Hello,
Is there a way to boot a normal standard home x86 dual core PC with two
different Linux Kernels without a hypervisor?
The idea is of course to give the Kernels their own address space and
their own rootfile systems, the devices would be unique for each kernel etc.
Can this be done with a standard BIOS and GRUB/LILO?
Cheers // Matias
Matias wrote:
> Is there a way to boot a normal standard home x86 dual core PC with two
> different Linux Kernels without a hypervisor?
> The idea is of course to give the Kernels their own address space and
> their own rootfile systems, the devices would be unique for each kernel
> etc.
>
> Can this be done with a standard BIOS and GRUB/LILO?
No. There are way too many shared resources, such as address space and
interrupt system. You need a central resource to arbitrate those
resources, i.e. a hypervisor.
-hpa
--
H. Peter Anvin, Intel Open Source Technology Center
I work for Intel. I don't speak on their behalf.
Ok, thanks for your answers!
I have been working with PowerPC processors in the past and looking at
Freescale's 8641D it is possible to boot two different kernels on it's
both cores.
Cheers // Matias
H. Peter Anvin skrev:
> Matias wrote:
>
>> Is there a way to boot a normal standard home x86 dual core PC with two
>> different Linux Kernels without a hypervisor?
>> The idea is of course to give the Kernels their own address space and
>> their own rootfile systems, the devices would be unique for each kernel
>> etc.
>>
>> Can this be done with a standard BIOS and GRUB/LILO?
>>
>
> No. There are way too many shared resources, such as address space and
> interrupt system. You need a central resource to arbitrate those
> resources, i.e. a hypervisor.
>
> -hpa
>
>
Matias wrote:
> Ok, thanks for your answers!
> I have been working with PowerPC processors in the past and looking at
> Freescale's 8641D it is possible to boot two different kernels on it's
> both cores.
It's not a hardware issue, it's mostly a firmware issue, of course.
-hpa