wiki/resources.md

title	description	published	date	tags	editor	dateCreated
External resources	A list of external mostly-online resources around KVM virtualization and related technologies	true	2021-08-12T08:46:02.633Z	info	markdown	2021-06-23T12:36:12.051Z

Curated resources

Hypervisors

KVM

• "kvmtool is a lightweight tool for hosting KVM guests. As a pure virtualization tool it only supports guests using the same architecture, though it supports running 32-bit guests on those 64-bit architectures that allow this." : https://github.com/kvmtool/kvmtool
• Sparkler: A KVM-based Virtual Machine Manager : https://unixism.net/2019/10/sparkler-kvm-based-virtual-machine-manager/
• https://www.linux-kvm.org/page/KVM_Features
• https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/all-you-need-know-about-kvm-userspace
• Using the KVM API https://lwn.net/Articles/658511/
• [2016] Performant Security Hardening of KVM by Steve Rutherford : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj5PA_D03Vg

Nested-virtualization

• https://www.rdoxenham.com/?p=275
• https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/quick-docs/using-nested-virtualization-in-kvm/
• (Mostly) Exitless VM Protection from Untrusted Hypervisor through Disaggregated Nested Virtualization : https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity20/presentation/mi
• https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261020814_Architecture_support_for_guest-transparent_VM_protection_from_untrusted_hypervisor_and_physical_attacks
• Nested virtualization support on Intel HAXM: https://github.com/intel/haxm/issues/51

CROSVM/KVM

Spectrum OS

• https://spectrum-os.org/
  • https://github.com/sponsors/alyssais
  • https://liberapay.com/qyliss/
• Qubes-lite With KVM and Wayland : https://roscidus.com/blog/blog/2021/03/07/qubes-lite-with-kvm-and-wayland/

QEMU/KVM

• This is a port of QEMU machine emulator to JavaScript using Emscripten : https://github.com/atrosinenko/qemujs
• Intel Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager (HAXM) : https://github.com/intel/haxm

On Fedora host

• Virtualization Deployment and Administration Guide
• New Fedora Official User Documentation
• Old Fedora Official User Documentation

On Unraid (Debian-based) host

• https://forums.unraid.net/topic/54834-video-guideall-about-docker-in-unraid-docker-principles-and-setup/
• https://forums.unraid.net/topic/84226-wireguard-quickstart/
• https://forums.unraid.net/topic/80251-unraid-beginners-tutorial/
• https://forums.unraid.net/topic/84316-wireguard-vpn-tunneled-access/
• https://forums.unraid.net/topic/84226-wireguard-quickstart/
• https://forums.unraid.net/topic/51230-video-guidehow-to-pass-through-an-nvidia-gpu-as-primary-or-only-gpu-in-unraid/

QEMU

On macOS host

• Virtualizing OpenCore and x86 macOS on Apple Silicon (and even iOS!) https://khronokernel.github.io/apple/silicon/2021/01/17/QEMU-AS.html

• UTM App :

  • https://mac.getutm.app/
  • https://github.com/utmapp/UTM

Cloud Hypervisor/KVM

• Docs ; https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/tree/master/docs
• Cloud Hypervisor API : https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/blob/master/docs/api.md
• Device model : https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/blob/master/docs/device_model.md
• FUzzing : https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/blob/master/docs/fuzzing.md
• Using MACVTAP to Bridge onto Host Network : https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/blob/master/docs/macvtap-bridge.md
• Networking : https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/blob/master/docs/networking.md
• UEFI Boot : https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/blob/master/docs/uefi.md
• VFIO : https://github.com/cloud-hypervisor/cloud-hypervisor/blob/master/docs/vfio.md

Virtual chipsets

• i440fx vs Q35 : https://www.reddit.com/r/VFIO/comments/5ireij/differencesbenefits_between_i440fx_and_q35/

i440fx

Q35

• https://wiki.qemu.org/Features/Q35

microvm

virt

Emulated-devices

Virtual-devices (Paravirtualization)

• Virtual I/O Device (VIRTIO) specification, version 1.1

• Host device management with libvirt : https://libvirt.org/drvnodedev.html

• Virtio and Vhost Architecture - Part 1 : https://insujang.github.io/2021-03-10/virtio-and-vhost-architecture-part-1/

