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authorLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2026-08-30 09:22:00 -0700
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2026-08-30 09:22:00 -0700
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Merge tag 'trace-v7.3-2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-tracegrafted
Pull tracing fixes from Steven Rostedt: - Fix error output of boot instance creation failure Currently if a boot instance creation fails, instead of printing out the name of the instance that failed, it prints "(null)". That is because it prints "cur_str" that had already been processed by strsep(). Print the saved name instead. While at it, print the error code of the failure. - Fix use-after-free for same named historgrams Histograms can be named so that they can be used in multiple events. But if the named histogram has a variable attached, the second event that uses the named histogram which duplicates it and needs to free the original after duplication leaves the old variable in place and still visible. If another histogram uses than variable, it will use the stale one which will try to reference the freed duplicate histogram and crash the kernel. Free the duplicate variables along with the duplicated histogram data. - Check return value of kthread_run() in event self test The events self tests uses a kthread for testing but does not check if it succeeded in creating a kthread. If the kthread creation were to fail, the code will still try to call kthread_stop() on the error returned. - Fix race between reading trace_pipe and updating subbuffer size If a user is reading the trace_pipe file at the same time they update the ring buffer sub-buffer size, can cause the trace_pipe read to read stale data. Add trace_access_lock() around updating the ring buffer sub-buffer size. - Fix eventfs_inode on failure path in creation of the events directory In the creation of the "events" directory, if after allocating the eventfs_inode a failure is detected, it calls cleanup_ei() which calls free_ei(). The free_ei() will test if eventfs_inode being freed has no children. It is a bug if it does. But on the failure case of the creation of the "events" directory, the children lists have not yet been initialized and the free will trigger a warning because list_empty() on an uninitialized list returns false. Move the initialization into init_ei() where it makes more sense and makes sure that a created eventfs_inode has its lists initialized upon creation. - Check return value of kthread_run() in ftrace direct sample code The sample code that shows how to use the ftrace direct calls does not test the return of kthread_run() to see if it succeeds. Return a failure if the kthread_run() doesn't succeed. - Clear user events state on fork in case of alloc failure On fork, the child gets a pointer to the parent's user events state. It makes a copy of it then updates the child's pointer to it. But if the allocation fails, the duplication function leaves the child with a pointer to its parent's descriptor. When the child cleans up its data, it will free the parent's descriptor while the parent is still using it. In the duplication function, set the child's user_event_mm to NULL before testing if the allocation succeeded, and when it exits it will not free the parent's descriptor. - Fix retry exhaustion in simple ring buffer reader swap simple_ring_buffer_swap_reader_page() starts with retry set to 8 and post-decrements it only after a failed link replacement. On the final attempt, a successful replacement leaves retry at zero, while a failed replacement leaves it at -1. But the check for success expects the retry value to be non-zero and exits with an error on zero. This is the opposite result. Fix it. - Fail nicely when the remote swap_reader_page() returns an error Currently, if the swap_reader_page() of a remote buffer fails, it triggers a WARN_ON_ONCE() and continues normally. Instead, have it exit with an error and a pr_warn() print instead of a full WARNING. * tag 'trace-v7.3-2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-trace: ring-buffer: Stop remote reader update when page swap fails tracing: Fix retry exhaustion in simple ring buffer reader swap tracing/user_events: Clear copied tracing state before fork duplication samples/ftrace: Fix kthread_stop() on ERR_PTR in ftrace-direct-multi-modify samples/ftrace: Fix kthread_stop() on ERR_PTR in ftrace-direct-modify eventfs: Initialize ei->children and ei->list in init_ei() tracing: Fix use-after-free in trace_pipe read on sub-buffer order change tracing: Fix crash passing ERR_PTR to kthread_stop() tracing: Fix use-after-free with same-name named triggers tracing: Fix logged instance name on creation failure
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+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+======================
+ USB4 and Thunderbolt
+======================
+USB4 is the public specification based on Thunderbolt 3 protocol with
+some differences at the register level among other things. Connection
+manager is an entity running on the host router (host controller)
+responsible for enumerating routers and establishing tunnels. A
+connection manager can be implemented either in firmware or software.
+Typically PCs come with a firmware connection manager for Thunderbolt 3
+and early USB4 capable systems. Apple systems on the other hand use
+software connection manager and the later USB4 compliant devices follow
+the suit.
