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[Xen-users] Re: Merge Xen (the hypervisor) into Linux

To: "Chris Friesen" <cfriesen@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Xen-users] Re: Merge Xen (the hypervisor) into Linux
From: Alan Cox <alan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 18:36:22 +0100
Cc: "jeremy@xxxxxxxx" <jeremy@xxxxxxxx>, Keir Fraser <Keir.Fraser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "jens.axboe@xxxxxxxxxx" <jens.axboe@xxxxxxxxxx>, "npiggin@xxxxxxx" <npiggin@xxxxxxx>, "xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "kurt.hackel@xxxxxxxxxx" <kurt.hackel@xxxxxxxxxx>, "x86@xxxxxxxxxx" <x86@xxxxxxxxxx>, Stephen Spector <stephen.spector@xxxxxxxxxx>, "avi@xxxxxxxxxx" <avi@xxxxxxxxxx>, Ingo Molnar <mingo@xxxxxxx>, Dan Magenheimer <dan.magenheimer@xxxxxxxxxx>, "wimcoekaerts@xxxxxxxxxxxx" <wimcoekaerts@xxxxxxxxxxxx>, Steven Rostedt <rostedt@xxxxxxxxxxx>, Ian Pratt <Ian.Pratt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, ksrinivasan <ksrinivasan@xxxxxxxxxx>, "xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, George Dunlap <george.dunlap@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "gregkh@xxxxxxx" <gregkh@xxxxxxx>, "linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "EAnderson@xxxxxxxxxx" <EAnderson@xxxxxxxxxx>, "torvalds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <torvalds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, David Miller <davem@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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On Wed, 03 Jun 2009 11:31:13 -0600
"Chris Friesen" <cfriesen@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Ingo Molnar wrote:
> 
> > A lot of Xen legacies could be dropped: the crazy ring1 hack on 
> > 32-bit, the various wide interfaces to make pure-software 
> > virtualization limp along. All major CPUs shipped with hardware 
> > virtualization support in the past 2-3 years, so the availability of 
> > VMX and SVM can be taken for granted for such a project.
> 
> That's a pretty bold statement.  I have five x86 machines in my house
> currently being used, and none of them support VMX/SVM.
> 
> At least some Lenovo laptops disable VMX in the BIOS with no way to
> enable it.  Some of the Core2Duo chips don't support VMX at all.

Ditto some Atom cpus which in turn means you can't run kvm on all the
netbooks right now - which is one place its very useful.

> I think Xen without paravirtualization would be a serious degradation of
> usefulness.

At that point you can just use kvm anyway.

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