Question about paravirtualisation support and about linux-virtual

[Ioannis Vranos]

On Mon, 2010-10-18 at 14:40 +0100, Liam Proven wrote:
> On 18 October 2010 14:23, Ioannis Vranos <cppdeveloper at ontelecoms.gr> wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I have 2 questions.
> >
> > 1. Does anyone know if there is VMware paravirtualisation support in
> > recent Ubuntu releases?
> >
> >
> > 2. Also in Synaptic, there are available linux images in the style:
> >
> > linux-image-2.6.32-23-virtual
> >
> > with the description:
> >
> >
> > Linux kernel image for version 2.6.32 on x86/x86_64
> >
> > This package contains the Linux kernel image for version 2.6.32 on
> > x86/x86_64.
> >
> > Also includes the corresponding System.map file, the modules built by
> > the
> > packager, and scripts that try to ensure that the system is not left in
> > an
> > unbootable state after an update.
> >
> > Supports Virtual processors.
> >
> > Geared toward virtual machine guests.
> >
> > You likely do not want to install this package directly. Instead,
> > install
> > the linux-virtual meta-package, which will ensure that upgrades work
> > correctly, and that supporting packages are also installed.
> >
> > Canonical provides critical updates for linux-image-2.6.32-23-virtual
> > until October 2011.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > and the metapackage linux-virtual has the following description:
> >
> >
> > Complete Linux kernel for virtual machines
> >
> > This package will always depend on the latest complete Linux kernel
> > available
> > for virtual machines.
> >
> >
> > Are these about paravirtualisation support, and does this support
> > include VMware?
> 
> Paravirtualisation is a method of running an OS for a non
> Popek-and-Golderberg instruction set under a hypervisor. It modifies
> the guest OS so that it does not use any privileged instructions
> needed by the host OS.
> 
> In practice, this means that these are kernels for Xen VMs running on
> host hardware that does not support Intel or AMD hardware
> virtualisation.
> 
> It's nothing to do with VMware at all.


Thank you for your answer, however why Xen isn't mentioned then? There
is not Xen virtualisation only.

There are KMS, VirtualBox, VMware, and others too.

How do you know it is only for Xen?



-- 
Ioannis Vranos

http://www.cpp-software.net