• Virtio and Vhost Architecture - Part 2 : https://insujang.github.io/2021-03-15/virtio-and-vhost-architecture-part-2/

• Virtio: An I/O virtualization framework for Linux : https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~412/lectures/Virtio_2015-10-14.pdf

vfio-mdev

Nvidia

• https://reposhub.com/cpp/miscellaneous/DualCoder-vgpu_unlock.html

Intel GVT-g

• https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/User:Shunlir/Intel_GVT-g
• https://blog.tmm.cx/2020/05/15/passing-an-intel-gpu-to-a-linux-kvm-virtual-machine/
• https://blog.bepbep.co/posts/gvt/
• https://lantian.pub/en/article/modify-computer/laptop-intel-nvidia-optimus-passthrough.lantian/
• https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Intel_GVT-g

vfio-gpu

• Virglrenderer and the state of virtualized virtual worlds, 2019. https://www.collabora.com/news-and-blog/blog/2019/08/28/virglrenderer-state-of-virtualized-virtual-worlds/
• Virtualizing GPU Access https://www.collabora.com/news-and-blog/blog/2018/02/12/virtualizing-gpu-access/
• Android https://linuxhint.com/android_qemu_play_3d_games_linux/
• https://www.kraxel.org/blog/2016/09/using-virtio-gpu-with-libvirt-and-spice/
• https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/virglrenderer
• https://virtualgl.org/About/Introduction
• http://virgil3d.github.io/
• https://www.studiopixl.com/2017-08-27/3d-acceleration-using-virtio.html
• https://cgit.freedesktop.org/virglrenderer
• https://github.com/Keenuts/virtio-gpu-documentation
• https://at.projects.genivi.org/wiki/display/DIRO/VIRTIO+GPU+Operation+Highlights
• https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/7nmceg/kvmqemu_with_virtiogpu_virgl_support_enabled/
• https://forums.unraid.net/topic/62276-gpu-virtualization-virtio-gpu-virgl-sr-iov-mxgpu-vdi-spice/
• http://events17.linuxfoundation.org/sites/events/files/slides/KVM%20Forum%202014%20-%20VFIO%2C%20OVMF%2C%20GPU%2C%20and%20You%20-%20Alex%20Williamson.pdf
• Virgil 3d project homepage : http://virgil3d.github.io/
• Introducing Virgil - 3D virtual GPU for qemu : https://airlied.livejournal.com/77553.html
• https://czak.pl/2020/04/09/three-levels-of-qemu-graphics.html
• Virgil 3D renderer for macos : https://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2021-02/msg04235.html

vfio-pci

• https://github.com/ekistece/Fedora-33-VFIO-guide/
• www.reddit.com/r/VFIO/comments/h9zijx/fedora_32_and_gpu_passthrough_vfio/

vfio-snd

• New patch : https://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/virtio-dev/202003/msg00185.html

Guests

Android

• Building Android for Qemu: A Step-by-Step Guide https://www.collabora.com/news-and-blog/blog/2016/09/02/building-android-for-qemu-a-step-by-step-guide/
• Vfio for Android : https://github.com/robherring/generic_device/wiki
• adb cheat sheet : https://www.automatetheplanet.com/adb-cheat-sheet/

Lakka

• Proxmox : https://forums.libretro.com/t/video-guide-how-to-install-lakka-as-a-vm-using-kvm-in-unraid/6319

macOS kvm guest

• https://github.com/kholia/OSX-KVM
• https://github.com/yoonsikp/macos-kvm-pci-passthrough
• https://github.com/foxlet/macOS-Simple-KVM
• https://www.nicksherlock.com/2019/10/installing-macos-catalina-10-15-on-proxmox-6/
• Virgil 3D renderer for macos : https://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2021-02/msg04235.html
• OSX-KVM : https://gitlab.com/sanselme/OSX-KVM
• https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Install-Guide/installer-guide/linux-install.html#downloading-macos

PS4

• Orbital : Virtualization-based PlayStation 4 emulator : https://github.com/AlexAltea/orbital

