[arch-general] [arch-dev-public] [announcement] qemu/qemu-kvm announcement draft

[Tobias Powalowski]

Am Dienstag 12 Januar 2010 schrieb Alexander Duscheleit:
> On Sun, 10 Jan 2010 11:07:19 +0100
> 
> Tobias Powalowski <t.powa at gmx.de> wrote:
> > Am Sonntag 10 Januar 2010 schrieb Simon Boulay:
> > > On 01/10/2010 09:48 AM, Tobias Powalowski wrote:
> > > > Am Samstag 09 Januar 2010 schrieb Simon Boulay:
> > > >> On 01/09/2010 09:09 PM, Tobias Powalowski wrote:
> > > >>> Am Samstag 09 Januar 2010 schrieb Dan McGee:
> > > >>>> On Sat, Jan 9, 2010 at 11:52 AM, Tobias
> > > >>>> Powalowski<t.powa at gmx.de>
> >
> > wrote:
> > > >>>>>    >   Yes will change the install message.
> > > >>>>>>
> > > >>>>>> Yes there is no mention in the changelogs, really strange.
> > > >>>>>> greetings
> > > >>>>>> tpowa
> > > >>>>>
> > > >>>>> Ok like this?
> > > >>>>>    echo ">>>   Since kernel 2.6.29:"
> > > >>>>>    echo ">>>   Qemu package now provides standard qemu with
> > > >>>>> kvm enabled." echo ""
> > > >>>>>    echo ">>>   PLEASE READ FOR KVM USAGE!"
> > > >>>>>    echo ">>>    Load the correct KVM module, you will need a
> > > >>>>> KVM capable CPU!" echo ">>>    Add yourself to the group
> > > >>>>> 'kvm'." echo ">>>    Use 'qemu --enable-kvm' to use KVM."
> > > >>>>>    echo ""
> > > >>>>>    echo "With the release of qemu and qemu-kvm 0.12.X, the
> > > >>>>> kqemu kernel module" echo "is no longer supported and will be
> > > >>>>> removed from the repositories. You" echo "can safely
> > > >>>>> uninstall it from your system."
> > > >>>>
> > > >>>> Can we put some vercmp checks around messages like this? That
> > > >>>> way people only have to see them once (when they upgrade the
> > > >>>> first time to a 0.12.x version for the second message). The
> > > >>>> first message should really be a post_install message.
> > > >>>>
> > > >>>> And with all that said, why are there two packages in extra if
> > > >>>> "qemu package now provides standard qemu with kvm enabled"?
> > > >>>>
> > > >>>> -Dan
> > > >>>
> > > >>> Yes sure i can add those vercmp stuff.
> > > >>> qemu and qemu-kvm is different.
> > > >>> qemu-kvm is only for  kvm while qemu provides much more
> > > >>> machines to emulate.
> > > >>
> > > >> I'm not sure about that. Both seems to share the same code for
> > > >> machine emulation; only the kvm stuff is different. In fedora
> > > >> 12, they build kvm and qemu-system-xxx from qemu-kvm 0.11. But I
> > > >> don't know how this will evolve in the future.
> > > >> If qemu and qemu-kvm are used for different purposes, one may
> > > >> need to install both apps side by side but that's not possible
> > > >> in archlinux.
> > > >
> > > > Why?
> > > > qemu is for those who need more different emulation types.
> > > > qemu-kvm is only for 86 emulation with kvm hardware support.
> > > > Both differ in files you would need to hack bios file destination
> > > > etc. I don't see any need to install both at the same time.
> > >
> > > Because one may want to use x86 emulation with kvm hardware support
> > > and qemu-system-arm for example on the same machine.
> > > It is possible to build all targets with qemu-kvm but that's not the
> > > default and I don't know if that'll be the case for future release.
> > > For 0.11 release, qemu and qemu-kvm seems to converge, but with 0.12
> > > that's not so clear (at least to me). As I understand it, the
> > > development of platform emulation is done in qemu and kvm
> > > virtualization is done in qemu-kvm (even if qemu has some kvm
> > > support) but the qemu repository is regularly merged in qemu-kvm. I
> > > don't find any official statement about that, so...
> >
> > normal qemu supports kvm too, just use --enable-kvm start parameter.
> > So no need to install qemu-kvm.
> > greetings
> > tpowa
> 
> In this light, what actually is qemu-kvm good for? We don't split
> packges for -src, -devel, but for startup-parameters?
> 
> If there is no other difference then a few more binaries (which as far
> as i know doesn't justify another package) why not kill qemu-kvm
> alltogether and include something like /usr/bin/kvm:
> 
> ---8<---
> #!/bin/bash
> qemu --enable-kvm $*
> --->8---
> 
> When I tested both packages here qemu with --enable-kvm *felt* a little
> slower when running XP, but that's a) entirely subjective and b) I
> dodn't test identical workloads.
> 
> So, again, what is the reason for there being a qemu-kvm package, when
> it is apparently a subset of the qemu package?
> 
> Greetings,
> 	jinks
> 
The size of the package differs enormous. I'll keep both.

greetings
tpowa
-- 
Tobias Powalowski
Archlinux Developer & Package Maintainer (tpowa)
http://www.archlinux.org
tpowa at archlinux.org
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