[PATCH 6.12 263/567] KVM: arm64: Initialize SCTLR_EL1 in __kvm_hyp_init_cpu()

Greg Kroah-Hartman
2026-01-06T17:28:45Z

From: Ahmed Genidi <ahmed.genidi@arm.com>

[ Upstream commit 3855a7b91d42ebf3513b7ccffc44807274978b3d ]

When KVM is in protected mode, host calls to PSCI are proxied via EL2,
and cold entries from CPU_ON, CPU_SUSPEND, and SYSTEM_SUSPEND bounce
through __kvm_hyp_init_cpu() at EL2 before entering the host kernel's
entry point at EL1. While __kvm_hyp_init_cpu() initializes SPSR_EL2 for
the exception return to EL1, it does not initialize SCTLR_EL1.

Due to this, it's possible to enter EL1 with SCTLR_EL1 in an UNKNOWN
state. In practice this has been seen to result in kernel crashes after
CPU_ON as a result of SCTLR_EL1.M being 1 in violation of the initial
core configuration specified by PSCI.

Fix this by initializing SCTLR_EL1 for cold entry to the host kernel.
As it's necessary to write to SCTLR_EL12 in VHE mode, this
initialization is moved into __kvm_host_psci_cpu_entry() where we can
use write_sysreg_el1().

The remnants of the '__init_el2_nvhe_prepare_eret' macro are folded into
its only caller, as this is clearer than having the macro.

Fixes: cdf367192766ad11 ("KVM: arm64: Intercept host's CPU_ON SMCs")
Reported-by: Leo Yan <leo.yan@arm.com>
Signed-off-by: Ahmed Genidi <ahmed.genidi@arm.com>
[ Mark: clarify commit message, handle E2H, move to C, remove macro ]
Signed-off-by: Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com>
Cc: Ahmed Genidi <ahmed.genidi@arm.com>
Cc: Ben Horgan <ben.horgan@arm.com>
Cc: Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@arm.com>
Cc: Leo Yan <leo.yan@arm.com>
Cc: Marc Zyngier <maz@kernel.org>
Cc: Oliver Upton <oliver.upton@linux.dev>
Cc: Will Deacon <will@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Leo Yan <leo.yan@arm.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20250227180526.1204723-3-mark.rutland@arm.com
Signed-off-by: Marc Zyngier <maz@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Wei-Lin Chang <weilin.chang@arm.com>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
---
arch/arm64/include/asm/el2_setup.h | 5 -----
arch/arm64/kernel/head.S | 3 ++-
arch/arm64/kvm/hyp/nvhe/hyp-init.S | 2 --
arch/arm64/kvm/hyp/nvhe/psci-relay.c | 3 +++
4 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)

--- a/arch/arm64/include/asm/el2_setup.h
+++ b/arch/arm64/include/asm/el2_setup.h
@@ -265,11 +265,6 @@
.Lskip_fgt2_\@:
.endm

-.macro __init_el2_nvhe_prepare_eret
- mov x0, #INIT_PSTATE_EL1
- msr spsr_el2, x0
-.endm
-
/**
* Initialize EL2 registers to sane values. This should be called early on all
* cores that were booted in EL2. Note that everything gets initialised as
--- a/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S
+++ b/arch/arm64/kernel/head.S
@@ -319,7 +319,8 @@ SYM_INNER_LABEL(init_el2, SYM_L_LOCAL)
msr sctlr_el1, x1
mov x2, xzr
3:
- __init_el2_nvhe_prepare_eret
+ mov x0, #INIT_PSTATE_EL1
+ msr spsr_el2, x0

mov w0, #BOOT_CPU_MODE_EL2
orr x0, x0, x2
--- a/arch/arm64/kvm/hyp/nvhe/hyp-init.S
+++ b/arch/arm64/kvm/hyp/nvhe/hyp-init.S
@@ -214,8 +214,6 @@ SYM_CODE_START_LOCAL(__kvm_hyp_init_cpu)

bl __kvm_init_el2_state

- __init_el2_nvhe_prepare_eret
-
/* Enable MMU, set vectors and stack. */
mov x0, x28
bl ___kvm_hyp_init // Clobbers x0..x2
--- a/arch/arm64/kvm/hyp/nvhe/psci-relay.c
+++ b/arch/arm64/kvm/hyp/nvhe/psci-relay.c
@@ -218,6 +218,9 @@ asmlinkage void __noreturn __kvm_host_ps
if (is_cpu_on)
release_boot_args(boot_args);

+ write_sysreg_el1(INIT_SCTLR_EL1_MMU_OFF, SYS_SCTLR);
+ write_sysreg(INIT_PSTATE_EL1, SPSR_EL2);
+
__host_enter(host_ctxt);
}