linux-kernel - Re: [RESEND PATCH v2] x86/tsx: Set default TSX mode to auto

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Message-ID: <989e5135-eb55-443d-a836-273249fc51c6@suse.com>
Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2025 09:01:36 +0200
From: Nikolay Borisov <nik.borisov@...e.com>
To: Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@...el.com>, x86@...nel.org
Cc: dave.hansen@...ux.intel.com, mhocko@...e.de, asit.k.mallick@...el.com,
 linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [RESEND PATCH v2] x86/tsx: Set default TSX mode to auto



On 12.11.25 г. 21:13 ч., Dave Hansen wrote:
> On 11/12/25 11:05, Nikolay Borisov wrote:
>> At SUSE we've been releasing our kernels with TSX enabled for the past 6
>> years and some customers have started to rely on it. Furthermore, the last
>> known vulnerability concerning TSX was TAA (CVE-2019-11135) and a
>> significant amount time has passed since then without anyone reporting any
>> issues. Intel has released numerous processors which do not have the
>> TAA vulnerability (Cooper/Ice Lake, Sapphire/Emerald/Granite Rappids)
>> yet TSX remains being disabled by default.
>>
>> The main aim of this patch is to reduce the divergence between SUSE's
>> configuration and the upstream by switching the default TSX mode to
>> auto. I believe this strikes the right balance between keeping it
>> enabled where appropriate (i.e every machine which doesn't contain the
>> TAA vulnerability) and disabling it preventively.
> 
> This seems pretty sane to me. TSX is far less scary than it once was. It
> seemed to be a key part of a bunch of the speculation gadgets at some
> point, but having it off by default doesn't really seem to have slowed
> anyone down.
> 
> Plus, this won't even change anyone's builds that has a .config from the
> last 5 years.
> 
> Does anyone feel differently?

So at the end of the day what is the status of this, will it get merged?