Re: [PATCH v3] KVM: have hva_to_pfn_remapped write-upgrade PTEs

[Sean Christopherson]

On Wed, Jul 29, 2026, Sergio Lopez wrote:
> After 28e39181 ("drm/gem-shmem: Track folio accessed/dirty status in
> mmap") was merged, a guest write to an unpopulated PTE from a mapping
> backed by a DRM GEM BO triggers a VM exit with EFAULT, with
> hva_to_pfn_remapped setting p_pfn to KVM_PFN_ERR_RO_FAULT.
> 
> This happens because that commit implements pfn_mkwrite for
> drm_gem_shmem_vm_ops. With that function present, vma_wants_writenotify
> returns true in vma_set_page_prot, clearing VM_SHARED and leading to the
> entry to be installed as read-only. This is done on purpose so the
> fault handler gets notified when the entry is going to be written.
> 
> In KVM, hva_to_pfn_remapped calls to fixup_user_fault to trigger the
> fault handler but, as seen above, this one might install a read-only PTE
> even with FAULT_FLAG_WRITE present in fault_flags. The check at the end
> of hva_to_pfn_remapped notices that the entry is not writable despite
> this being a write fault and sets p_pfn to KVM_PFN_ERR_RO_FAULT.
> 
> To address this issue, have hva_to_pfn_remapped issue a second
> fixup_user_fault call when needed for write-upgrading the PTE.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Sergio Lopez <slp@xxxxxxxxxx>
> ---

NAK, this doesn't belong in KVM.  Expecting callers of fixup_user_fault() to
retry a FAULT_FLAG_WRITE fault on *success* is absurd.  Either manually do the
retry in fixup_user_fault(), or return VM_FAULT_RETRY so that KVM will naturally
retry.  I assume the latter is the correct approach.