Re: [PATCH] cpu/hotplug: Fix NULL kobject warning in cpuhp_smt_enable()

From: Catalin Marinas

Date: Thu Apr 23 2026 - 16:12:50 EST


On Thu, Apr 23, 2026 at 08:32:34PM +0800, Jinjie Ruan wrote:
> On 4/23/2026 6:08 PM, Thomas Gleixner wrote:
> > On Sat, Apr 18 2026 at 12:55, Catalin Marinas wrote:
> >> Another option would have been to avoid marking such CPUs present but I
> >> think this will break other things. Yet another option is to register
> >> all CPU devices even if they never come up (like maxcpus greater than
> >> actual CPUs).
> >>
> >> Opinions? It might be an arm64+ACPI-only thing.
> >
> > I think so. The proper thing to do is to apply sane limits:
> >
> > 1) The possible CPUs enumerated by firmware N_POSSIBLE_FW
> >
> > 2) The maxcpus limit on the command line N_MAXCPUS_CL
> >
> > So the actual possible CPUs evaluates to:
> >
> > num_possible = min(N_POSSIBLE_FW, N_MAXCPUS_CL, CONFIG_NR_CPUS);
> >
> > The evaluation of the firmware should not mark CPUs present which are
> > actually not. ACPI gives you that information. See:
> >
> > 5.2.12.14 GIC CPU Interface (GICC) Structure
> >
> > in the ACPI spec. That has two related bits:
> >
> > Enabled:
> >
> > If this bit is set, the processor is ready for use. If this bit is
> > clear and the Online Capable bit is set, the system supports enabling
> > this processor during OS runtime. If this bit is clear and the Online
> > Capable bit is also clear, this processor is un- usable, and the
> > operating system support will not attempt to use it.
> >
> > Online Capable:
> >
> > The information conveyed by this bit depends on the value of the
> > Enabled bit. If the Enabled bit is set, this bit is reserved and must
> > be zero. Otherwise, if this bit is set, the system supports enabling
> > this processor later during OS runtime
> >
> > So the combination of those gives you the right answer:
> >
> > Enabled Online
> > Capable
> > 0 0 Not present, not possible
> > 0 1 Not present, but possible to "hotplug" layter
> > 1 0 Present
> > 1 1 Invalid
>
> On x86, it seems that all CPUs with the ACPI_MADT_ENABLED bit set will
> be marked as present.
>
> acpi_parse_x2apic()
> -> enabled = processor->lapic_flags & ACPI_MADT_ENABLED
> -> topology_register_apic(enabled)
> -> topo_register_apic(enabled)
> -> set_cpu_present(cpu, true)

Yes but arm64 marks all CPUs present even if !ACPI_MADT_ENABLED as we
don't have the notion of hardware CPU hotplug.

I need to dig some more into the original vCPU hotplug support and why
we ended up with all CPUs marked as present even if not calling
register_cpu():

https://lore.kernel.org/linux-arm-kernel/20240529133446.28446-1-Jonathan.Cameron@xxxxxxxxxx/

What's the MADT GICC provided by qemu with "-smp cpus=4,maxcpus=8"? If
it says Enabled for the first 4 and Online Capable for the rest, maybe
we can try something like below:

----------------------8<-----------------
diff --git a/arch/arm64/kernel/acpi.c b/arch/arm64/kernel/acpi.c
index 5891f92c2035..681aa2bbc399 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/kernel/acpi.c
+++ b/arch/arm64/kernel/acpi.c
@@ -448,12 +448,14 @@ int acpi_map_cpu(acpi_handle handle, phys_cpuid_t physid, u32 apci_id,
return *pcpu;
}

+ set_cpu_present(*pcpu, true);
return 0;
}
EXPORT_SYMBOL(acpi_map_cpu);

int acpi_unmap_cpu(int cpu)
{
+ set_cpu_present(cpu, false);
return 0;
}
EXPORT_SYMBOL(acpi_unmap_cpu);
diff --git a/arch/arm64/kernel/smp.c b/arch/arm64/kernel/smp.c
index 1aa324104afb..6421027669fc 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/kernel/smp.c
+++ b/arch/arm64/kernel/smp.c
@@ -566,6 +566,11 @@ struct acpi_madt_generic_interrupt *acpi_cpu_get_madt_gicc(int cpu)
}
EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(acpi_cpu_get_madt_gicc);

+static bool acpi_cpu_is_present(int cpu)
+{
+ return acpi_cpu_get_madt_gicc(cpu)->flags & ACPI_MADT_ENABLED;
+}
+
/*
* acpi_map_gic_cpu_interface - parse processor MADT entry
*
@@ -670,6 +675,11 @@ static void __init acpi_parse_and_init_cpus(void)
early_map_cpu_to_node(i, acpi_numa_get_nid(i));
}
#else
+static bool acpi_cpu_is_present(int cpu)
+{
+ return false;
+}
+
#define acpi_parse_and_init_cpus(...) do { } while (0)
#endif

@@ -808,7 +818,8 @@ void __init smp_prepare_cpus(unsigned int max_cpus)
if (err)
continue;

- set_cpu_present(cpu, true);
+ if (acpi_disabled || acpi_cpu_is_present(cpu))
+ set_cpu_present(cpu, true);
numa_store_cpu_info(cpu);
}
}