [PATCH] kho: Don't release incoming bootmem areas when kho_init() fails

From: Mike Rapoport

Date: Mon Nov 09 2026 - 05:36:55 EST


Hi,

On Sat, Nov 07, 2026 at 07:40:50PM -0800, Chris Down wrote:
> kho_populate() adds the incoming bootmem areas without reserving
> them. memblock_free_all() then hands the remainder to the buddy
> allocator.

This paragraph is confusing.
It reads like kho_populate() should have reserved bootmem areas, but it
didn't.

> Unfortunately however, if kho_init() fails, err_free_bootmem
> currently frees every area with free_reserved_area(). This can free
> pages still backing early allocations or free buddy pages a second
> time.

Is this an issue you hit in practice or it was reported by a code analysis?

> To fix this, let's only free the areas on a cold boot when
> kho_reserve_bootmem() reserved them.
>
> Fixes: c609c144b0e8 ("kexec: add KHO parsing support")
> Cc: <stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Signed-off-by: Chris Down <chris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> kernel/liveupdate/kexec_handover.c | 10 ++++++----
> 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/kernel/liveupdate/kexec_handover.c b/kernel/liveupdate/kexec_handover.c
> index 6f1f55fe3181..a566ad6634d8 100644
> --- a/kernel/liveupdate/kexec_handover.c
> +++ b/kernel/liveupdate/kexec_handover.c
> @@ -1899,11 +1899,13 @@ static __init int kho_init(void)
> kho_radix_destroy_tree(tree);
> err_free_bootmem:
> kho_out.fdt = NULL;
> - for (int i = 0; i < kho_bootmem_cnt; i++) {
> - void *start = __va(kho_bootmem[i].addr);
> - void *end = start + kho_bootmem[i].size;
> + if (!fdt) {

I think using !is_kho_boot() makes this clearer.

> + for (int i = 0; i < kho_bootmem_cnt; i++) {
> + void *start = __va(kho_bootmem[i].addr);
> + void *end = start + kho_bootmem[i].size;
>
> - free_reserved_area(start, end, -1, "");
> + free_reserved_area(start, end, -1, "");
> + }
> }
> kho_enable = false;
> return err;
>
> base-commit: fa4ad798f6f681031775266044ba1b0cf3c670bd
> --
> 2.54.0
>

--
Sincerely yours,
Mike.