[PATCH v2 0/2] rust: honor the maximum DMA segment size
From: Matteo Kloiber <hidden>
Date: 2026-09-13 21:13:37
Also in:
dri-devel, driver-core, lkml, nova-gpu
Booting nova-core against a real GSP with CONFIG_DMA_API_DEBUG=y warns when the ~60 MiB firmware image is mapped as a scatter-gather table: DMA-API: nova-core 0000:00:03.0: mapping sg segment longer than device claims to support [len=62914560] [max=65536] There are two separate issues behind it. Patch 1 has nova-core declare the segment size it actually supports. It re-decomposes every segment into 4 KiB GSP page-table entries, so it has no upper bound on segment length. Furthermore, I also checked what other GPUs do, and most do the same: set the max segment size u32::MAX. So this should be the correct behavior for nova as well. Patch 2 has SGTable::new() honor dma_get_max_seg_size() in addition to dma_max_mapping_size(). The abstraction is generic, so a driver with a real hardware segment limit would otherwise silently be handed segments it cannot express in a single descriptor. Tested on an RTX 5080 (GB203) passed through to a QEMU guest via VFIO with CONFIG_DMA_API_DEBUG=y: the warning is gone, and GSP boot and RPC still work. Discussed on Zulip: https://rust-for-linux.zulipchat.com/#narrow/channel/509436-Nova/topic/nova.20core.3A.20DMA-API.3A.20nova-core.200000.3A00.3A03.2E0.3A.20mapping.20sg.20segme/with/618319830 Changes in v2, all from Alexandre Courbot's review: - Patch 1: use the `Assisted-by: LLM` form documented in Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst, and place the tag before the Signed-off-by. - Patch 1: trim the comment above dma_set_max_seg_size(), and state the SAFETY invariant in full instead of referring to the comment above it. - Patch 2: rename max_mapping -> max_mapping_size. - Patch 2: drop the paragraph claiming nova-core is the only user; the Rust DMA sample is one too, and neither is broken by this patch landing without patch 1. - Patch 2: picked up Alexandre's Reviewed-by. No functional change since v1. v1: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260831233215.287881-1-kernel@matt3o12.de (local) Matteo Kloiber (2): gpu: nova-core: declare unlimited DMA max segment size rust: scatterlist: honor the device's maximum segment size drivers/gpu/nova-core/gpu.rs | 7 +++++++ rust/helpers/dma.c | 5 +++++ rust/kernel/scatterlist.rs | 12 ++++++++++-- 3 files changed, 22 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) Range-diff against v1: 1: bd1a05a64e05 ! 1: 8a8637f02fa1 gpu: nova-core: declare unlimited DMA max segment size @@ Commit message CONFIG_DMA_API_DEBUG=y is required to see this warning. + Assisted-by: LLM Signed-off-by: Matteo Kloiber [off-list ref] - Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8 ## drivers/gpu/nova-core/gpu.rs ## @@ drivers/gpu/nova-core/gpu.rs: pub(crate) fn new<'a>( // still constructing it, so no concurrent DMA allocations can exist. unsafe { pdev.dma_set_mask_and_coherent(dma_mask)? }; -+ // Nova re-decomposes SG segments into 4 KiB page-table entries, so it -+ // has no upper bound on segment length; declare that to the DMA layer. ++ // Nova walks SG segments to build page tables, so their length is ++ // irrelevant to the device. + // -+ // SAFETY: same invariant as above -- still constructing, no concurrent -+ // DMA mapping can exist. ++ // SAFETY: `Gpu` owns all DMA allocations for this device, and we are ++ // still constructing it, so no concurrent DMA allocations can exist. + unsafe { pdev.dma_set_max_seg_size(u32::MAX) }; + hal.wait_gfw_boot_completion(bar) 2: 69ea96f9290b ! 2: 4f8a19794529 rust: scatterlist: honor the device's maximum segment size @@ Commit message potentially causing problems for future drivers that use this abstraction. - nova-core declares an unlimited segment size, so this does not change - its behavior. - Fixes: 05aa6fb1c21d ("rust: scatterlist: Add abstraction for sg_table") Signed-off-by: Matteo Kloiber [off-list ref] + Reviewed-by: Alexandre Courbot [off-list ref] ## rust/helpers/dma.c ## @@ rust/helpers/dma.c: __rust_helper void rust_helper_dma_set_max_seg_size(struct device *dev, @@ rust/kernel/scatterlist.rs: fn new( // // SAFETY: `dev.as_raw()` is a valid pointer to a `struct device`. - let max_segment = match unsafe { bindings::dma_max_mapping_size(dev.as_raw()) } { -+ let max_mapping = match unsafe { bindings::dma_max_mapping_size(dev.as_raw()) } { ++ let max_mapping_size = match unsafe { bindings::dma_max_mapping_size(dev.as_raw()) } { 0 => u32::MAX, - max_segment => u32::try_from(max_segment).unwrap_or(u32::MAX), -+ max_mapping => u32::try_from(max_mapping).unwrap_or(u32::MAX), ++ max_mapping_size => u32::try_from(max_mapping_size).unwrap_or(u32::MAX), }; + // SAFETY: `dev.as_raw()` is a valid pointer to a `struct device`. + let max_seg_size = unsafe { bindings::dma_get_max_seg_size(dev.as_raw()) }; + -+ let max_segment = max_mapping.min(max_seg_size); ++ let max_segment = max_mapping_size.min(max_seg_size); + Ok(try_pin_init!(&this in Self { // SAFETY: base-commit: cee9395acd8043be0644b25c34bfa86623f2b935 -- 2.51.2