Virtualization News Archives

The Intel-led open-source Cloud-Hypervisor project that provides a VMM focused on cloud workloads and supports interfacing with Linux's KVM and Windows' MSHV is out with a big feature update. Cloud-Hypervisor is also the project that is known for its use of the Rust programming language and built in part off Rust-VMM.

Xen 4.16 is shipping today as the latest major release to this open-source hypervisor that continues to be hosted by the Linux Foundation.

When running on the very latest Linux 5.16 Git kernel paired with recent Mesa and various experimental components to the virtualization stack, it is possible getting at least basic Vulkan acceleration working within QEMU guest virtual machines that in turn is accelerated by the host.

An effort recently restarted that originally dates back many years is the "pvUSB" front-end driver for Linux to allow physical USB devices to be used within Xen domains.

A set of more than two dozen patches by Google engineer Sean Christopherson overhauls KVM's x86/x86_64 TDP MMU zapping and flushing code.

This week marked the release of QEMU 6.2-rc0 as the first test candidate for this upcoming update that plays an important role in the open-source Linux virtualization stack.

Xen para-virtualized guests booting on the Linux 5.16 kernel should see noticeably quicker boot times.

Last week the Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) feature patches were sent out and subsequently merged for Linux 5.16.

Bareflank, as what started a few years ago as a Linux hypervisor written in modern C++ and focused on security and other new features as a "hypervisor SDK" of sorts, is now up to version 3.0.

Cloud-Hypervisor 19.0 debuted this week as the Intel-led open-source VMM focused on supporting modern cloud workloads and written in the Rust programming language while leveraging the Linux's KVM virtualization code or the Microsoft MSHV hypervisor on Windows.

The open-source Bareflank Hypervisor project designed to prototype new hypervisors across Intel, AMD, and AArch64 platforms issued their long-awaited 3.0 pre-release on Friday.

Google's work on the VirtIO DRM kernel driver around the notion of "context types" and being able to initialize different types of contexts is set to be merged for Linux 5.16 in opening up more use-cases for this driver that is an important part of the open-source virtualization graphics stack for graphics.

The Intel-led open-source Cloud-Hypervisor project building off Linux's KVM (and also supporting Microsoft MSHV) and being cloud-focused and leveraging the Rust programming language for greater security is out with its newest major release.

Akin to FUSE for file-systems in user-space, VDUSE is set to be merged for Linux 5.15 in adding support for vDPA devices in user-space.

The Linux 5.15 Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) changes this cycle are quite exciting on the x86 (x86_64) front with several prominent additions.

Google Chrome OS engineers are working on making Linux's VirtIO-GPU driver more extensible. The VirtIO-GPU driver has been modeled around the Virgl protocol for handling 3D within guest virtual machines but with a new context type addition they aim to support additional protocols.

QEMU 6.1 is out as the newest feature release to this widely-used, open-source Linux virtualization component.

VMware has found the Linux 5.13 kernel that was released as stable one month ago has led to a serious performance regression for their ESXi enterprise hypervisor.

Going on for more than one year now is the effort for supporting KVM virtualization with the RISC-V architecture, which is very much important for RISC-V processors to be able to eventually take lift in the server space. The KVM RISC-V enablement work is now up to its nineteenth revision but not yet clear if it's ready for mainlining.

Released on Tuesday was QEMU 6.1.0-rc0 as the first test release working towards QEMU 6.1's stable debut before the end of August.

DragonFlyBSD has integrated the NetBSD Virtual Machine Monitor (NVMM) hypervisor that can be used with QEMU.

For those making use of VirtualBox virtualization and rely on the shared folder functionality via the mainline "VBOXSF" driver for exchanging files between VMs and the host, the in-development Linux 5.14 kernel has an important fix/improvement.

The VirtIO-IOMMU driver now works on x86/x86_64 hardware with the Linux 5.14 kernel.

The KVM changes were submitted early ahead of the now-open Linux 5.14 merge window.

With the KVM code set to be merged in the coming weeks for the Linux 5.14 kernel, support for fast XMM hypercalls is coming for its Hyper-V guest support in allowing for some performance benefits.

