[PATCH] RISC-V: Skip stopping cycle counter

[qingwei hu]

Hi Drew,

Thanks for the heads-up.

Yes, Chen Pei’s patch got there first, and I noticed it also avoids stopping
`TIME` and `INSTRET`. I’ll follow up there if I have any comments or test
results to share.

Thanks,
Qingwei

On Wed, Feb 4, 2026 at 8:38 AM Andrew Jones <andrew.jones at oss.qualcomm.com> wrote:
> 
> On Mon, Feb 02, 2026 at 07:17:28PM +0800, qingwei.hu wrote:
>> From: Qingwei Hu <qingwei.hu at bytedance.com>
>> 
>> In the riscv_pmu_sbi driver, pmu_sbi_stop_all() is intended to stop
>> all available counters. However, counter 0 (the cycle counter) should
>> be excluded from this operation because the counter may be used in
>> user mode by rdcycle.
> 
> Hi Qingwei,
> 
> It looks like Chen Pei beat you to this[1], but that patch also avoids
> stopping TIME and INSTRET.
> 
> [1] https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260131112440.2915-1-cp0613@linux.alibaba.com/
> 
> Thanks,
> drew
> 
>> 
>> Signed-off-by: Qingwei Hu <qingwei.hu at bytedance.com>
>> ---
>> drivers/perf/riscv_pmu_sbi.c | 10 +++++++---
>> 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
>> 
>> diff --git a/drivers/perf/riscv_pmu_sbi.c b/drivers/perf/riscv_pmu_sbi.c
>> index 7dd282da67ce..2bc0050dabd2 100644
>> --- a/drivers/perf/riscv_pmu_sbi.c
>> +++ b/drivers/perf/riscv_pmu_sbi.c
>> @@ -900,11 +900,15 @@ static int pmu_sbi_get_ctrinfo(int nctr, unsigned long *mask)
>> static inline void pmu_sbi_stop_all(struct riscv_pmu *pmu)
>> {
>>     /*
>> -      * No need to check the error because we are disabling all the counters
>> -      * which may include counters that are not enabled yet.
>> +      * No need to check the error because we are disabling all available
>> +      * counters (except the cycle counter) which may include counters
>> +      * that are not enabled yet.
>> +      *
>> +      * Cycle counter is excluded because it might be accessed by user
>> +      * mode via rdcycle.
>>      */
>>     sbi_ecall(SBI_EXT_PMU, SBI_EXT_PMU_COUNTER_STOP,
>> -               0, pmu->cmask, SBI_PMU_STOP_FLAG_RESET, 0, 0, 0);
>> +               0, pmu->cmask & ~BIT(0), SBI_PMU_STOP_FLAG_RESET, 0, 0, 0);
>> }
>> 
>> static inline void pmu_sbi_stop_hw_ctrs(struct riscv_pmu *pmu)
>> --
>> 2.39.5
>> 
>> 
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