Re: [PATCH] KVM: PPC: Book3S HV: Validate arch_compat against host compatibility mode

[Ritesh Harjani (IBM) <ritesh.list@gmail.com>]

Amit Machhiwal <amachhiw@linux.ibm.com> writes:

> On IBM POWER systems, newer processor generations can operate in
> compatibility modes corresponding to earlier generations. This becomes
> relevant for nested virtualization, where nested KVM guests may need to
> run with a specific processor compatibility level.
>
> Currently, when running a nested KVM guest (L2) inside a Power11 pSeries
> logical partition (L1) booted in Power10 compatibility mode, the guest
> fails to boot while setting 'arch_compat'. This happens because the CPU
> class is derived from the hardware PVR (via mfspr()), which reflects the
> physical processor generation (Power11), rather than the effective
> compatibility mode (Power10).
>
> As a result, userspace may request a Power11 arch_compat for the L2
> guest. However, the L1 partition, running in Power10 compatibility, has
> only negotiated support up to Power10 with the Power Hypervisor (L0).
> When H_GUEST_SET_STATE is invoked with a Power11 Logical PVR, the
> hypervisor rejects the request, leading to a late guest boot failure:
>
>   KVM-NESTEDv2: couldn't set guest wide elements
>   [..KVM reg dump..]
>

Thanks! It make sense to return a proper error code to the user (VMM)
while the VM/VCPU are being initialized, rather then the guest failing
to boot with a weird error like this, at the time when kernel makes this
H_GUEST_SET_STATE hcall.

> This situation should be detected earlier. Rejecting unsupported
> 'arch_compat' values in 'kvmppc_set_arch_compat()' avoids issuing an
> invalid H_GUEST_SET_STATE hcall and provides a clearer failure mode.
>
> Add a check to reject Power11 'arch_compat' requests when the host is
> running in Power10 compatibility mode, returning -EINVAL early instead
> of deferring the failure to the hypervisor.
>
> Suggested-by: Vaibhav Jain <vaibhav@linux.ibm.com>
> Tested-by: Anushree Mathur <anushree.mathur@linux.ibm.com>
> Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> # v6.13+

Sure, v6.13 sounds fair as you pointed out.

> Signed-off-by: Amit Machhiwal <amachhiw@linux.ibm.com>
> ---
> Changelog:
>
> * Moved this patch out of the v3 series [1] as discussed here [2]
> * Addressed below review comments from Ritesh:
>   - Based the PVR validation on cpu features
>   - Fixed hcall name typo
>   - Stable backport

The changes looks good to me. Please feel free to add:

Reviewed-by: Ritesh Harjani (IBM) <ritesh.list@gmail.com>