Commit Graph

46 Commits

Author SHA1 Message Date
Avi Kivity
da4a00f002 [PATCH] KVM: MMU: Support emulated writes into RAM
As the mmu write protects guest page table, we emulate those writes.  Since
they are not mmio, there is no need to go to userspace to perform them.

So, perform the writes in the kernel if possible, and notify the mmu about
them so it can take the approriate action.

Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Acked-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2007-01-05 23:55:25 -08:00
Avi Kivity
815af8d42e [PATCH] KVM: MMU: Let the walker extract the target page gfn from the pte
This fixes a problem where set_pte_common() looked for shadowed pages based on
the page directory gfn (a huge page) instead of the actual gfn being mapped.

Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Acked-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2007-01-05 23:55:25 -08:00
Avi Kivity
374cbac033 [PATCH] KVM: MMU: Write protect guest pages when a shadow is created for them
When we cache a guest page table into a shadow page table, we need to prevent
further access to that page by the guest, as that would render the cache
incoherent.

Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Acked-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2007-01-05 23:55:25 -08:00
Avi Kivity
cea0f0e7ea [PATCH] KVM: MMU: Shadow page table caching
Define a hashtable for caching shadow page tables. Look up the cache on
context switch (cr3 change) or during page faults.

The key to the cache is a combination of
- the guest page table frame number
- the number of paging levels in the guest
   * we can cache real mode, 32-bit mode, pae, and long mode page
     tables simultaneously.  this is useful for smp bootup.
- the guest page table table
   * some kernels use a page as both a page table and a page directory.  this
     allows multiple shadow pages to exist for that page, one per level
- the "quadrant"
   * 32-bit mode page tables span 4MB, whereas a shadow page table spans
     2MB.  similarly, a 32-bit page directory spans 4GB, while a shadow
     page directory spans 1GB.  the quadrant allows caching up to 4 shadow page
     tables for one guest page in one level.
- a "metaphysical" bit
   * for real mode, and for pse pages, there is no guest page table, so set
     the bit to avoid write protecting the page.

Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Acked-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2007-01-05 23:55:24 -08:00
Avi Kivity
25c0de2cc6 [PATCH] KVM: MMU: Make kvm_mmu_alloc_page() return a kvm_mmu_page pointer
This allows further manipulation on the shadow page table.

Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Acked-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2007-01-05 23:55:24 -08:00
Avi Kivity
aef3d3fe13 [PATCH] KVM: MMU: Make the shadow page tables also special-case pae
Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Acked-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2007-01-05 23:55:24 -08:00
Avi Kivity
1b0973bd8f [PATCH] KVM: MMU: Use the guest pdptrs instead of mapping cr3 in pae mode
This lets us not write protect a partial page, and is anyway what a real
processor does.

Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Acked-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2007-01-05 23:55:24 -08:00
Avi Kivity
17ac10ad2b [PATCH] KVM: MU: Special treatment for shadow pae root pages
Since we're not going to cache the pae-mode shadow root pages, allocate a
single pae shadow that will hold the four lower-level pages, which will act as
roots.

Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Acked-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2007-01-05 23:55:24 -08:00
Avi Kivity
ac79c978f1 [PATCH] KVM: MMU: Fold fetch_guest() into init_walker()
It is never necessary to fetch a guest entry from an intermediate page table
level (except for large pages), so avoid some confusion by always descending
into the lowest possible level.

Rename init_walker() to walk_addr() as it is no longer restricted to
initialization.

Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Acked-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2007-01-05 23:55:24 -08:00
Avi Kivity
1342d3536d [PATCH] KVM: MMU: Load the pae pdptrs on cr3 change like the processor does
In pae mode, a load of cr3 loads the four third-level page table entries in
addition to cr3 itself.

Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Acked-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2007-01-05 23:55:24 -08:00
Avi Kivity
6bcbd6aba0 [PATCH] KVM: MMU: Teach the page table walker to track guest page table gfns
Saving the table gfns removes the need to walk the guest and host page tables
in lockstep.

Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Acked-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2007-01-05 23:55:24 -08:00
Avi Kivity
cd4a4e5374 [PATCH] KVM: MMU: Implement simple reverse mapping
Keep in each host page frame's page->private a pointer to the shadow pte which
maps it.  If there are multiple shadow ptes mapping the page, set bit 0 of
page->private, and use the rest as a pointer to a linked list of all such
mappings.

Reverse mappings are needed because we when we cache shadow page tables, we
must protect the guest page tables from being modified by the guest, as that
would invalidate the cached ptes.

Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Acked-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2007-01-05 23:55:24 -08:00
Avi Kivity
399badf315 [PATCH] KVM: Prevent stale bits in cr0 and cr4
Hardware virtualization implementations allow the guests to freely change some
of the bits in cr0 and cr4, but trap when changing the other bits.  This is
useful to avoid excessive exits due to changing, for example, the ts flag.

It also means the kvm's copy of cr0 and cr4 may be stale with respect to these
bits.  most of the time this doesn't matter as these bits are not very
interesting.  Other times, however (for example when returning cr0 to
userspace), they are, so get the fresh contents of these bits from the guest
by means of a new arch operation.

Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2007-01-05 23:55:23 -08:00
Dor Laor
c1150d8cf9 [PATCH] KVM: Improve interrupt response
The current interrupt injection mechanism might delay an interrupt under
the following circumstances:

 - if injection fails because the guest is not interruptible (rflags.IF clear,
   or after a 'mov ss' or 'sti' instruction).  Userspace can check rflags,
   but the other cases or not testable under the current API.
 - if injection fails because of a fault during delivery.  This probably
   never happens under normal guests.
 - if injection fails due to a physical interrupt causing a vmexit so that
   it can be handled by the host.

In all cases the guest proceeds without processing the interrupt, reducing
the interactive feel and interrupt throughput of the guest.

This patch fixes the situation by allowing userspace to request an exit
when the 'interrupt window' opens, so that it can re-inject the interrupt
at the right time.  Guest interactivity is very visibly improved.

Signed-off-by: Dor Laor <dor.laor@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Acked-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2007-01-05 23:55:22 -08:00
Yoshimi Ichiyanagi
e097f35ce5 [PATCH] KVM: Recover after an arch module load failure
If we load the wrong arch module, it leaves behind kvm_arch_ops set, which
prevents loading of the correct arch module later.

Fix be not setting kvm_arch_ops until we're sure it's good.

Signed-off-by: Yoshimi Ichiyanagi <ichiyanagi.yoshimi@lab.ntt.co.jp>
Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2007-01-05 23:55:22 -08:00
Ingo Molnar
d3b2c33860 [PATCH] KVM: Use raw_smp_processor_id() instead of smp_processor_id() where applicable
Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2007-01-05 23:55:22 -08:00
Ingo Molnar
965b58a550 [PATCH] KVM: Fix GFP_KERNEL alloc in atomic section bug
KVM does kmalloc() in an atomic section while having preemption disabled via
vcpu_load().  Fix this by moving the ->*_msr setup from the vcpu_setup method
to the vcpu_create method.

(This is also a small speedup for setting up a vcpu, which can in theory be
more frequent than the vcpu_create method).

Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2007-01-05 23:55:21 -08:00
Ingo Molnar
8018c27b26 [PATCH] kvm: fix GFP_KERNEL allocation in atomic section in kvm_dev_ioctl_create_vcpu()
fix an GFP_KERNEL allocation in atomic section: kvm_dev_ioctl_create_vcpu()
called kvm_mmu_init(), which calls alloc_pages(), while holding the vcpu.

The fix is to set up the MMU state in two phases: kvm_mmu_create() and
kvm_mmu_setup().

(NOTE: free_vcpus does an kvm_mmu_destroy() call so there's no need for any
extra teardown branch on allocation/init failure here.)

Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
Cc: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-30 10:56:44 -08:00
Avi Kivity
55a54f79e0 [PATCH] KVM: Fix oops on oom
__free_page() doesn't like a NULL argument, so check before calling it.  A
NULL can only happen if memory is exhausted during allocation of a memory
slot.

Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-30 10:56:44 -08:00
Nguyen Anh Quynh
c68876fd28 [PATCH] KVM: Rename some msrs
No need to append _MSR to msr names, a prefix should suffice.

Signed-off-by: Nguyen Anh Quynh <aquynh@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-30 10:56:44 -08:00
Avi Kivity
a8d13ea28b [PATCH] KVM: More msr misery
These msrs are referenced by benchmarking software when pretending to be an
Intel cpu.

Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-30 10:56:44 -08:00
Avi Kivity
3bab1f5dda [PATCH] KVM: Move common msr handling to arch independent code
Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-30 10:56:44 -08:00
Avi Kivity
671d656479 [PATCH] KVM: Implement a few system configuration msrs
Resolves sourceforge bug 1622229 (guest crashes running benchmark software).

Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-30 10:56:44 -08:00
Yoshimi Ichiyanagi
09db28b8a3 [PATCH] KVM: Initialize kvm_arch_ops on unload
The latest version of kvm doesn't initialize kvm_arch_ops in kvm_init(), which
causes an error with the following sequence.

