Mini-KVM — a small x86 hypervisor on the raw KVM API for kernel developers

About 4,200 lines of C on the Linux KVM ioctl API that boot Multiboot/ELF kernels and a stock Linux kernel to a shell, render VGA text mode, and explain guest failures (faults, descriptor tables, page-table mappings, why it triple-faulted) instead of silently resetting.

Status: experimental
Verified: 2026-11-09 (0 days before this build)
How: Summary checked against the repository README on 2026-11-09. Tested environments are those the README states.
Applies to: build gcc, make, binutils
host x86_64 Linux with KVM enabled and access to /dev/kvm
Repository: github.com/seolcu/mini-kvm
License: MIT

Scope

Is: a KVM-based runner for kernels you wrote yourself, a diagnostic tool that explains guest failures, and a readable reference implementation of x86 virtualization.
Is not: a production VMM (use QEMU, Firecracker or cloud-hypervisor), a cross-architecture emulator (x86 guests on x86 hosts only), or a sandbox.

Everything the README lists as working is covered by make test. Encouragement Award (Research), 2025-2 Ajou SoftCon.

git clone https://github.com/seolcu/mini-kvm.git && cd mini-kvm && make all
./kvm-vmm guest/hello

Search terms

minimal KVM hypervisor C
KVM API example
debug triple fault kernel
hobby OS hypervisor

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Published 2026-11-09 · last changed 2026-11-09 · Markdown source