The Wire · Showcase
KERNEL MEMORY FLUSH BUG HITS PAGE TABLE RECLAIM, SOC FIXES LAND ACROSS QUALCOMM AND BROADCOM
By RepoJournal · Filed · About Linux
A critical memory management bug in direct page table reclaim is flushing the wrong address, potentially corrupting TLB state on architectures that depend on precise invalidation.
The page table reclaim path in mm/memory.c has a latent correctness issue: when zap_pte_range frees a page table, it passes addr to pte_free_tlb for TLB cache flushing, but addr always points one past the end of the range the table covers [1]. Any architecture relying on that address for paging-structure-cache invalidation will flush the wrong entry. This is not a new regression but a long-standing logic error that surfaces when the architecture actually uses the parameter. Meanwhile, Linus pulled a batch of SoC fixes across Qualcomm, Broadcom, and other platforms [2], addressing incorrect devicetree settings that blocked feature enablement on bcm5301x, bcm2712, nuvoton, and aspeed chips. The Omarchy desktop stack is seeing active bug fixes: terminal window classification now works correctly under app-specific window IDs [3], a stale weather poller has been removed [4], and the system menu routing conflict with htop's keyword aliases is resolved [5]. A contrast fix for the network speed test overlay also landed to ensure visibility across different theme configurations [6].
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Action items
- → Review architecture-specific pte_free_tlb calls for addr dependency impact torvalds/linux [immediate]
- → Verify SoC devicetree settings on Qualcomm and Broadcom deployments torvalds/linux [plan]
- → Update Omarchy to latest for terminal and menu fixes basecamp/omarchy [monitor]
References
- [1] mm: fix incorrect flush address in direct page table reclaim torvalds/linux
- [2] Merge tag 'soc-fixes-7.2-2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/soc/soc torvalds/linux
- [3] Apply the terminal tag to Omarchy's own terminal windows (#6561) basecamp/omarchy
- [4] Remove obsolete weather status poller (#6555) basecamp/omarchy
- [5] Route menu ids ahead of app keyword aliases ↗ basecamp/omarchy
- [6] fix(network-panel): speed test contrast ↗ basecamp/omarchy