Gvisor on Raspberry Pi 5: A Kernel Configuration Adventure
Summary
Gvisor on Raspberry Pi 5 explains why running gVisor on Raspberry Pi 5 can fail due to the ARM64 VA_BITS kernel setting in Raspbian. It compares 39-bit versus 48-bit addressing and why gVisor requires 48-bit VA for its in-process kernel and guest memory mappings. The article provides a concrete path to fix the issue: verify VA_BITS, install runsc, and rebuild the kernel with VA_BITS_48 (on-device or via cross-compilation), with notes on Ubuntu as a smoother alternative.