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Linux Developers Consider Ending 32-bit KVM Host Virtualization Support`


Earlier this month as part of patches for cleaning up x86 32-bit kernel code for x86_64 systems, there was a patch to drop support for 32-bit x86 KVM host support

The 32-bit KVM guest support would remain with these patches being about just ending support for 32-bit virtualization hosts... After all, who in 2025+ is likely running a leading-edge upstream kernel in a 32-bit environment and doing any virtualization hosting in production. Support for 32-bit KVM host on Arm hardware was dropped back in 2020 because of lack of users, despite Cortex-A7/A15/A17 based SoCs being much more widely deployed than the other virtualization capable 32-bit CPUs (Intel Core Duo/Silverthorne, PowerPC e300/e500/e600, MIPS P5600) combined. It probably makes sense to drop all of these at the same time, provided there are no actual users remaining (not counting regression testing that developers might be doing).

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