[PATCH] sched/uclamp: Fix race condition leading to imbalanced uclamp_rq

From: Qais Yousef

Date: Sat Oct 24 2026 - 19:39:55 EST


Static keys are not guaranteed to be enabled atomically across CPUs.
Which means when sched_uclamp_used is enabled, some CPUs will return
true for uclamp_is_used() while others won't, leading to asymmetric
ulcamp_rq_{inc, dec}_id. If we decrement without increment this is safe
as documented in the code. But an increment without a decrement is
a problem and will leave the uclamp_rq in a corrupt state.

The race for increment without a decrement is interesting as it means
a CPU has seen the static key flipped and incremented while enqueueing
a task, but the task was dequeued on another CPU that hasn't seen the
static key flipped - we need to be wary this might be a symptom of
something else going wrong.

Plugging the race is hard as discussed in [1]. Take it for granted and do
correction actions on going to idle to guarantee this state is transient
for a short period after uclamp_sched_used is enabled.

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/CANDhNCqyXsZ6G77z+9s=rTO6BZifRG9+hVxMTah+tAv6pB6h3w@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx/

Reported-by: Wei Wang <wvw@xxxxxxxxxx>
Fixes: 46609ce227039 ("sched/uclamp: Protect uclamp fast path code with static key")
Signed-off-by: Qais Yousef <qyousef@xxxxxxxxxxx>
---

Tested with the patch below to force imbalance via sched_feat. I could see the
warning appearing and frequencies spiking during imbalance. Correct behavior is
restored when sched_feat is disabled where the idle entry reset fixes things
up.

I had a mix of uclamp_max mainly used in the system via schedqosd.

diff --git a/kernel/sched/core.c b/kernel/sched/core.c
index c6780358a7975..d3e73ba88f22b 100644
--- a/kernel/sched/core.c
+++ b/kernel/sched/core.c
@@ -1889,6 +1889,11 @@ static inline void uclamp_rq_inc(struct rq *rq, struct task_struct *p, int flags
for_each_clamp_id(clamp_id)
uclamp_rq_inc_id(rq, p, clamp_id);

+ if (sched_feat(UCLAMP_IMBALANCED)) {
+ for_each_clamp_id(clamp_id)
+ uclamp_rq_inc_id(rq, p, clamp_id);
+ }
+
/* Reset clamp idle holding when there is one RUNNABLE task */
if (rq->uclamp_flags & UCLAMP_FLAG_IDLE)
rq->uclamp_flags &= ~UCLAMP_FLAG_IDLE;
diff --git a/kernel/sched/features.h b/kernel/sched/features.h
index 8f0dee8fc4755..b59e532500fd9 100644
--- a/kernel/sched/features.h
+++ b/kernel/sched/features.h
@@ -142,3 +142,5 @@ SCHED_FEAT(LATENCY_WARN, false)
*/
SCHED_FEAT(NI_RANDOM, true)
SCHED_FEAT(NI_RATE, true)
+
+SCHED_FEAT(UCLAMP_IMBALANCED, false)
diff --git a/kernel/sched/idle.c b/kernel/sched/idle.c
index 950e2885bba63..cb31b3c9df23c 100644
--- a/kernel/sched/idle.c
+++ b/kernel/sched/idle.c
@@ -516,7 +516,7 @@ static void set_next_task_idle(struct rq *rq, struct task_struct *next, enum snt
* everything should work as expected.
*/
if (uclamp_is_used()) {
- if (unlikely(uclamp_is_imbalanced(rq)))
+ if (unlikely(WARN_ON(uclamp_is_imbalanced(rq))))
init_uclamp_rq(rq);
}
}


kernel/sched/core.c | 2 +-
kernel/sched/idle.c | 17 +++++++++++++++++
kernel/sched/sched.h | 35 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
3 files changed, 53 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/kernel/sched/core.c b/kernel/sched/core.c
index d7c3b43158dea..c6780358a7975 100644
--- a/kernel/sched/core.c
+++ b/kernel/sched/core.c
@@ -2111,7 +2111,7 @@ static void uclamp_post_fork(struct task_struct *p)
uclamp_update_util_min_rt_default(p);
}

