[libvirt] [PATCH] kvm 32bit guest on 64bit host

[Cole Robinson]

Gerd v. Egidy wrote:
> Hi Dan,
> 
>>> Thanks for looking at my patch. I understand that KVM does not offer a
>>> i686 host cpu but allows x86_64 and i686 guests.
>>>
>>> The reason for my patch was that I could not create i686 guests on a
>>> x86_64 host with KVM, the only option offered was using qemu.
>> Yes you can - just select the x86_64 option. It is refering to the *CPU*
>> architecture that is virtualized, *not* the OS architecture. You can select
>> x86_64 CPU and then install a i386 operating system just fine.
> 
> I'm using virt-manager to create a new vm. Virt-manager asks me "CPU 
> architecture" and "Hypervisor". When I select i686 as CPU arch I can not 
> select KVM as hypervisor, only qemu is offered.
> 
> If I understand you correctly, I should select x86_64 and KVM, even if I want 
> to run a 32 bit OS, right?
> 
> Isn't that counter-intuitive?
> 

This has confused quite a few people in the past (including myself). We
should probably add some better wording in virt-manager or some kind
of note explaining the terminology, but no matter what way you slice it
it's still easy to get tripped up on the concepts.

- Cole