arm64/runtime-const: Use aarch64_insn_patch_text_nosync() for patching

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The current scheme to directly patch the kernel text for runtime
constants runs into the following issue with futex adapted to using
runtime constants on arm64:

  Unable to handle kernel write to read-only memory at virtual address ...

The pc points to the *p assignment in the following call chain:

  futex_init()
    runtime_const_init(shift, __futex_shift)
      __runtime_fixup_shift()
        *p = cpu_to_le32(insn);

which suggests that core_initcall() is too late to patch the kernel text
directly unlike the "d_hash_shift" which is initialized during
vfs_caches_init_early() before the protections are in place.

Use aarch64_insn_patch_text_nosync() to patch the runtime constants
instead of doing it directly to allow runtime_const_init() slightly
later into the boot.

Since aarch64_insn_patch_text_nosync() calls caches_clean_inval_pou()
internally, __runtime_fixup_caches() ends up being redundant.
runtime_const_init() are rare and the overheads of multiple calls to
caches_clean_inval_pou() instead of batching them together should be
negligible in practice.

The cpu_to_le32() conversion of instruction isn't necessary since it is
handled later in the aarch64_insn_patch_text_nosync() call-chain:

  aarch64_insn_patch_text_nosync(addr, insn)
    aarch64_insn_write(addr, insn)
      __aarch64_insn_write(addr, cpu_to_le32(insn))

Sashiko noted that aarch64_insn_patch_text_nosync() does not expect a
lm_alias() address and Catalin suggested it is safe to drop the
lm_alias() for runtime patching since the kernel text is readable. The
address passed to fixup function is interpreted as a __le32 and
dereferenced as is to read the opcode at the patch site.

No functional changes are intended.

Signed-off-by: K Prateek Nayak <kprateek.nayak@amd.com>
Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) <peterz@infradead.org>
Reviewed-by: Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@arm.com>
Reviewed-by: Charlie Jenkins <thecharlesjenkins@gmail.com>
Tested-by: Charlie Jenkins <thecharlesjenkins@gmail.com>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260728052540.4728-3-kprateek.nayak@amd.com

...

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K Prateek Nayak 2026-07-28 05:25:34 +00:00 • committed by Peter Zijlstra

parent 775e0f2284

commit a6690350a4

1 changed files with 5 additions and 12 deletions

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arch/arm64/include/asm/runtime-const.h

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