Features

The vision for the Ghaf platform is to create a virtualized, scalable reference platform that enables the building of secure products leveraging trusted, reusable, and portable software for edge devices. For more information on reference implementation for several devices, see Reference Implementations.

Ghaf demo desktop and applications are illustrated in the screen capture below:

Status

• ✅—integrated and tested in the main branch. No known regression.
• 🚧—prototyped or work in progress in the development branch.
• ❌—the feature has known regression or bugs.

Reference Devices

• Orin—NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin as the main reference device.
• x86—generic x86_64; tested on Intel NUC (Next Unit of Computing) or laptop.
• Lenovo X1—Lenovo X1 Carbon Gen 11 laptop.
• aarch64—generic AArch64; tested on an ARM server, laptop (e.g. Apple MacBook’s), or NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin.
• All variants—supported devices from Architectural Variants.

The following tables show the status of the Ghaf Platform features:

Release Builds and Hardware Architecture Support

Feature	Status	Reference Device	Details
Ghaf in virtual machine	✅	x86	nix run .#packages.x86_64-linux.vm-debug
aarch64 reference image	✅	Orin	Based on Jetson Linux, OE4T and jetpack-nixos.
aarch64 reference image	✅	imx8mp	Based on NXP BSP, implemented as nixos-hardware module
x86 generic image	✅	x86	Generic x86 computer, based on generic NixOS. NOTE: requires device specific configuration.
Lenovo X1 reference image	✅	Lenovo X1	x86_64 laptop computer, supports basic compartmentalized environment
Native build	✅	aarch64, x86	Remote aarc64 nixos builders recommended
Cross-compilation	🚧	aarch64	Depends on NixOS nixpkgs 23.05 support for cross-compilation
CI builds	✅	All	Only main-branch, not for all PRs.
Emulated build	❌	aarch64	binfmt, may freeze the build machine. Not recommended. See instructions.

Development

Feature	Status	Reference Device	Details
Quick target update	✅	all	nixos-rebuild --flake .#nvidia-jetson-orin-debug --target-host root@ghaf-host --fast switch
aarch64 device flashing	✅	Orin	Full device software flashing using x86 machine
root filesystem flashing	✅	x86, imx8mp	dd image to bootable media - see
Debug: SSH	✅	Orin, x86	Host access only in -debug-target, see authentication.nix
Debug: Serial	✅	all	Host access only in -debug-target - e.g. screen /dev/ttyACM0 115200
Compartmentalized environment	🚧	Lenovo X1	Net VM, GUI VM (with GPU passthrough) plus some App VMs

Target Architecture

Feature	Status	Reference Device	Details
Minimal host	🚧	all	See Minimal Host and PR #140.
Net VM	✅	Orin	See Net VM. Passthrough with Wi-Fi works but requires SSID/password configuration.
IDS VM	✅	Orin, Lenovo X1	Defensive networking mechanism.
GUI VM	🚧	All, Lenovo X1	Implemented for Lenovo X1 reference device, other devices have Wayland compositor running on the host.
App VM	🚧	All, Lenovo X1	Implemented for Lenovo X1 reference device: Chromium, GALA and Zathura VMs. Requires GUI VM in place.
Admin VM	✅	All	Not started
Inter VM comms - IP-based	🚧	All	-debug-targets have network bridges to access VMs from host.
Inter VM comms - shared memory	🚧	All
Inter VM Wayland	🚧	All	Currently it is waypipe over SSH, for test and demo purpose only.
SW update	🚧	All	A/B update tooling being evaluated.
USB passthrough	🚧	Orin	No reference implementation integrated yet.
PCI passthrough	✅	All	Used for reference in Net VM on Orin.
UART passthrough	🚧	Orin	See NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin: UART Passthrough. Not integrated to any VM.
ARM platform bus devices passthrough	🚧	Orin	NVIDIA BPMP virtualization being developed

Applications and VM Control

Feature	Status	Reference Device	Details
Wayland-compositor	🚧	Orin, x86	Implemented for Lenovo X1
Chromium	🚧	Orin, x86	Implemented for Lenovo X1
Element	🚧	Orin, x86	On host
Cloud Android (CVD) client application (GALA)	🚧	Orin, x86	Implemented for Lenovo X1
Virtualization control	🚧	All	See vmd design.

Next Steps

See discussion for the outline of next steps