Windows

• https://wiki.unraid.net/UnRAID_6/VM_Guest_Support
• "Additionally, in case you are using QEMU 4.0 (or higher) in combination with a Q35 chip, the flag ‘ioapic driver='kvm'‘ needs to be added in the features section (see excerpt marked blue)." https://mathiashueber.com/fighting-error-43-nvidia-gpu-virtual-machine/

Fedora

• fedora cloud images : https://alt.fedoraproject.org/cloud/

GPU-related

Modes of 3D acceleration in a VM explained

https://www.kraxel.org/blog/2019/09/display-devices-in-qemu/

Android

• Android GPU Compute Going Forward : https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2021/04/android-gpu-compute-going-forward.html?m=1
• GPU Emulation plans : https://groups.google.com/g/android-emulator-dev/c/9o8OZezxq9c?pli=1

Single GPU passthrough

• https://github.com/cosminmocan/vfio-single-amdgpu-passthrough
• https://gitlab.com/Karuri/vfio
• https://github.com/bducha/single-gpu-passthrough
• bugs : https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/issues/2678
• Windows Gaming on Linux: Single GPU Passthrough Guide https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BxAaaRDEEw

CPU-related

• QEMU / KVM CPU model configuration : https://qemu.readthedocs.io/en/latest/system/qemu-cpu-models.html
• My QEMU fork with pinning (affinity) support and a few tweaks. : https://github.com/saveriomiroddi/qemu-pinning

Network-related

Bridge

• How To Create and Configure Bridge Networking For KVM in Linux : https://computingforgeeks.com/how-to-create-and-configure-bridge-networking-for-kvm-in-linux/
• https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/13/html/Virtualization_Guide/sect-Virtualization-Network_Configuration-Bridged_networking_with_libvirt.html
• Networking in Libvirt : https://wiki.libvirt.org/page/Networking
• https://lukas.zapletalovi.com/2015/09/fedora-22-libvirt-with-bridge.html
• How to Setup Bridge Networking with KVM on Ubuntu 20.04 : https://levelup.gitconnected.com/how-to-setup-bridge-networking-with-kvm-on-ubuntu-20-04-9c560b3e3991

Bridge Wireless Cards

• https://shanetomlinson.com/bridging-a-wireless-card-in-kvmqemu/
• https://web.archive.org/web/20160821085327/http://blog.bodhizazen.net/linux/bridge-wireless-cards/
• https://gist.github.com/Jiab77/4cf278ac3ad59665969bdf73e083a847
• https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/159191/setup-kvm-on-a-wireless-interface-on-a-laptop-machine

Storage-related

TRIM in VM

https://chrisirwin.ca/posts/discard-with-kvm/

Drive options

https://heiko-sieger.info/qemu-system-x86_64-drive-options/

Virtio-FS

https://www.tauceti.blog/post/qemu-kvm-share-host-directory-with-vm-with-virtio/

RAW versus QCOW2

https://www.tutos.snatch-crash.fr/proxmox-raw-vs-qcow2-vs-vmdk/

Snapshot of efi-based VM

• https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2020-09/msg05221.html
• https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1881850

Boot-related firmware

SeaBIOS versus edk2

• https://mail.coreboot.org/pipermail/seabios/2014-February/007689.html

Security-related

QCOW Encryption

• 12f7efd02e
• https://libvirt.org/formatstorageencryption.html
• https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/qemu-devel/patch/20170210170910.8867-14-berrange@redhat.com/
• https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/qemu-devel/patch/20170126101827.22378-13-berrange@redhat.com/
• https://www.berrange.com/posts/2015/03/17/qemu-qcow2-built-in-encryption-just-say-no-deprecated-now-to-be-deleted-soon/

