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QNX Hypervisor User's Guide
This User's Guide explains the QNX hypervisor architecture and provides instructions for installing and running a QNX Hypervisor system, changing system components and configuration, and using hypervisor features such as virtual devices (vdevs).
Configuration
A QNX hypervisor, its qvm processes that create the VMs in which guests run, and these guests must be configured to work together.
Assembling and configuring VMs
To configure the VMs in which guests run, you can use command-line input or configuration files to configure the qvm processes that create the VMs.
VM configuration file example
The following example shows a VM configuration file for a guest system.

QNX Momentics IDE User's Guide
This User's Guide describes version 8.0 of the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that's part of the QNX Tool Suite.
QNX Software Development Platform
QNX SDP is a cross-compiling and debugging environment, including an IDE and command-line tools, for building binary images and programs for target boards running the QNX OS 8.0.
QNX Software in the Cloud
QNX Software in the Cloud enables developers to use the QNX OS in the Amazon cloud environment.
QNX Toolkit for Visual Studio Code
This User's Guide describes the QNX^® Toolkit for Visual Studio Code. The guide introduces you to the QNX Toolkit by explaining the QNX development environment and how to build, run, and debug your QNX^® Operating System (OS) applications and systems.
QNX Hypervisor User's Guide
This User's Guide explains the QNX hypervisor architecture and provides instructions for installing and running a QNX Hypervisor system, changing system components and configuration, and using hypervisor features such as virtual devices (vdevs).
- Understanding QNX Virtual Environments
  QNX hypervisors are designed to meet the expectations of a hypervisor specified by the Popek/Goldberg Theorem.
- QNX Hypervisor: Protection Features
  This chapter explains the main features used by the QNX Hypervisor to protect itself and its guests. Many of these features are part of the design, while others are configurable.
- Configuration
  A QNX hypervisor, its qvm processes that create the VMs in which guests run, and these guests must be configured to work together.
  - Configuring the hypervisor host
    The hypervisor host domain is configured through a buildfile, exactly like a QNX OS image.
  - Assembling and configuring VMs
    To configure the VMs in which guests run, you can use command-line input or configuration files to configure the qvm processes that create the VMs.
    - VM configuration syntax
      A VM (qvm process) configuration file is a human-readable, plain-text file.
    - VM configuration file example
      The following example shows a VM configuration file for a guest system.
    - ACPI tables and FDTs
      QNX hypervisor VMs make Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) tables and Flattened Device Trees (FDTs) available to their guests.
  - Configuring guests
    Guests in a QNX virtualized environment are configured in the same way as they are configured in a non-virtualized environment. For example, for QNX guests, use the buildfile.
- Building a QNX Hypervisor System
  This chapter explains how to build (assemble) a QNX Hypervisor system and transfer a bootable image to a supported target platform.
- Booting and Shutting Down
  This chapter describes how to boot and shut down a QNX hypervisor system.
- Using Virtual Devices, Networking, and Memory Sharing
  This chapter describes how guests can discover and connect to vdevs and how they can use important hypervisor capabilities, such as networking and memory sharing.
- Monitoring and Troubleshooting
  This chapter describes some tools and techniques you can use to monitor and troubleshoot your hypervisor system.
- Performance Tuning
  This chapter describes common sources of overhead in a QNX hypervisor system, and strategies for reducing this overhead and optimizing system performance.
- VM Configuration Reference
  When you specify options to configure a qvm process, you are assembling and configuring the components of a virtual machine (VM) in which a guest will run.
- Virtual Device Reference
  This chapter presents the virtual devices (vdevs) delivered with QNX hypervisors, and describes how to configure these vdevs.
- Utilities and Drivers Reference
  This chapter describes the utilities and drivers delivered with the QNX hypervisor.
- Terminology
  The following terms are used throughout the QNX hypervisor documentation.
Typographical Conventions, Support, and Licensing
This section describes the typographical conventions used throughout the documentation, explains how to obtain technical support, and provides some information about licensing.

VM configuration file example

The following example shows a VM configuration file for a guest system.

The qvm process assembles and configures the VM components specified by the options and their arguments in the configuration file:

system qnx8-x86_64-guest

ram 0xa0000
rom 0xc0000,0x40000
ram 1024M

# Specify "cpu" for each vCPU you want to assign to your guest
cpu
cpu
load /vm/images/qnx8-x86_64-guest.ifs

vdev ioapic
        loc 0xf8000000
        intr apic
        name myioapic
vdev ser8250
        intr myioapic:4
vdev timer8254
        intr myioapic:0
# An example network device that connects to a peer named vp0 in the host.
# This peer is found at /dev/vdevpeers/vp0.
vdev virtio-net
        name ptp
        peer /dev/vdevpeers/vp0
# An example block device. This file has to be created somewhere;
# in this case, it's created in the IFS with dd.
vdev virtio-blk
        hostdev /dev/qvmdisk0
# 8259s are here for legacy systems only. They take only the 'loc' option.
vdev 8259
        loc 0x20
vdev 8259
        loc 0xa0
vdev hpet
        loc 0xf8008000
        intr myioapic:2

We know that this configuration is for an x86_64 VM because 8259 devices and APIC are supported only on that architecture. For the vdevs that support it, the name option is defined to make the devices appear at /dev/qvm/system_name/vdev_name. In this case, system_name is qnx8-x86_64-guest.

Page updated: March 05, 2025