Re: [RFC PATCH 0/8] mm/vmalloc: Speed up ioremap, vmalloc and vmap with contiguous memory

Dev Jain
2026-04-08T10:55:54Z

On 08/04/26 4:21 pm, Barry Song wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 8, 2026 at 5:14 PM Dev Jain <dev.jain@arm.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> On 08/04/26 8:21 am, Barry Song (Xiaomi) wrote:
>>> This patchset accelerates ioremap, vmalloc, and vmap when the memory
>>> is physically fully or partially contiguous. Two techniques are used:
>>>
>>> 1. Avoid page table zigzag when setting PTEs/PMDs for multiple memory
>>> segments
>>> 2. Use batched mappings wherever possible in both vmalloc and ARM64
>>> layers
>>>
>>> Patches 1–2 extend ARM64 vmalloc CONT-PTE mapping to support multiple
>>> CONT-PTE regions instead of just one.
>>>
>>> Patches 3–4 extend vmap_small_pages_range_noflush() to support page
>>> shifts other than PAGE_SHIFT. This allows mapping multiple memory
>>> segments for vmalloc() without zigzagging page tables.
>>>
>>> Patches 5–8 add huge vmap support for contiguous pages. This not only
>>> improves performance but also enables PMD or CONT-PTE mapping for the
>>> vmapped area, reducing TLB pressure.
>>>
>>> Many thanks to Xueyuan Chen for his substantial testing efforts
>>> on RK3588 boards.
>>>
>>> On the RK3588 8-core ARM64 SoC, with tasks pinned to CPU2 and
>>> the performance CPUfreq policy enabled, Xueyuan’s tests report:
>>>
>>> * ioremap(1 MB): 1.2× faster
>>> * vmalloc(1 MB) mapping time (excluding allocation) with
>>> VM_ALLOW_HUGE_VMAP: 1.5× faster
>>> * vmap(): 5.6× faster when memory includes some order-8 pages,
>>> with no regression observed for order-0 pages
>>>
>>> Barry Song (Xiaomi) (8):
>>> arm64/hugetlb: Extend batching of multiple CONT_PTE in a single PTE
>>> setup
>>> arm64/vmalloc: Allow arch_vmap_pte_range_map_size to batch multiple
>>> CONT_PTE
>>> mm/vmalloc: Extend vmap_small_pages_range_noflush() to support larger
>>> page_shift sizes
>>> mm/vmalloc: Eliminate page table zigzag for huge vmalloc mappings
>>> mm/vmalloc: map contiguous pages in batches for vmap() if possible
>>> mm/vmalloc: align vm_area so vmap() can batch mappings
>>> mm/vmalloc: Coalesce same page_shift mappings in vmap to avoid pgtable
>>> zigzag
>>> mm/vmalloc: Stop scanning for compound pages after encountering small
>>> pages in vmap
>>>
>>> arch/arm64/include/asm/vmalloc.h | 6 +-
>>> arch/arm64/mm/hugetlbpage.c | 10 ++
>>> mm/vmalloc.c | 178 +++++++++++++++++++++++++------
>>> 3 files changed, 161 insertions(+), 33 deletions(-)
>>>
>>
>> On Linux VM on Apple M3, running mm-selftests:
>
> Dev, thanks for your report. Sorry for the silly typo—
> Xueyuan’s vmalloc/vmap tests don’t trigger that case yet.
>
> it should be fixed by:
>
> diff --git a/arch/arm64/mm/hugetlbpage.c b/arch/arm64/mm/hugetlbpage.c
> index bf31c11ebd3b..25b9fce1ec6a 100644
> --- a/arch/arm64/mm/hugetlbpage.c
> +++ b/arch/arm64/mm/hugetlbpage.c
> @@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ static inline int num_contig_ptes(unsigned long
> size, size_t *pgsize)
> contig_ptes = CONT_PTES;
> break;
> default:
> - if (size < CONT_PMD_SIZE && size > 0 &&
> + if (size < PMD_SIZE && size > 0 &&
> IS_ALIGNED(size, CONT_PTE_SIZE)) {
> contig_ptes = size >> PAGE_SHIFT;
> *pgsize = PAGE_SIZE;
> @@ -365,7 +365,7 @@ pte_t arch_make_huge_pte(pte_t entry, unsigned int
> shift, vm_flags_t flags)
> case CONT_PTE_SIZE:
> return pte_mkcont(entry);
> default:
> - if (pagesize < CONT_PMD_SIZE && pagesize > 0 &&
> + if (pagesize < PMD_SIZE && pagesize > 0 &&
> IS_ALIGNED(pagesize, CONT_PTE_SIZE))
> return pte_mkcont(entry);

Yeah indeed the problem was that a PMD chunk was being treated as 512 ptes
rather than 1 PMD. This fixes it.

