Xen ARM with Virtualization Extensions

For the ARM port supporting paravirtualized guests on processors without the virtualization extensions see Xen ARM (PV).

The ARM v7-A architecture includes the optional virtualization extensions that allow a hypervisor to manage fully hardware virtualized guests. These extensions will be available in some ARM Cortex A15 and Cortex A7 processors.

This port is a work-in-progress and cannot yet start any guests (other than dom0).

Hardware

Currently there are no processors available which implement the virtualisation extensions. Therefore we are currently targetting the Real-time System Model's provided by ARM. See Xen ARMv7 with Virtualization Extensions/FastModels for more information on obtaining and building the necessary model.

Requirements

Real-time System Model

Either the v7-A Envelope Model or the Cortex A15/A7 models (single CPU only).

Xen

xen-unstable as of 10 Feb 2012.

Linux kernel for dom0

vexpress-dt branch of git://xenbits.xen.org/people/dvrabel/linux.git

dom0 userspace

(more details here)

Dom0 kernel

Enable at least ARCH_VEXPRESS, ARCH_VEXPRESS_DT, ARM_APPENDED_DTB and ARM_ATAG_DTB_COMPAT. Disable SPARSE_IRQ (it doesn't play nicely with device tree support).

A working configuration is available here.

Device Tree Blob (DTB)

Build the device tree blobs (flattened device tree binary files) with make dtbs. A suitable DTB file for the envelope model is vexpress-v2p-aem-v7a.dtb.

Flash Image

The dom0 kernel is loaded by Xen from the beginning of the flash. The kernel zImage and the DTB should be appended. e.g., cat zImage vexpress-v2p-aem-v7a.dtb > flash.bin.

Native boot

To boot the kernel natively use an updated boot-wrapper from git://xenbits.xen.org/people/dvrabel/boot-wrapper.git.

Developer FAQs

Use the Xen ARMv7 Dev FAQ page to cover commonly asked questions.