+
+The Linux Thunderbolt driver supports both and can detect at runtime which
+connection manager implementation is to be used. To be on the safe side the
+software connection manager in Linux also advertises security level
+``user`` which means PCIe tunneling is disabled by default. The
+documentation below applies to both implementations with the exception that
+the software connection manager only supports ``user`` security level and
+is expected to be accompanied with an IOMMU based DMA protection.
+
+Security levels and how to use them
+-----------------------------------
+The interface presented here is not meant for end users. Instead there
+should be a userspace tool that handles all the low-level details, keeps
+a database of the authorized devices and prompts users for new connections.
+
+More details about the sysfs interface for Thunderbolt devices can be
+found in Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-bus-thunderbolt.
+
+Those users who just want to connect any device without any sort of
+manual work can add following line to
+``/etc/udev/rules.d/99-local.rules``::
+
+ ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="thunderbolt", ATTR{authorized}=="0", ATTR{authorized}="1"
+
+This will authorize all devices automatically when they appear. However,
+keep in mind that this bypasses the security levels and makes the system
+vulnerable to DMA attacks.
+
+Starting with Intel Falcon Ridge Thunderbolt controller there are 4
+security levels available. Intel Titan Ridge added one more security level
+(usbonly). The reason for these is the fact that the connected devices can
+be DMA masters and thus read contents of the host memory without CPU and OS
+knowing about it. There are ways to prevent this by setting up an IOMMU but
+it is not always available for various reasons.
+
+Some USB4 systems have a BIOS setting to disable PCIe tunneling. This is
+treated as another security level (nopcie).
+
+The security levels are as follows:
+
+ none
+ All devices are automatically connected by the firmware. No user
+ approval is needed. In BIOS settings this is typically called
+ *Legacy mode*.
+
+ user
+ User is asked whether the device is allowed to be connected.
+ Based on the device identification information available through
+ ``/sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices``, the user then can make the decision.
+ In BIOS settings this is typically called *Unique ID*.
+
+ secure
+ User is asked whether the device is allowed to be connected. In
+ addition to UUID the device (if it supports secure connect) is sent
+ a challenge that should match the expected one based on a random key
+ written to the ``key`` sysfs attribute. In BIOS settings this is
+ typically called *One time saved key*.
+
+ dponly
+ The firmware automatically creates tunnels for Display Port and
+ USB. No PCIe tunneling is done. In BIOS settings this is
+ typically called *Display Port Only*.
+
+ usbonly
+ The firmware automatically creates tunnels for the USB controller and
+ Display Port in a dock. All PCIe links downstream of the dock are
+ removed.
+
+ nopcie
+ PCIe tunneling is disabled/forbidden from the BIOS. Available in some
+ USB4 systems.
+
+The current security level can be read from
+``/sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/domainX/security`` where ``domainX`` is
+the Thunderbolt domain the host controller manages. There is typically
+one domain per Thunderbolt host controller.
+
+If the security level reads as ``user`` or ``secure`` the connected
+device must be authorized by the user before PCIe tunnels are created
+(e.g the PCIe device appears).
+
+Each Thunderbolt device plugged in will appear in sysfs under
+``/sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices``. The device directory carries
+information that can be used to identify the particular device,
+including its name and UUID.
+
+Authorizing devices when security level is ``user`` or ``secure``
+-----------------------------------------------------------------
+When a device is plugged in it will appear in sysfs as follows::
+
+ /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/0-1/authorized - 0
+ /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/0-1/device - 0x8004
+ /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/0-1/device_name - Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter
+ /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/0-1/vendor - 0x1
+ /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/0-1/vendor_name - Apple, Inc.
+ /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/0-1/unique_id - e0376f00-0300-0100-ffff-ffffffffffff
+
+The ``authorized`` attribute reads 0 which means no PCIe tunnels are
+created yet. The user can authorize the device by simply entering::
+
+ # echo 1 > /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/0-1/authorized
+
+This will create the PCIe tunnels and the device is now connected.
