MAN.9FRONT.ORG RTFM


     VMX(1)                                                     VMX(1)

     NAME
          vmx - virtual PC

     SYNOPSIS
          vmx [ -D ] [ -M mem ] [ -c com1 ] [ -C com2 ] [ -n nic ] [
          -d blockfile ] [ -v|-w vga ] [ -m bootmod ] kernel [ args
          ... ]

     DESCRIPTION
          Vmx uses Intel VT-x through vmx(3) to simulate a virtual PC,
          running the specified kernel (see below for supported for-
          mats).

          By default the virtual PC has 64 MB of memory.  The amount
          of memory can be changed with the -M option, the argument of
          which is interpreted in bytes unless suffixed by K, M, or G
          to change the unit to kilobytes, megabytes or gigabytes,
          respectively.

          Args is passed to the kernel as its command line.  Boot mod-
          ules can be specified with the -m argument.

          -D enables debug messages.

          If -v is specified, a graphics device, PS/2 keyboard and
          mouse are simulated.  The -w flag behaves the same as -v but
          also creates a new window for the screen.  Clicking on the
          screen "grabs" the mouse; pressing Ctrl and Alt simultane-
          ously releases the grab.  Valid values for the argument are

          text Simulate a VGA text-mode console.

          widthxheight [ xchan ] [ @addr ]
               Simulate a framebuffer at address addr of the specified
               size and channel format chan (see image(6)). xchan and
               @addr are optional, in which case they default to
               x8r8g8b8 and 0xf0000000, respectively (in this mode
               there is no way to change the resolution and accesses
               to VGA registers have no effect).

          vesa:modes [ @addr ]
               (modes is a comma separated list of modes of the format
               widthxheightxchan with the chan optional as before.)
               Simulate a VESA-compatible PCI graphics adapter, ini-
               tially in text mode.  The guest can use VESA functions
               to switch the mode to one of those listed, which are
               assigned consecutive mode numbers starting with 0x120.
               The first mode is indicated as the preferred mode of
               the monitor.

     VMX(1)                                                     VMX(1)

          The -c and -C options specify the targets for the COM1 and
          COM2 devices.  The argument consists of two fields separated
          by a comma, which specify the file to be used for input and
          output, respectively.  Either field can be left empty.  If
          there is no comma in the argument, the same value is used
          for both fields.

          A -n option adds a network card.  The argument to -n speci-
          fies a physical network device (such as ether0) to use.
          Alternatively, a dial string such as udp!host!port can be
          used.  It can also be prefixed by file! to interpret the
          argument as a file instead and it can be prefixed by hdr! to
          enable headers matching the binary snoopy(8) format.  The
          MAC address can be specified with the ea:nnnnnnnnnnnn! pre-
          fix, otherwise a random address is used.

          A -d option adds a virtio block device (a hard disk) with
          the argument as a disk image.

        Multiboot kernels
          If the specified kernel complies with the Multiboot specifi-
          cation, then args is concatenated with spaces and passed as
          the cmdline; the -m modules are passed as boot modules.

          Note that 9front is Multiboot compliant and interprets the
          first boot module as plan9.ini(8).

        OpenBSD kernels
          If the specified kernel is an OpenBSD kernel, the boot mod-
          ules are ignored and the cmdline is interpreted as

               [ -asdc ] [ var=value ... ]

          where the options correspond to the boot options and the
          assignments to the boot variables, which are defined in the
          OpenBSD manpage boot(8).

        Linux kernels
          If the specified kernel is a Linux kernel (which must be
          2.6.22 or newer and in bzImage format), args are concate-
          nated with spaces and passed as the cmdline (see
          Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt).  The first
          boot module is passed as the initrd; any further boot mod-
          ules are ignored.

     SOURCE
          /sys/src/cmd/vmx

     SEE ALSO
          vmx(3), cpuid(8)

     BUGS

     VMX(1)                                                     VMX(1)

          Vmx can and will crash your kernel.

          Currently only one core is supported.

          The Linux vga= option is not supported, as well as many of
          the OpenBSD boot variables.

     HISTORY
          Vmx first appeared in 9front (June, 2017).