kvm-ok (1)

NAME

kvm-ok - determine if this system is capable of running hardware accelerated KVM virtual machines (ie, possesses Virtualization Technology)

DESCRIPTION

kvm-ok is a program that will determine if the locate system can host hardware accelerated KVM virtual machines.
The program will first determine if /proc/cpuinfo contains the flags indicating that the CPU has the Virtualization Technology (VT) capability.
Next, it will check if the /dev/kvm device exists.
If running as root, it will check your CPU's MSRs to see if VT is disabled in the BIOS.
In some failure cases, kvm-ok provides hints on how you might go about enabling KVM on a system where it is arbitrarily disabled.
If KVM can be used, this script will exit 0, otherwise it will exit non-zero.

SEE ALSO

kvm(1), dmesg(1)

FILES

/proc/cpuinfo, /dev/kvm

BUGS

The disabled-by-bios check currently scans dmesg(1) for a message displayed by the kernel. This is not ideal, in that a long-running system will eventually roll the dmesg logs. The kernel should expose the disabled-by-bios flag in /proc/cpuinfo.
bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/535373

MORE INFORMATION

launchpad.net/cpu-checker

AUTHOR

This manpage and the utility was written by Dustin Kirkland <kirkland@canonical.com> for Ubuntu systems (but may be used by others). Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Version 3 published by the Free Software Foundation.
On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public License can be found in /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-3.