kernel/linux.git/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt, branch v6.6.132

usb: core: new quirk to handle devices with zero configurations

2026-04-02T11:07:16+00:00

[ Upstream commit 9f6a983cfa22ac662c86e60816d3a357d4b551e9 ] Some USB devices incorrectly report bNumConfigurations as 0 in their device descriptor, which causes the USB core to reject them during enumeration. logs: usb 1-2: device descriptor read/64, error -71 usb 1-2: no configurations usb 1-2: can't read configurations, error -22 However, these devices actually work correctly when treated as having a single configuration. Add a new quirk USB_QUIRK_FORCE_ONE_CONFIG to handle such devices. When this quirk is set, assume the device has 1 configuration instead of failing with -EINVAL. This quirk is applied to the device with VID:PID 5131:2007 which exhibits this behavior. Signed-off-by: Jie Deng Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260227084931.1527461-1-dengjie03@kylinos.cn Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin

fs: Add 'initramfs_options' to set initramfs mount options

2025-10-19T14:31:01+00:00

[ Upstream commit 278033a225e13ec21900f0a92b8351658f5377f2 ] When CONFIG_TMPFS is enabled, the initial root filesystem is a tmpfs. By default, a tmpfs mount is limited to using 50% of the available RAM for its content. This can be problematic in memory-constrained environments, particularly during a kdump capture. In a kdump scenario, the capture kernel boots with a limited amount of memory specified by the 'crashkernel' parameter. If the initramfs is large, it may fail to unpack into the tmpfs rootfs due to insufficient space. This is because to get X MB of usable space in tmpfs, 2*X MB of memory must be available for the mount. This leads to an OOM failure during the early boot process, preventing a successful crash dump. This patch introduces a new kernel command-line parameter, initramfs_options, which allows passing specific mount options directly to the rootfs when it is first mounted. This gives users control over the rootfs behavior. For example, a user can now specify initramfs_options=size=75% to allow the tmpfs to use up to 75% of the available memory. This can significantly reduce the memory pressure for kdump. Consider a practical example: To unpack a 48MB initramfs, the tmpfs needs 48MB of usable space. With the default 50% limit, this requires a memory pool of 96MB to be available for the tmpfs mount. The total memory requirement is therefore approximately: 16MB (vmlinuz) + 48MB (loaded initramfs) + 48MB (unpacked kernel) + 96MB (for tmpfs) + 12MB (runtime overhead) ≈ 220MB. By using initramfs_options=size=75%, the memory pool required for the 48MB tmpfs is reduced to 48MB / 0.75 = 64MB. This reduces the total memory requirement by 32MB (96MB - 64MB), allowing the kdump to succeed with a smaller crashkernel size, such as 192MB. An alternative approach of reusing the existing rootflags parameter was considered. However, a new, dedicated initramfs_options parameter was chosen to avoid altering the current behavior of rootflags (which applies to the final root filesystem) and to prevent any potential regressions. Also add documentation for the new kernel parameter "initramfs_options" This approach is inspired by prior discussions and patches on the topic. Ref: https://www.lightofdawn.org/blog/?viewDetailed=00128 Ref: https://landley.net/notes-2015.html#01-01-2015 Ref: https://lkml.org/lkml/2021/6/29/783 Ref: https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/filesystems/ramfs-rootfs-initramfs.html#what-is-rootfs Signed-off-by: Lichen Liu Link: https://lore.kernel.org/20250815121459.3391223-1-lichliu@redhat.com Tested-by: Rob Landley Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin

x86/vmscape: Enable the mitigation

2025-09-11T15:20:27+00:00

Commit 556c1ad666ad90c50ec8fccb930dd5046cfbecfb upstream. Enable the previously added mitigation for VMscape. Add the cmdline vmscape={off|ibpb|force} and sysfs reporting. Signed-off-by: Pawan Gupta Signed-off-by: Dave Hansen Reviewed-by: Borislav Petkov (AMD) Reviewed-by: Dave Hansen Signed-off-by: Borislav Petkov (AMD) Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman

x86/bugs: Add a Transient Scheduler Attacks mitigation

2025-07-10T14:03:21+00:00

Commit d8010d4ba43e9f790925375a7de100604a5e2dba upstream. Add the required features detection glue to bugs.c et all in order to support the TSA mitigation. Co-developed-by: Kim Phillips Signed-off-by: Kim Phillips Signed-off-by: Borislav Petkov (AMD) Reviewed-by: Pawan Gupta Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman

