Which statement correctly distinguishes a container from a full virtual machine on Linux?
LPIC-1 Exam 101-500, objective 102. Linux installation and package management medium
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The options
Not correct A container requires hardware virtualization support in the CPU, while a virtual machine does not
Wrong, and backwards. Containers need no CPU virtualization extensions at all, whereas full virtualization with KVM depends on Intel VT-x or AMD-V.
Not correct A container boots its own kernel, while a virtual machine shares the host's kernel
Wrong — this reverses the two. Sharing the host kernel is precisely what makes containers lightweight and fast to start.
Not correct A container can only run one process, while a virtual machine can run many
Wrong. A container commonly runs one main process by convention, but nothing prevents it from running several; that is a packaging practice, not a technical boundary.
Correct A container shares the host's running kernel, while a virtual machine boots its own kernel on virtualized hardware
Correct. Containers are isolated process groups on the host kernel, using kernel features such as namespaces and cgroups; a VM is presented with virtual hardware and runs a full operating system including its own kernel.
Why
The distinction is where the kernel boundary sits. A virtual machine is given emulated or paravirtualized hardware by a hypervisor and boots its own kernel, so it can run a different operating system than the host. A container is host processes isolated by kernel namespaces and limited by cgroups, so it must run on the host's kernel — which is why Linux containers on macOS or Windows are actually running inside a hidden Linux VM. Paravirtualized guests sit between the extremes: still their own kernel, but using virtio drivers that know they are virtualized rather than emulated hardware.
Where this comes from
- Cited
- LPI exam objective 102.6
- What it says
- Understand the general concept of virtual machines and containers.
Practise this
Reading one question is not practice. The trainer will draw a set from objective 102 and space the ones you get wrong.