1. Load the supported arch's module.
2. Load the unsupported arch's module.$B!!(B(loading error)
3. Unload the unsupported arch's module.

You'll get the following error message after step 3.  "BUG: unable to handle
to handle kernel paging request at virtual address xxxxxxxx"

The problem here is that the unsupported arch's module overwrites kvm_arch_ops
of the supported arch's module at step 2.

This patch initializes kvm_arch_ops upon loading architecture specific kvm
module, and prevents overwriting kvm_arch_ops when kvm_arch_ops is already set
correctly.

Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-30 10:56:44 -08:00
Avi Kivity
a9058ecd3c [PATCH] KVM: Simplify is_long_mode()
Instead of doing tricky stuff with the arch dependent virtualization
registers, take a peek at the guest's efer.

This simlifies some code, and fixes some confusion in the mmu branch.

Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-30 10:56:44 -08:00
Avi Kivity
1e885461f0 [PATCH] KVM: Use boot_cpu_data instead of current_cpu_data
current_cpu_data invokes smp_processor_id(), which is inadvisable when
preemption is enabled.  Switch to boot_cpu_data instead.

Resolves sourceforge bug 1621401.

Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-30 10:56:43 -08:00
Avi Kivity
0b76e20b27 [PATCH] KVM: API versioning
Add compile-time and run-time API versioning.

Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-22 08:55:46 -08:00
Michael Riepe
0f8e3d365a [PATCH] KVM: Handle p5 mce msrs
This allows plan9 to get a little further booting.

Signed-off-by: Michael Riepe <michael@mr511.de>
Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-22 08:55:46 -08:00
Michael Riepe
abacf8dff9 [PATCH] KVM: Force real-mode cs limit to 64K
This allows opensolaris to boot on kvm/intel.

Signed-off-by: Michael Riepe <michael@mr511.de>
Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-22 08:55:46 -08:00
Michael Riepe
bf591b24d0 [PATCH] KVM: Do not export unsupported msrs to userspace
Some msrs, such as MSR_STAR, are not available on all processors.  Exporting
them causes qemu to try to fetch them, which will fail.

So, check all msrs for validity at module load time.

Signed-off-by: Michael Riepe <michael@mr511.de>
Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-22 08:55:46 -08:00
Avi Kivity
2c26495710 [PATCH] KVM: Use more traditional error handling in kvm_mmu_init()
Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-22 08:55:46 -08:00
Avi Kivity
36241b8c7c [PATCH] KVM: AMD SVM: Save and restore the floating point unit state
Fixes sf bug 1614113 (segfaults in nbench).

Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-22 08:55:46 -08:00
Avi Kivity
0e859cacb0 [PATCH] KVM: AMD SVM: handle MSR_STAR in 32-bit mode
This is necessary for linux guests.

Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-22 08:55:46 -08:00
James Morris
5aacf0ca41 [PATCH] KVM: add valid_vcpu() helper
Consolidate the logic for checking whether a vcpu index is valid.  Also, use
likely(), as a valid value should be the overwhelmingly common case.

Signed-off-by: James Morris <jmorris@namei.org>
Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-22 08:55:45 -08:00
Avi Kivity
bfdc0c280a [PATCH] KVM: Fix vmx hardware_enable() on macbooks
It seems macbooks set bit 2 but not bit 0, which is an "enabled but vmxon will
fault" setting.

Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Tested-by: Alex Larsson (sometimes testing helps)
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-13 09:05:48 -08:00
Michael Riepe
3b99ab2421 [PATCH] KVM: Don't touch the virtual apic vt registers on 32-bit
Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-13 09:05:48 -08:00
Avi Kivity
873a7c423b [PATCH] KVM: Disallow the kvm-amd module on intel hardware, and vice versa
They're not on speaking terms.

Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-13 09:05:48 -08:00
Avi Kivity
8c7bb723b4 [PATCH] KVM: MMU: Ignore pcd, pwt, and pat bits on ptes
The pcd, pwt, and pat bits on page table entries affect the cpu cache.  Since
the cache is a host resource, the guest should not be able to control it.
Moreover, the meaning of these bits changes depending on whether pat is
enabled or not.

So, force these bits to zero on shadow page table entries at all times.

Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-13 09:05:47 -08:00
Avi Kivity
0770b19b94 [PATCH] KVM: Remove extranous put_cpu() from vcpu_put()
The arch splitting patchset left an extra put_cpu() in core code, where it can
cause trouble for CONFIG_PREEMPT kernels.

