diff --git a/0001-appliance-Use-cpu-mode-maximum-for-cpu-max-on-libvir.patch b/0001-appliance-Use-cpu-mode-maximum-for-cpu-max-on-libvir.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9c7e099
--- /dev/null
+++ b/0001-appliance-Use-cpu-mode-maximum-for-cpu-max-on-libvir.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+From 13ceb6a87b2869909a6a0e3c8caa962b72e4cb0e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
+From: "Richard W.M. Jones" <rjones@redhat.com>
+Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2021 12:32:26 +0000
+Subject: [PATCH] appliance: Use <cpu mode="maximum"/> for -cpu max on libvirt.
+
+Note this requires libvirt >= 7.1.0 which was only released in March 2021.
+
+With an older libvirt you will see this error:
+
+  Original error from libvirt: unsupported configuration: Invalid mode attribute 'maximum' [code=67 int1=-1]
+
+In theory we could check if this is supported by looking at the
+libvirt capabilities and fall back, but this commit does not do that,
+in the expectation that most people will be using the default backend
+(direct) and on Fedora/RHEL we will add an explicit minimum version
+dependency to the package.
+
+qemu support has been around quite a bit longer (at least since 2017).
+
+Fixes: commit 30f74f38bd6e42e783ba80895f4d6826abddd417
+---
+ lib/launch-libvirt.c | 9 ++-------
+ 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)
+
+diff --git a/lib/launch-libvirt.c b/lib/launch-libvirt.c
+index 2d995bee0..194530c49 100644
+--- a/lib/launch-libvirt.c
++++ b/lib/launch-libvirt.c
+@@ -1183,13 +1183,8 @@ construct_libvirt_xml_cpu (guestfs_h *g,
+         } end_element ();
+       }
+       else if (STREQ (cpu_model, "max")) {
+-        if (params->data->is_kvm)
+-          attribute ("mode", "host-passthrough");
+-        else
+-          attribute ("mode", "host-model");
+-        start_element ("model") {
+-          attribute ("fallback", "allow");
+-        } end_element ();
++        /* https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1935572#c11 */
++        attribute ("mode", "maximum");
+       }
+       else
+         single_element ("model", cpu_model);
+-- 
+2.29.0.rc2
+
diff --git a/libguestfs.spec b/libguestfs.spec
index 788be61..3c72a04 100644
--- a/libguestfs.spec
+++ b/libguestfs.spec
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ Summary:       Access and modify virtual machine disk images
 Name:          libguestfs
 Epoch:         1
 Version:       1.45.1
-Release:       5%{?dist}
+Release:       6%{?dist}
 License:       LGPLv2+
 
 # Build only for architectures that have a kernel
@@ -92,6 +92,11 @@ Patch0:        %{name}-php8.patch
 # Remove dependency on perl(Sys::Virt) (upstream in libguestfs >= 1.45.2)
 Patch1:        0001-tests-Remove-dependency-on-Sys-Virt.patch
 
+# Fix -cpu max mode with libvirt backend.
+# Upstream in libguestfs >= 1.45.2.
+# Requires libvirt >= 7.1.0
+Patch2:        0001-appliance-Use-cpu-mode-maximum-for-cpu-max-on-libvir.patch
+
 %if 0%{patches_touch_autotools}
 BuildRequires: autoconf, automake, libtool, gettext-devel
 %endif
@@ -134,7 +139,7 @@ BuildRequires: unzip
 BuildRequires: systemd-units
 BuildRequires: netpbm-progs
 BuildRequires: icoutils
-BuildRequires: libvirt-daemon-kvm >= 5.3.0
+BuildRequires: libvirt-daemon-kvm >= 7.1.0
 %if !0%{?rhel}
 BuildRequires: perl(Expect)
 %endif
@@ -328,7 +333,7 @@ Suggests:      qemu-block-iscsi
 Suggests:      qemu-block-rbd
 Suggests:      qemu-block-ssh
 Recommends:    libvirt-daemon-config-network
-Requires:      libvirt-daemon-driver-qemu
+Requires:      libvirt-daemon-driver-qemu >= 7.1.0
 Requires:      libvirt-daemon-driver-secret
 Recommends:    libvirt-daemon-driver-storage-core
 Requires:      selinux-policy >= 3.11.1-63
@@ -1310,8 +1315,9 @@ rm ocaml/html/.gitignore
 
 
 %changelog
-* Thu Mar 18 2021 Richard W.M. Jones <rjones@redhat.com> - 1:1.45.1-5
+* Thu Mar 18 2021 Richard W.M. Jones <rjones@redhat.com> - 1:1.45.1-6
 - Drop dependency on perl(Sys::Virt).
+- Fix -cpu max and require libvirt >= 7.1.0.
 
 * Wed Mar 10 2021 Richard W.M. Jones <rjones@redhat.com> - 1:1.45.1-4
 - Drop Requires: libvirt-daemon-kvm, pulls in the whole of qemu and subpkgs.