README

README: 中文 | English

This repository contains the command-line tools and kernel modules associated with hvisor. The command-line tools include the Virtio daemon for providing Virtio devices. Both the command-line tools and kernel modules need to be compiled separately and then used on the root Linux zone0 of the managed virtual machine. The structure of the repository is as follows:

hvisor-tool
	-tools: Contains the command-line tools and Virtio daemon
	-driver: Kernel modules for hvisor
	-examples: Example configuration files for different environments

Compilation Steps

All operations should be performed in the hvisor-tool directory on an x86 host for cross-compilation.

• Compile the command-line tools and kernel modules

make all ARCH=<arch> LOG=<log> KDIR=/path/to/your-linux VIRTIO_GPU=[y/n]

Where <arch> should be either arm64 or riscv.

<log> can be one of the following: LOG_TRACE, LOG_DEBUG, LOG_INFO, LOG_WARN, LOG_ERROR, or LOG_FATAL, to control the log output level of the Virtio daemon.

/path/to/your-linux is the kernel source directory for the root Linux. Specific compilation options can be found in Makefile, tools/Makefile, and driver/Makefile.

For example, to compile the command-line tools for arm64, you can run:

make all ARCH=arm64 LOG=LOG_WARN KDIR=~/linux

This will generate the tools in tools/hvisor and the kernel module in driver/hvisor.ko, which you can copy to the root Linux root filesystem and use.

Usage Steps

Kernel Module

Before using the command-line tools and Virtio daemon, the kernel module needs to be loaded on zone0 to allow user-space programs to interact with the Hypervisor:

insmod hvisor.ko

To unload the kernel module, use the following command:

rmmod hvisor.ko

Command-line Tools

On root Linux zone0, the command-line tools can be used to create and shut down other virtual machines.

• Start a new virtual machine

  hvisor-tool starts a new virtual machine using a configuration file:

  ./hvisor zone start <vm_config.json>
  

  <vm_config.json> is a file describing the virtual machine configuration. For example:

  • Start zone1 on QEMU-aarch64: You can refer to here for how to configure and start a Linux on zone1.

  • Start zone1 on NXP-aarch64: When using this file to start zone1, the Virtio daemon needs to be started first, and the corresponding configuration file is virtio_cfg.json.

• Shut down the virtual machine with ID 1:

./hvisor zone shutdown -id 1

• Print information about all current virtual machines:

./hvisor zone list

Virtio Daemon

The Virtio daemon provides Virtio MMIO devices to the virtual machines. Currently, it supports four devices: Virtio-blk, Virtio-net, Virtio-console, and Virtio-gpu.

Prerequisites

To use the Virtio daemon, a node named hvisor_virtio_device should be added to the Root Linux device tree, for example:

hvisor_virtio_device {
    compatible = "hvisor";
    interrupt-parent = <0x01>;
    interrupts = <0x00 0x20 0x01>;
};

This way, when hvisor injects an interrupt with the number 32 + 0x20, it will trigger the interrupt handler registered in hvisor.ko and wake up the Virtio daemon.

Starting and Creating Virtio Devices

On Root Linux, execute the following example commands:

// Note: Start the daemon before starting the zones
nohup ./hvisor virtio start virtio_cfg.json &
./hvisor zone start <vm_config.json>

The nohup ... & part indicates that this command will create a daemon, and its log output will be saved in the nohup.out file in the current directory.

virtio_cfg.json is a JSON file that describes the Virtio devices, such as virtio_cfg.json. The example file will perform the following actions:

1. Memory Mapping

It first maps the RAM memory area of the virtual machine with ID 1 (zone1) to the address space of the Virtio daemon using mmap.

2. Create Virtio-blk Device

A Virtio-blk device is created, and zone1 will communicate with this device via a specific MMIO region, starting at address 0xa003c00 with a length of 0x200. The interrupt number for this device is set to 78, and the disk image used is rootfs2.ext4.

3. Create Virtio-console Device

A Virtio-console device is created for the main serial port of zone1. Root Linux should execute the command screen /dev/pts/x to enter this virtual console, where x can be found in the nohup.out log file.

To return to the main console, press the shortcut ctrl+a+d. In QEMU, press ctrl+a ctrl+a+d. To re-enter the virtual console, execute screen -r [SID], where SID is the process ID of the screen session.

4. Create Virtio-net Device

If the net device's status attribute is set to enable, a Virtio-net device will be created. The MMIO region for this device starts at address 0xa003600 with a length of 0x200, and the interrupt number is set to 75. The MAC address for the device will be 00:16:3e:10:10:10, and it will be used by the virtual machine with ID 1, connected to the Tap device named tap0.

5. Create Virtio-gpu Device

To use the Virtio-gpu device, the VIRTIO_GPU=y option must be added to the hvisor-tool compile command, and libdrm should be installed along with other configurations. For more details, please refer to hvisor-book and the configuration example. If the gpu device's status attribute is set to enable, a Virtio-gpu device will be created, with the MMIO region starting at 0xa003400, the length set to 0x200, and the interrupt number set to 74. The default scanout dimensions are a width of 1280px and a height of 800px.

Shut down Virtio Devices

To shut down the Virtio daemon and all the created devices, execute the following command:

pkill hvisor-virtio