[PATCH] ARM: mm: compare ARM926 cache range sizes as unsigned
From: Karl Mehltretter
Date: Tue Oct 06 2026 - 01:54:00 EST
arm926_flush_user_cache_range() uses BGT to compare end - start
with CACHE_DLIMIT. Sizes of 2 GiB or more are treated as negative
and take the cache-line loop instead of the whole-cache path.
Use BHI for an unsigned comparison, keeping the line-by-line path
at exactly CACHE_DLIMIT.
With the default 3G/1G split, unmapping an untouched 2 GiB
PROT_NONE mapping flushes the range through tlb_start_vma().
On a SAM9X75 Curiosity board, munmap() took about 1.3 seconds
unpatched and 20 ms patched.
Fixes: 1da177e4c3f4 ("Linux-2.6.12-rc2")
Assisted-by: LLM
Signed-off-by: Karl Mehltretter <kmehltretter@xxxxxxxxx>
---
Based on v7.3-rc6. Tested on a Microchip EV31H43A SAM9X75 Curiosity
LAN Kit with two kernels built from Linux4Microchip revision
8f2c610093aa3d5a7bd50a8d0597be4f0b7a3eda. The vendor function matches
mainline.
Both builds used Clang/LLD 22.1.3, the same DTB and an
at91_dt_defconfig-derived config: ARM926T, MMU, CPU_CACHE_VIVT,
VMSPLIT_3G, CPU_DCACHE_WRITETHROUGH=n. proc-arm926.o differs
by one byte, the branch condition.
An unprivileged test timed munmap() of untouched mappings made with
mmap(PROT_NONE, MAP_PRIVATE | MAP_ANONYMOUS). Boot order was
original, patched, original. Each cell is one munmap() call:
Range Original A1 Patched B Original A2
16 KiB 0.0840 ms 0.0852 ms 0.0844 ms
20 KiB 0.0656 ms 0.0636 ms 0.0632 ms
1 GiB 9.7688 ms 9.7702 ms 9.7716 ms
2 GiB - 4 KiB 19.4054 ms 19.3928 ms 19.4066 ms
2 GiB 1323.2802 ms 19.6478 ms 1331.8680 ms
2 GiB + 4 KiB 1322.2016 ms 19.3972 ms 1322.2146 ms
ARM925, Feroceon and Mohawk have the same BGT but were not tested.
Their fixes are left for a separate patch.
arch/arm/mm/proc-arm926.S | 2 +-
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/arch/arm/mm/proc-arm926.S b/arch/arm/mm/proc-arm926.S
index d94aa8199452..374229919541 100644
--- a/arch/arm/mm/proc-arm926.S
+++ b/arch/arm/mm/proc-arm926.S
@@ -155,7 +155,7 @@ SYM_TYPED_FUNC_START(arm926_flush_user_cache_range)
mov ip, #0
sub r3, r1, r0 @ calculate total size
cmp r3, #CACHE_DLIMIT
- bgt __flush_whole_cache
+ bhi __flush_whole_cache
1: tst r2, #VM_EXEC
#ifdef CONFIG_CPU_DCACHE_WRITETHROUGH
mcr p15, 0, r0, c7, c6, 1 @ invalidate D entry
--
2.39.5