From: Narayana Murty N <nnmlinux@linux.ibm.com>
To: Gautam Menghani <gautam@linux.ibm.com>,
maddy@linux.ibm.com, npiggin@gmail.com, mpe@ellerman.id.au,
chleroy@kernel.org, ritesh.list@gmail.com, sshegde@linux.ibm.com,
amachhiw@linux.ibm.com, harshpb@linux.ibm.com
Cc: linuxppc-dev@lists.ozlabs.org, kvm@vger.kernel.org,
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, stable@vger.kernel.org,
Timothy Pearson <tpearson@raptorengineering.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v4] KVM: PPC: Book3S HV: Avoid spurious interrupts caused by LPCR_MER bit
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 2026 01:15:26 +0530 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <703a731c-efc3-476f-b9b6-77b4bdcb3b55@linux.ibm.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20261005084534.1588611-1-gautam@linux.ibm.com>
On 05/10/26 2:15 PM, Gautam Menghani wrote:
> A huge number of spurious interrupts can be seen immediately after a KVM
> on PowerNV guest boots up in XIVE mode.
>
> $ cat /proc/interrupts | grep SPU
> SPU: 223705 192439 273526 147623 Spurious interrupts
>
> This bug was introduced by commit ecd10702baae5 ("KVM: PPC: Book3S HV:
> Handle pending exceptions on guest entry with MSR_EE"). The root cause
> is that once LPCR_MER bit is set, it is supposed to be reset by
> software. But when a vCPU starts running with LPCR_MER set, the vCPU does
> not exit back to the host until the decrementer expires or there is an
> hcall, etc. This is because KVM on PowerNV guests have support for
> native XIVE, so they are not dependent on host for interrupt emulation.
> Due to this behaviour, a huge number of spurious interrupts are seen
> since LPCR_MER continues to be set and LPCR_MER cannot be reset until the
> vCPU exits to the host.
>
> Fix this behaviour by not using the LPCR_MER bit whenever native XIVE is
> available (currently in case of KVM on PowerNV only), as the XIVE hardware
> can present interrupts to the KVM guest vCPU directly. So the LPCR_MER
> functionality is not required. This reduces the number of spurious
> interrupts drastically.
>
> Fixes: ecd10702baae5 ("KVM: PPC: Book3S HV: Handle pending exceptions on guest entry with MSR_EE")
> Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org # 6.8+
> Reported-by: Timothy Pearson <tpearson@raptorengineering.com>
> Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/linuxppc-dev/582904882.11159.1786719390349.JavaMail.zimbra@raptorengineeringinc.com
> Signed-off-by: Gautam Menghani <gautam@linux.ibm.com>
> ---
> v4:
> 1. If interrupt mode is changed to XICS during guest reboot, MER should
> be used. (Amit)
>
> v3:
> 1. Continue the use of LPCR_MER when kernel-irqchip=off (Sashiko)
>
> v2:
> 1. Handle the case where xive_interrupt_pending() is true and also the
> external exception bit is set. (Narayana)
>
> arch/powerpc/include/asm/kvm_ppc.h | 7 +++++++
> arch/powerpc/kvm/book3s_hv.c | 2 +-
> 2 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
>
> diff --git a/arch/powerpc/include/asm/kvm_ppc.h b/arch/powerpc/include/asm/kvm_ppc.h
> index 169ea6a7fbad..9178406dc365 100644
> --- a/arch/powerpc/include/asm/kvm_ppc.h
> +++ b/arch/powerpc/include/asm/kvm_ppc.h
> @@ -747,6 +747,11 @@ static inline int kvmppc_xive_enabled(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
> return vcpu->arch.irq_type == KVMPPC_IRQ_XIVE;
> }
>
> +static inline bool kvmppc_xive_native_enabled(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
> +{
> + return kvmppc_xive_enabled(vcpu) && vcpu->kvm->arch.xive_devices.native;
> +}
> +
> extern int kvmppc_xive_native_connect_vcpu(struct kvm_device *dev,
> struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, u32 cpu);
> extern void kvmppc_xive_native_cleanup_vcpu(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu);
> @@ -782,6 +787,8 @@ static inline bool kvmppc_xive_rearm_escalation(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu) { return
>
> static inline int kvmppc_xive_enabled(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
> { return 0; }
> +static inline bool kvmppc_xive_native_enabled(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu) { return false; }
> +
> static inline int kvmppc_xive_native_connect_vcpu(struct kvm_device *dev,
> struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, u32 cpu) { return -EBUSY; }
> static inline void kvmppc_xive_native_cleanup_vcpu(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu) { }
> diff --git a/arch/powerpc/kvm/book3s_hv.c b/arch/powerpc/kvm/book3s_hv.c
> index dbac3573b2c8..dec89c014c52 100644
> --- a/arch/powerpc/kvm/book3s_hv.c
> +++ b/arch/powerpc/kvm/book3s_hv.c
> @@ -4980,7 +4980,7 @@ int kvmhv_run_single_vcpu(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, u64 time_limit,
> if (!kvmhv_on_pseries() && (__kvmppc_get_msr_hv(vcpu) & MSR_EE))
> kvmppc_inject_interrupt_hv(vcpu,
> BOOK3S_INTERRUPT_EXTERNAL, 0);
> - else
> + else if (!kvmppc_xive_native_enabled(vcpu))
> lpcr |= LPCR_MER;
> } else {
> /*
The v4 change also handles switching back to XICS while the native XIVE
device is still present. With that, the interrupt-mode cases look
covered to me, feel free to add
Reviewed-by: Narayana Murty <nnmlinux@linux.ibm.com>
prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-10-08 19:46 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 2+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-10-05 8:45 Gautam Menghani
2026-10-08 19:45 ` Narayana Murty N [this message]
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