Re: [PATCH v2 1/1] mm: numa_memblks: Identify the accurate NUMA ID of CFMW

From: Cui Chao

Date: Mon Jan 26 2026 - 04:09:11 EST



On 1/24/2026 12:46 AM, Gregory Price wrote:
On Thu, Jan 22, 2026 at 04:03:49PM +0800, Cui Chao wrote:
2.Why a Kernel Update is Recommended Over a Firmware Update:

In the scenario of dynamic CXL region creation, the association between the
memory's HPA range and its corresponding NUMA node is established when the
kernel driver performs the commit operation. This is a runtime, OS-managed
operation where the platform firmware cannot intervene to provide a fix.

This is not accurate

The memory-to-node association for CXL memory is built by acpi logic:

linux/drivers/acpi/numa/srat.c

Specifically:

acpi_parse_memory_affinity() /* if SRAT entry exists */
-> numa_add_memblk(node, start, end)

acpi_parse_cfmws() /* if no SRAT entry exists */
-> numa_add_reserved_memblk(node, start, end)


This patch implies the latter is occurring - as it queries the reserved
block associations - meaning your platform is not shipping SRAT tables
for CXL memory regions.
Sorry,my previous statement was ambiguous. What I intended to convey is that the moment when CXL memory is actually assigned to a dedicated NUMA node and becomes ready for use by applications is precisely during the creation of the region.
We have only seen this in QEMU - and this is correctable in firmware.

But if this is shipped hardware, letting us know the platform lets us
know whether we should backport it.

---

All that said, this does look harmless, and seems reasonable - but the
changelog should reflect what the hardware is doing above.
This issue was discovered on the QEMU platform. I need to apologize for my earlier imprecise statement (claiming it was hardware instead of QEMU). My core point at the time was to emphasize that this is a problem in the general code path when facing this scenario, not a QEMU-specific emulation issue, and therefore it could theoretically affect real hardware as well. I apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

~Gregory

--
Best regards,
Cui Chao.