Scorpi - A Modern Lightweight General-Purpose Hypervisor

Overview

Scorpi is a modern, lightweight, general-purpose hypervisor designed to be an alternative to QEMU.

Key Features

• Modern: Implements only modern devices, primarily VirtIO-based, avoiding legacy emulations.
• Lightweight: Built on FreeBSD Bhyve and written in C, with minimal code base for emulating devices.
• General-Purpose: Supports headless and graphical VMs, EFI boot loader, and ACPI. Can run Linux and Windows VMs.
• Modular: Designed to be used as an API in other applications and services. Graphics, UI and user input are separate modules, and networking can be modularized as well.

Platform Support

Currently, Scorpi runs on Mac ARM64 using Apple's Hypervisor Framework. The plan is to expand support to:

• Linux x86 and ARM using KVM
• Additional architectures, including RISC-V

Available Bootloaders

1. U-Boot - Fast and compact but lacks some advanced features such as ACPI and graphics. Best used for headless VMs that require fast start.
   Source Code

2. EDK2 UEFI - Full-featured bootloader that provides ACPI support, frame buffer, and a variety of boot device drivers.
   Source Code

Running Linux VMs

1. Download an ISO that supports ARM₆₄ architecture.
2. Create an empty disk with:

   mkfile -n [size] [img_file]

3. Example command to start a VM:

   ./builddir/scorpi -s 0,hostbridge -o console=stdio -o bootrom=./firmware/SCORPI_EFI.fd -s 1,xhci -u kbd -u tablet -s 2,virtio-blk,[img_file] -s 3,virtio-blk,[iso_file],ro -s 4,virtio-net,slirp -s 5,virtio-gpu,hdpi=on -m 2G -c 2 -l /tmp/vm_sock vm1

   To use a graphical viewer, refer to the following reference project: ScorpiViewer

Running a Windows VM

The easiest way to try a Windows 11 VM is to download a Microsoft HyperV preview image and convert it to Scorpi.

1. Download a VHDX image from:
   Windows Insider Preview ARM₆₄
2. Convert the disk image to Scorpi format using qemu-img:

   qemu-img convert -f vhdx -O raw input.vhdx win11.img

3. Run Scorpi:

   ./builddir/scorpi -s 0,hostbridge -o bootrom=./firmware/SCORPI_EFI.fd -s 1,xhci -u kbd -u tablet -u net,backend=slirp -s 2,ahci-hd,win11.img -s 3,virtio-gpu,fb=on -l /tmp/vm_sock -c 4 -m 4G vm1

4. Run ScorpiViewer.

Future Roadmap

• Implement and add missing features (file sharing, copy/paste support)
• Implement Linux support on top of KVM.
• Add Windows DirectX 12 display driver.
• Extend support to RISC-V and other platforms.

Releated Projects

U-Boot bootloader
EDK2 bootloader
Scorpi Viewer

Licensing

Scorpi is released under a permissive license, providing flexibility for various use cases.

Get Involved

Contributions and feedback are welcome! Stay tuned for updates as Scorpi evolves into a powerful and versatile hypervisor.

For inquiries, contact Alex Fishman at [email protected].