diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c b/arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c
index daf41806243f..7cfacfe8548e 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/mmu/mmu.c
@@ -1330,7 +1330,7 @@ gfn_to_memslot_dirty_bitmap(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, gfn_t gfn,
 static int mapping_level(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, gfn_t large_gfn,
 			 int *max_levelp)
 {
-	int host_level, max_level = *max_levelp;
+	int max_level = *max_levelp;
 	struct kvm_memory_slot *slot;
 
 	if (unlikely(max_level == PT_PAGE_TABLE_LEVEL))
@@ -1342,18 +1342,27 @@ static int mapping_level(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, gfn_t large_gfn,
 		return PT_PAGE_TABLE_LEVEL;
 	}
 
-	host_level = host_mapping_level(vcpu->kvm, large_gfn);
-
-	if (host_level == PT_PAGE_TABLE_LEVEL)
-		return host_level;
-
-	max_level = min(kvm_x86_ops->get_lpage_level(), host_level);
+	max_level = min(max_level, kvm_x86_ops->get_lpage_level());
 	for ( ; max_level > PT_PAGE_TABLE_LEVEL; max_level--) {
 		if (!__mmu_gfn_lpage_is_disallowed(large_gfn, max_level, slot))
 			break;
 	}
 
-	return max_level;
+	*max_levelp = max_level;
+
+	if (max_level == PT_PAGE_TABLE_LEVEL)
+		return PT_PAGE_TABLE_LEVEL;
+
+	/*
+	 * Note, host_mapping_level() does *not* handle transparent huge pages.
+	 * As suggested by "mapping", it reflects the page size established by
+	 * the associated vma, if there is one, i.e. host_mapping_level() will
+	 * return a huge page level if and only if a vma exists and the backing
+	 * implementation for the vma uses huge pages, e.g. hugetlbfs and dax.
+	 * So, do not propagate host_mapping_level() to max_level as KVM can
+	 * still promote the guest mapping to a huge page in the THP case.
+	 */
+	return host_mapping_level(vcpu->kvm, large_gfn);
 }
 
 /*
@@ -3424,8 +3433,7 @@ static void transparent_hugepage_adjust(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu,
 	 */
 	if (!is_error_noslot_pfn(pfn) && !kvm_is_reserved_pfn(pfn) &&
 	    !kvm_is_zone_device_pfn(pfn) && level == PT_PAGE_TABLE_LEVEL &&
-	    PageTransCompoundMap(pfn_to_page(pfn)) &&
-	    !mmu_gfn_lpage_is_disallowed(vcpu, gfn, PT_DIRECTORY_LEVEL)) {
+	    PageTransCompoundMap(pfn_to_page(pfn))) {
 		unsigned long mask;
 		/*
 		 * mmu_notifier_retry was successful and we hold the