From: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>
To: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>,
Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>
Cc: kvm@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
Amirmohammad Eftekhar <amirmohammad.eftekhar@cispa.de>,
Sashiko Bot <sashiko-bot@kernel.org>
Subject: [PATCH v3 13/21] KVM: selftests: Use KVM's reported TSC KHz as L0's frequency (sanity checked)
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2026 10:36:27 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260930173635.3362655-14-seanjc@google.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20260930173635.3362655-1-seanjc@google.com>
Use KVM's reported default TSC frequency as L0's frequency instead of
calibrating L0's frequency using RDTSC. Trying to calibrate the frequency
in userspace is all but guaranteed to be wildly inaccurate, e.g. due to
interrupts, preemption, etc, and no known CPU supports TSC scaling without
also having a constant TSC. I.e. there's no need to calibrate the current
frequency, as it should also be the same as KVM's default frequency.
Opportunistically sanity check KVM's reported frequency against what is
observed via RDTSC, e.g. so that KVM_GET_TSC_KHZ or platform issues show up
much earlier in the test, before VMs get involved.
Signed-off-by: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>
---
.../kvm/x86/nested_tsc_scaling_test.c | 25 +++++++++++++------
1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)
diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/kvm/x86/nested_tsc_scaling_test.c b/tools/testing/selftests/kvm/x86/nested_tsc_scaling_test.c
index d790ab36a198..a78585af0ffd 100644
--- a/tools/testing/selftests/kvm/x86/nested_tsc_scaling_test.c
+++ b/tools/testing/selftests/kvm/x86/nested_tsc_scaling_test.c
@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ static void l1_guest_code(void *data)
static void test_tsc_scaling(u64 l0_tsc_freq, u64 l1_scale_factor, u64 l2_scale_factor)
{
- u64 tsc_khz, l1_tsc_freq, l2_tsc_freq;
+ u64 l1_tsc_freq, l2_tsc_freq;
struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu;
struct kvm_vm *vm;
gva_t guest_gva;
@@ -159,11 +159,8 @@ static void test_tsc_scaling(u64 l0_tsc_freq, u64 l1_scale_factor, u64 l2_scale_
vcpu_args_set(vcpu, 1, guest_gva);
- tsc_khz = __vcpu_ioctl(vcpu, KVM_GET_TSC_KHZ, NULL);
- TEST_ASSERT(tsc_khz != -1, "vcpu ioctl KVM_GET_TSC_KHZ failed");
-
/* scale down L1's TSC frequency */
- vcpu_ioctl(vcpu, KVM_SET_TSC_KHZ, (void *) (tsc_khz / l1_scale_factor));
+ vcpu_ioctl(vcpu, KVM_SET_TSC_KHZ, (void *) (l0_tsc_freq / l1_scale_factor));
/* L1 will communicate its frequency before the L2 check.*/
l1_tsc_freq = 0;
@@ -212,18 +209,30 @@ static void test_tsc_scaling(u64 l0_tsc_freq, u64 l1_scale_factor, u64 l2_scale_
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
u64 l0_tsc_freq, tsc_start, tsc_end, l1_scale, l2_scale;
+ struct kvm_vm *vm;
TEST_REQUIRE(kvm_cpu_has(X86_FEATURE_VMX) ||
kvm_cpu_has(X86_FEATURE_SVM));
TEST_REQUIRE(kvm_has_cap(KVM_CAP_TSC_CONTROL));
TEST_REQUIRE(sys_clocksource_is_based_on_tsc());
+ /*
+ * Create a dummy VM to get KVM's default TSC frequency. All CPUs that
+ * support TSC scaling should have a constant TSC, i.e. there's no need
+ * to calibrate the "real" TSC. But do sanity check that the observed
+ * TSC is within range of KVM's reported TSC frequency.