Reported-by: Huihong Luo <huisinro@yahoo.com>
Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-13 09:05:47 -08:00
Avi Kivity
7725f0badd [PATCH] KVM: Move find_vmx_entry() to vmx.c
Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-13 09:05:47 -08:00
Uri Lublin
f7fbf1fdf0 [PATCH] KVM: Make the GET_SREGS and SET_SREGS ioctls symmetric
This makes the SET_SREGS ioctl behave symmetrically to the GET_SREGS ioctl wrt
the segment access rights flag.

Signed-off-by: Uri Lublin <uril@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-13 09:05:47 -08:00
Avi Kivity
05b3e0c2c7 [PATCH] KVM: Replace __x86_64__ with CONFIG_X86_64
As per akpm's request.

Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-13 09:05:46 -08:00
Avi Kivity
5aff458e9c [PATCH] KVM: Clean up AMD SVM debug registers load and unload
By letting gcc choose the temporary register for us, we lose arch dependency
and some ugliness.  Conceivably gcc will also generate marginally better code.

Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-13 09:05:46 -08:00
Avi Kivity
fd24dc4af6 [PATCH] KVM: Put KVM in a new Virtualization menu
Instead of in the main drivers menu.

Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-13 09:05:46 -08:00
Anthony Liguori
3b3be0d1cc [PATCH] KVM: Add missing include
load_TR_desc() lives in asm/desc.h, so #include that file.

Signed-off-by: Anthony Liguori <anthony@codemonkey.ws>
Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-13 09:05:46 -08:00
Avi Kivity
6aa8b732ca [PATCH] kvm: userspace interface
web site: http://kvm.sourceforge.net

mailing list: kvm-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
  (http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/kvm-devel)

The following patchset adds a driver for Intel's hardware virtualization
extensions to the x86 architecture.  The driver adds a character device
(/dev/kvm) that exposes the virtualization capabilities to userspace.  Using
this driver, a process can run a virtual machine (a "guest") in a fully
virtualized PC containing its own virtual hard disks, network adapters, and
display.

Using this driver, one can start multiple virtual machines on a host.

Each virtual machine is a process on the host; a virtual cpu is a thread in
that process.  kill(1), nice(1), top(1) work as expected.  In effect, the
driver adds a third execution mode to the existing two: we now have kernel
mode, user mode, and guest mode.  Guest mode has its own address space mapping
guest physical memory (which is accessible to user mode by mmap()ing
/dev/kvm).  Guest mode has no access to any I/O devices; any such access is
intercepted and directed to user mode for emulation.

The driver supports i386 and x86_64 hosts and guests.  All combinations are
allowed except x86_64 guest on i386 host.  For i386 guests and hosts, both pae
and non-pae paging modes are supported.

SMP hosts and UP guests are supported.  At the moment only Intel
hardware is supported, but AMD virtualization support is being worked on.

Performance currently is non-stellar due to the naive implementation of the
mmu virtualization, which throws away most of the shadow page table entries
every context switch.  We plan to address this in two ways:

- cache shadow page tables across tlb flushes
- wait until AMD and Intel release processors with nested page tables

Currently a virtual desktop is responsive but consumes a lot of CPU.  Under
Windows I tried playing pinball and watching a few flash movies; with a recent
CPU one can hardly feel the virtualization.  Linux/X is slower, probably due
to X being in a separate process.

In addition to the driver, you need a slightly modified qemu to provide I/O
device emulation and the BIOS.

Caveats (akpm: might no longer be true):

- The Windows install currently bluescreens due to a problem with the
  virtual APIC.  We are working on a fix.  A temporary workaround is to
  use an existing image or install through qemu
- Windows 64-bit does not work.  That's also true for qemu, so it's
  probably a problem with the device model.

[bero@arklinux.org: build fix]
[simon.kagstrom@bth.se: build fix, other fixes]
[uril@qumranet.com: KVM: Expose interrupt bitmap]
[akpm@osdl.org: i386 build fix]
[mingo@elte.hu: i386 fixes]
[rdreier@cisco.com: add log levels to all printks]
[randy.dunlap@oracle.com: Fix sparse NULL and C99 struct init warnings]
[anthony@codemonkey.ws: KVM: AMD SVM: 32-bit host support]
Signed-off-by: Yaniv Kamay <yaniv@qumranet.com>
Signed-off-by: Avi Kivity <avi@qumranet.com>
Cc: Simon Kagstrom <simon.kagstrom@bth.se>
Cc: Bernhard Rosenkraenzer <bero@arklinux.org>
Signed-off-by: Uri Lublin <uril@qumranet.com>
Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
Cc: Roland Dreier <rolandd@cisco.com>
Signed-off-by: Randy Dunlap <randy.dunlap@oracle.com>
Signed-off-by: Anthony Liguori <anthony@codemonkey.ws>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-10 09:57:22 -08:00