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VIRTIO(4)		    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 module provides a shared memory transport called a
       virtqueue.  The virtio_pci device driver	represents an emulated PCI de-
       vice 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
       devices:

	     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.

	     Console   Provided	by the virtio_console(4) driver.

	     Entropy   Provided	by the virtio_random(4)	driver.

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

	     GPU       Graphics	 support  is provided by the virtio_gpu(4) de-
		       vice driver.

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

SEE ALSO
       virtio_balloon(4),   virtio_blk(4),  virtio_console(4),	virtio_gpu(4),
       virtio_random(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@FreeBSD.org>.

FreeBSD	13.2			 May 26, 2019			     VIRTIO(4)

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

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