diff --git a/arch/arm64/kernel/perf_event.c b/arch/arm64/kernel/perf_event.c
index cdb3d4549b3a..8e428f8dd108 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/kernel/perf_event.c
+++ b/arch/arm64/kernel/perf_event.c
@@ -171,7 +171,11 @@ armv8pmu_events_sysfs_show(struct device *dev,
 	}).attr.attr)
 
 static struct attribute *armv8_pmuv3_event_attrs[] = {
-	ARMV8_EVENT_ATTR(sw_incr, ARMV8_PMUV3_PERFCTR_SW_INCR),
+	/*
+	 * Don't expose the sw_incr event in /sys. It's not usable as writes to
+	 * PMSWINC_EL0 will trap as PMUSERENR.{SW,EN}=={0,0} and event rotation
+	 * means we don't have a fixed event<->counter relationship regardless.
+	 */
 	ARMV8_EVENT_ATTR(l1i_cache_refill, ARMV8_PMUV3_PERFCTR_L1I_CACHE_REFILL),
 	ARMV8_EVENT_ATTR(l1i_tlb_refill, ARMV8_PMUV3_PERFCTR_L1I_TLB_REFILL),
 	ARMV8_EVENT_ATTR(l1d_cache_refill, ARMV8_PMUV3_PERFCTR_L1D_CACHE_REFILL),