←back to thread

176 points TheFreim | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.212s | source
Show context
flashback2199 ◴[] No.36685709[source]
I really like QubesOS, but you cannot run VMs inside a qube, or other things that require VMs like Docker Desktop for Linux, because the xen hypervisor does not support nested virtualization.
replies(6): >>36685864 #>>36685932 #>>36686060 #>>36686247 #>>36687110 #>>36687975 #
Syonyk ◴[] No.36686247[source]
You can. It's just neither recommended nor enabled by default.

https://forum.qubes-os.org/t/nested-virtualization/14790

Poke around /etc/libvirt/libxl and your particular VM's config file. You'll find some lines like:

<feature name='vmx' policy='disable'/> <feature name='svm' policy='disable'/>

Enable it, and you should have working nested virtualization.

replies(2): >>36686487 #>>36686554 #
flashback2199 ◴[] No.36686554[source]
Shoot, as soon as I hit reply some neurons lit up and now I remember I was actually able to enable nested virtualization in QubesOS, and the relevant options in the VirtualBox preferences inside a qube became enabled once I did that, but whenever I tried booting any VM the whole system hanged. The same system and BIOS settings worked in Ubuntu to boot a nested VM in VirtualBox, so I think I had the BIOS settings correct. Anyhow, it seemed like a dead-end, so I abandoned it.
replies(1): >>36686583 #
Syonyk ◴[] No.36686583[source]
I'll have to look at it more. I mostly use AMD systems these days, which don't support nested virt in Xen, as I understand it, but it looks like it should work on Intel.
replies(1): >>36687291 #
1. flashback2199 ◴[] No.36687291[source]
I was on Intel when I tried. No worries though, not really planning on trying it again.