permissions: 0.126 semantic: 0.107 device: 0.086 graphic: 0.080 other: 0.079 PID: 0.079 boot: 0.071 network: 0.063 debug: 0.062 socket: 0.059 vnc: 0.054 KVM: 0.053 performance: 0.046 files: 0.037 KVM: 0.616 debug: 0.105 boot: 0.072 performance: 0.041 PID: 0.035 other: 0.026 semantic: 0.025 files: 0.017 device: 0.016 socket: 0.015 permissions: 0.010 graphic: 0.010 network: 0.007 vnc: 0.005 qemu-system-s390x: no SMP support without KVM It seems SMP support is not implemented for s390x target, at least when not running under KVM. There is also no error message when starting qemu, it just fails when the kernel tries to bring up the CPUs: $ qemu-system-s390x -nographic -smp 8 -kernel s390x/kernel.debian [ 0.003309] Initializing cgroup subsys cpuset [ 0.004183] Initializing cgroup subsys cpu [ 0.004263] Initializing cgroup subsys cpuacct [ 0.004493] Linux version 3.16.0-4-s390x (