+
+If the device supports secure connect, and the domain security level is
+set to ``secure``, it has an additional attribute ``key`` which can hold
+a random 32-byte value used for authorization and challenging the device in
+future connects::
+
+ /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/0-3/authorized - 0
+ /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/0-3/device - 0x305
+ /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/0-3/device_name - AKiTiO Thunder3 PCIe Box
+ /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/0-3/key -
+ /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/0-3/vendor - 0x41
+ /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/0-3/vendor_name - inXtron
+ /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/0-3/unique_id - dc010000-0000-8508-a22d-32ca6421cb16
+
+Notice the key is empty by default.
+
+If the user does not want to use secure connect they can just ``echo 1``
+to the ``authorized`` attribute and the PCIe tunnels will be created in
+the same way as in the ``user`` security level.
+
+If the user wants to use secure connect, the first time the device is
+plugged a key needs to be created and sent to the device::
+
+ # key=$(openssl rand -hex 32)
+ # echo $key > /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/0-3/key
+ # echo 1 > /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/0-3/authorized
+
+Now the device is connected (PCIe tunnels are created) and in addition
+the key is stored on the device NVM.
+
+Next time the device is plugged in the user can verify (challenge) the
+device using the same key::
+
+ # echo $key > /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/0-3/key
+ # echo 2 > /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/0-3/authorized
+
+If the challenge the device returns back matches the one we expect based
+on the key, the device is connected and the PCIe tunnels are created.
+However, if the challenge fails no tunnels are created and error is
+returned to the user.
+
+If the user still wants to connect the device they can either approve
+the device without a key or write a new key and write 1 to the
+``authorized`` file to get the new key stored on the device NVM.
+
+De-authorizing devices
+----------------------
+It is possible to de-authorize devices by writing ``0`` to their
+``authorized`` attribute. This requires support from the connection
+manager implementation and can be checked by reading domain
+``deauthorization`` attribute. If it reads ``1`` then the feature is
+supported.
+
+When a device is de-authorized the PCIe tunnel from the parent device
+PCIe downstream (or root) port to the device PCIe upstream port is torn
+down. This is essentially the same thing as PCIe hot-remove and the PCIe
+toplogy in question will not be accessible anymore until the device is
+authorized again. If there is storage such as NVMe or similar involved,
+there is a risk for data loss if the filesystem on that storage is not
+properly shut down. You have been warned!
+
+DMA protection utilizing IOMMU
+------------------------------
+Recent systems from 2018 and forward with Thunderbolt ports may natively
+support IOMMU. This means that Thunderbolt security is handled by an IOMMU
+so connected devices cannot access memory regions outside of what is
+allocated for them by drivers. When Linux is running on such system it
+automatically enables IOMMU if not enabled by the user already. These
+systems can be identified by reading ``1`` from
+``/sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/domainX/iommu_dma_protection`` attribute.
+
+The driver does not do anything special in this case but because DMA
+protection is handled by the IOMMU, security levels (if set) are
+redundant. For this reason some systems ship with security level set to
+``none``. Other systems have security level set to ``user`` in order to
+support downgrade to older OS, so users who want to automatically
+authorize devices when IOMMU DMA protection is enabled can use the
+following ``udev`` rule::
+
+ ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="thunderbolt", ATTRS{iommu_dma_protection}=="1", ATTR{authorized}=="0", ATTR{authorized}="1"
+
+Upgrading NVM on Thunderbolt device, host or retimer
+----------------------------------------------------
+Since most of the functionality is handled in firmware running on a
+host controller or a device, it is important that the firmware can be
+upgraded to the latest where possible bugs in it have been fixed.
+Typically OEMs provide this firmware from their support site.
+
+Currently, recommended method of updating firmware is through "fwupd" tool.
+It uses LVFS (Linux Vendor Firmware Service) portal by default to get the
+latest firmware from hardware vendors and updates connected devices if found
+compatible. For details refer to: https://github.com/fwupd/fwupd.
+
+Before you upgrade firmware on a device, host or retimer, please make
+sure it is a suitable upgrade. Failing to do that may render the device
+in a state where it cannot be used properly anymore without special
+tools!
+
+Host NVM upgrade on Apple Macs is not supported.
+
+Fwupd is installed by default. If you don't have it on your system, simply
+use your distro package manager to get it.
+
+To see possible updates through fwupd, you need to plug in a Thunderbolt
+device so that the host controller appears. It does not matter which
+device is connected (unless you are upgrading NVM on a device - then you
+need to connect that particular device).
