[PATCH] memblock: fix memblock_estimated_nr_free_pages() for soft-reserved memory

From: Akinobu Mita

Date: Mon Nov 03 2025 - 19:40:04 EST


memblock_estimated_nr_free_pages() returns the difference between the total
size of the "memory" memblock type and the "reserved" memblock type.

The "soft-reserved" memory regions are added to the "reserved" memblock
type, but not to the "memory" memblock type. Therefore,
memblock_estimated_nr_free_pages() may return a smaller value than
expected, or if it underflows, an extremely large value.

/proc/sys/kernel/threads-max is determined by the value of
memblock_estimated_nr_free_pages(). This issue was discovered on machines
with CXL memory because kernel.threads-max was either smaller than expected
or extremely large for the installed DRAM size.

This fixes the issue by improving the accuracy of
memblock_estimated_nr_free_pages() by subtracting only the overlapping size
of regions with "memory" and "reserved" memblock types.

Signed-off-by: Akinobu Mita <akinobu.mita@xxxxxxxxx>
---
mm/memblock.c | 33 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
1 file changed, 32 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/mm/memblock.c b/mm/memblock.c
index e23e16618e9b..af014fa10a44 100644
--- a/mm/memblock.c
+++ b/mm/memblock.c
@@ -1812,6 +1812,22 @@ phys_addr_t __init_memblock memblock_reserved_kern_size(phys_addr_t limit, int n
return total;
}

+static phys_addr_t __init memblock_addrs_overlap_size(phys_addr_t base1, phys_addr_t size1,
+ phys_addr_t base2, phys_addr_t size2)
+{
+ phys_addr_t start, end;
+
+ if (!memblock_addrs_overlap(base1, size1, base2, size2))
+ return 0;
+
+ memblock_cap_size(base1, &size1);
+ memblock_cap_size(base2, &size2);
+ start = max(base1, base2);
+ end = min(base1 + size1, base2 + size2);
+
+ return end - start;
+}
+
/**
* memblock_estimated_nr_free_pages - return estimated number of free pages
* from memblock point of view
@@ -1826,7 +1842,22 @@ phys_addr_t __init_memblock memblock_reserved_kern_size(phys_addr_t limit, int n
*/
unsigned long __init memblock_estimated_nr_free_pages(void)
{
- return PHYS_PFN(memblock_phys_mem_size() - memblock_reserved_size());
+ int memory_idx, reserved_idx;
+ struct memblock_type *memory_type = &memblock.memory;
+ struct memblock_type *reserved_type = &memblock.reserved;
+ struct memblock_region *memory_region, *reserved_region;
+ phys_addr_t phys_mem_size = 0;
+
+ for_each_memblock_type(memory_idx, memory_type, memory_region) {
+ phys_mem_size += memory_region->size;
+ for_each_memblock_type(reserved_idx, reserved_type, reserved_region) {
+ phys_mem_size -= memblock_addrs_overlap_size(memory_region->base,
+ memory_region->size, reserved_region->base,
+ reserved_region->size);
+ }
+ }
+
+ return PHYS_PFN(phys_mem_size);
}

/* lowest address */
--
2.43.0