Re: [Xen-devel] Using XEN on a desktop

[Ian Pratt <Ian.Pratt@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> We are using XEN 1.2 on desktops. We would like to have the regular user
> run in a domain with full access to the hardware devices like sound
> card, video, usb. The other domains, hidden from the user, only need to
> have access to CPU, memory, storage and occasionaly network.
> 
> This way we would somehow mimic what VMWare enables you to do on a
> desktop, where the regular user uses the OS that has access to all the
> special devices, while the guest OSs in the VM get emulated ones (or do
> not access these devices at all).
> 
> How easy is it to enable one of the domains to have direct and exclusive
> access to these devices? Will there be better support for these in
> future versions (like doing that by configuration instead of
> recompiling)?

The development version of Xen (xeno-unstable.bk) should do this
for you if you build it with "ngio=y".

We're planing on making ngio the default build option in the next
few weeks. By default, dom0 will get access to all hardware
devices. You then use 'back end' drivers to export these devices
to other domains. We currently have back-end drivers for disk and
network. Sound, video and USB should work within domain 0 just
fine. 

We'd be interested to hear feedback from brave beta testers.  ;-)

Cheers,
Ian


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