+
+Note an OEM-specific method to power the controller up ("force power") may
+be available for your system in which case there is no need to plug in a
+Thunderbolt device.
+
+Updating firmware using fwupd is straightforward - refer to official
+readme on fwupd github.
+
+If firmware image is written successfully, the device shortly disappears.
+Once it comes back, the driver notices it and initiates a full power
+cycle. After a while device appears again and this time it should be
+fully functional.
+
+Device of interest should display new version under "Current version"
+and "Update State: Success" in fwupd's interface.
+
+Upgrading firmware manually
+---------------------------------------------------------------
+If possible, use fwupd to updated the firmware. However, if your device OEM
+has not uploaded the firmware to LVFS, but it is available for download
+from their side, you can use method below to directly upgrade the
+firmware.
+
+Manual firmware update can be done with 'dd' tool. To update firmware
+using this method, you need to write it to the non-active parts of NVM
+of the host or device. Example on how to update Intel NUC6i7KYK
+(Skull Canyon) Thunderbolt controller NVM::
+
+ # dd if=KYK_TBT_FW_0018.bin of=/sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/0-0/nvm_non_active0/nvmem
+
+Once the operation completes we can trigger NVM authentication and
+upgrade process as follows::
+
+ # echo 1 > /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/0-0/nvm_authenticate
+
+If no errors are returned, device should behave as described in previous
+section.
+
+We can verify that the new NVM firmware is active by running the following
+commands::
+
+ # cat /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/0-0/nvm_authenticate
+ 0x0
+ # cat /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/0-0/nvm_version
+ 18.0
+
+If ``nvm_authenticate`` contains anything other than 0x0 it is the error
+code from the last authentication cycle, which means the authentication
+of the NVM image failed.
+
+Note names of the NVMem devices ``nvm_activeN`` and ``nvm_non_activeN``
+depend on the order they are registered in the NVMem subsystem. N in
+the name is the identifier added by the NVMem subsystem.
+
+Upgrading on-board retimer NVM when there is no cable connected
+---------------------------------------------------------------
+If the platform supports, it may be possible to upgrade the retimer NVM
+firmware even when there is nothing connected to the USB4
+ports. When this is the case the ``usb4_portX`` devices have two special
+attributes: ``offline`` and ``rescan``. The way to upgrade the firmware
+is to first put the USB4 port into offline mode::
+
+ # echo 1 > /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/0-0/usb4_port1/offline
+
+This step makes sure the port does not respond to any hotplug events,
+and also ensures the retimers are powered on. The next step is to scan
+for the retimers::
+
+ # echo 1 > /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/0-0/usb4_port1/rescan
+
+This enumerates and adds the on-board retimers. Now retimer NVM can be
+upgraded in the same way than with cable connected (see previous
+section). However, the retimer is not disconnected as we are in offline
+mode, so after writing ``1`` to ``nvm_authenticate`` one should wait for
+5 or more seconds before running rescan again::
+
+ # echo 1 > /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/0-0/usb4_port1/rescan
+
+This point if everything went fine, the port can be put back to
+functional state again::
+
+ # echo 0 > /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices/0-0/usb4_port1/offline
+
+Upgrading NVM when host controller is in safe mode
+--------------------------------------------------
+If the existing NVM is not properly authenticated (or is missing) the
+host controller goes into safe mode which means that the only available
+functionality is flashing a new NVM image. When in this mode, reading
+``nvm_version`` fails with ``ENODATA`` and the device identification
+information is missing.
+
+To recover from this mode, one needs to flash a valid NVM image to the
+host controller in the same way it is done in the previous chapter.
+
+Tunneling events
+----------------
+The driver sends ``KOBJ_CHANGE`` events to userspace when there is a
+tunneling change in the ``thunderbolt_domain``. The notification carries
+following environment variables::
+
+ TUNNEL_EVENT=<EVENT>
+ TUNNEL_DETAILS=0:12 <-> 1:20 (USB3)
+
+Possible values for ``<EVENT>`` are:
+
+ activated
+ The tunnel was activated (created).
+
+ changed
+ There is a change in this tunnel. For example bandwidth allocation was
+ changed.
+
+ deactivated
+ The tunnel was torn down.
