Fedora 41 Guest and Workstastion video driver "dma-fence" warnings

[gbohn]

I've been using Workstation 17.6.3 under a Windows 11 24H2 host and a Fedora 41 Guest for a while now. This is using KDE as the guest desktop, Nvidia discreet video drivers on the host (4070 video), and AMD Ryzen 7950X3D CPU.

After applying some recent guest updates I've noticed that I now often get some pop-up "kernel warnings" in the guest on Guest startup (but so far only on guest startup).

As best as I can tell these seem to complain about issues with 'dma-fence' and the Workstation video driver.

Anyone else seeing this?

For example, from dmesg

[ 1405.066830] Fence vmwgfx:svga:2:d2d2c released with pending signals!
[ 1405.066836] WARNING: CPU: 3 PID: 2223 at drivers/dma-buf/dma-fence.c:538 dma_fence_release+0xd8/0x150
[ 1405.066839] Modules linked in: vhost_net vhost vhost_iotlb tap tun uinput snd_seq_dummy snd_hrtimer xt_DSCP nft_compat nft_fib_inet nft_fib_ipv4 nft_fib_ipv6 nft_fib nft_reject_inet nf_reject_ipv4 nf_reject_ipv6 nft_reject nft_ct nft_chain_nat nf_nat nf_conntrack nf_defrag_ipv6 nf_defrag_ipv4 rfkill ip_set nf_tables sunrpc qrtr snd_seq_midi snd_seq_midi_event binfmt_misc vfat fat snd_ens1371 snd_ac97_codec intel_rapl_msr gameport vmw_balloon intel_rapl_common snd_rawmidi ac97_bus snd_seq snd_seq_device snd_pcm pcspkr vmxnet3 snd_timer snd soundcore pktcdvd joydev i2c_piix4 i2c_smbus loop nfnetlink vsock_loopback vmw_vsock_virtio_transport_common vmw_vsock_vmci_transport vsock zram vmw_vmci lz4hc_compress lz4_compress polyval_clmulni polyval_generic ghash_clmulni_intel nvme sha512_ssse3 sha256_ssse3 nvme_core sha1_ssse3 nvme_keyring nvme_auth vmwgfx drm_ttm_helper ttm ata_generic pata_acpi serio_raw fuse i2c_dev
[ 1405.066892] CPU: 3 UID: 1000 PID: 2223 Comm: kwin_wayland Tainted: G        W           6.15.4-100.fc41.x86_64 #1 PREEMPT(lazy)
[ 1405.066894] Tainted: [W]=WARN
[ 1405.066895] Hardware name: VMware, Inc. VMware20,1/440BX Desktop Reference Platform, BIOS VMW201.00V.24006586.B64.2406042154 06/04/2024
[ 1405.066897] RIP: 0010:dma_fence_release+0xd8/0x150
[ 1405.066898] Code: 89 e7 49 89 c5 48 8b 43 d0 48 8b 40 08 ff d0 0f 1f 00 4d 89 f8 4c 89 f1 4c 89 ea 48 89 c6 48 c7 c7 68 4f 2d bb e8 18 2d 44 ff <0f> 0b 48 8b 7b c8 e8 ed b7 54 00 c7 43 04 dd ff ff ff 49 89 c5 e8
[ 1405.066900] RSP: 0018:ffffd0cd1d7a7b88 EFLAGS: 00010282
[ 1405.066901] RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff8a160e4217f0 RCX: 0000000000000027
[ 1405.066903] RDX: ffff8a18e7f9cb88 RSI: 0000000000000001 RDI: ffff8a18e7f9cb80
[ 1405.066904] RBP: ffff8a160e4217c8 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000
[ 1405.066905] R10: 0000000000000020 R11: 0000000000000008 R12: ffff8a160e4217b8
[ 1405.066906] R13: ffffffffc03dda8f R14: 0000000000000002 R15: 00000000000d2d2c
[ 1405.066907] FS:  00007f0bf92f32c0(0000) GS:ffff8a192b383000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
[ 1405.066908] CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
[ 1405.066910] CR2: 00007f0bcb769e60 CR3: 00000001076b9000 CR4: 0000000000f50ef0
[ 1405.066912] PKRU: 55555554
[ 1405.066913] Call Trace:
[ 1405.066914]  <TASK>
[ 1405.066916]  sync_file_release+0x5a/0x80
[ 1405.066919]  __fput+0xe3/0x2a0
[ 1405.066921]  __x64_sys_close+0x3d/0x80
[ 1405.066923]  do_syscall_64+0x82/0x170
[ 1405.066925]  ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5
[ 1405.066927]  ? drm_ioctl+0x2c2/0x510
[ 1405.066930]  ? __pfx_vmw_fence_obj_unref_ioctl+0x10/0x10 [vmwgfx]
[ 1405.066941]  ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5
[ 1405.066942]  ? vmw_generic_ioctl+0xbb/0x170 [vmwgfx]
[ 1405.066949]  ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5
[ 1405.066950]  ? syscall_exit_to_user_mode+0x10/0x210
[ 1405.066953]  ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5
[ 1405.066954]  ? do_syscall_64+0x8e/0x170
[ 1405.066958]  ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5
[ 1405.066960]  ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5
[ 1405.066962]  ? syscall_exit_to_user_mode+0x10/0x210
[ 1405.066963]  ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5
[ 1405.066965]  ? do_syscall_64+0x8e/0x170
[ 1405.066967]  ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5
[ 1405.066969]  ? exc_page_fault+0x7e/0x1a0
[ 1405.066970]  entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e
[ 1405.066972] RIP: 0033:0x7f0bffaef21c
[ 1405.066976] Code: 0f 05 48 3d 00 f0 ff ff 77 3c c3 0f 1f 00 55 48 89 e5 48 83 ec 10 89 7d fc e8 00 ab f8 ff 8b 7d fc 89 c2 b8 03 00 00 00 0f 05 <48> 3d 00 f0 ff ff 77 2c 89 d7 89 45 fc e8 62 ab f8 ff 8b 45 fc c9
[ 1405.066977] RSP: 002b:00007fffcae38f90 EFLAGS: 00000293 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000003
[ 1405.066979] RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 00007f0bffaef21c
[ 1405.066980] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: 0000000000000180
[ 1405.066981] RBP: 00007fffcae38fa0 R08: 000055e7f68c8088 R09: 0000000000000000
[ 1405.066982] R10: 000055e7f7f1d530 R11: 0000000000000293 R12: 000055e7f82552d8
[ 1405.066983] R13: 000055e7f8659240 R14: 000055e7f6770428 R15: 00007fffcae39250
[ 1405.066986]  </TASK>
[ 1405.066987] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---

