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[Request][Jolla Tablet] Please ship kernel w/ virtualization enabled

asked 2014-11-28 10:12:44 +0200

t-lo gravatar image

updated 2014-11-30 12:56:06 +0200

pcfe gravatar image

Since the designated tablet CPU includes Virtualization features (http://ark.intel.com/products/80274/Intel-Atom-Processor-Z3735F-2M-Cache-up-to-1_83-GHz) I think it would be great if those features are available to Jolla Tablet user space by means of including the corresponding kernel modules (kvm.ko, kvm-intel.ko) into the tablet's SailfishOS.

This would enable the community to build and run hardware-accelerated virtualization (e.g. qemu) on the device which would be all kinds of awesome.

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9

Or even better: Give us the possibility to compile a kernel our self.

sqozz ( 2014-11-28 10:50:33 +0200 )edit
2

@sqozz - that has already been stated to be possible. This request is about including the kvm modules and enabling VT in UEFI/boot-loader by default.

tbr ( 2014-11-28 10:59:26 +0200 )edit

@tbr thanks for that info, i didn't know that!

sqozz ( 2014-11-28 11:15:59 +0200 )edit

It would be totally awesome to be able to run kvm on the tablet (even when it has not a lot of RAM for that). So yes, please enable VT-x for the OS by default.

@t-lo: Maybe add a feature-request tag to this request? I already was about to write the same request because I did not see anything in the feature requests and my search for VT-x and kvm also returned no results.

flint ( 2014-11-29 01:16:30 +0200 )edit

Mush needed

Phunkie ( 2014-12-02 23:07:15 +0200 )edit

3 Answers

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14

answered 2014-12-06 11:03:46 +0200

Will see what we can do. But we need somebody to port QEMU-KVM to Wayland, too .. :)

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5

Well if you would have ssh access to the tablet or a terminal access window, would be all you need for setting up the qemu/kvm env. And then a VNC client for locally connect to it.

Moronicsmurf ( 2014-12-06 11:36:19 +0200 )edit
1

@Stskeeps By "port" you mean "package"? The default SDL output should work with Wayland since SDL has Wayland support (supposed SDL is recent enough): http://hg.libsdl.org/SDL/rev/4fc5f66d63cc I take it that SLD is currently not available in the Sailfish SDK so it would need to be bundled with the qemu package.

And maybe provide a nice simple GUI. That's by no means impossible.

t-lo ( 2014-12-06 14:42:36 +0200 )edit

@t-lo that's good news! Hope it works with opengl ES too.

Stskeeps ( 2014-12-06 14:43:39 +0200 )edit

@Stskeeps SDL has OpenGL-ES support but I don't know whether qemu uses this at all. I'm not SDL literate enough, however, the qemu code at http://git.qemu.org/?p=qemu.git;a=blob;f=ui/sdl2.c;h=1ad74baafcd567649edf4f8e93ae90d888fafc4a;hb=HEAD doesn't seem to include any GL code. If you're talking about virtual 3D accelerator devices for use by guests, well, that's up-and-coming (take a look at https://virgil3d.github.io, "Future scope"), but not there yet.

t-lo ( 2014-12-06 15:49:25 +0200 )edit

@Stskeeps "will see what we can do" does mean that the matter is not completely in Jolla hands?

simosagi ( 2014-12-06 16:09:15 +0200 )edit
7

answered 2016-02-01 22:30:35 +0200

t-lo gravatar image

BUMP

We're halfway there! The tablet UEFI has vmx enabled; we're merely lacking the kvm.ko and kvm-intel.ko kernel modules. Having those modules around has no side effects to the tablet kernel. They'll not be loaded on normal system operation.

The tablet's SFOS future seems unsure now, and I think it's a massive advantage to be able to run hardware-accelerated virtual machines. This will enable the few lucky tablet owners to run a wide variety of OSes (think ubuntu, firefox os, etc. - even a BSD would work) as SFOS application.

Please enable kvm and kvm-intel in the tablet's kernel config with the next update. Since the hardware abstraction applies only to the tablet, the Jolla Phone kernel would not be affected. Pretty Please? It's simple, it's easy, and it has no side effects. Also please pardon me abusing an answer to bump my own request.

My point of contact for a similar request (enabling kernel features to run containers on the phone) was @Philippe De Swert. Is Philippe still around?

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4

answered 2015-06-09 11:44:43 +0200

Philippe De Swert gravatar image

If you can't wait you can already try systemd containers on the phone after the last update :

https://together.jolla.com/question/70499/request-fulfilled-enable-container-namespace-features-in-jolla-kernel/?sort=votes&answer=95273#post-id-95273

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@Philippe De Swert I know, I know, I was the guy requesting that, too :D

t-lo ( 2015-06-11 09:08:10 +0200 )edit

@t-lo: Well I think I made sure it should work on the tablet too. Haven't tried it myself though.

Philippe De Swert ( 2015-10-28 14:14:11 +0200 )edit

@Philippe De Swert Awesome, thanks! Will give it a shot as soon as I have some time.

t-lo ( 2015-10-29 09:28:01 +0200 )edit
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Asked: 2014-11-28 10:12:44 +0200

Seen: 1,286 times

Last updated: Feb 01 '16