Separate project · experimental research

guideXOS Hypervisor research

Current status of the machine, the IA-64 expedition, and the boundaries of what is publicly claimed.

guideXOS Server Wiki

Browse the Server branch documentation by topic.

Reading status labels

Implemented Partial Experimental Planned Not Yet Verified

guideXOS Server is moving quickly, so each page calls out what is present in the current Server source tree, what is partially wired, what is experimental, and what remains roadmap work.

Start with the project boundary

guideXOS Server is the native operating-system and systems-platform branch. guideXOS Hypervisor is a separate repository and project for virtual-machine, architecture-emulation, firmware, and debugging research. The two projects may inform each other, but the Hypervisor should not be described as a Server feature or as the released Server product.

Experimental Working implementation

Open Hypervisor project page Open GitHub repository ↗

Current status: IA-64 is the flagship investigation

The separate Hypervisor project now has a graphical Hypervisor Manager and an IA-64 virtual-machine/emulation path. It is executing historical Itanium software through the EFI → ELILO → Linux chain while the processor, memory system, firmware, and diagnostic surfaces continue to be implemented and debugged.

EFI is implemented for the current investigation, ELILO execution has been reached in the research path, and Linux IA-64 handoff and bring-up are active work. This is materially beyond a distant roadmap, while still remaining experimental research software.

IA-64 boot-chain status

Extensive · evolving

Instruction execution

Real IA-64 execution is driving the architecture implementation and debugging work, including instruction semantics reached by operating-system software.

Implemented for investigation

EFI environment

The research environment can establish and execute the EFI layer used by the current boot-chain investigation.

Reached · running

ELILO execution

ELILO is reached and running in the current IA-64 research path rather than being only a planned integration.

Active investigation

Linux bring-up

Kernel handoff and Linux IA-64 bring-up remain active investigation. A complete Linux boot has not yet been achieved.

Implementation and diagnostic work

Graphical Hypervisor Manager: VM lifecycle, system, CPU, storage, performance, display, and debugging surfaces are part of the working application.
Architecture state: IA-64 MMU, region, RSE, and related processor state are substantially implemented and still evolving.
Firmware and debugging: EFI/ELILO bring-up is being used to expose architectural gaps and distinguish emulator defects from historical binary and toolchain behavior.
Instruction semantics: real operating-system execution continues to reach new IA-64 paths, including recent POPCNT and other system/integer operations.
Checkpointing: experimental post-EFI full-machine checkpoint/restore can preserve diagnostic state around the EFI-to-kernel handoff to reduce deterministic replay during later investigations.

What is still not claimed

Complete Linux IA-64 boot remains a research goal rather than an achieved milestone. The checkpoint path is diagnostic/research infrastructure, not a polished end-user snapshot product, and the overall project is not production virtualization.

Hardware virtualization versus emulation

Future guideXOS Server hardware-virtualization ownership is a separate design question from the Hypervisor's current software emulation and machine-debugging work. Disabling future VT-x/SVM ownership should not imply losing foreign-architecture emulation or diagnostic tooling; those are different capabilities with different constraints.

In short: preserve the distinction between guideXOS Server as an operating-system product and guideXOS Hypervisor as an experimental architecture-emulation project.