Secure Boot

• https://www.kraxel.org/slides/virtual-secure-boot/#hands-on-libvirt
• [Openstack] Allow Secure Boot (SB) for QEMU- and KVM-based guests : https://specs.openstack.org/openstack/nova-specs/specs/train/approved/allow-secure-boot-for-qemu-kvm-guests.html

sVirt

• KVM and sVirt : http://www.virtualopensystems.com/en/solutions/guides/kvm-svirt-omap5/
• https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/6/html/security-enhanced_linux/ch07s02
• sVirt: Hardening Linux Virtualization with Mandatory Access Control https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e1gHOBduuQ

gVisor

QEMU

• https://qemu.readthedocs.io/en/latest/system/security.html

vTPM

• Virtual TPM (vTPM) : https://fossies.org/linux/qemu/docs/specs/tpm.rst

Other ressources

• ERNW_Hardening_KVM : https://github.com/ernw/hardening/blob/master/hypervisor/kvm/ERNW_Hardening_KVM.md
• Security in QEMUHow Virtual Machines provide Isolation : https://vmsplice.net/~stefan/stefanha-kvm-forum-2018.pdf
• Qemu hardening with CT: https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/hardening-qemu-through-continuous-security-testing
• Thunderclap IOMMU Exploit : https://www.ndss-symposium.org/wp-content/uploads/ndss2019_05A-1_Markettos_slides.pdf
• https://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings-article/hpca/2018/365901a441/12OmNzkMlRm
• https://ipads.se.sjtu.edu.cn/_media/publications/fidelius_hpca18.pdf

Tools

Libvirt

• https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Libvirt

VMs management

• Ignite from Weaveworks

Virt-* tools

• 'virt-host-validate' to check whether QEMU and LXC are setup correctly
• virt-install --cloud-init support : https://blog.wikichoon.com/2020/09/virt-install-cloud-init.html
• virt-install and cloud-init : https://blog.wikichoon.com/2020/09/virt-install-cloud-init.html
• virt-builder and virsh : https://developer.fedoraproject.org/tools/virt-builder/about.html
• virt-builder : https://www.admin-magazine.com/Articles/Generate-VM-Images-with-virt-builder
• https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/fedora-silverblue/toolbox/
• https://www.golinuxcloud.com/virt-install-examples-kvm-virt-commands-linux/
• virt* cheatsheet : https://www.cyberithub.com/virsh-commands-examples-virt-df-virt-top-kvm/
• https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/virtualization_deployment_and_administration_guide/sect-guest_virtual_machine_installation_overview-creating_guests_with_virt_install
• https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/23/html/Virtualization_Getting_Started_Guide/sec-Other-Useful-tools.html

Kickstart

• https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/fedora/rawhide/install-guide/advanced/Kickstart_Installations/
• https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Anaconda/Kickstart/KickstartingFedoraLiveInstallation
• For reference, a complex example with CentOS : https://gist.github.com/giovtorres/0049cec554179d96e0a8329930a6d724

Fedora-related

• Redhat Fedora : https://developer.fedoraproject.org/tools.html
• Fedora Silverblue : https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/fedora-silverblue/toolbox/

Open Build Service (OBS)

• Our build tool, building all of our packages as well as ones for SUSE Linux Enterprise, Arch, Debian, Fedora, Scientific Linux, RHEL, CentOS, Ubuntu, and more : https://openbuildservice.org/

openQA

• Automated testing for any operating system, that can read the screen and control the test host the same way a user does : http://open.qa/

YaST

• The best/only comprehensive Linux system configuration & installation tool : https://yast.opensuse.org/documentation

Kiwi

• "Create Linux images for deployment on real hardware, virtualisation, and now even container systems like Docker. Kiwi is the engine that builds the openSUSE release images."
  • http://osinside.github.io/kiwi/self_contained.html
  • http://osinside.github.io/kiwi/building_images/build_live_iso.html
  • http://osinside.github.io/kiwi/building_images/build_simple_disk.html
  • http://osinside.github.io/kiwi/building_images/build_kis.html

