Re: [PATCH] KVM: VMX: Add quirk to allow L1 to set FREEZE_IN_SMM in vmcs12

[Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>]

On Thu, Feb 05, 2026, Jim Mattson wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 5, 2026 at 6:47 AM Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com> wrote:
> > > > In other words, unless I'm missing something, the only reasonable option is to
> > > > run the guest with FREEZE_IN_SMM=1, which means ignoring the guest's wishes.
> > > > Or I guess another way to look at it: you can have any color car you want, as
> > > > long as it's black :-)
> > >
> > > I would be happy with FREEZE_IN_SMM=1. I'm not happy with the host
> > > dictating FREEZE_IN_SMM=0.
> >
> > Yep, make sense.
> 
> Perhaps we should ignore both L0 and L1, and arbitrarily set
> FREEZE_IN_SMM=1 for both vmcs01 and vmcs02 when MPT is enabled. 

Hmm, I like that idea even more, because it's waaay simpler to implement.  Argh,
the wrinkle is that KVM doesn't actually know if DEBUGCTLMSR_FREEZE_IN_SMM is
supported.  Oh, nice, it's reported in PERF_CAPABILITIES.

  IA32_DEBUGCTL.FREEZE_WHILE_SMM is supported if
  IA32_PERF_CAPABILITIES.FREEZE_WHILE_SMM[Bit 12] is reporting 1

Arguably, this is a fix for mediated PMU support.  Because as you pointed out,
we can freeze PMCs on SMI for mediated vPMUs without impacting host profiling,
unlike the legacy vCPU where it being a weird extension of perf means we can't
deny guest profiling without breaking host perf usage.

This? (untested)

diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/msr-index.h b/arch/x86/include/asm/msr-index.h
index 4d3566bb1a93..5563f68158bb 100644
--- a/arch/x86/include/asm/msr-index.h
+++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/msr-index.h
@@ -324,6 +324,7 @@
 #define PERF_CAP_PEBS_TRAP             BIT_ULL(6)
 #define PERF_CAP_ARCH_REG              BIT_ULL(7)
 #define PERF_CAP_PEBS_FORMAT           0xf00
+#define PERF_CAP_FREEZE_IN_SMM         BIT_ULL(12)
 #define PERF_CAP_FW_WRITES             BIT_ULL(13)
 #define PERF_CAP_PEBS_BASELINE         BIT_ULL(14)
 #define PERF_CAP_PEBS_TIMING_INFO      BIT_ULL(17)
diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.c b/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.c
index 27acafd03381..ef0d8108ff42 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.c
@@ -8119,13 +8119,12 @@ void vmx_vcpu_after_set_cpuid(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
 static __init u64 vmx_get_perf_capabilities(void)
 {
        u64 perf_cap = PERF_CAP_FW_WRITES;
-       u64 host_perf_cap = 0;
 
        if (!enable_pmu)
                return 0;
 
        if (boot_cpu_has(X86_FEATURE_PDCM))
-               rdmsrq(MSR_IA32_PERF_CAPABILITIES, host_perf_cap);
+               rdmsrq(MSR_IA32_PERF_CAPABILITIES, kvm_host.perf_capabilities);
 
        if (!cpu_feature_enabled(X86_FEATURE_ARCH_LBR) &&
            !enable_mediated_pmu) {
@@ -8139,11 +8138,11 @@ static __init u64 vmx_get_perf_capabilities(void)
                if (!vmx_lbr_caps.has_callstack)
                        memset(&vmx_lbr_caps, 0, sizeof(vmx_lbr_caps));
                else if (vmx_lbr_caps.nr)
-                       perf_cap |= host_perf_cap & PERF_CAP_LBR_FMT;
+                       perf_cap |= kvm_host.perf_capabilities & PERF_CAP_LBR_FMT;
        }
 
        if (vmx_pebs_supported()) {
-               perf_cap |= host_perf_cap & PERF_CAP_PEBS_MASK;
+               perf_cap |= kvm_host.perf_capabilities & PERF_CAP_PEBS_MASK;
 
                /*
                 * Disallow adaptive PEBS as it is functionally broken, can be
diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.h b/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.h
index 70bfe81dea54..e780d0e06b61 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.h
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.h
@@ -408,6 +408,11 @@ static inline void vmx_guest_debugctl_write(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, u64 val)
        WARN_ON_ONCE(val & VMX_HOST_OWNED_DEBUGCTL_BITS);
 
        val |= vcpu->arch.host_debugctl & VMX_HOST_OWNED_DEBUGCTL_BITS;
+
+       if (kvm_vcpu_has_mediated_pmu(vcpu) &&
+           (kvm_host.perf_capabilities & PERF_CAP_FREEZE_IN_SMM))
+               val |= DEBUGCTLMSR_FREEZE_IN_SMM;
+
        vmcs_write64(GUEST_IA32_DEBUGCTL, val);
 }
 
diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/x86.h b/arch/x86/kvm/x86.h
index 70e81f008030..e0084e1063d0 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/x86.h
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/x86.h
@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@ struct kvm_host_values {
        u64 xss;
        u64 s_cet;
        u64 arch_capabilities;
+       u64 perf_capabilities;
 };
 
 void kvm_spurious_fault(void);