vkernel & GSoC, some questions

[Robert Watson]

On Sun, 16 Mar 2008, Andrey V. Elsukov wrote:

> 16.03.08, 09:30, "David O'Brien" <obrien at freebsd.org>:
>
>>> Add virtual kernel (vkernel) support to FreeBSD for the i386 and amd64 
>>> architectures.
>>>
>>> The vkernel support in question is the one found in DragonFlyBSD.
>>
>> Not being up on DragonFlyBSD, can you better describe what "vkernel" is?
>
> vkernel is similar to User Mode Linux technology. You can boot vkernel as a 
> user mode process. I think it will be good to have similar in FreeBSD. There 
> are several links: 
> http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/mailarchive/users/2007-01/msg00237.html 
> http://www.dragonflybsd.org/docs/articles/vkernel/vkernel.shtml

Another avenue to consider is the Linux KVM virtualization technology, which 
is seeing a high level of interest in the Linux community and sounds 
increasingly mature and well-exercised.  It would also offer interesting 
migration benefits for Linux users wanting to try FreeBSD, allowing them to 
trivially create new FreeBSD installs under their existing Linux install.  We 
had an SoC project last year but I'm not sure what the outcome was; it would 
be useful to give Fabio a ping and see how things are going.  Obviously, 
anyone doing this project would need to manage the license issues involved 
carefully.

Robert N M Watson
Computer Laboratory
University of Cambridge