Re: [RFC PATCH v4 03/16] iommu/arm-smmu-v3: Add initial pSMMU realm viommu plumbing

From: Jason Gunthorpe

Date: Thu Sep 03 2026 - 13:57:03 EST


On Thu, Sep 03, 2026 at 11:18:47AM +0530, Aneesh Kumar K.V wrote:
> >> vdev->destroy = arm_realm_smmu_v3_vdevice_destroy;
> >> return tsm_bind(dev, kvm, vdev->virt_id);
> >
> > I think we should drop tsm_bind() as an abstraction. It doesn't make
> > sense to take that round about path when we are calling RMIs directly
> > above. It was intended to be an abstraction, but it isn't working out
> > with this viommu based abstraction.
> >
>
> I was considering using the viommu only for explicit pSMMU/vSMMU setup,
> SID/STE management, and realm stream-table creation. I expected other
> operations, such as vdevice creation and lock/run state transitions, to
> be driven by IOMMUFD ioctls and dispatched to the TSM backend through
> abstractions such as tsm_bind() and tsm_guest_req(). This results in the
> following split:
>
> - Arm SMMU: pSMMU/vSMMU setup, SID/STE management, and Realm
> stream-table creation.
> - PCI TSM: device association, bind lifetime, DSM lookup, and TDI state.
> - arm-cca-host: PDEV/VDEV operations, TDISP transitions, reports,
> measurements, and IDE interaction.
> - IOMMUFD: route userspace requests using the vdevice ID.

I don't really like it, I think the viommu code should handle the
VDEV and VSMU, TSM should handle SPDM.

"TDI state" is the existance of a iommufd vdevice, it doesn't make
sense to have a seperate "TDI state" concept and a parallel set of
APIs out side the iommufd object model that concretely defines the
lifecylce of the VDEV.

Is there a reason to have this split aside from it matches the tsm
prototypes that were sketched?

> >> @@ -513,10 +514,16 @@ static ssize_t cca_tsm_guest_req(struct pci_tdi *tdi,
> >> if (copy_from_user((void *)&req_obj, req.user, req_len))
> >> return -EFAULT;
> >>
> >> - if (req_obj.tdi_state != RHI_DA_TDI_CONFIG_RUN)
> >> + switch (req_obj.tdi_state) {
> >> + case RHI_DA_TDI_CONFIG_UNLOCKED:
> >> + return cca_vdev_device_unlock(pdev);
> >> + case RHI_DA_TDI_CONFIG_LOCKED:
> >> + return cca_vdev_device_lock(pdev);
> >> + case RHI_DA_TDI_CONFIG_RUN:
> >> + return cca_vdev_device_start(pdev);
> >> + default:
> >> return -EINVAL;
> >> -
> >> - return cca_vdev_device_start(pdev);
> >> + }
> >> }
> >
> > This stuff cannot flow through sysfs. The VMM must support running in
> > a sandbox so it cannot easially call out to sysfs while the VM is
> > running. That makes the sandboxing more complex and ugly. The flow we
> > have now relies on fd passing from the launcher into the sandbox to
> > get things like vfio and iommufd into the VMM.
> >
>
> This does not go through sysfs. It uses the following IOMMUFD ioctl:
>
> IOCTL_OP(IOMMU_VDEVICE_TSM_REQ, iommufd_vdevice_tsm_req_ioctl,
> struct iommu_vdevice_tsm_req, tsm_code),

I see, I saw this when I was grepping:

static ssize_t tsm_request_store(struct device *dev,
struct device_attribute *attr,
const char *__buf, size_t count)

Which the name and sysfs parts confused me, it looked like core
code. Turns out it is the sample driver.

> I need to spend more time considering your suggestion to handle guest
> requests through viommu_ops rather than as TSM backend operations. The
> split described below seemed more natural to me.
>
> - Arm SMMU: pSMMU/vSMMU setup, SID/STE management, and Realm
> stream-table creation.
> - PCI TSM: device association, bind lifetime, DSM lookup, and TDI state.
> - arm-cca-host: PDEV/VDEV operations, TDISP transitions, reports,
> measurements, and IDE interaction.
> - IOMMUFD: route userspace requests using the vdevice ID.
>
> It is not yet clear to me whether operations such as MMIO validation
> (TSM_REQ_VALIDATE_MMIO), setting the TDI lock/unlock/run state
> (TSM_REQ_SET_TDI_STATE), querying TDISP object details
> (TSM_REQ_OBJECT_INFO), and reading or regenerating TDISP objects
> (TSM_REQ_READ_OBJECT and TSM_REQ_REGEN_OBJECT) belong in viommu_ops.

They way I'm looking at it is the "TDI" is the RMM's VDEV.

The RMM VDEV has to be created from an iommufd vdevice and be 1:1 with
that. Thus the iommufd vdevice is the TDI.

Therefore, the struct cca_host_tdi should be the driver specific
struct of a struct iommufd_vdevice.

So if you want to get the information in the cca_host_tdi you have to
come in through the viommu ops with a vdevice object in hand.

This seems like a much cleaner logical seperation than trying to
maintain a cca_host_tdi external to the iommufd vdevice object that
actually directly controls its lifecycle.

So if you did this then the cca_tsm_guest_req would flow through some
generic viommu op similar to what AMD proposed:

struct iommu_viommu_op {
__u32 size;
__u32 vdevice_id;
__u32 viommu_type; // enum iommu_viommu_type
__u32 operation; // unique enum per type
__u32 req_len;
__u32 resp_len;
__aligned_u64 req_uptr;
__aligned_u64 resp_uptr;
};

enum {
IOMMUFD_VIOMMU_OP_CCA_OBJECT_SIZE
IOMMUFD_VIOMMU_OP_CCA_OBJECT_READ
IOMMUFD_VIOMMU_OP_CCA_UPDATE_INTERFACE_REPORT
IOMMUFD_VIOMMU_OP_CCA_UPDATE_MEASUREMENTS
IOMMUFD_VIOMMU_OP_CCA_VDEV_MAP
IOMMUFD_VIOMMU_OP_CCA_SET_TDI_STATE

And none of the TDI information leaks out side the iommufd world.

The iommufd side change to introduce CCA support would then only be
adding the IOCTL for iommu_viommu_op and some fiddling with how the
viommu is created.

Then everyone can use the same infrastructure for their related
problems.

> Meanwhile, I will clean up my changes and post them as a patch series so
> that we can review them more closely?

Well, OK, but I'm am still very interested in focusing on the
viommu. I cc'd you on another thread so you can see the other topics
I'm looking at here that all come down to very similar patterns.

I think the TDI related tsm ops were developed well before iommufd was
completed and you have raised a good point now to re-evaluate if the
we even need them since we now understand that the iommufd vdevice is
in fact the concrete TDI object in the uAPI.

Jason