Hardly anybody really requires the i386 binary anymore, since the
qemu-system-x86_64 binary is a proper superset. So let's deprecate
the 32-bit variant now, so that we can finally stop wasting our time
and CI minutes with this.
With regards to 32-bit KVM support in the x86 Linux kernel,
the developers confirmed that they do not need a recent
qemu-system-i386 binary here:
https://lore.kernel.org/kvm/Y%2ffkTs5ajFy0hP1U@google.com/
Signed-off-by: Thomas Huth <thuth(a)redhat.com>
---
docs/about/deprecated.rst | 12 ++++++++++++
1 file changed, 12 insertions(+)
diff --git a/docs/about/deprecated.rst b/docs/about/deprecated.rst
index 15084f7bea..11700adac9 100644
--- a/docs/about/deprecated.rst
+++ b/docs/about/deprecated.rst
@@ -34,6 +34,18 @@ deprecating the build option and no longer defend it in CI. The
``--enable-gcov`` build option remains for analysis test case
coverage.
+``qemu-system-i386`` binary (since 8.0)
+'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
+
+The ``qemu-system-i386`` binary was mainly useful for running with KVM
+on 32-bit x86 hosts, but most Linux distributions already removed their
+support for 32-bit x86 kernels, so hardly anybody still needs this. The
+``qemu-system-x86_64`` binary is a proper superset and can be used to
+run 32-bit guests by selecting a 32-bit CPU model, including KVM support
+on x86_64 hosts. Thus users are recommended to reconfigure their systems
+to use the ``qemu-system-x86_64`` binary instead.
+
+
System emulator command line arguments
--------------------------------------
--
2.31.1