+
+ low bandwidth
+ The tunnel is not getting optimal bandwidth.
+
+ insufficient bandwidth
+ There is not enough bandwidth for the current tunnel requirements.
+
+The ``TUNNEL_DETAILS`` is only provided if the tunnel is known. For
+example, in case of Firmware Connection Manager this is missing or does
+not provide full tunnel information. In case of Software Connection Manager
+this includes full tunnel details. The format currently matches what the
+driver uses when logging. This may change over time.
+
+Networking over Thunderbolt cable
+---------------------------------
+Thunderbolt technology allows software communication between two hosts
+connected by a Thunderbolt cable.
+
+It is possible to tunnel any kind of traffic over a Thunderbolt link but
+currently we only support Apple ThunderboltIP protocol.
+
+If the other host is running Windows or macOS, the only thing you need to
+do is to connect a Thunderbolt cable between the two hosts; the
+``thunderbolt-net`` driver is loaded automatically. If the other host is
+also Linux you should load ``thunderbolt-net`` manually on one host (it
+does not matter which one)::
+
+ # modprobe thunderbolt-net
+
+This triggers module load on the other host automatically. If the driver
+is built-in to the kernel image, there is no need to do anything.
+
+The driver will create one virtual ethernet interface per Thunderbolt
+port which are named like ``thunderbolt0`` and so on. From this point
+you can either use standard userspace tools like ``ip`` to
+configure the interface or let your GUI handle it automatically.
+
+Streaming data directly over Thunderbolt cable
+----------------------------------------------
+In addition to Thunderbolt networking (aka. USB4NET) Linux supports
+streaming data directly over a cable as well (aka. USB4STREAM). This is
+possible through ``thunderbolt-stream`` driver.
+
+Similarly to ``thunderbolt-net`` you load the driver first on one end::
+
+ host1 # modprobe thunderbolt-stream
+
+Then you configure it via ``ConfigFS``::
+
+ host1 # cd /sys/kernel/config/thunderbolt/stream
+ host1 # mkdir -p 0-1.0/data
+ host1 # cd 0-1.0
+ host1 # echo -1 > data/in_hopid
+ host1 # echo -1 > data/out_hopid
+
+This information is automatically announced to the other side via
+XDomain properties so if you have cable connected the other side knows
+that there is a stream named ``data`` available and can configure it for
+you automatically::
+
+ host2 # cd /sys/kernel/config/thunderbolt/stream
+ host2 # mkdir -p 0-3.0/data
+
+Here we used auto-configuration but you can configure it manually too.
+In that case you need to fill ``in_hopid`` and ``out_hopid`` accordingly.
+If you set them to ``-1`` the next available HopID is used which is
+typically what we want.
+
+Once they are configured you can use ``/dev/tbstreamX`` on both sides to
+transfer data::
+
+ host2 # cat /dev/tbstream0
+ host1 # dmesg > /dev/tbstream0
+
+Once you are done with the stream you can remove them::
+
+ host2 # cd /sys/kernel/config/thunderbolt/stream
+ host2 # rmdir -p 0-1.0/data
+ host1 # cd /sys/kernel/config/thunderbolt/stream
+ host1 # rmdir -p 0-3.0/data
+
+Since streams are essentially files you can use any existing application
+that supports ``read(2)`` and ``write(2)`` in some form.
+
+It is possible to have more than one stream and you can have both stream
+and ``thunderbolt-net`` in use simultaneously. For example we can create
+two streams with name ``control`` and ``data`` like this::
+
+ host1 # cd /sys/kernel/config/thunderbolt/stream
+ host1 # mkdir 0-1.0
+ host1 # cd 0-1.0
+ host1 # mkdir control
+ host1 # mkdir data
+
+Then you have ``/dev/tbstream0`` for ``control`` and ``/dev/tbstream1``
+for ``data``. Before you can use them you need to configure them as
+shown above for the one stream case.
+
+Forcing power
+-------------
+Many OEMs include a method that can be used to force the power of a
+Thunderbolt controller to an "On" state even if nothing is connected.
+If supported by your machine this will be exposed by the WMI bus with
+a sysfs attribute called "force_power", see
+Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-platform-intel-wmi-thunderbolt for details.
+
+Note: it's currently not possible to query the force power state of a platform.