v86d -- A x86 Emulation Daemon

1. Purpose

v86d provides a backend for kernel drivers that need to execute x86 BIOS code. The code is executed in a controlled environment and the results are passed back to the kernel via the netlink interface.

2. Suported architectures

This version of v86d supports the following architectures: x86, x86-64 (amd64).

3. Configuration

3.1. The C library

v86d can be compiled against two different C libraries: glibc and klibc, glibc being the default.

Compiling against glibc will result in a dynamically linked executable that is not suitable for inclusion in initrds.

Compiling against klibc will result in a relatively small, statically linked binary, which can be included in an initrd.

To compile v86d against klibc, run ./configure --with-klibc after making sure that a recent (1.4 or newer) version of klibc is installed on your system.

3.2. The emulator backend

On x86, the code executed by v86d can be run either in a fully software-emulated environment (x86emu) or a virtualized environment (vm86) supported by the CPU. On other arches or 64-bit systems, the code is always run by x86emu.

To choose the x86emu backend on a x86 system, run ./configure --with-x86emu.

4. Installation & Usage

To configure, build and install v86d with the default settings, run:

./configure --default

make

make install

If the kernel that you're currently running doesn't provide uvesafb, you can use the KDIR variable to point make to a different kernel tree (e.g. make KDIR=/usr/src/linux).

v86d isn't meant to be used in an interactive way. It should be started and called by the kernel. If you want to see it in action, build and load the uvesafb kernel module.

If you want to include v86d into an initramfs image, misc/initramfs provides a minimal config file parsable by gen_init_cpio.

5. Licensing

v86d is licensed under GPL v2.

-- Michal Januszewski [email protected]