KVM With Linux 6.12 Will Advertise AVX10.1 Support To Guest VMs

[phoronix]

Phoronix: KVM With Linux 6.12 Will Advertise AVX10.1 Support To Guest VMs

The KVM x86/x86_64 changes were merged today as we are nearly done with the Linux 6.12 merge window...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.12-KVM-x86

[uid313]

What is your favorite way to do virtualization on the Linux desktop?

I tried to use GNOME Boxes, it downloaded a ISO but then failed to start it.

[fong38]

What is your favorite way to do virtualization on the Linux desktop?

I tried to use GNOME Boxes, it downloaded a ISO but then failed to start it.

Quickemu for quickly firing up an OS, virt-manager for more customization

[muncrief]

What is your favorite way to do virtualization on the Linux desktop?

I tried to use GNOME Boxes, it downloaded a ISO but then failed to start it.

I use QEMU/KVM with virt-manager. I've found it to be the most powerful solution for implementing a few VMs.

However, while virt-manager will guide you through the initial setup for most Linux distros and Windows versions, going beyond the basics and implementing things like hardware passthrough can be a bit daunting at first. But there are many online tutorials on implementing simple VMs to full passthrough VMs that run at around 95% bare metal speed, and if you want advanced features any solution is going to require some learning and experimentation.

If you're just looking for the simplest solution though, and aren't as concerned with performance, VirtualBox might be the way to go. However it's quite controversial as it's owned by Oracle, which many Linux enthusiasts consider akin to Darth Vader So just be warned that some might be quite militant if you ask for help with it, though there's still plenty of help for it online as well.

And please my fellow Phoronix posters, don't attack me for mentioning the company-that-shall-not-be-named I don't like Oracle either, I'm just trying to offer the best options I know of to uid313. If someone knows of other solutions as simple as VirtualBox then please chime in, as I've been using virt-manager for so long I'm surely not aware of other equivalently simple tools.

[blackshard]

I use QEMU/KVM with virt-manager. I've found it to be the most powerful solution for implementing a few VMs.

[...cut...]

And please my fellow Phoronix posters, don't attack me for mentioning the company-that-shall-not-be-named I don't like Oracle either, I'm just trying to offer the best options I know of to uid313. If someone knows of other solutions as simple as VirtualBox then please chime in, as I've been using virt-manager for so long I'm surely not aware of other equivalently simple tools.

My company runs on several virtualized servers with KVM and they are pleasantly go very well. It is not just for "simple" VMs, it can run on production without any kind of hassle.

[muncrief]

My company runs on several virtualized servers with KVM and they are pleasantly go very well. It is not just for "simple" VMs, it can run on production without any kind of hassle.

Indeed blackshard. KVM is astounding, and scales with minimal resources.

When I was talking about simplicity and complexity I was primarily focusing on VM interfaces, not their underlying architecture.

[mobadboy]

who does this actually help? I thought everyone was switching to cloud-hypervisor these days.

[pWe00Iri3e7Z9lHOX2Qx]

who does this actually help? I thought everyone was switching to cloud-hypervisor these days.

But Cloud Hypervisor is just the VMM sitting on top of KVM on Linux (and MSHV on Windows) no? So this stuff still needs to get into KVM so Cloud Hypervisor can utilize it.

[ehansin]

I kind of know but also not really. What is the relationship between KVM and QEMU? Correct me if I am wrong, but KVM is a kernel space component and QEMU is user space.

I guess my main question is, and somewhere in the past got confused by something, can you call/run KVM directly to do virtualization, or do you need something like QEMU on top of KVM for this to work? I thought I remember once reading a tutorial that show running KVM from a terminal directly, but I could be mistaken.

Also, I understand that QEMU when using KVM gets that performance boost that KVM virtualization provides but can also do more "user space translations" to virtualize, but much slower. While I am at it, looks like virt-manager sort of sits on top of various pieces (can use KVM, QEMU, Xen, etc. per Wikipedia) so I guess sort of an abstraction layer and "higher up" than these?

[ahrs]

I kind of know but also not really. What is the relationship between KVM and QEMU?

Qemu is a CPU emulator and it actually does not need KVM at all. It can emulate architectures (slowly) in software just fine. Where KVM comes in is allowing Qemu to make use of hardware extensions for virtualisation and then there's also the various Virtio devices in the kernel to provide specialised support for networking or graphics or block storage, etc.