QEMU 11.0 Released With Dropped 32-Bit Host Support

QEMU 11.0 has been officially released after a four-stage release candidate cycle, introducing major changes and feature updates. One of the most significant decisions in this version is the complete removal of support for 32-bit host systems, as maintaining it had become too resource-intensive for the project.

The release adds a new Diamond Rapids x86 CPU model and introduces native support for Nitro Enclaves through a dedicated nitro accelerator and the -M nitro machine type. On the virtualization front, improvements include KVM support for CET, reset capabilities for SEV-SNP and TDX systems, and better handling of SEV-ES termination events by reporting them as guest panic conditions.

ARM architecture sees notable enhancements, including support for FEAT_ASID2 and FEAT_E2H0, SMMUv3 acceleration via -device arm-smmuv3,accel=on, and WHPX compatibility for the virt board. Additional updates include new configuration properties such as virtio-mmio-transports and kvm-psci-version for improved flexibility.

Several legacy machine types and interfaces have been removed to streamline the platform. On ARM, ast2700a0-evb has been replaced by ast2700a1-evb, while highbank and midway are no longer supported. On x86 systems, older machine types like pc-i440fx-2.6/2.7 and pc-q35-2.6/2.7 have been dropped.

Migration capabilities have also been improved, addressing issues with mapped RAM, enhancing dirty page synchronization with KVM, introducing a failure status for migrations, and extending COLO support to work with multifd. In graphics and storage, virtio-gpu now supports native context drivers and configurable display resolutions, while the storage layer gains updates such as libnfs v6 support, improved HTTP(S) handling in the curl driver, and asynchronous FUSE block exports with multi-iothread support.

Support for additional architectures has also been expanded. RISC-V gains new extensions and fixes, LoongArch adds PMU migration and TCG instruction support, PowerPC improves device snapshotting and migration, and s390x can now boot from virtio-blk-pci devices.

Other updates include enhancements to Windows guest agents, improvements to 9pfs and I/O subsystems, and expanded TCG plugin functionality, including support for in-tree C++ plugins and new APIs.

For more information, see the changelog. QEMU 11.0’s source code is available for download from the project’s GitHub page.