On Tue, 28 Oct 2025 at 14:41, Bernhard Beschow <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>
> Am 28. Oktober 2025 12:46:34 UTC schrieb Peter Maydell 
> <[email protected]>:
> >On Sun, 29 Jun 2025 at 21:49, Bernhard Beschow <[email protected]> wrote:
> >>
> >> Allows the imx8mp-evk machine to be run with KVM acceleration as a guest.
> >>
> >> Signed-off-by: Bernhard Beschow <[email protected]>
> >> ---
> >>  docs/system/arm/imx8mp-evk.rst |  7 +++++++
> >>  hw/arm/fsl-imx8mp.c            | 33 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----
> >>  hw/arm/imx8mp-evk.c            | 11 +++++++++++
> >>  hw/arm/Kconfig                 |  3 ++-
> >>  hw/arm/meson.build             |  2 +-
> >>  5 files changed, 49 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)
> >>
> >> diff --git a/docs/system/arm/imx8mp-evk.rst 
> >> b/docs/system/arm/imx8mp-evk.rst
> >> index b2f7d29ade..1399820163 100644
> >> --- a/docs/system/arm/imx8mp-evk.rst
> >> +++ b/docs/system/arm/imx8mp-evk.rst
> >> @@ -60,3 +60,10 @@ Now that everything is prepared the machine can be 
> >> started as follows:
> >>        -dtb imx8mp-evk.dtb \
> >>        -append "root=/dev/mmcblk2p2" \
> >>        -drive file=sdcard.img,if=sd,bus=2,format=raw,id=mmcblk2
> >> +
> >> +
> >> +KVM Virtualization
> >> +------------------
> >> +
> >> +To enable hardware-assisted acceleration via KVM, append
> >> +``-accel kvm -cpu host`` to the command line.
> >
> >Coming back to this now we've resolved the "does this put
> >things inside our security-promises that we don't want"
> >question...
> >
> >I think we should be a bit clearer in the documentation
> >about what tradeoffs the user is making here when they select
> >KVM. Specifically:
> >
> > * we should note that this is intended only to improve
> >   performance, and is not covered by QEMU's security policy
>
> Sure, I'll add it.
>
> > * we should say that you will not get a Cortex-A53, so any
> >   guest code with tight dependencies on the host CPU type
> >   might not work correctly
>
> Ack. I'd also hardcode the CPU type to host since asking for a Cortex-A53 
> always failed on me with KVM.

Yes, this is the right thing (at least until some distant
day when we add support for having KVM give the guest a vcpu
that looks like a particular cpu type). The 'cortex-a53'
cpu type with KVM will only work if the host happens to be
that, which isn't very useful for most people.

> > * we should say that the guest will only be able to run
> >   at EL1, and (unlike TCG) there is no EL2 or EL3
>
> Real U-Boot calls back into the on-chip ROM which isn't implemented yet. 
> Furthermore, there are some unimplemented USDHC extensions which prevent 
> complete loading of binaries into RAM by U-Boot (similar limitation exists 
> for e500 boards). Therefore the board documentation only advertises direct 
> kernel boot. AFAIU EL2 and EL3 aren't usable there anyway. Correct? Do we 
> need to mention this limitation regardless?

I think it's worth mentioning anyway -- not every EL3
payload is necessarily u-boot.

thanks
-- PMM

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