[PATCH v4 0/3] KVM ARM64 pre_fault_memory

Jack Thomson jackabt.amazon at gmail.com
Tue Jan 13 07:26:39 PST 2026


From: Jack Thomson <jackabt at amazon.com>

This patch series adds ARM64 support for the KVM_PRE_FAULT_MEMORY
feature, which was previously only available on x86 [1]. This allows us
to reduce the number of stage-2 faults during execution. This is of
benefit in post-copy migration scenarios, particularly in memory
intensive applications, where we are experiencing high latencies due to
the stage-2 faults.

Patch Overview:

 - The first patch adds support for the KVM_PRE_FAULT_MEMORY ioctl
   on arm64.

 - The second patch updates the pre_fault_memory_test to support
   arm64.

 - The last patch extends the pre_fault_memory_test to cover
   different vm memory backings.


With regards to the additional parameter to `user_mem_abort`, noted in
the v3 review, would you like this to be fixed in this series or would
a follow-up series be ok? I also found a series from Sean which looks
to address this [2].

=== Changes Since v3 [3] ===

 - Updated to now return -EOPNOTSUPP for pKVM. Previously this was not 
   checked.
 - When running a nested guest, properly resolve the L2 IPA to L1 IPA 
   before pre faulting.
 - Refactoring, page_size is now unsigned and ordered definitions at 
   top of pre_fault function.

Thanks Marc for your review

=== Changes Since v2 [4] ===

 - Update fault info synthesize value. Thanks Suzuki
 - Remove change to selftests for unaligned mmap allocations. Thanks
   Sean

[1]: https://lore.kernel.org/kvm/20240710174031.312055-1-pbonzini@redhat.com
[2]: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-arm-kernel/20250821210042.3451147-1-seanjc@google.com/
[3]: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-arm-kernel/20251119154910.97716-1-jackabt.amazon@gmail.com
[4]: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-arm-kernel/20251013151502.6679-1-jackabt.amazon@gmail.com

Jack Thomson (3):
  KVM: arm64: Add pre_fault_memory implementation
  KVM: selftests: Enable pre_fault_memory_test for arm64
  KVM: selftests: Add option for different backing in pre-fault tests

 Documentation/virt/kvm/api.rst                |   3 +-
 arch/arm64/kvm/Kconfig                        |   1 +
 arch/arm64/kvm/arm.c                          |   1 +
 arch/arm64/kvm/mmu.c                          |  79 +++++++++++-
 tools/testing/selftests/kvm/Makefile.kvm      |   1 +
 .../selftests/kvm/pre_fault_memory_test.c     | 115 ++++++++++++++----
 6 files changed, 169 insertions(+), 31 deletions(-)


base-commit: 3611ca7c12b740e250d83f8bbe3554b740c503b0
-- 
2.43.0




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