Arm CCA in KVM, drm/sched regression, ext4 iomap

Confidential computing and filesystem I/O paths dominated kernel traffic, with a large Arm CCA series for KVM and parallel work on ext4, buffers, TDX, and private NUMA memory. A drm/sched performance regression also drew maintainer attention shortly before the 7.2 release, alongside two BPF verifier fixes including a new CVE.

Arm CCA support for KVM reaches v16

A 45-patch series at version 16 adds Arm Confidential Compute Architecture support to KVM, covering confidential VMs and the Realm Management Monitor. The posting includes hardware testing feedback and ongoing review on linux-kernel. arm64 virtualization developers tracking confidential compute should examine the latest revision of this long-running effort.

drm/sched FAIR policy causes GPU regression

A regression report ties the FAIR policy switch in drm/sched to serious performance degradation at maximum GPU load on the 9070XT. Maintainers discussed a revert in the days before the 7.2 release. GPU driver users and scheduler maintainers have a late-cycle performance dispute to weigh.

Buffer heads stop clearing BH_Uptodate on write failure

A 21-patch v2 series changes buffer write-error handling so BH_Uptodate is no longer cleared when a write fails, and moves filesystems onto BH_Write_EIO. The work revises long-standing error semantics in the buffer layer. Filesystem and block developers should review the new failure model.

ext4 buffered I/O conversion to iomap

Version 5 of a 32-patch series converts ext4 regular-file buffered I/O from buffer_head to iomap, adding new disksize ordering and zeroing logic. The series continues the kernel-wide move away from buffer heads for buffered paths. ext4 and storage-stack maintainers have a substantial conversion to evaluate.

CVE-2026-72111: BPF verifier stale bounds on LSM retvals

The kernel assigned CVE-2026-72111 for a BPF verifier flaw in which stale register bounds could yield incorrect narrowing on LSM retval loads inside check_mem_access(). The fix resets register bounds before narrowing the retval range. BPF and LSM consumers should track the assigned issue and its remedy.

TDX guest quote buffers made dynamic

A four-patch v3 series makes TDX guest quote buffer sizes dynamic and prompted KVM and Intel discussion of attestation scoping, DICE, and migration uAPI. The thread explores how attestation interfaces should be shaped for guests. Confidential computing and live-migration developers on TDX are the primary audience.

Private memory NUMA nodes

Version 5 of a 36-patch set introduces N_MEMORY_PRIVATE nodes for default-isolated device memory with opt-in mm services. The design keeps device-private memory isolated while allowing selective core memory-management features. Driver authors for specialized memory and NUMA-aware code should review the node model.

BPF verifier keeps fault protection on pointer merges

Daniel Borkmann posted a v2 six-patch series that preserves fault protection when the BPF verifier merges pointer types, so fault-prone loads retain the BPF_PROBE_MEM rewrite. The change closes a correctness gap in pointer-type handling. BPF subsystem developers should inspect the updated merge logic.