On Thu Aug 14, 2025 at 3:53 PM CEST, Alice Ryhl wrote:
> There are two main ways that GPUVM might be used:
>
> * staged mode, where VM_BIND ioctls update the GPUVM immediately so that
> the GPUVM reflects the state of the VM *including* staged changes that
> are not yet applied to the GPU's virtual address space.
> * immediate mode, where the GPUVM state is updated during run_job(),
> i.e., in the DMA fence signalling critical path, to ensure that the
> GPUVM and the GPU's virtual address space has the same state at all
> times.
>
> Currently, only Panthor uses GPUVM in immediate mode, but the Rust
> drivers Tyr and Nova will also use GPUVM in immediate mode, so it is
> worth to support both staged and immediate mode well in GPUVM. To use
> immediate mode, the GEMs gpuva list must be modified during the fence
> signalling path, which means that it must be protected by a lock that is
> fence signalling safe.
>
> For this reason, a mutex is added to struct drm_gem_object that is
> intended to achieve this purpose. Adding it directly in the GEM object
> both makes it easier to use GPUVM in immediate mode, but also makes it
> possible to take the gpuva lock from core drm code.
>
> As a follow-up, another change that should probably be made to support
> immediate mode is a mechanism to postpone cleanup of vm_bo objects, as
> dropping a vm_bo object in the fence signalling path is problematic for
> two reasons:
>
> * When using DRM_GPUVM_RESV_PROTECTED, you cannot remove the vm_bo from
> the extobj/evicted lists during the fence signalling path.
> * Dropping a vm_bo could lead to the GEM object getting destroyed.
> The requirement that GEM object cleanup is fence signalling safe is
> dubious and likely to be violated in practice.
>
> Panthor already has its own custom implementation of postponing vm_bo
> cleanup.
>
> Signed-off-by: Alice Ryhl <alicer...@google.com>
> ---
> drivers/gpu/drm/drm_gem.c | 2 ++
> include/drm/drm_gem.h | 4 +++-
> 2 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
>
> diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_gem.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_gem.c
> index
> 6a44351e58b7741c358406c8a576b6660b5ca904..24c109ab3fadd5af2e5d9de3fe330b105217a9ce
> 100644
> --- a/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_gem.c
> +++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_gem.c
> @@ -187,6 +187,7 @@ void drm_gem_private_object_init(struct drm_device *dev,
> kref_init(&obj->refcount);
> obj->handle_count = 0;
> obj->size = size;
> + mutex_init(&obj->gpuva.lock);
> dma_resv_init(&obj->_resv);
> if (!obj->resv)
> obj->resv = &obj->_resv;
> @@ -1057,6 +1058,7 @@ drm_gem_object_free(struct kref *kref)
> if (WARN_ON(!obj->funcs->free))
> return;
>
> + mutex_destroy(&obj->gpuva.lock);
> obj->funcs->free(obj);
I really can't think of a valid case where we need to access this mutex from the
GEM's free() callback, yet it probably doesn't hurt to mention it in the
documentation of struct drm_gem_object_funcs.
> }
> EXPORT_SYMBOL(drm_gem_object_free);
> diff --git a/include/drm/drm_gem.h b/include/drm/drm_gem.h
> index
> d3a7b43e2c637b164eba5af7cc2fc8ef09d4f0a4..5934d8dc267a65aaf62d2d025869221cd110b325
> 100644
> --- a/include/drm/drm_gem.h
> +++ b/include/drm/drm_gem.h
> @@ -403,11 +403,13 @@ struct drm_gem_object {
> * Provides the list of GPU VAs attached to this GEM object.
> *
> * Drivers should lock list accesses with the GEMs &dma_resv lock
> - * (&drm_gem_object.resv) or a custom lock if one is provided.
> + * (&drm_gem_object.resv) or a custom lock if one is provided. The
> + * mutex inside this struct may be used as the custom lock.
> */
> struct {
> struct list_head list;
>
> + struct mutex lock;
> #ifdef CONFIG_LOCKDEP
> struct lockdep_map *lock_dep_map;
> #endif
We should remove this and the corresponding functions (i.e.
drm_gem_gpuva_set_lock(), drm_gem_gpuva_assert_lock_held()) in a subsequent
patch and let GPUVM assert for this mutex directly rather than for the
lockdep_map.