Guides

• Great in-depth article : https://stewartadam.io/howtos/fedora-20/create-gaming-virtual-machine-using-vfio-pci-passthrough-kvm
• UEFI ! https://blog.system76.com/post/139138591598/howto-uefi-qemu-guest-on-ubuntu-xenial-host
• Getting started with qemu : https://drewdevault.com/2018/09/10/Getting-started-with-qemu.html
• Great guide : https://github.com/ekistece/Fedora-33-VFIO-guide/
• https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/how-to-install-kvm-on-centos-8-headless-server/
• https://ostechnix.com/install-and-configure-kvm-in-ubuntu-20-04-headless-server/
• https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/how-to-install-kvm-on-ubuntu-20-04-lts-headless-server/
• https://computingforgeeks.com/how-to-install-kvm-on-fedora/
• https://www.server-world.info/en/note?os=CentOS_7&p=kvm&f=10
• https://scottlinux.com/2017/05/10/how-to-enable-iommu-support-in-fedora-linux/
• https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PCI_passthrough_via_OVMF
• https://heiko-sieger.info/creating-a-windows-10-vm-on-the-amd-ryzen-9-3900x-using-qemu-4-0-and-vga-passthrough/
• https://marzukia.github.io/post/fedora-32-and-gpu-passthrough-vfio/
• https://forum.level1techs.com/t/vfio-in-2019-fedora-workstation-general-guide-though-branch-draft/145106
• https://marzukia.github.io/post/fedora-32-and-gpu-passthrough-vfio/
• https://gitlab.com/Karuri/vfio
• https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PCI_passthrough_via_OVMF
• https://thereisnospoon.ews-network.net/posts/fedora-30-win10-nvidia-gpu-passthrough/
• https://mathiashueber.com/performance-tweaks-gaming-on-virtual-machines/

Misc

XML

• http://functionx.com/xml/Lesson04.htm

Communities

• To-do

Unsorted

• Index of Documentation for People Interested in Writing and/or Understanding the Linux Kernel

Wayland

• GUI : http://bhepple.com/doku/doku.php?id=sway:sway-apps
• Wayland on archlinux : https://www.fosskers.ca/en/blog/wayland

Cloud gaming

• Gaming Anywhere : https://github.com/chunying/gaminganywhere

Cloud-init

• https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Cloud-init

Headless virtualization

• https://www.ostechnix.com/setup-headless-virtualization-server-using-kvm-ubuntu/
• https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/installing-kvm-on-ubuntu-16-04-lts-server/
• fedora headless virt group (`dnf groupinstall -y "Headless Virtualization")

ACS Override

• Fedora ACS override https://github.com/Somersall-Natalie/fedora-acs-override
• ACS Override Kernel Builds https://queuecumber.gitlab.io/linux-acs-override/
• Fedora Build ACS Override Patch Kernel https://wiki.myhypervisor.ca/books/linux/page/fedora-build-acs-override-patch-kernel
• ACS Overrride patch for debian https://github.com/raphendyr/acs-override
• [PATCH] pci: Enable overrides for missing ACS capabilities PCIe ACS (Access Control Services) : https://lkml.org/lkml/2013/5/30/513
• IOMMU Groups, inside and out http://vfio.blogspot.com/2014/08/iommu-groups-inside-and-out.html

Package management

• RPM Packaging Guide : https://rpm-packaging-guide.github.io/#preparing-software-for-packaging
• Join the package collection maintainers : https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Join_the_package_collection_maintainers

Tiny-distro

• Build and run minimal Linux / Busybox systems in Qemu : https://gist.github.com/chrisdone/02e165a0004be33734ac2334f215380e#file-gistfile1-md
• Making minimal graphical operating system : https://bcksp.blogspot.com/2017/09/making-minimal-graphical-operating.html?m=1
• Build and boot a minimal Linux system with qemu : https://www.kaizou.org/2016/09/boot-minimal-linux-qemu.html
• alux - a minimal Linux kernel distribution : https://github.com/alexhultman/alux
• Build and run minimal linux with QEMU : https://gist.github.com/seokbeomKim/9cff93b073573fe535534c522c6e53e1

VDI-related

• Isaard vdi : https://isard.gitlab.io/isardvdi-docs/#why-choose-isardvdi
• VirtualGL https://github.com/VirtualGL/virtualgl/releases

Meta

• Awesome Virtualization, A curated list of awesome resources about virtualization

Project

Mascot

• Xenia, the Linux mascot: https://xenia-linux-site.glitch.me/

Funding

• NGI Open Calls : https://www.ngi.eu/opencalls/#ngi-zero-pet-opencall

Books

On Linux

• The Linux Command Line, 2nd Edition: A Complete Introduction
• Understanding the Linux Kernel 3e
• Linux System Programming 2ed
• The Linux Programming Interface: A Linux and UNIX System Programming Handbook (English Edition)
• Linux-insides : https://0xax.gitbooks.io/linux-insides/content/