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Merged
merged 1 commit into from
Oct 10, 2025
Merged

grml-autoconfig _detect_virtual: prefer Virtualbox over KVM in virt-what #435

merged 1 commit into from
Oct 10, 2025

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@mika
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@mika mika commented Sep 16, 2025

virt-what v1.27-1 as present in Debian/trixie might return both virtualbox and kvm when being invoked inside a VirtualBox VM (v7.1.12-dfsg-2 on Debian/trixie with kernel 6.12.43+deb13-amd64):

  # virt-what --version
  1.27

  # virt-what
  virtualbox
  kvm

virt-what reads /sys/firmware/dmi/tables/DMI to properly identify VirtualBox, but also executes /usr/libexec/virt-what-cpuid-helper, which reports KVMKVMKVM, and therefore seems to report both of them.

We don't have any actual automation for KVM usage, while all the VirtualBox support (e.g. for shared folders) isn't executed, because its reported as KVM VM, instead of VirtualBox. Adjust order of virt-what check accordingly to fix this.

@mika mika requested review from evgeni, jkirk and zeha September 16, 2025 12:28
evgeni
evgeni approved these changes Sep 16, 2025
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makes sense to me as a workaround

is there a bugreport against virt-what? returning two results seems counter-intuitive for the tool.

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🐳 Docker image for this PR is available:

docker pull ghcr.io/grml/grml-live:pr-435

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@mika
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mika commented Sep 16, 2025

makes sense to me as a workaround

is there a bugreport against virt-what? returning two results seems counter-intuitive for the tool.

couldn't find one yet, will certainly try to report one, thanks :)

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I tried on a Debian trixie VM inside a Debian sid host (with VirtualBox 7.2.0-dfsg-3 running Linux 6.12.38+deb13-amd64). And I only get "virtualbox" as output, the cpuid helper returns nothing. That is even when running VirtualBox with kvm and kvm_intel and withouth either of those modules loaded in the host system.

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i think the change wants a comment rederencing the PR and/or an explanation

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mika commented Sep 17, 2025

Reported as https://bugs.debian.org/1115469 and even traced it further down, quoting myself from bug report towards Debian:

The Paravirtualization Interface configuration of the VM is set to "KVM" (with "Hardware Virtualization: [x] Enable Nested Paging"). When changing this setting to "Legacy", virt-what no longer reports both "virtualbox" and "kvm", but only "virtualbox".

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zeha commented Oct 10, 2025

@mika do you want to merge this?

@mika
grml-autoconfig _detect_virtual: prefer Virtualbox over KVM in virt-what
62a7d5f 
virt-what v1.27-1 as present in Debian/trixie might return
both virtualbox *and* kvm when being invoked inside a VirtualBox
VM (v7.1.12-dfsg-2 on Debian/trixie with kernel 6.12.43+deb13-amd64):

  # virt-what --version
  1.27

  # virt-what
  virtualbox
  kvm

virt-what reads /sys/firmware/dmi/tables/DMI to properly identify
VirtualBox, but also executes /usr/libexec/virt-what-cpuid-helper, which
reports `KVMKVMKVM`, and therefore seems to report both of them.

We don't have any actual automation for KVM usage, while all the
VirtualBox support (e.g. for shared folders) isn't executed, because its
reported as KVM VM, instead of VirtualBox. Adjust order of virt-what
check accordingly to fix this.

See https://bugs.debian.org/1115469
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mika commented Oct 10, 2025

@mika do you want to merge this?

yes, just polishing the commit message with the Debian BTS and will merge it then, thx! :)

@mika mika enabled auto-merge October 10, 2025 12:55
@mika mika added this pull request to the merge queue Oct 10, 2025
Merged via the queue into master with commit 8ec7758 Oct 10, 2025
37 checks passed
@mika mika deleted the mika/vbox branch October 24, 2025 09:06
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@zeha zeha zeha approved these changes

@evgeni evgeni evgeni approved these changes

@jkirk jkirk Awaiting requested review from jkirk

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@mika @guillemj @zeha @evgeni