[Qemu-devel] [Bug 1243968] [NEW] VMware ESXi on QEmu Kernel Panic

[Nathan Shearer]

Public bug reported:

I attempted to install ESXi 5.5 (the free version) into a QEmu 1.6.1 VM.
The guest OS does have the svm capabilities, but it appears VMware is
trying to do some kind of hypercall that crashes the guest.

There is more information here:
https://communities.vmware.com/message/2297382

It seems to me that this stubbed feature should just be disabled if it
is unusable. Or at the very least I should be able to disable it at run-
time with a command-line argument.

Is there some way to disable all the hypervisor features that makes it
very obvious to a guest os that it is running inside a VM? It would be
great if I could install a software and it would actually work (even if
it's slow with those features disabled).

FYI, my guest OS capabilities are:

# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : AuthenticAMD
cpu family      : 6
model           : 2
model name      : QEMU Virtual CPU version 1.5.3
stepping        : 3
microcode       : 0x1000065
cpu MHz         : 1999.999
cache size      : 512 KB
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 4
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat 
pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 syscall nx lm nopl pni cx16 popcnt hypervisor 
lahf_lm svm abm sse4a
bogomips        : 3999.99
TLB size        : 1024 4K pages
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

** Affects: qemu
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: Confirmed


** Tags: esxi hypercall vmware

** Changed in: qemu
       Status: New => Confirmed

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1243968

Title:
  VMware ESXi on QEmu Kernel Panic

Status in QEMU:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  I attempted to install ESXi 5.5 (the free version) into a QEmu 1.6.1
  VM. The guest OS does have the svm capabilities, but it appears VMware
  is trying to do some kind of hypercall that crashes the guest.

  There is more information here:
  https://communities.vmware.com/message/2297382

  It seems to me that this stubbed feature should just be disabled if it
  is unusable. Or at the very least I should be able to disable it at
  run-time with a command-line argument.

  Is there some way to disable all the hypervisor features that makes it
  very obvious to a guest os that it is running inside a VM? It would be
  great if I could install a software and it would actually work (even
  if it's slow with those features disabled).

  FYI, my guest OS capabilities are:

  # cat /proc/cpuinfo
  processor       : 0
  vendor_id       : AuthenticAMD
  cpu family      : 6
  model           : 2
  model name      : QEMU Virtual CPU version 1.5.3
  stepping        : 3
  microcode       : 0x1000065
  cpu MHz         : 1999.999
  cache size      : 512 KB
  fpu             : yes
  fpu_exception   : yes
  cpuid level     : 4
  wp              : yes
  flags           : fpu de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov 
pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 syscall nx lm nopl pni cx16 popcnt 
hypervisor lahf_lm svm abm sse4a
  bogomips        : 3999.99
  TLB size        : 1024 4K pages
  clflush size    : 64
  cache_alignment : 64
  address sizes   : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
  power management:

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