Description of problem: I have a pristine install of F-9 on a x86_64 machine with Core2Duo with VT. I now want to setup a virtual machine. If I select i686 as CPU arch I cannot choose kvm as hypervisor but only qemu. If I leave it as x86_64 I can choose kvm just fine. My understanding of the KVM guest support status page (http://kvm.qumranet.com/kvmwiki/Guest_Support_Status) is that I should be able to use KVM for a i686 CPU arch guest on a x86_64 host. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): virt-manager-0.5.4-3.fc9.x86_64 kvm-65-1.fc9.x86_64 libvirt-0.4.2-1.fc9.x86_64 Steps to Reproduce: 1. Create new VM on x86_64 installation 2. Choose i686 as CPU arch 3. Find that kvm is missing in hypervisor list Actual results: kvm not available as hypervisor. Expected results: kvm should be available as hypervisor. Additional info: kvm-intel is loaded. It works when creating a x86_64 VM.
If you want to install a 32-bit guest, just select x86_64+kvm which runs i386 guests just fine. The i386 selection is a true emulated i386 processor, which is not KVM accelerated.
Ok, not obvious to me. Wouldn't it make sense to allow KVM for i686 and then in background create the x86_64 instance, meaning that it is "i686 compatible"?
Having made the same error myself, I agree -- it might be a good idea to at least rename the options. Add to the x86_64 option "(32- and 64-bit)", and to i386 "(32-bit only)"? Speaking of which, since virt-manager already supports at least one true emulated processor, why not others? Would be nice to be able to try Fedora's ARM port from within virt-manager. (PS having a GUI interface to switch the emulated machine will be nice too. Currently there's no way short of editing config files)