Guest Support Status

Windows Family

Guest	Guest bitness	Host version	Host cpu	Host bitness	Status	Comments
Windows Server 2008 (Datacenter, RC1)	32	kvm-55	Intel	64	Works	by Alexey.E.
Windows Server 2008 (Standard, RC0)	32	kvm-51	Intel	64	Works	by Alexey.E.
Windows Vista Ultimate	64	kvm-57	Intel	64	Works	by Alexey.E.
Windows Vista Ultimate	64	kvm-61	AMD	64	Works
Windows Vista Ultimate	32	kvm-52	Intel	64, 32	Works	See Vista Networking Workaround for getting networking to actually work. Not Aero capable. updated by Alexey.E.
Windows Vista Ultimate	32	kvm-57	AMD	64	Works	by Alexey.E.
Windows Server 2003 (Enterprise)	32	kvm-57	Intel	64	Works	Use -net nic,model=rtl8139. Reboot only works on Standard PC HAL. May need -no-acpi (and hit F7 and choose Standard PC) for install.
Windows Server 2003 x64	64	kvm-52	Intel	64	Works	Some people report instability. by Alexey.E.
Windows Server 2003 (Enterprise)	32	kvm-57	AMD	64	Works	Some people report instability. by Alexey.E.
Windows Server 2003 x64	64	kvm-52	AMD	64	Fails	by Alexey.E.
Windows XP Pro x64	64	kvm-57	Intel	64	Works	by Alexey.E.
Windows XP Pro x64	64	kvm-61	AMD	64	Works	Installer crashes @ end, but reboot brings up Windows just fine
Windows XP Pro	32	kvm-57	Intel	64	Works	See Windows ACPI Workaround for better performance
Windows XP Pro	32	kvm-57	AMD	64	Works	by Alexey.E. Some people report instability.
Windows 2000 Pro (SP4)	32	kvm-57	Intel	64	Works	See Windows ACPI Workaround for better performance; use Qcow2 format. by Alexey.E.
Windows 2000 Advanced Server	32	kvm-44	Intel	64	Works	Install with -no-acpi, use Qcow2 format.
Windows NT 4.0 (SP1)	32	kvm-28	Intel	32	Works
Windows NT 4.0 (SP6a)	32	kvm-28	Intel	32	Works	Crashes starting the GUI. Works with -no-kvm
Windows 98SE	32	kvm-44, 2.6.23-rc8	AMD	64, 32	no way
Windows 95	32	kvm-44, 2.6.23-rc8	AMD	64, 32	no way

Fedora/RedHat Derivatives

Guest	Guest bitness	Host version	Host cpu	Host bitness	Status	Comments
F8	32	kvm-51	Intel	64	Works	by Alexey.E.
F7	64	kvm-52	Intel	64	Setup Fails	It doesn't work. by Alexey.E.
F7	32	kvm-52	Intel	64	Works	by Alexey.E.
FC6	32	kvm-26	Intel, AMD	32, 64	Works
FC5	32, 64	kvm-12	Intel, AMD	32, 64	Works
Trixbox (CentOS)	32	kvm-12	Intel	64	Works
RHL9	32	kvm-51	Intel	64	Works	by Alexey.E.
RHL7	32	kvm-52	Intel, AMD	64	Crashes	Fails on init. by Alexey.E.
RHEL5/CentOS 5	64	kvm-57	Intel	64	Works	by Alexey.E.
RHEL5/CentOS 5	64	kvm-57	AMD	64	Works	by Alexey.E.
RHEL5/CentOS 5	32	kvm-55	Intel	64	Works (without SMP)	by Alexey.E. (can't boot with SMP)

Ubuntu/Debian

Guest	Guest bitness	Host version	Host cpu	Host bitness	Status	Comments
Ubuntu 7.10	32, 64	kvm-51	Intel	32, 64	Works	Framebuffer Problem with installation disk image. Use "mini" disc or create vm with QEMU. May need -no-apci on vm boot.
Ubuntu 7.04	32, 64	kvm-51	Intel	32, 64	Doesn't work.	by Alexey.E.
Ubuntu LTS 6.06 Server	32	kvm-20	Intel	32	Works	use -no-acpi
Debian Etch	32, 64	kvm-18/kvm-45	Intel	64	Works	by Alexey.E.
Debian Sarge	32	kvm-12	Intel	32	Works
Debian Sarge	32	kvm-12	Intel	64	Mostly works	Install hangs, will install via -no-kvm. Runs fine after
Ubuntu 7.10 Server	64	kvm-60	AMD	64	Works	No framebuffer (black screen at first). Hit enter to start installer.
Ubuntu 7.10 Server	32	kvm-60/61	Intel	64	Doesn't work	Installer crashes (by Ryota Ozaki)

