linux-kernel - [PATCH 05/18] KVM: x86: Unconditionally handle MSR_IA32_TSC

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Message-ID: <20250805190526.1453366-6-seanjc@google.com>
Date: Tue,  5 Aug 2025 12:05:13 -0700
From: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@...gle.com>
To: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@...gle.com>, Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@...hat.com>
Cc: kvm@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Xin Li <xin@...or.com>, 
	Dapeng Mi <dapeng1.mi@...ux.intel.com>, Sandipan Das <sandipan.das@....com>
Subject: [PATCH 05/18] KVM: x86: Unconditionally handle MSR_IA32_TSC_DEADLINE
 in fastpath exits

Drop the fastpath VM-Exit requirement that KVM can use the hypervisor
timer to emulate the APIC timer in TSC deadline mode.  I.e. unconditionally
handle MSR_IA32_TSC_DEADLINE WRMSRs in the fastpath.  Restricting the
fastpath to *maybe* using the VMX preemption timer is ineffective and
unnecessary.

If the requested deadline can't be programmed into the VMX preemption
timer, KVM will fall back to hrtimers, i.e. the restriction is ineffective
as far as preventing any kind of worst case scenario.

But guarding against a worst case scenario is completely unnecessary as
the "slow" path, start_sw_tscdeadline() => hrtimer_start(), explicitly
disables IRQs.  In fact, the worst case scenario is when KVM thinks it
can use the VMX preemption timer, as KVM will eat the overhead of calling
into vmx_set_hv_timer() and falling back to hrtimers.

Opportunistically limit kvm_can_use_hv_timer() to lapic.c as the fastpath
code was the only external user.

Stating the obvious, this allows handling MSR_IA32_TSC_DEADLINE writes in
the fastpath on AMD CPUs.

Signed-off-by: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@...gle.com>
---
 arch/x86/kvm/lapic.c | 2 +-
 arch/x86/kvm/lapic.h | 1 -
 arch/x86/kvm/x86.c   | 3 ---
 3 files changed, 1 insertion(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/lapic.c b/arch/x86/kvm/lapic.c
index bd3232dd7a63..e19545b8cc98 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/lapic.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/lapic.c
@@ -130,7 +130,7 @@ static bool kvm_can_post_timer_interrupt(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
 		(kvm_mwait_in_guest(vcpu->kvm) || kvm_hlt_in_guest(vcpu->kvm));
 }

-bool kvm_can_use_hv_timer(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
+static bool kvm_can_use_hv_timer(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
 {
 	return kvm_x86_ops.set_hv_timer
 	       && !(kvm_mwait_in_guest(vcpu->kvm) ||
diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/lapic.h b/arch/x86/kvm/lapic.h
index 1b2d408816aa..8b00e29741de 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/lapic.h
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/lapic.h
@@ -249,7 +249,6 @@ void kvm_lapic_switch_to_hv_timer(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu);
 void kvm_lapic_expired_hv_timer(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu);
 bool kvm_lapic_hv_timer_in_use(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu);
 void kvm_lapic_restart_hv_timer(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu);
-bool kvm_can_use_hv_timer(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu);

 static inline enum lapic_mode kvm_apic_mode(u64 apic_base)
 {
diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c b/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c
index ea117c4b20c8..63ca9185d133 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c
@@ -2150,9 +2150,6 @@ static int handle_fastpath_set_x2apic_icr_irqoff(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, u64 data

 static int handle_fastpath_set_tscdeadline(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, u64 data)
 {
-	if (!kvm_can_use_hv_timer(vcpu))
-		return 1;
-
 	kvm_set_lapic_tscdeadline_msr(vcpu, data);
 	return 0;
 }
-- 
2.50.1.565.gc32cd1483b-goog