+ */
+ vm = vm_create_barebones();
+ l0_tsc_freq = (u64)__vm_ioctl(vm, KVM_GET_TSC_KHZ, NULL) * 1000;
+ TEST_ASSERT(l0_tsc_freq, "vcpu ioctl KVM_GET_TSC_KHZ failed");
+ kvm_vm_free(vm);
+
+ printf("L0 TSC frequency is: %lu\n", l0_tsc_freq);
+
tsc_start = rdtsc();
sleep(1);
tsc_end = rdtsc();
-
- l0_tsc_freq = tsc_end - tsc_start;
- printf("real TSC frequency is around: %lu\n", l0_tsc_freq);
+ host_check_tsc_freq(0, tsc_end - tsc_start, l0_tsc_freq);
/* Scale L1 "down" and L2 "up" at a random factor from 2 to 10. */
l1_scale = (kvm_random_u32(&kvm_rng) % 9) + 2;
--
2.56.0.rc1.315.gc6ed9934b7-goog
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-09-30 17:37 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 22+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-09-30 17:36 [PATCH v3 00/21] KVM: x86: Fix nested TSC scaling edge cases Sean Christopherson
2026-09-30 17:36 ` [PATCH v3 01/21] KVM: x86: Saturate L2's TSC frequency if it exceeds hardware supports Sean Christopherson
2026-09-30 17:36 ` [PATCH v3 02/21] KVM: SVM: Fallback to the default TSC ratio if KVM tries to use a bad multiplier Sean Christopherson
2026-09-30 17:36 ` [PATCH v3 03/21] KVM: x86: Allow userspace to set KVM's max supported guest TSC frequency Sean Christopherson
2026-09-30 17:36 ` [PATCH v3 04/21] KVM: selftests: Use KVM's pRNG to randomize L1's TSC ratio in TSC scaling test Sean Christopherson
2026-09-30 17:36 ` [PATCH v3 05/21] KVM: selftests: Drop redundant VMWRITE of TSC_MULTIPLIER_HIGH Sean Christopherson
2026-09-30 17:36 ` [PATCH v3 06/21] KVM: selftests: Drop unnecessary use of PRIu64 in nested TSC scaling test Sean Christopherson
2026-09-30 17:36 ` [PATCH v3 07/21] KVM: selftests: Randomize L2's scale factor " Sean Christopherson
2026-09-30 17:36 ` [PATCH v3 08/21] KVM: selftests: Rename TSC freq checkers " Sean Christopherson
2026-09-30 17:36 ` [PATCH v3 09/21] KVM: selftests: Extract guts of nested TSC scaling test to helper function Sean Christopherson
2026-09-30 17:36 ` [PATCH v3 10/21] KVM: selftests: Track L2 multiplier, not scale-up factor, in nested TSC test Sean Christopherson
2026-09-30 17:36 ` [PATCH v3 11/21] KVM: selftests: Print out the failing L{0,1,2} level in nested TSC scaling test Sean Christopherson
2026-09-30 17:36 ` [PATCH v3 12/21] KVM: selftests: Allow +/- 1 tolerance if expected TSC frequency is <100 Sean Christopherson
2026-09-30 17:36 ` Sean Christopherson [this message]
2026-09-30 17:36 ` [PATCH v3 14/21] KVM: selftests: Explicitly pass TSC frequencies to guts of TSC scaling test Sean Christopherson
2026-09-30 17:36 ` [PATCH v3 15/21] KVM: selftests: Sanity check KVM's default TSC freq in nested " Sean Christopherson
2026-09-30 17:36 ` [PATCH v3 16/21] KVM: selftests: Test L1 "up" and L2 "down" " Sean Christopherson
2026-09-30 17:36 ` [PATCH v3 17/21] KVM: selftests: Verify that KVM saturates L2 TSC freq on {under,over}flow Sean Christopherson
2026-09-30 17:36 ` [PATCH v3 18/21] KVM: selftests: Test non-zero TSC offset on SVM in nested TSC scaling test Sean Christopherson
2026-09-30 17:36 ` [PATCH v3 19/21] KVM: selftests: Randomize L2's TSC offset in the " Sean Christopherson
2026-09-30 17:36 ` [PATCH v3 20/21] KVM: selftests: Use GUEST_SYNC2() in " Sean Christopherson
2026-09-30 17:36 ` [PATCH v3 21/21] KVM: selftests: Spell out UCALL in nested TSC scaling test's enums Sean Christopherson
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