>
>>
>> ./run_vmtests.sh -t "hugetlb"
>>
>> TAP version 13
>> # -----------------------
>> # running ./hugepage-mmap
>> # -----------------------
>> # TAP version 13
>> # 1..1
>> # # Returned address is 0xffffe7c00000
>>
>>
>>
>> [ 30.884630] kernel BUG at mm/page_table_check.c:86!
>> [ 30.884701] Internal error: Oops - BUG: 00000000f2000800 [#1] SMP
>> [ 30.886803] Modules linked in:
>> [ 30.887217] CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 1869 Comm: hugepage-mmap Not tainted 7.0.0-rc5+ #86 PREEMPT
>> [ 30.888218] Hardware name: linux,dummy-virt (DT)
>> [ 30.889413] pstate: a1400005 (NzCv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO +DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--)
>> [ 30.889901] pc : page_table_check_clear.part.0+0x128/0x1a0
>> [ 30.890337] lr : page_table_check_clear.part.0+0x7c/0x1a0
>> [ 30.890714] sp : ffff800084da3ad0
>> [ 30.890946] x29: ffff800084da3ad0 x28: 0000000000000001 x27: 0010000000000001
>> [ 30.891434] x26: 0040000000000040 x25: ffffa06bb8fb9000 x24: 00000000ffffffff
>> [ 30.891932] x23: 0000000000000001 x22: 0000000000000000 x21: ffffa06bb8997810
>> [ 30.892514] x20: 0000000000113e39 x19: 0000000000113e38 x18: 0000000000000000
>> [ 30.893007] x17: 0000000000000000 x16: 0000000000000000 x15: 0000000000000000
>> [ 30.893500] x14: ffffa06bb7013780 x13: 0000fffff7f90fff x12: 0000000000000000
>> [ 30.893990] x11: 1fffe0001a1282c1 x10: ffff0000d094160c x9 : ffffa06bb568a858
>> [ 30.894479] x8 : ffff5f95c8474000 x7 : 0000000000000000 x6 : ffff00017fffc500
>> [ 30.894973] x5 : ffff000191208fc0 x4 : 0000000000000000 x3 : 0000000000004000
>> [ 30.895449] x2 : 0000000000000000 x1 : 00000000ffffffff x0 : ffff0000c071f1b8
>> [ 30.895875] Call trace:
>> [ 30.896027] page_table_check_clear.part.0+0x128/0x1a0 (P)
>> [ 30.896369] page_table_check_clear+0xc8/0x138
>> [ 30.896776] __page_table_check_ptes_set+0xe4/0x1e8
>> [ 30.897073] __set_ptes_anysz+0x2e4/0x308
>> [ 30.897327] set_huge_pte_at+0xec/0x210
>> [ 30.897561] hugetlb_no_page+0x1ec/0x8e0
>> [ 30.897807] hugetlb_fault+0x188/0x740
>> [ 30.898036] handle_mm_fault+0x294/0x2c0
>> [ 30.898283] do_page_fault+0x120/0x748
>> [ 30.898539] do_translation_fault+0x68/0x90
>> [ 30.898796] do_mem_abort+0x4c/0xa8
>> [ 30.899011] el0_da+0x2c/0x90
>> [ 30.899205] el0t_64_sync_handler+0xd0/0xe8
>> [ 30.899461] el0t_64_sync+0x198/0x1a0
>> [ 30.899688] Code: 91001021 b8f80022 51000441 36fffd41 (d4210000)
>> [ 30.900053] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---
>>
>>
>>
>> The bug is at
>>
>> BUG_ON(atomic_dec_return(&ptc->file_map_count) < 0);
>>
>> My tree is mm-unstable, commit 3fa44141e0bb.
>>
>
> Thanks
> Barry