[PATCH v3 04/16] KVM: VMX: Unconditionally allocate root VMCSes during boot CPU bringup
From: Sean Christopherson
Date: Fri Feb 13 2026 - 20:28:04 EST
Allocate the root VMCS (misleading called "vmxarea" and "kvm_area" in KVM)
for each possible CPU during early boot CPU bringup, before early TDX
initialization, so that TDX can eventually do VMXON on-demand (to make
SEAMCALLs) without needing to load kvm-intel.ko. Allocate the pages early
on, e.g. instead of trying to do so on-demand, to avoid having to juggle
allocation failures at runtime.
Opportunistically rename the per-CPU pointers to better reflect the role
of the VMCS. Use Intel's "root VMCS" terminology, e.g. from various VMCS
patents[1][2] and older SDMs, not the more opaque "VMXON region" used in
recent versions of the SDM. While it's possible the VMCS passed to VMXON
no longer serves as _the_ root VMCS on modern CPUs, it is still in effect
a "root mode VMCS", as described in the patents.
Link: https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/c7/e4/32/d7a7def5580667/WO2013101191A1.pdf [1]
Link: https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/13/f6/8d/1361fab8c33373/US20080163205A1.pdf [2]
Signed-off-by: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
arch/x86/include/asm/virt.h | 13 ++++++-
arch/x86/kernel/cpu/common.c | 2 +
arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.c | 58 ++---------------------------
arch/x86/virt/hw.c | 71 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
4 files changed, 89 insertions(+), 55 deletions(-)
diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/virt.h b/arch/x86/include/asm/virt.h
index 131b9bf9ef3c..0da6db4f5b0c 100644
--- a/arch/x86/include/asm/virt.h
+++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/virt.h
@@ -2,10 +2,21 @@
#ifndef _ASM_X86_VIRT_H
#define _ASM_X86_VIRT_H
-#include <linux/types.h>
+#include <linux/percpu-defs.h>
+
+#include <asm/reboot.h>
#if IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_KVM_X86)
extern bool virt_rebooting;
+
+void __init x86_virt_init(void);
+
+#if IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_KVM_INTEL)
+DECLARE_PER_CPU(struct vmcs *, root_vmcs);
+#endif
+
+#else
+static __always_inline void x86_virt_init(void) {}
#endif
#endif /* _ASM_X86_VIRT_H */
diff --git a/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/common.c b/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/common.c
index e7ab22fce3b5..dda9e41292db 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/common.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/common.c
@@ -71,6 +71,7 @@
#include <asm/traps.h>
#include <asm/sev.h>
#include <asm/tdx.h>
+#include <asm/virt.h>
#include <asm/posted_intr.h>
#include <asm/runtime-const.h>
@@ -2143,6 +2144,7 @@ static __init void identify_boot_cpu(void)
cpu_detect_tlb(&boot_cpu_data);
setup_cr_pinning();
+ x86_virt_init();
tsx_init();
tdx_init();
lkgs_init();
diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.c b/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.c
index fc6e3b620866..abd4830f71d8 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.c
@@ -580,7 +580,6 @@ noinline void invept_error(unsigned long ext, u64 eptp)
vmx_insn_failed("invept failed: ext=0x%lx eptp=%llx\n", ext, eptp);
}
-static DEFINE_PER_CPU(struct vmcs *, vmxarea);
DEFINE_PER_CPU(struct vmcs *, current_vmcs);
/*
* We maintain a per-CPU linked-list of VMCS loaded on that CPU. This is needed
@@ -2934,6 +2933,9 @@ static bool __kvm_is_vmx_supported(void)
return false;
}
+ if (!per_cpu(root_vmcs, cpu))
+ return false;
+
return true;
}
@@ -3008,7 +3010,7 @@ static int kvm_cpu_vmxon(u64 vmxon_pointer)
int vmx_enable_virtualization_cpu(void)
{
int cpu = raw_smp_processor_id();
- u64 phys_addr = __pa(per_cpu(vmxarea, cpu));
+ u64 phys_addr = __pa(per_cpu(root_vmcs, cpu));
int r;
if (cr4_read_shadow() & X86_CR4_VMXE)
@@ -3129,47 +3131,6 @@ int alloc_loaded_vmcs(struct loaded_vmcs *loaded_vmcs)
return -ENOMEM;
}
-static void free_kvm_area(void)
-{
- int cpu;
-
- for_each_possible_cpu(cpu) {
- free_vmcs(per_cpu(vmxarea, cpu));
- per_cpu(vmxarea, cpu) = NULL;
- }
-}
-
-static __init int alloc_kvm_area(void)
-{
- int cpu;
-
- for_each_possible_cpu(cpu) {
- struct vmcs *vmcs;
-
- vmcs = alloc_vmcs_cpu(false, cpu, GFP_KERNEL);
- if (!vmcs) {
- free_kvm_area();
- return -ENOMEM;
- }
-
- /*
- * When eVMCS is enabled, alloc_vmcs_cpu() sets
- * vmcs->revision_id to KVM_EVMCS_VERSION instead of
- * revision_id reported by MSR_IA32_VMX_BASIC.
