VM Backends: QEMU vs libkrun¶

Gondolin supports two VM backends:

qemu (default, broader feature support)
krun (experimental, uses libkrun via host/krun-runner)

This page is the authoritative backend-parity reference for SDK/CLI behavior.

Feature Parity Matrix¶

Capability / setting	`qemu`	`krun`	Notes
`sandbox.vmm`	✓	✓	Select backend (`"qemu"` or `"krun"`)
`sandbox.qemuPath`	✓		Rejected when `vmm=krun`
`sandbox.krunRunnerPath`		✓	Used only with `vmm=krun`
`sandbox.machineType`	✓		Rejected when `vmm=krun`
`sandbox.accel`	✓		Rejected when `vmm=krun`; libkrun backend is implicit per OS
`sandbox.cpu`	✓		Rejected when `vmm=krun`
`sandbox.cpus`	✓	✓	Shared high-level CPU count option
`sandbox.memory`	✓	✓	`krun` parses memory and passes MiB to `libkrun`
`sandbox.rootDiskPath` / `rootDiskFormat` / `rootDiskReadOnly`	✓	✓	Supported on both backends
`rootfs.mode = "memory"`	✓	✓	QEMU uses backend snapshot mode; krun emulates this with a temporary qcow2 overlay via `qemu-img` (ephemeral writes, not RAM-backed)
`rootfs.mode = "cow"`	✓	✓	Writable qcow2 copy-on-write overlay on both backends; the overlay does not modify the original rootfs image
`vm.checkpoint()` / checkpoint resume	✓	✓	Resume enforces checkpoint compatibility metadata; `qemu` ↔ `krun` requires krun boot assets in the checkpoint build
Exec/VFS/network mediation/SSH/ingress APIs	✓	✓	Same host-side control plane and policy stack

Architecture and Kernel Constraints¶

QEMU¶

Guest architecture must match the selected QEMU binary (qemu-system-aarch64 vs qemu-system-x86_64)
QEMU binary precedence: explicit sandbox.qemuPath → manifest-derived default when guest arch is known → host-arch default fallback
Kernel/initrd/rootfs come from selected guest assets

krun¶

Guest architecture must match the host architecture
Requires a libkrunfw-compatible kernel
Gondolin requires image manifest krun boot assets:
assets.krunKernel
assets.krunInitrd (optional; defaults to an empty initrd)
Build/setup path: gondolin build (or published image assets)
make krun-runner builds the runner binary; it does not provide kernel assets

Runner path resolution:

Auto-detected from local host/krun-runner/zig-out/bin/gondolin-krun-runner when present
Auto-detected from installed platform runner package when available (for example @earendil-works/gondolin-krun-runner-darwin-arm64 or @earendil-works/gondolin-krun-runner-linux-x64)

Runtime Caveats¶

krun backend is still experimental and has less runtime parity coverage than qemu
Cross-backend checkpoint resume (qemu ↔ krun) requires assets that include manifest.assets.krunKernel
Some krun networking edge cases are still under investigation
Host CA trust configuration can cause guest-visible HTTP 502 errors on both backends when upstream TLS validation fails

Recommendation¶

Use qemu unless you specifically want to exercise the krun backend. If you expose backend knobs in higher-level tooling, gate them by backend and fail fast on unsupported combinations.