[RFC PATCH 2/3] firmware: arm_ffa: initialise ff-a after finalising pKVM initialisation

[Yeoreum Yun]

Hi Sudeep,

> On Tue, May 05, 2026 at 04:06:51PM +0100, Yeoreum Yun wrote:
> > Hi Sudeep,
> > 
> > > On Tue, May 05, 2026 at 10:54:08AM +0100, Yeoreum Yun wrote:
> > > > When pKVM is enabled, the FF-A driver must be initialised after pKVM.
> > > > Otherwise, pKVM cannot negotiate the FF-A version or obtain the RX/TX
> > > > buffer information, leading to failures in FF-A calls.
> > > > 
> > > > Currently, pKVM initialisation completes at device_initcall_sync,
> > > > while ffa_init() runs at the device_initcall level.
> > > > 
> > > > So far, linker deployes kvm_arm_init() before ffa_init(), and SMCs can
> > > > still be trapped even before finalise_pkvm() is invoked.
> > > > As a result, this issue has not been observed.
> > > > 
> > > > However, relying on above stuff is fragile.
> > > > Therefore, when pKVM is enabled, the FF-A infrastructure should be
> > > > initialised only after pKVM initialisation has been fully finalised.
> > > > 
> > > > To achieve this, introduce an ffa_root_dev ("arm-ffa") and
> > > > a corresponding driver to defer initialisation of the FF-A infrastructure
> > > > until pKVM initialisation is complete, and to defer probing of all FF-A devices until then
> > > > when pKVM is enabled.
> > > > 
> > > 
> > > I don't like this whole ffa root device design.
> > > Two question for now:
> > > 1. Can FF-A be a module on systems with pKVM which removes the need for all
> > >    this dance done here ?
> > 
> > But this means we reduce the other feature e.x) IMA with TPM over
> > FF-A and pKVM feature. Since IMA must be a built-in, we couldn't avoid
> > to build FF-A driver with built-in.
> > 
> > > 2. If it is a requirement to have this built-in, I prefer to add a probe
> > >    and defer it instead of this root ffa device.
> > 
> > But, How? anyway all of FF-A device & driver couldn't be probed unless
> > FF-A initialisation is finished and How can we trigger FF-A initailise
> > after pKVM finish its initialisation?
> > 
> > The problem is ff-a intiailisation happens before pKVM finish its
> > initailasation and to do defer probe, it should use dd-model and
> > As we discussed in other thread, notifier couldn't be a soluation.
> > 
> > Could you let me share other way I'm missing?
> > 
> 
> Will something like below work ?

It might work and when I write the code I thougt about whether to
use add platform device but I didn't find why this is better than
to create root device of FF-A (anyway creating a simple platform device
for FF-A seems similar to create root device)
If you don't mind why it would be better than to create FF-A root
device in FF-A bus?

> If we add DT bindings, then we can add
> of_match_table and drop the platform device creation. Also we can adjust
> the parent device the way you have done by a simple change(not done in
> this untested/not compiled change).

Might for a DT, but do we need to platform device creation for ACPI case
anyway?


[...]

-- 
Sincerely,
Yeoreum Yun