The following commit has been merged into the x86/fred branch of tip:

Commit-ID:     ac66a73be03a0a72aeeb33d3610cfc43cb101a0b
Gitweb:        https://git.kernel.org/tip/ac66a73be03a0a72aeeb33d3610cfc43cb101a0b
Author:        H. Peter Anvin <hpa@zytor.com>
AuthorDate:    Wed, 25 Mar 2026 16:01:47 -07:00
Committer:     Borislav Petkov (AMD) <bp@alien8.de>
CommitterDate: Fri, 27 Mar 2026 16:04:47 +01:00

x86/fred: Enable FRED by default

When FRED was added to the mainline kernel, it was set up as an explicit
opt-in due to the risk of regressions before hardware was available publicly.

Now, Panther Lake (Core Ultra 300 series) has been released, and benchmarking
by Phoronix has shown that it provides a significant performance benefit on
most workloads:

  https://www.phoronix.com/review/intel-fred-panther-lake

Accordingly, enable FRED by default if the CPU supports it. FRED can of
course still be disabled via the fred=off command line option.

Touch up Kconfig help too.

Signed-off-by: H. Peter Anvin (Intel) <hpa@zytor.com>
Signed-off-by: Borislav Petkov (AMD) <bp@alien8.de>
Reviewed-by: Sohil Mehta <sohil.mehta@intel.com>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260325230151.1898287-2-hpa@zytor.com
---
 Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt | 4 ++--
 arch/x86/Kconfig                                | 2 +-
 arch/x86/kernel/cpu/common.c                    | 2 +-
 3 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt b/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
index 03a5506..bfa8a20 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
@@ -1750,8 +1750,8 @@ Kernel parameters
 	fred=		[X86-64]
 			Enable/disable Flexible Return and Event Delivery.
 			Format: { on | off }
-			on: enable FRED when it's present.
-			off: disable FRED, the default setting.
+			on: enable FRED when it's present, the default setting.
+			off: disable FRED.
 
 	ftrace=[tracer]
 			[FTRACE] will set and start the specified tracer
diff --git a/arch/x86/Kconfig b/arch/x86/Kconfig
index e2df1b1..876b663 100644
--- a/arch/x86/Kconfig
+++ b/arch/x86/Kconfig
@@ -557,7 +557,7 @@ config X86_FRED
 	bool "Flexible Return and Event Delivery"
 	depends on X86_64
 	help
-	  When enabled, try to use Flexible Return and Event Delivery
+	  When enabled, use Flexible Return and Event Delivery
 	  instead of the legacy SYSCALL/SYSENTER/IDT architecture for
 	  ring transitions and exception/interrupt handling if the
 	  system supports it.
diff --git a/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/common.c b/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/common.c
index a8ff437..0b02cb0 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/common.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/common.c
@@ -1746,7 +1746,7 @@ static void __init cpu_parse_early_param(void)
 
 	/* Minimize the gap between FRED is available and available but disabled. */
 	arglen = cmdline_find_option(boot_command_line, "fred", arg, sizeof(arg));
-	if (arglen != 2 || strncmp(arg, "on", 2))
+	if (arglen == 3 && !strncmp(arg, "off", 3))
 		setup_clear_cpu_cap(X86_FEATURE_FRED);
 
 	arglen = cmdline_find_option(boot_command_line, "clearcpuid", arg, sizeof(arg));