-static void __init init_uclamp_rq(struct rq *rq)
+void init_uclamp_rq(struct rq *rq)
{
enum uclamp_id clamp_id;
struct uclamp_rq *uc_rq = rq->uclamp;
diff --git a/kernel/sched/idle.c b/kernel/sched/idle.c
index 76f3c84ca6846..950e2885bba63 100644
--- a/kernel/sched/idle.c
+++ b/kernel/sched/idle.c
@@ -502,6 +502,23 @@ static void set_next_task_idle(struct rq *rq, struct task_struct *next, enum snt
* lost_idle_time of clock_pelt
*/
update_idle_rq_clock_pelt(rq);
+
+ /*
+ * Due to a race condition when enabling sched_uclamp_used static key,
+ * we can end up with imbalance where uclamp_rq_inc_id() has happened
+ * on a CPU without uclamp_rq_dec_id() on another CPU that hasn't seen
+ * the static key flipped. The race condition is unlikely, but ensure
+ * the uclamp_rq() state is set properly on each entry to idle.
+ *
+ * The reset will cause the uclamp_max from uclamp_idle_value() to be
+ * lost. Since we are imbalanced, hard to know what is right. So just
+ * cleanup. This should be a transient error state once we recover
+ * everything should work as expected.
+ */
+ if (uclamp_is_used()) {
+ if (unlikely(uclamp_is_imbalanced(rq)))
+ init_uclamp_rq(rq);
+ }
}

struct task_struct *pick_task_idle(struct rq *rq, struct rq_flags *rf)
diff --git a/kernel/sched/sched.h b/kernel/sched/sched.h
index 7d2ec527b8a25..232ed37227ee4 100644
--- a/kernel/sched/sched.h
+++ b/kernel/sched/sched.h
@@ -3704,6 +3704,7 @@ static inline unsigned long cpu_util_rt(struct rq *rq)
#ifdef CONFIG_UCLAMP_TASK

unsigned long uclamp_eff_value(struct task_struct *p, enum uclamp_id clamp_id);
+void init_uclamp_rq(struct rq *rq);

/*
* When uclamp is compiled in, the aggregation at rq level is 'turned off'
@@ -3783,6 +3784,33 @@ static inline unsigned int uclamp_bucket_id(unsigned int clamp_value)
return min_t(unsigned int, clamp_value / UCLAMP_BUCKET_DELTA, UCLAMP_BUCKETS - 1);
}

+static inline bool __uclamp_is_imbalanced(struct rq *rq, enum uclamp_id clamp_id)
+{
+ struct uclamp_bucket *bucket = rq->uclamp[clamp_id].bucket;
+ int bucket_id = UCLAMP_BUCKETS - 1;
+
+ /*
+ * On idle all bucket.tasks must be 0, or we have hit imbalance
+ * problem.
+ */
+ for ( ; bucket_id >= 0; bucket_id--)
+ if (bucket[bucket_id].tasks)
+ return true;
+
+ return false;
+}
+
+static inline bool uclamp_is_imbalanced(struct rq *rq)
+{
+ enum uclamp_id clamp_id;
+
+ for_each_clamp_id(clamp_id)
+ if(__uclamp_is_imbalanced(rq, clamp_id))
+ return true;
+
+ return false;
+}
+
static inline void
uclamp_se_set(struct uclamp_se *uc_se, unsigned int value, bool user_defined)
{
@@ -3802,6 +3830,8 @@ uclamp_eff_value(struct task_struct *p, enum uclamp_id clamp_id)
return SCHED_CAPACITY_SCALE;
}

+void init_uclamp_rq(struct rq *rq) {}
+
static inline bool uclamp_rq_is_capped(struct rq *rq) { return false; }

static inline bool uclamp_is_used(void)
@@ -3830,6 +3860,11 @@ static inline bool uclamp_rq_is_idle(struct rq *rq)
return false;
}

+static inline bool uclamp_is_imbalanced(struct rq *rq)
+{
+ return false;
+}
+
#endif /* !CONFIG_UCLAMP_TASK */

#ifdef CONFIG_HAVE_SCHED_AVG_IRQ
--
2.53.0