[Technogeezer]

What Linux kernel version are you using in the Fedora guest?

Does the error message go away if you disable 3D acceleration for the guest in its settings?

------------------------------
- Paul (technogeezer)
vExpert 2025
------------------------------

[Technogeezer]

Also, note the vmwgfx VMware virtual graphics driver module is part of the Linux kernel sources and not Workstation, VMware Tools or open-vm-tools. You might want to file a bug report with the Fedora distribution (through RedHat's Bugzilla).

------------------------------
- Paul (technogeezer)
vExpert 2025
------------------------------

[gbohn]

The current kernel version is 6.15.4-100.fc41.x86_64.

I'll have to try without 3D acceleration enabled and see if that's any different.

[Ian Forbes]

I think I know what the issue is. No need to report to Fedora. This shouldn't be harmful unless it's being spammed in the dmesg log.

[Technogeezer]

@Ian Forbes Thanks for weighing in on this. 

------------------------------
- Paul (technogeezer)
vExpert 2025
------------------------------

[gbohn]

Thanks.

I get what seems like zero to 4 hits on login at startup, but otherwise it's not a problem.

Glad I can safely ignore this until whatever needs updating gets updated.

[Arjan]

Can you elaborate on what the issue is and if there's a workaround/fix ? All 6.15.x kernels are affected with Fedora, not just in FC41.

I have a FC42 KDE spin and this error is spamming the heck out of my syslog with multiple per second non stop and actually creating noticeable cpu load by doing so. (which is how i actually found out about this issue lol)

Booting back to 6.14 fixes it.

[WARWICK MCNAUGHTON]

I have exactly the same as Arjan (spamming journalctl logs).  Running FC42 with Fusion, host is Macbook Pro and guest is Fedora Cosmic Atomic. Kernel is 6.15.4-200.fc42.aarch64

[Ian Forbes]

If it's spamming you can reduce the kernel log level to errors only or downgrade the kernel. The fixes have been merged and will be in 6.17. This seems to only affect KDE and Cosmic which are probably doing something dubious, but as stated earlier this shouldn't be harmful other than the excessive logging.

[WARWICK MCNAUGHTON]

Thanks - that is helpful. I had downgraded kernel so will keep an eye out for 6.17.

I wondered if it was something to do with Wayland but I don’t have any reason for that other than some Cosmic related errors that seem to relate to graphical issues. Cosmics only in alpha so not expecting it to be perfect.

[gbohn]

Do you know if kernel 6.17 is going to ever make it in to Fedora 41?

My Fedora 41 system only has kernel 6.15.7. 

I'm not familiar with how Fedora usually handles newer kernel versions and what does or doesn't get updated. But 6.17 seems to be a lot further away than say 6.15.8 presumably is and the end of Fedora 41 support is later this year as I understand it.