[GSoC 2024] Hardware Virtualization: Final Report | Haiku Project

[Haiku]

QEMU is a virtual machine which allows running an operating system inside of another. While there already is a Haiku port, it currently does not support any acceleration system through native virtualization (through Intel VT-x and AMD SVM.) This makes it too slow for many uses. This project aimed to bring hardware virtualization to Haiku by porting NVMM, a hypervisor that already has QEMU support, into Haiku from DragonFlyBSD. The project goals (as included on the proposal) were:

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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.haiku-os.org/blog/dalme/2024-08-19_gsoc_2024_hardware_virtualization_final_report

[fest3er]

A nearly vertical learning line if I ever saw one!

[VoloDroid]

Somehow most of the links from the blog post are missing in the post above. For example:

@Haiku

SVM backend

Just for the sake of completion. The only commits involving the SVM backend:

Porting libnvmm

In the blog post:

SVM backend

Just for the sake of completion. The only commits involving the SVM backend:

• nvmm: stub driver now supports AMD SVM
• init and fini also working on the SVM backend
• Implement os_pagemem_alloc/os_pagemem_free and modify SVM backend to avoid need of os_pa_zalloc/os_pa_free

Porting libnvmm

Porting libnvmm was straightforward and painless, although it required to remove some non-standard error codes.

• libnvmm compiles
• Don’t use EPROGMISMATCH
• Add nvmm headers to haiku_devel package

[steampunklolcat]

Great job, thank you. Will you continue the work after GSOC24?

[dalmegnu]

@steampunklolcat

Great job, thank you. Will you continue the work after GSOC24?

That is my plan, yes. I believe it’s very close to a working state.

[KitsunePrefecture]

I wish you

Happy coding ! :

Thanks for the summary - however I followed the blogpost – it was great to read again your journey through the porridge mountain of adding a hypervisor solution to QEMU on Haiku …

It would be completed - yes,
it is going to be merged - yes ! -

… especially as it also to helps Haiku and app development , …

as it will make it possible to install/boot
Haiku images of PPC, ARM/ARM64 or Risc-V architecture
on an x86_64 Haiku. with almost bare metal speed !

For end users - like me - will also possible to try out other OS images - just as we do / did it on another OS.
Or … to have a nightly running … on Haiku Beta :))

Thank you for your efforts until now -
and in the future : to clean/complete this whole solution.

[dalmegnu]

@KitsunePrefecture

as it will make it possible to install/boot
Haiku images of PPC, ARM/ARM64 or Risc-V architecture
on an x86_64 Haiku. with almost bare metal speed !

Just to clarify: the only images you can accelerate with hardware virtualization are those of the same arquitecture as your machine. So no accelerated Haiku RISC-V on Haiku x86_64…

[KitsunePrefecture]

Well, then at least an x86_64 Haiku nightly on x86_64 Haiku Beta can benefit of it ;-))

(Yepp I rushed with my imagination and forgot then the host CPU won’t magically turns into another architecture !.. Thanks to fix me )

[Begasus]

A big thanks for your contribution, much appreciated! Although not finished already a big step into the right direction, hope you can stick around a bit longer to follow up on some of the remaining issues. Thanks!