KVM: Linux Virtualization That’s Halfway There

Are you looking for a reliable virtualization package to run multiple virtual machines that handle unmodified Linux or Windows images? Then look no further than your existing Linux configuration. It already has the underpinnings to support Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM).

KVM runs another Linux OS in a virtual machine window on the Linux Mint 14 desktop. KVM starts the process in a terminal window (shown in lower left) before launching the Virtual Machine environment in its own window.

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You need look no further than your distro’s package repository to install KVM. This package is a full virtualization solution for Linux on x86 hardware. It includes virtualization extensions (Intel VT or AMD-V) and a loadable kernel module, kvm.ko. This is the core virtualization infrastructure along with a processor-specific module, kvm-intel.ko or kvm-amd.ko.

You will probably need to also install a modified QEMU configured for your distro — but again, if your distro is new enough to include KVM, it should also have a matched QEMU package. Depending on your Linux distro, the actual package name for the built-in virtualization software will be different. In my case, the package is called “Qemu-KVM.”

KVM is a tad bit more troublesome to get working initially. I found it to be more of a hassle than setting up VMware or VirtualBox — but once you have KVM working, it works fairly well.

Rocky Start

I installed KVM on computers running LinuxMint 14 and Ubuntu 12.10 and had similar trouble on both. Neither configuration worked out of the box without some fiddling on my part.

In both cases, I had to install from each distro’s software centers the AQEMU package. This is a Qt4 graphical interface used to manage QEMU and KVM virtual machines. It has a user-friendly interface for setting up the majority of QEMU and KVM options.

On the Ubuntu computer, the QEMU-KVM package was preinstalled. On the Linux Mint computer, the packages were waiting for installation in the Mint repository. The AQEMU settings were balky in both cases, but both accepted the options I entered after some trial and error.

Once the settings were fixed in AQEMU, the interface worked from the menu to create a new Virtual Machine or start an existing one in Ubuntu, but in Mint AQEMU failed to start. That left me with the command line interface (CLI) from within a terminal window.

Black Box Boogie

Another disheartening point is actually starting the VM environment. Only AQEMU shows up in the application menu. You must open a terminal box and issue the appropriate commands — unless, of course, your system actually lets you use the qt4 GUI in AQEMU.

Virtual Machines by design run in their own isolated environment. Whether it’s an application window from running AQEMU or terminal box from the CLI, either way the KVM infrastructure gives each virtual machine its own private virtualized hardware. This includes a network card, disk, graphics adapter, etc.

Like playing in a sandbox, KVM runs whatever OS you load in its own isolated world within the host computer’s own operating system. The virtual machine will share available system memory with host OS, depending on the amount of total installed RAM (Random Access Memory) on the host computer. You can adjust the memory usage settings in AQEMU’s configuration options.

Getting Started

Aqemu’s Graphical User Interface, shown here running on the Ubuntu 12.10 desktop, makes configuring and launching KVM easier.

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If the front-end provided by AQEMU works on your computer, start a new virtual machine from its menu. Or you can select an existing VM already configured.

Starting it is as simple as pressing the familiar “play” icon in the tool bar. Either way, the KVM process will access the directed ISO location and begin to load it into its own window on the desktop.

Starting the virtual machine process from the terminal window is a bit less convenient. You can check the KVM home page for more detailed documentation. Or for more information on using the KVM command, type “kvm –help” or “man kvm.”

CLI Kick Start

Essentially, using the terminal box method, you start KVM and add the location of the ISO file you want loaded. The settings can become slightly complicated. What worked for me was this simple command string:

[] kvm /dev/cdrom

Two other options, depending on your computer’s configuration and the location of the ISO file, can set the amount of memory to assign the virtual machine. Try or modify these command strings:

[] kvm -m 512 -hda disk.img -cdrom linux.iso -boot d -smp 2

[] kvm -m 512 -hda disk.img -boot c -smp 2

The first command starts KVM with 512 MB memory, using the file “disk.img” in the current directory as the first hard drive, the file “linux.iso” in the current directory as the CD-ROM, booting from the CD-ROM disc and providing two processors to the virtual machine.

The second command (use one or the other) starts KVM with the same memory allocation from the same file name, but the ISO file is located on the hard drive.

Running It

Unless you store the ISO files you regularly use on the host computer’s hard drive, starting the VM process takes from three-to-five minutes. Obviously, optical drives transfer data much more slowly than do hard drives or network connections.

If you have waited for a live session of a Linux distro to load from a CD or a DVD, expect the process to take a few minutes longer when going into the virtual machine.

Once the guest OS is up and running, it performs reasonably well in the KVM virtual environment. I had no trouble using any of the OS functions under the guest mode. I also felt little or no operational difference in the performance of the host OS. Credit for that, I admit, may be largely due to the ample supply of RAM that both host computers have available.

What You Need

While the KVN infrastructure is built into the Linux OS, you need a modern version of the Linux kernel to use this virtual machine. KVM requires machine extensions. The kernel component of KVM is included in mainline Linux as of version 2.6.20.

You can check for these extensions by running the command “. egrep ‘^flags.*(vmx|svm)’ /proc/cpuinfo” in the terminal on a recent Linux kernel. If the command returns any output, your CPU has support.

Even if your Linux distro has the stuff inside, your hardware configuration might not be cooperating. Intel VT or AMD-V support could be disabled by default in your computer’s BIOS. So check your BIOS for an appropriate setting to make sure that your CPU is configured to support the Linux hypervisor or HVM.

Bottom Line

Some motherboard manufacturers disable HVM in the BIOS and do not provide a switch for you to enable it manually. In that case, KVM will not work. Your only option is to try one of the other virtual machine products available.

However, if your computer supports KVM and you succeed in getting it configured properly, you can put virtualization to good use. KVM could be easier to configure, though. This is an area that the Linux community needs to address. Nothing gives Linux a black eye more easily than a built-in product that fails to deliver out of the box.