Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)

FreeBSD Manual Pages

  
 
  

home | help
VIRTIO(4)		 BSD Kernel Interfaces Manual		     VIRTIO(4)

NAME
     virtio -- VirtIO Device Support

SYNOPSIS
     To	compile	VirtIO device support into the kernel, place the following
     lines in your kernel configuration	file:

	   device virtio
	   device virtio_pci

     Alternatively, to load VirtIO support as modules at boot time, place the
     following lines in	loader.conf(5):

	   virtio_load="YES"
	   virtio_pci_load="YES"

DESCRIPTION
     VirtIO is a specification for para-virtualized I/O	in a virtual machine
     (VM).  Traditionally, the hypervisor emulated real	devices	such as	an
     Ethernet interface	or disk	controller to provide the VM with I/O.	This
     emulation is often	inefficient.

     VirtIO defines an interface for efficient I/O between the hypervisor and
     VM.  The virtio(4)	module provides	a shared memory	transport called a
     virtqueue.	 The virtio_pci(4) device driver represents an emulated	PCI
     device that the hypervisor	makes available	to the VM.  This device	pro-
     vides the probing,	configuration, and interrupt notifications needed to
     interact with the hypervisor.  FreeBSD supports the following VirtIO de-
     vices:

	   Ethernet  An	emulated Ethernet device is provided by	the vtnet(4)
		     device driver.

	   Block     An	emulated disk controller is provided by	the
		     virtio_blk(4) device driver.

	   SCSI	     An	emulated SCSI HBA is provided by the virtio_scsi(4)
		     device driver.

	   Balloon   A pseudo-device to	allow the VM to	release	memory back to
		     the hypervisor is provided	by the virtio_balloon(4) de-
		     vice driver.

SEE ALSO
     virtio_balloon(4),	virtio_blk(4), virtio_scsi(4), vtnet(4)

HISTORY
     Support for VirtIO	first appeared in FreeBSD 9.0.

AUTHORS
     FreeBSD support for VirtIO	was first added	by Bryan Venteicher
     <bryanv@daemoninthecloset.org>.

BSD			       January 22, 2012				   BSD

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | SEE ALSO | HISTORY | AUTHORS

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=virtio&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+8.4-RELEASE>

home | help