Unix & Linux Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for users of Linux, FreeBSD and other Un*x-like operating systems. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
How to know which one I'm currently using when I launch a VM?
Are the QEMU and KVM project merged today? Or they still try to completely merge?
If I really understand, KVM permit to talk to all the hardware "directly" and to use VT-d, QEMU permit to traduce different architecture code, KVM permit to execute the code without any translation, KQemu permit near no translation. I'm I right?
KVM is part of two projects: the Linux kernel (which hosts the kernel component of KVM), and QEMU (which hosts the userspace component of KVM). However the kernel part of KVM can be used without QEMU, and QEMU can be used without KVM.
KVM provides access to the virtualisation extensions available on x86 systems; it implements a hypervisor. QEMU provides emulation of the various components required to “build” a virtual PC; it can also provide instruction set translation, but that’s not used with KVM (which as you say, executes guests with no translation).
KQemu is a software-only “accelerator” (a module allowing QEMU to run code without translation on 32-bit x86 with some guests) which was rendered obsolete by KVM.
/proc/cpuinfo; I’m not sure you can easily determine whether KVM is being used from inside the VM, but outside, check kvm_stats and lsof /dev/kvm.
Mar 27, 2020 at 16:41