diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | arch/x86/Kconfig | 35 |
1 files changed, 28 insertions, 7 deletions
diff --git a/arch/x86/Kconfig b/arch/x86/Kconfig index aa94fd0..2cb2211 100644 --- a/arch/x86/Kconfig +++ b/arch/x86/Kconfig @@ -996,15 +996,36 @@ config X86_THERMAL_VECTOR def_bool y depends on X86_MCE_INTEL -config VM86 - bool "Enable VM86 support" if EXPERT - default y +config X86_LEGACY_VM86 + bool "Legacy VM86 support (obsolete)" + default n depends on X86_32 ---help--- - This option is required by programs like DOSEMU to run - 16-bit real mode legacy code on x86 processors. It also may - be needed by software like XFree86 to initialize some video - cards via BIOS. Disabling this option saves about 6K. + This option allows user programs to put the CPU into V8086 + mode, which is an 80286-era approximation of 16-bit real mode. + + Some very old versions of X and/or vbetool require this option + for user mode setting. Similarly, DOSEMU will use it if + available to accelerate real mode DOS programs. However, any + recent version of DOSEMU, X, or vbetool should be fully + functional even without kernel VM86 support, as they will all + fall back to (pretty well performing) software emulation. + + Anything that works on a 64-bit kernel is unlikely to need + this option, as 64-bit kernels don't, and can't, support V8086 + mode. This option is also unrelated to 16-bit protected mode + and is not needed to run most 16-bit programs under Wine. + + Enabling this option adds considerable attack surface to the + kernel and slows down system calls and exception handling. + + Unless you use very old userspace or need the last drop of + performance in your real mode DOS games and can't use KVM, + say N here. + +config VM86 + bool + default X86_LEGACY_VM86 config X86_16BIT bool "Enable support for 16-bit segments" if EXPERT |