There has been a number of new VirtIO driver additions recently to the Linux kernel like for sound and Bluetooth for the expanding VirtIO specification while one still in the works for mainlining is the GPIO guest driver.

There continues a lot of work going into Virgl for 3D guest acceleration with the open-source Linux virtualization stack as well as most recently Vulkan driver activity. However, much of that work driven by Google these days is focused on Chrome OS with "Crosvm" rather than the venerable QEMU.

Making some rounds this weekend is the "Lima" project. No, not to be confused with the open-source Arm Mali reverse-engineered project of the same name, but rather an effort to be like an unofficial "macOS subsystem for Linux."

While physical GPUs may be in short supply right now, VMware is preparing for "SVGA v3" as their next-gen virtual PCI graphics adapter for use within VMware virtual machines for graphics acceleration backed by the host.

Along with this week's release of QEMU 6.0, exciting on the Linux virtualization front are the KVM changes that are ready to go with the 5.13 kernel.

QEMU 6.0 is out today as the newest feature release for this processor/machine emulator and virtualizer that serves as an important part of the open-source Linux virtualization stack.

Linux 5.11 brought mainline support for Intel Software Guard Extensions (SGX) after a lengthy mainlining process. Building off that SGX enclaves support in the mainline kernel more recently has been support for SGX with KVM virtualization and now for mainline Linux 5.13 that guest-side support is landing for KVM guests.

Out today is version 4.15 of the open-source Xen hypervisor. The focus of Xen 4.15 is on "broader accessibility, performance and security" with a number of noteworthy additions.

The latest area being worked on with VirtIO for para-virtualized drivers for Linux with a focus on KVM is Bluetooth support.

Released on Friday was Cloud-Hypervisor 0.14, the Intel-led open-source effort creating a Rust-based and cloud-focused multi-platform hypervisor.

This week marked the hard feature freeze for QEMU 6.0 along with the tagging of QEMU 6.0-rc0. The QEMU 6.0 release should happen around the end of April for this important piece of the open-source Linux virtualization stack.

Right now when it comes to Motorola 68000 "m68k" emulation with Linux the most powerful target is the Quadra 800 that is limited to just 1GB of RAM and specific interfaces. But on the way is the new "Virtual M68k Machine" that is much more powerful.

The virtual sound driver for VirtIO has been queued up into the sound-next code ahead of the Linux 5.13 merge window this spring.

The VFIO changes to the Linux 5.12 kernel include an optimization worth mentioning.

Even before the Linux 5.11 kernel was released on Sunday, Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) maintainer Paolo Bonzini already had submitted early the initial batch of virtualization changes for Linux 5.12. There are some interesting changes on the KVM front for Linux 5.12.

Announced nearly three years ago by Intel was the ACRN reference hypervisor framework intended for IoT/embedded use-cases with real-time capabilities and safety-critical computing. More of the kernel bits to this "Big Little Hypervisor for IoT Development" are set to see mainline with the imminent Linux 5.12 kernel cycle.

Bareflank is an open-source Linux hypervisor in development for several years and written around modern C++11/C++14 code and other modern functionality compared to longstanding virtualization hypervisors. Over the past few years it's been picking up many new features while this week Bareflank 2.1 released prior to a major overhaul coming with Bareflank 3.0 that will radically change the codebase.

Unlike the KVM additions, the Xen hypervisor for the Linux 5.11 merge window doesn't bring any new features but just security fixes for some new vulnerabilities.

The KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) changes were sent in today for the Linux 5.11 cycle.

QEMU 5.2 was released on Tuesday as the latest feature release for this open-source processor emulator that plays an important role in the open-source Linux virtualization stack.

Red Hat engineers are working on a "big block mode" for the VirtIO-MEM code and could land for the Linux 5.11 cycle.

Intel has a shiny new feature release out of their open-source Cloud-Hypervisor that runs atop KVM and leveraging the Rust programming language.

The Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) is seeing plenty of improvements with the Linux 5.10 kernel.

The Xen virtualization work for the Linux 5.10 kernel revolves around security.

XCP-ng as the open-source hypervisor built atop XenServer is preparing for its 8.2 LTS release while this week marked the availability of the first beta.