Disable VMI from Ubuntu 10.04 32bit kernels.

[Alok Kataria]

Hi,

I see that VMI (paravirt support for VMware) is still enabled in the Ubuntu 10.04 alpha3 32bit kernels. VMware has started retiring VMI from its products and I have also marked it for removal from the mainline kernel. I did mark the CONFIG_VMI option as deprecated, but the patch seems to have missed the 2.6.32 release. Anyways given that it is marked as deprecated with 2.6.33, can you guys please consider disabling it from the next release for 10.04 ?

Commit details from mainline.

commit d0153ca35d344d9b640dc305031b0703ba3f30f0
Author: Alok Kataria <email address hidden>
Date: Tue Sep 29 10:25:24 2009 -0700

    x86, vmi: Mark VMI deprecated and schedule it for removal

    Add text in feature-removal.txt indicating that VMI will be removed in
    the 2.6.37 timeframe.

Let me know if you have more questions.
Thanks.

[Andy Whitcroft (apw)]

I assume turning this off will prevent our kernels being used on very old Vmware? Could compatibility be an inssue if we turn it off? Which versions of vmware would stop working if we do this?

[Alok Kataria (akataria)]

There are no compatibility issues, VMI (paravirtualization) was always an optimization, guests without VMI support still run fine on all VMware products. The only caveat is that on older hardware (read without EPT or RVI), VMI disabled guest will run a little slower compared to one which has VMI enabled.

My post on LKML has some details about the performance impact.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2009/9/17/466

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package linux - 2.6.35-5.6

---------------
linux (2.6.35-5.6) maverick; urgency=low

  [ Amit Kucheria ]

  * [Config] update omap flavour description

  [ Andy Whitcroft ]

  * update to ubuntu-debian:508b7aa34b578c0d1e51bfb571f2bfb824dc65ac
    - LP: #570500, #576274
  * SAUCE: add option to hand off all kernel parameters to init
    - LP: #586386
  * [Config] enable passing all kernel command line to init
    - LP: #586386
  * [Config] disable CONFIG_VMI
    - LP: #537601
  * [Config] enable CONFIG_IPV6_SIT_6RD
    - LP: #591869
  * [Config] enable CONFIG_VMWARE_BALOON as module
    - LP: #592039

  [ Leann Ogasawara ]

  * Revert "SAUCE: pm: Config option to disable handling of console during
    suspend/resume"
    - LP: #594885
  * [Config] Remove CONFIG_PM_DISABLE_CONSOLE
  * [Config] ports: enable passing all kernel command line to init
    - LP: #586386
  * [Config] Enable CONFIG_FB_VESA=y for x86
  * [Config] Add CONFIG_FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE=y to config enforcer
  * [Config] Add CONFIG_FB_VESA=y for x86 to config enforcer
  * [Config] Enable CONFIG_TASK_DELAY_ACCT=y
    - LP: #493156

  [ Mathieu Poirier ]

  * ARM: Adding MosChip MCS7830 to nic-usb
    - LP: #584920

  [ Upstream Kernel Changes ]

  * Revert "[Upstream] docbook: need xmldoclinks for all doc types"
  * docbook: need xmldoclinks for all doc types
  * perf probe: Add kernel source path option
 -- Leann Ogasawara <email address hidden> Thu, 17 Jun 2010 08:05:29 -0700