[PATCH net-next 0/8] drivers/net: replace __get_free_pages() with kmalloc()

[Mike Rapoport (Microsoft)]

This is a (small) part of larger work of replacing page allocator calls
with kmalloc.

My initial intention a few month ago was to remove ugly casts [1], but then
willy pointed out that Linus objected to something like this [2] and it
looks like more than a decade old technical debt.

Largely, anything that doesn't need struct page (or a memdesc in the
future) should just use kmalloc() or kvmalloc() to allocate memory.
kmalloc() guarantees alignment, physical contiguity and working
virt_to_phys() and beside nicer API that returns void * on alloc and
doesn't require to know the allocation size on free, kmalloc() provides
better debugging capabilities than page allocator.

Another thing is that touching these allocation sites gives the reviewers
opportunity to see if a PAGE_SIZE buffer is actually needed or maybe
another size is appropriate.

For larger allocations that don't need physically contiguous memory
kvmalloc() can be a better option that __get_free_pages() because under
memory pressure it's is easier to allocate several order-0 pages than a
physically contiguous chunk with the same number of pages.

And last, but not least, removing needless calls to page allocator should
help with memdesc (aka project folio) conversion. There will be way less
places to audit to see if the user was actually using struct page.

Also in git:
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/rppt/linux.git gfp-to-kmalloc/drivers-net

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/all/20251018093002.3660549-1-rppt@xxxxxxxxxx/
[2] https://lore.kernel.org/all/CA+55aFwp4iy4rtX2gE2WjBGFL=NxMVnoFeHqYa2j1dYOMMGqxg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx/

---
Mike Rapoport (Microsoft) (8):
      b43, b43legacy: debugfs: use kmalloc() to allocate formatting buffers
      bnx2x: use kzalloc() to allocate mac filtering list
      ice: use kzalloc() to allocate staging buffer for reading from GNSS
      libertas: debugfs: use kzalloc() to allocate formatting buffers
      mwifiex: debugfs: use kzalloc() to allocate formatting buffers
      sfc/siena: use kmalloc() to allocate logging buffer
      sfc: use kmalloc() to allocate logging buffer
      wlcore: allocate aggregation and firmware log buffers with kzalloc()

 drivers/net/ethernet/broadcom/bnx2x/bnx2x_sp.c    |  6 +--
 drivers/net/ethernet/intel/ice/ice_gnss.c         |  5 +-
 drivers/net/ethernet/sfc/mcdi.c                   |  7 +--
 drivers/net/ethernet/sfc/siena/mcdi.c             |  7 +--
 drivers/net/wireless/broadcom/b43/debugfs.c       | 12 ++---
 drivers/net/wireless/broadcom/b43legacy/debugfs.c | 11 ++--
 drivers/net/wireless/marvell/libertas/debugfs.c   | 39 ++++++--------
 drivers/net/wireless/marvell/mwifiex/debugfs.c    | 62 ++++++++++-------------
 drivers/net/wireless/ti/wlcore/main.c             | 14 +++--
 9 files changed, 73 insertions(+), 90 deletions(-)
---
base-commit: dc59e4fea9d83f03bad6bddf3fa2e52491777482
change-id: 20260616-b4-drivers-net-fc7f5b7e0a4c

Best regards,
--  
Sincerely yours,
Mike.