- *
- * However, even though not explicitly documented by
- * TLFS, VMXArea passed as VMXON argument should
- * still be marked with revision_id reported by
- * physical CPU.
- */
- if (kvm_is_using_evmcs())
- vmcs->hdr.revision_id = vmx_basic_vmcs_revision_id(vmcs_config.basic);
-
- per_cpu(vmxarea, cpu) = vmcs;
- }
- return 0;
-}
-
static void fix_pmode_seg(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, int seg,
struct kvm_segment *save)
{
@@ -8566,8 +8527,6 @@ void vmx_hardware_unsetup(void)
if (nested)
nested_vmx_hardware_unsetup();
-
- free_kvm_area();
}
void vmx_vm_destroy(struct kvm *kvm)
@@ -8870,10 +8829,6 @@ __init int vmx_hardware_setup(void)
return r;
}
- r = alloc_kvm_area();
- if (r)
- goto err_kvm_area;
-
kvm_set_posted_intr_wakeup_handler(pi_wakeup_handler);
/*
@@ -8900,11 +8855,6 @@ __init int vmx_hardware_setup(void)
kvm_caps.inapplicable_quirks &= ~KVM_X86_QUIRK_IGNORE_GUEST_PAT;
return 0;
-
-err_kvm_area:
- if (nested)
- nested_vmx_hardware_unsetup();
- return r;
}
void vmx_exit(void)
diff --git a/arch/x86/virt/hw.c b/arch/x86/virt/hw.c
index df3dc18d19b4..56972f594d90 100644
--- a/arch/x86/virt/hw.c
+++ b/arch/x86/virt/hw.c
@@ -1,7 +1,78 @@
// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-only
+#include <linux/cpu.h>
+#include <linux/cpumask.h>
+#include <linux/errno.h>
#include <linux/kvm_types.h>
+#include <linux/list.h>
+#include <linux/percpu.h>
+#include <asm/perf_event.h>
+#include <asm/processor.h>
#include <asm/virt.h>
+#include <asm/vmx.h>
__visible bool virt_rebooting;
EXPORT_SYMBOL_FOR_KVM(virt_rebooting);
+
+#if IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_KVM_INTEL)
+DEFINE_PER_CPU(struct vmcs *, root_vmcs);
+EXPORT_PER_CPU_SYMBOL(root_vmcs);
+
+static __init void x86_vmx_exit(void)
+{
+ int cpu;
+
+ for_each_possible_cpu(cpu) {
+ free_page((unsigned long)per_cpu(root_vmcs, cpu));
+ per_cpu(root_vmcs, cpu) = NULL;
+ }
+}
+
+static __init int x86_vmx_init(void)
+{
+ u64 basic_msr;
+ u32 rev_id;
+ int cpu;
+
+ if (!cpu_feature_enabled(X86_FEATURE_VMX))
+ return -EOPNOTSUPP;
+
+ rdmsrq(MSR_IA32_VMX_BASIC, basic_msr);
+
+ /* IA-32 SDM Vol 3B: VMCS size is never greater than 4kB. */
+ if (WARN_ON_ONCE(vmx_basic_vmcs_size(basic_msr) > PAGE_SIZE))
+ return -EIO;
+
+ /*
+ * Even if eVMCS is enabled (or will be enabled?), and even though not
+ * explicitly documented by TLFS, the root VMCS passed to VMXON should
+ * still be marked with the revision_id reported by the physical CPU.
+ */
+ rev_id = vmx_basic_vmcs_revision_id(basic_msr);
+
+ for_each_possible_cpu(cpu) {
+ int node = cpu_to_node(cpu);
+ struct page *page;
+ struct vmcs *vmcs;
+
+ page = __alloc_pages_node(node, GFP_KERNEL | __GFP_ZERO, 0);
+ if (!page) {
+ x86_vmx_exit();
+ return -ENOMEM;
+ }
+
+ vmcs = page_address(page);
+ vmcs->hdr.revision_id = rev_id;
+ per_cpu(root_vmcs, cpu) = vmcs;
+ }
+
+ return 0;
+}
+#else
+static __init int x86_vmx_init(void) { return -EOPNOTSUPP; }
+#endif
+
+void __init x86_virt_init(void)
+{
+ x86_vmx_init();
+}
--
2.53.0.310.g728cabbaf7-goog