Revert "x86/bugs: Make spectre user default depend on MITIGATION_SPECTRE_V2" on v6.6 and older

2025-06-27T10:08:58+00:00

This reverts commit 7adb96687ce8819de5c7bb172c4eeb6e45736e06 which is commit 98fdaeb296f51ef08e727a7cc72e5b5c864c4f4d upstream. commit 7adb96687ce8 ("x86/bugs: Make spectre user default depend on MITIGATION_SPECTRE_V2") depends on commit 72c70f480a70 ("x86/bugs: Add a separate config for Spectre V2"), which introduced MITIGATION_SPECTRE_V2. commit 72c70f480a70 ("x86/bugs: Add a separate config for Spectre V2") never landed in stable tree, thus, stable tree doesn't have MITIGATION_SPECTRE_V2, that said, commit 7adb96687ce8 ("x86/bugs: Make spectre user default depend on MITIGATION_SPECTRE_V2") has no value if the dependecy was not applied. Revert commit 7adb96687ce8 ("x86/bugs: Make spectre user default depend on MITIGATION_SPECTRE_V2") in stable kernel which landed in in 5.4.294, 5.10.238, 5.15.185, 6.1.141 and 6.6.93 stable versions. Cc: David.Kaplan@amd.com Cc: peterz@infradead.org Cc: pawan.kumar.gupta@linux.intel.com Cc: mingo@kernel.org Cc: brad.spengler@opensrcsec.com Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org # 6.6 6.1 5.15 5.10 5.4 Reported-by: Brad Spengler Reported-by: Salvatore Bonaccorso Signed-off-by: Breno Leitao Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman

x86/bugs: Make spectre user default depend on MITIGATION_SPECTRE_V2

2025-06-04T12:42:03+00:00

[ Upstream commit 98fdaeb296f51ef08e727a7cc72e5b5c864c4f4d ] Change the default value of spectre v2 in user mode to respect the CONFIG_MITIGATION_SPECTRE_V2 config option. Currently, user mode spectre v2 is set to auto (SPECTRE_V2_USER_CMD_AUTO) by default, even if CONFIG_MITIGATION_SPECTRE_V2 is disabled. Set the spectre_v2 value to auto (SPECTRE_V2_USER_CMD_AUTO) if the Spectre v2 config (CONFIG_MITIGATION_SPECTRE_V2) is enabled, otherwise set the value to none (SPECTRE_V2_USER_CMD_NONE). Important to say the command line argument "spectre_v2_user" overwrites the default value in both cases. When CONFIG_MITIGATION_SPECTRE_V2 is not set, users have the flexibility to opt-in for specific mitigations independently. In this scenario, setting spectre_v2= will not enable spectre_v2_user=, and command line options spectre_v2_user and spectre_v2 are independent when CONFIG_MITIGATION_SPECTRE_V2=n. Signed-off-by: Breno Leitao Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar Reviewed-by: Pawan Gupta Acked-by: Josh Poimboeuf Cc: Peter Zijlstra Cc: David Kaplan Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20241031-x86_bugs_last_v2-v2-2-b7ff1dab840e@debian.org Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin

