Re: kvm-intel.ko unable to create /dev/kvm

Michael Tokarev
2008-02-11T13:09:00Z

gerryw@compvia.com wrote:
>
> Hello All,
>
> I'm having some trouble with kvm-60. I'm trying to run it from a flash
> (ram disk). When I load kvm-intel.ko, it doesn't create the device file
> /dev/kvm. Can anyone give me a clue to why this might be so. Is the ram
> disk the problem?

a kernel module does not create any device files.
On a modern distribution, udev is usually responsible for creating
device nodes based on which actual devices are present on the system
and which drivers are loaded.

Sometimes a distribution does not include udev (or it's optional) -
in this case static /dev layout is used, that is, a fixed set of
device nodes are created during system install. In this case you
have to create missing nodes manually.

For /dev/kvm, look at /sys/devices/virtual/misc/kvm/dev - that's
a file with major and minor numbers for the device node. Create
it like this:

mknod /dev/kvm c major minor

(where major and minor values are taken from the above mentioned
file).

But kvm support should be here in the first place to start with.
If /sys/devices/virtual/misc/kvm is not here, verify that the
module is actually loaded and found necessary hardware support.
Note that kvm may be disabled in BIOS for example. Also try
never BIOS if it seems to be here but still doesn't work.

/mjt