AxVisor

A unified modular Type I hypervisor

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Introduction

AxVisor is a Hypervisor implemented based on the ArceOS kernel. Its goal is to leverage the basic operating system functionalities provided by ArceOS as a foundation to implement a lightweight unified modular Hypervisor.

• Unified means using the same codebase to support three architectures—x86_64, Arm (aarch64), and RISC-V—maximizing the reuse of architecture-agnostic code and simplifying development and maintenance costs.

• Modular means that the Hypervisor's functionalities are decomposed into multiple independently usable components. Each component implements a specific function, and components communicate through standardized interfaces to achieve decoupling and reusability.

Architecture

The software architecture of AxVisor is divided into five layers as shown in the diagram below. Each box represents an independent component, and components communicate with each other through standard interfaces. The complete architecture description can be found in the documentation.

Hardware Platforms

AxVisor has been verified on multiple hardware platforms, covering extensive support from virtualization environments to actual physical devices. To facilitate rapid user deployment, we provide one-click build scripts for each platform in the axvisor-guest repository, which can automatically generate corresponding image files.

Platform Name	Architecture Support	Key Features
QEMU	ARM64, x86_64	Virtualization platform, supports multiple architectures, for development and testing
Orange Pi 5 Plus	ARM64	Development board based on Rockchip RK3588, high-performance ARM platform
Phytium Pi	ARM64	Development board based on Phytium E2000Q processor, domestic ARM platform
ROC-RK3568-PC	ARM64	Development board based on Rockchip RK3568, suitable for industrial applications
EVM3588	ARM64	Evaluation board based on Rockchip RK3588, enterprise-level applications

Guest Systems

AxVisor supports multiple operating systems as guests, with good compatibility from lightweight microkernels to mature macrokernel systems. To simplify the user deployment process, we provide one-click build scripts for different guest systems in the axvisor-guest repository, which can quickly generate adapted guest images.

Guest System	System Type	Architecture Support	Feature Description
ArceOS	Unikernel	ARM64, x86_64, RISC-V	Rust-based componentized operating system, lightweight and high-performance
Starry-OS	Macrokernel OS	ARM64, x86_64	Real-time operating system for embedded scenarios
NimbOS	RTOS System	ARM64, x86_64, RISC-V	Concise Unix-like system, supports POSIX interface
Linux	Macrokernel OS	ARM64, x86_64, RISC-V	Mature and stable general-purpose operating system, rich software ecosystem

Build

AxVisor is built based on the Rust ecosystem, providing complete project build, configuration management, and debugging support through the extended xtask toolchain, offering developers a unified and efficient development experience.

Build Environment

First, in a Linux environment, you need to install basic development tool packages such as libssl-dev gcc libudev-dev pkg-config.

Second, AxVisor is written in the Rust programming language, so you need to install the Rust development environment according to the official Rust website instructions, and use the cargo install cargo-binutils command to install cargo-binutils to use tools like rust-objcopy and rust-objdump.

If necessary, you may also need to install musl-gcc to build guest applications.

Configuration Files

AxVisor uses a layered configuration system, including hardware platform configuration and guest configuration, both in TOML format.

Hardware Platform Configuration

Hardware platform configuration files are located in the configs/board/ directory, with each configuration file corresponding to a development board (or QEMU platform architecture) that we have verified. They specify the target architecture, feature sets, driver support, log levels, and build options.

The guest configuration item vm_configs is not specified by default and needs to be specified in actual use!

Guest Configuration

Guest configuration files are located in the configs/vms/ directory, defining the runtime parameters of guests, including basic information, kernel configuration, memory regions, and device configuration details.

The configuration file naming format is <os>-<arch>-board_or_cpu-smpx, where <os> is the guest system name (such as arceos, linux, nimbos), <arch> is the architecture (such as aarch64, x86_64, riscv64), board_or_cpu is the hardware development board or CPU name, and smpx is the number of CPUs allocated to the guest.

Compilation

AxVisor uses the xtask tool for build management, supporting multiple hardware platforms and configuration options. For a quick build and run of AxVisor, please refer to the Quick Start chapter in the configuration documentation.

1. Generate Configuration: Use cargo xtask defconfig <board_name> to select the target hardware platform configuration from the configs/board/ directory. This command copies the corresponding board-level configuration to .build.toml as the build configuration.

2. Modify Configuration: Use cargo xtask menuconfig to launch the interactive configuration interface, where you can adjust the target architecture, feature sets, log levels, and other parameters.

3. Execute Build: Use cargo xtask build to compile the project according to the .build.toml configuration file, generating the target platform binary file.

Contributing

Welcome to fork this repository and submit pull requests. The existence and development of this project is thanks to the support of all contributors.

License

AxVisor uses the following open-source licenses:

• Apache-2.0
• MulanPubL-2.0
• MulanPSL2
• GPL-3.0-or-later