KVM - The Linux Kernel-Based Virtual Machine
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kvm-kmod updated for 2.6.35.6 and 2.6.36-rc6

Monday, October 4, 2010 - 00:48 Haydn Solomon

KVM kernel modules have been released for 2.6.35.6 and 2.6.36-rc6 versions of the linux kernel. For those of you unfamiliar with the kvm-kmod series, these kernel modules allow you to get the latest features of the kvm kernel features even if your kernel is an older one ( as long as your kernel supports the feature ). Installing the module simply involves extracting the tarball and running configure, make and make install. The changelog for theses releases are shown below.

Changelog for 2.6.35.6 Release
KVM changes since kvm-kmod-2.6.35:

  • VMX: Fix host GDT.LIMIT corruption
  • MMU: fix mmu notifier invalidate handler for huge spte
  • x86: emulator: inc/dec can have lock prefix
  • MMU: fix direct sp's access corrupted
  • Prevent internal slots from being COWed
  • Keep slot ID in memory slot structure

kvm-kmod changes:

  • Warn about TXT conflict on kernels < 2.6.35

Changelog for 2.6.36-rc6 Release
Major KVM changes since kvm-kmod-2.6.35.6:

  • "No major features: mostly improved mmu and emulator correctness, some performance improvements, and support for guest XSAVE and AVX." [Avi]

kvm-kmod changes:

  • Warn about TXT conflict on kernels < 2.6.35
  • Remove some wrapping code for unsupported host kernel

You can download these releases at the following links

See Also

Comments

New host architecture

Sunday, October 10, 2010 - 12:39 Anonymous (not verified)

Hello,
You probably missed it, as i wasn't able to see it mentionned on linux-kvm.com, but ppc32, book3s-32, G3/G4, or whatever you want to call it seems to be supported as a host system now. You can check the kernel changelog of 2.6.35 from the line starting with :
commit 4f84139037b0c006c906cacbe904b25ccd4dfff9
Author: Alexander Graf
Date: Fri Apr 16 00:11:58 2010 +0200

KVM: PPC: Enable Book3S_32 KVM building

It's not powerpc 440 (aka BookE if i'm not wrong). Check the next patch entries in the changelog, they are about kvm on ppc. I checked in the kernel source, and effectively, we can see corresponding files there. It sounds the death of MoL (Mac on Linux), well, we still needs to get abetter openfirmware support in qemu (or wherever it needs to be), to get Mac Os running. Or maybe my info about this topic are far too outdated.

I'm planning to test this new kvm host feature on an ibook G4. Not sure when, if i'll be able to make a report, but it sounds very exciting and promising !

Cordially,
A kvm (and svirt, "selinux for kvm") enthousiast !

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