Other Linux Distros

Guest	Guest bitness	Host version	Host cpu	Host bitness	Status	Comments
Slackware 11	32	kvm-15	Intel	64	Works	using test26.s kernel
Slackware 12	32	kvm-36	Intel	32	Works
openSUSE 10.3	32	kvm-57	AMD	64	Works	by Alexey.E.
openSUSE 10.3	32/64	kvm-51	Intel	64	Crashes, Workaround exists	Start kvm with -no-kvm for installation. Remove graphical GRUB. by Alexey.E.
OpenSUSE 10.2	32/64	kvm-28/kvm-51	Intel	64	Crashes, Workaround exists	Start kvm with -no-kvm for installation. Remove graphical GRUB. by Alexey.E.
SUSE Linux 9.1	32	kvm-57	Intel/AMD	64	Works	by Alexey.E.
Qemu-Puppy 2.01-3	32	kvm-17/18	Intel	32	Works
Qemu-Puppy 2.13-1	32	kvm-17/18	Intel	32	Works
KNOPPIX 5.1.1	32	kvm-18	Intel	64	Works	use nmi_watchdog=0 or nolapic kernel parameter to boot
Knoppix 5.2	32	kvm-18	Intel	32	Works
SystemRescueCD 0.3.4	32	kvm-18	Intel	64	Works	Works fine, except for initial X-setting "cirrus" - changed to "vesa", then works.
Gentoo 2006.1	32	kvm-24	Intel	64	Works
Gentoo 2007.0	32	kvm-24	Intel	64	Works
Arch Linux (Duke)	32	kvm-17	AMD	64	Works	Host: 2.6.21-ARCH, guest: 2.6.22-rc5-ARCH says "booting paravirtualized kernel on bare hardware"
Mandrake Linux 9.2	32	kvm-29	Intel	64	Almost Works	bootloader redraw problem. by Alexey.E.
Mandriva 2007	32	kvm-51	Intel	64	Crashes, Workaround exists	start kvm with -no-kvm for installation. Remove graphical GRUB. by Alexey.E.
Mandriva 2008	32	kvm-51	Intel	64	Crashes, Workaround exists	start kvm with -no-kvm for installation. Remove graphical GRUB. by Alexey.E.
Xandros 3 OCE	32	kvm-29	Intel	64	Works	by Alexey.E.

BSD

Guest	Guest bitness	Host version	Host cpu	Host bitness	Status	Comments
OpenBSD 4.2	32	kvm-58	Intel	32	Works
OpenBSD 4.1	32	kvm-56	Intel,AMD	64	Works	by Alexey.E.
OpenBSD 4.0	64	kvm-12	Intel	64	Works
OpenBSD 4.0	32	kvm-16 + CVS	Intel	64	Works
FreeBSD 6.2	64	kvm-12	AMD	64	Works
FreeBSD 6.2	32	kvm-16 + CVS	AMD	64	Works
FreeBSD 6.3	32	(Fedora 8 - kvm-37-7.fc8)	Intel	64	works	but one cpu only - max 1GB memory
GNU/kFreeBSD	64	kvm-15	AMD	64	Works
GNU/kFreeBSD	32	kvm-16 + CVS	AMD	64	Works
FreeBSD 6.1	32	kvm-17/18	Intel	32	Works
NetBSD 3.1	32	kvm-17/18	Intel	32	Works
NetBSD 3.1	32	kvm-21	AMD	64	Works
PC-BSD 1.4	32	kvm-56	Intel	64	Works	By Alexey.E.
DragonflyBSD 1.10.1	32	kvm-58	Intel	64	Works

Solaris/OpenSolaris

Guest	Guest bitness	Host version	Host cpu	Host bitness	Status	Comments
Solaris 10 U1	32	kvm-12	Intel	64	Works	later releases will detect the CPU is 64 bit capable and try to default to run a 64 bit kernel and fail, for those you have to override Solaris autodetection by adding "kernel/unix" to the kernel multiboot entry in GRUB
Solaris 10 U3	64	kvm-58 + patch	Intel	64	Works	needs additional patch to kvm for kvm kernel longmode
Nexenta OpenSolaris beta 3 test 1	64	kvm-53	Intel	64	Could Work	needs additional patches to qemu (qemu-ide-*) from [1] but still crashes and kills itself; later versions had regressions and would crash as shown by bug 1841658

Others

Guest	Guest bitness	Host version	Host cpu	Host bitness	Status	Comments
Haiku OS	32	kvm-12	AMD	64	Works	screenshot
Amiga Research OS (AROS)	32	kvm-12	AMD	64	Works	LiveCD tested. screenshot
Amiga Research OS (AROS)	32	kvm-58	Intel	32	Works	LiveCD tested.
ReactOS 0.3.0	32	kvm-14	AMD	64	Works	screenshot
FreeDOS 1.0	32	kvm-12/14	Intel	64	Work(ish)	Can only be installed from live CD by disabling kvm and using qemu only. Upper memory management (himem.exe) crashed kvm. Some other drivers do so as well. Step through booting using F8 to determine which. DOS is confined to the lower 640K of memory. See bug 1666308.
MS DOS 6.22	32	kvm-28	Intel	32	Stops	It seems to stop booting after HIMEM.
Xen 3.0.4	64, 32	kvm-18	Intel	64	Works
GNU hurd live CD (20051117)	32	kvm-28	Intel	32	Works	Seems to have networking problems.
GNU/Hurd (Debian K14)	32	kvm-33	Intel	32	Works	screenshot
Syllable 0.61	32	kvm-29	Intel	64	Crashes	by Alexey.E.
Visopsys 0.62	32	kvm-29	Intel	64	Crashes	by Alexey.E.
Darwin 8.0.1	32	kvm-29	Intel	64	Crashes	by Alexey.E.