Linux i915 GPU kernel driver (GT timeline / VMA allocation): A timeline is left held when VMA allocation fails, so

Impact

A timeline is left held when VMA allocation fails, so the error path leaks a reference and the driver wedges. Shows up as hung GPU submissions and an unresponsive card after memory pressure - which on a busy training node is a common condition, not a rare one.

Who can reach it

Any local user or container with a DRM render node - i.e. any tenant that was scheduled a GPU. No privileged capability needed.

What to do

Fix ships in the Linux kernel. Update the kernel and reboot the node - in practice this is a drain plus reboot because the accelerator driver cannot be unloaded while jobs hold device file descriptors. No BIOS or firmware update needed.

References