[kion]

Nope, that stuff is all gone with the ESXi product. The vmkernel can bootstrap itself now.

Basically the old 1.0 - 4.0 process for _ESX_ was like this:

* Bootloader

* Linux Kernel boot

* Load VMnix module.

* Load VMkernel

* hardware control passed to VMkernel

* Linux continues running as a sort of 'super' VM with some limited hardware access.

For _ESXi_ from 4.0 - now :

* Bootloader

* VMkernel

[fl0wenol]

What's curious is that VMkernel's "personality" for ESXi userworlds (which are analogous to sessions IIRC) is it implements the x64 Linux ABI, with some signal/syscalls masked.

I don't know if this was to make the transition for stuff like vpxa from ESX 4 on easier internally, or to make it easier for 3rd parties to develop against, or both.

Is it lazily wrapping some functionality that should be open sourced that fills in where the service console would normally be? Probably not, but I can see why people would be a little suspicious.