[PATCH v3 9/9] KVM: VMX: Only tell perf to enable PEBS counters for fully enabled PMCs

From: Sean Christopherson

Date: Fri May 08 2026 - 19:15:33 EST


When passing the guest's requested PEBS_ENABLE (or rather, KVM's version
of PEBS_ENABLE on behalf of the guest), omit counters that are locally
disable and/or don't have a perf event (due to contention), in addition to
omitting counters that are cross-mapped in the host.

In practice, this should be a nop as perf will already have disabled the
associated counter, i.e. cpuc->pebs_enabled should have been cleared, but
paranoia is cheap, and the existing code _looks_ wrong.

Signed-off-by: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
arch/x86/kvm/vmx/pmu_intel.c | 30 ++++++++++++++++--------------
arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.c | 11 +----------
arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.h | 15 ++++++++++++++-
3 files changed, 31 insertions(+), 25 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/pmu_intel.c b/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/pmu_intel.c
index 659fe097b904..1e420c8bca9d 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/pmu_intel.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/pmu_intel.c
@@ -736,34 +736,36 @@ static void intel_pmu_cleanup(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
intel_pmu_release_guest_lbr_event(vcpu);
}

-u64 intel_pmu_get_cross_mapped_mask(struct kvm_pmu *pmu)
+u64 __intel_pmu_compute_pebs_enable(struct kvm_pmu *pmu)
{
- u64 host_cross_mapped_mask;
+ u64 guest_pebs_enable = pmu->pebs_enable & pmu->global_ctrl;
+ u64 pebs_enable = 0;
struct kvm_pmc *pmc;
int bit, hw_idx;

/*
- * Provide a mask of counters that are cross-mapped between the guest
- * and the host, i.e. where a guest PMC is mapped to a host PMC with a
- * different index. PEBS records hold a PERF_GLOBAL_STATUS snapshot,
- * and so PEBS-enabled counters need to hold the correct index so as
- * not to confuse the guest.
+ * Omit counters that are locally disabled, don't have a perf event, or
+ * ended up with a perf event that is using a different counter than
+ * the guest, i.e. where the guest PMC is different than the host PMC
+ * being used on behalf of the guest. PEBS records include
+ * PERF_GLOBAL_STATUS, and so using a counter with a different index
+ * means the guest will see overflow status for the wrong counter(s).
*/
- host_cross_mapped_mask = 0;
-
- kvm_for_each_pmc(pmu, pmc, bit, (unsigned long *)&pmu->global_ctrl) {
+ kvm_for_each_pmc(pmu, pmc, bit, (unsigned long *)&guest_pebs_enable) {
if (!pmc_is_locally_enabled(pmc) || !pmc->perf_event)
continue;

/*
- * A negative index indicates the event isn't mapped to a
+ * Note, a negative index indicates the event isn't mapped to a
* physical counter in the host, e.g. due to contention.
*/
hw_idx = pmc->perf_event->hw.idx;
- if (hw_idx != pmc->idx && hw_idx > -1)
- host_cross_mapped_mask |= BIT_ULL(hw_idx);
+ if (hw_idx != pmc->idx)
+ continue;
+
+ pebs_enable |= BIT_ULL(pmc->idx);
}
- return host_cross_mapped_mask;
+ return pebs_enable;
}

static bool intel_pmu_is_mediated_pmu_supported(struct x86_pmu_capability *host_pmu)
diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.c b/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.c
index fbe3ce5f5a51..31675e5cf563 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.c
@@ -7314,20 +7314,11 @@ static void atomic_switch_perf_msrs(struct vcpu_vmx *vmx)
return;

struct x86_guest_pebs guest_pebs = {
- .enable = pmu->pebs_enable,
+ .enable = intel_pmu_compute_pebs_enable(pmu),
.ds_area = pmu->ds_area,
.data_cfg = pmu->pebs_data_cfg,
};

- /*
- * Disable counters where the guest PMC is different than the host PMC
- * being used on behalf of the guest, as the PEBS record includes
- * PERF_GLOBAL_STATUS, i.e. the guest will see overflow status for the
- * wrong counter(s).
- */
- if (guest_pebs.enable & pmu->global_ctrl)
- guest_pebs.enable &= ~intel_pmu_get_cross_mapped_mask(pmu);
-
/* Note, nr_msrs may be garbage if perf_guest_get_msrs() returns NULL. */
msrs = perf_guest_get_msrs(&nr_msrs, &guest_pebs);
if (!msrs)
diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.h b/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.h
index 0c4563472940..b055731efd2d 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.h
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.h
@@ -659,7 +659,20 @@ static __always_inline struct vcpu_vmx *to_vmx(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
return container_of(vcpu, struct vcpu_vmx, vcpu);
}

-u64 intel_pmu_get_cross_mapped_mask(struct kvm_pmu *pmu);
+u64 __intel_pmu_compute_pebs_enable(struct kvm_pmu *pmu);
+
+static inline u64 intel_pmu_compute_pebs_enable(struct kvm_pmu *pmu)
+{
+ /*
+ * Avoid the function call overhead in the common case that the guest
+ * isn't using PEBS.
+ */
+ if (!(pmu->pebs_enable & pmu->global_ctrl))
+ return 0;
+
+ return __intel_pmu_compute_pebs_enable(pmu);
+}
+
int intel_pmu_create_guest_lbr_event(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu);
void vmx_passthrough_lbr_msrs(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu);

--
2.54.0.563.g4f69b47b94-goog