x86/its: Add support for RSB stuffing mitigation

2025-05-18T06:24:11+00:00

commit facd226f7e0c8ca936ac114aba43cb3e8b94e41e upstream. When retpoline mitigation is enabled for spectre-v2, enabling call-depth-tracking and RSB stuffing also mitigates ITS. Add cmdline option indirect_target_selection=stuff to allow enabling RSB stuffing mitigation. When retpoline mitigation is not enabled, =stuff option is ignored, and default mitigation for ITS is deployed. Signed-off-by: Pawan Gupta Signed-off-by: Dave Hansen Reviewed-by: Josh Poimboeuf Reviewed-by: Alexandre Chartre Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman

x86/its: Add "vmexit" option to skip mitigation on some CPUs

2025-05-18T06:24:11+00:00

commit 2665281a07e19550944e8354a2024635a7b2714a upstream. Ice Lake generation CPUs are not affected by guest/host isolation part of ITS. If a user is only concerned about KVM guests, they can now choose a new cmdline option "vmexit" that will not deploy the ITS mitigation when CPU is not affected by guest/host isolation. This saves the performance overhead of ITS mitigation on Ice Lake gen CPUs. When "vmexit" option selected, if the CPU is affected by ITS guest/host isolation, the default ITS mitigation is deployed. Signed-off-by: Pawan Gupta Signed-off-by: Dave Hansen Reviewed-by: Josh Poimboeuf Reviewed-by: Alexandre Chartre Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman

x86/its: Enable Indirect Target Selection mitigation

2025-05-18T06:24:11+00:00

commit f4818881c47fd91fcb6d62373c57c7844e3de1c0 upstream. Indirect Target Selection (ITS) is a bug in some pre-ADL Intel CPUs with eIBRS. It affects prediction of indirect branch and RETs in the lower half of cacheline. Due to ITS such branches may get wrongly predicted to a target of (direct or indirect) branch that is located in the upper half of the cacheline. Scope of impact =============== Guest/host isolation -------------------- When eIBRS is used for guest/host isolation, the indirect branches in the VMM may still be predicted with targets corresponding to branches in the guest. Intra-mode ---------- cBPF or other native gadgets can be used for intra-mode training and disclosure using ITS. User/kernel isolation --------------------- When eIBRS is enabled user/kernel isolation is not impacted. Indirect Branch Prediction Barrier (IBPB) ----------------------------------------- After an IBPB, indirect branches may be predicted with targets corresponding to direct branches which were executed prior to IBPB. This is mitigated by a microcode update. Add cmdline parameter indirect_target_selection=off|on|force to control the mitigation to relocate the affected branches to an ITS-safe thunk i.e. located in the upper half of cacheline. Also add the sysfs reporting. When retpoline mitigation is deployed, ITS safe-thunks are not needed, because retpoline sequence is already ITS-safe. Similarly, when call depth tracking (CDT) mitigation is deployed (retbleed=stuff), ITS safe return thunk is not used, as CDT prevents RSB-underflow. To not overcomplicate things, ITS mitigation is not supported with spectre-v2 lfence;jmp mitigation. Moreover, it is less practical to deploy lfence;jmp mitigation on ITS affected parts anyways. Signed-off-by: Pawan Gupta Signed-off-by: Dave Hansen Reviewed-by: Josh Poimboeuf Reviewed-by: Alexandre Chartre Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman

x86/microcode: Prepare for minimal revision check

2025-03-07T15:45:54+00:00

commit 9407bda845dd19756e276d4f3abc15a20777ba45 upstream Applying microcode late can be fatal for the running kernel when the update changes functionality which is in use already in a non-compatible way, e.g. by removing a CPUID bit. There is no way for admins which do not have access to the vendors deep technical support to decide whether late loading of such a microcode is safe or not. Intel has added a new field to the microcode header which tells the minimal microcode revision which is required to be active in the CPU in order to be safe. Provide infrastructure for handling this in the core code and a command line switch which allows to enforce it. If the update is considered safe the kernel is not tainted and the annoying warning message not emitted. If it's enforced and the currently loaded microcode revision is not safe for late loading then the load is aborted. Signed-off-by: Thomas Gleixner Signed-off-by: Borislav Petkov (AMD) Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20231017211724.079611170@linutronix.de Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman