Re: Paravirt KVM capabilities

Avi Kivity
2007-01-09T14:27:14Z

Hugo Mills wrote:
> I'm a little unclear on the capabilities (current or planned) of
> the new paravirtualisation feature in KVM.
>
> Does running paravirtual guests on KVM still require a
> hardware-VM-capable processor, or will it eventually be possible to
> run a paravirtualised Linux on an older machine (such as, say, a
> first-generation Athlon 64)?
>

If the code comes in to support it, and if it doesn't hurt full hardware
virtualization, kvm can be extended to support it. I have no plans to
work on it myself but will review and accept patches.

It's also something for the Linux community in general to decide: if we
want separate interfaces for paravirtualization and full virtualization
(lhype and kvm) or a merged interface. I can see arguments in favor of
both positions.

> As a follow-up question, would it be possible then to run a 32-bit
> guest on a 64-bit host?

That is possible now, and hopefully will continue to be possible.

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