Ubuntu 19.10 ARM64 kernel has KVM disabled by default

[Rohit Yadav]

Using the official Ubuntu 19.10 arm64 image, http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/releases/19.10/release/ubuntu-19.10-preinstalled-server-arm64+raspi3.img.xz, with the 5.3.x Linux kernel has KVM/VIRTUALIZATION disabled by default and therefore /dev/kvm acceleration is not available on installations on newer Raspberry Pi 4 (for example) which has a supported processor (armv8) by KVM (https://www.linux-kvm.org/page/Processor_support#ARM:).

I'm able to compile the kernel manually with the options enabled in the kernel config (http://dl.rohityadav.cloud/cloudstack-rpi/kernel-19.10/) and further verify that it works well in deploying ARM64 VMs (http://dl.rohityadav.cloud/cloudstack-rpi/template/). I went a bit further to deploy an Apache CloudStack based IaaS deployment and verify that it works as well. Having KVM enabled arm64 devices would enable testing and misc use-cases on newer boards such as the Raspberry Pi 4 (4 GB RAM).

Can the Ubuntu kernel team advise why KVM is not enabled in the kernel by default, and if this will change in future? Thanks.

[Hui Wang (hui.wang)]

I built a testing kernel which enabled the KVM, please test it on rpi4/3 (arm64) and rpi4/3/2 (armhf) boards.

https://people.canonical.com/~hwang4/pi4kvm/

thx.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.