Re: [Xen-devel] [Hackathon Minutes] Xen 4.4 Planning

[Pasi Kärkkäinen <pasik@xxxxxx>]

On Thu, Jun 13, 2013 at 01:09:46PM -0400, Ben Guthro wrote:
> >
> > ** What about XenClient / VirtualComputer being able to help out in adding
> > mopre support for PCI / VGA cards
> >
> 
> Did you have any more info on this bullet, and the other one below Re:
> XenClient / VirtualComputer?
> 
> FWIW, the XenClient Enterprise product (what was VirtualComputer
> NxTop) doesn't currently do PCI / VGA passthrough, in an attempt to
> get a larger HCL.
> The XenClient XT product (developed primarily in Citrix Cambridge)
> does rely on this functionality, however.
> 
> It is a subtle (but sizable) architectural difference, that made each
> team come to some different conclusions when solving similar problems.
> As such, this is an area that the two teams have remained separate,
> despite sharing a XenClient moniker.
> 
> There may be some areas that we may be able to help out, but we'd need
> to enumerate the issues, and work with management to get it properly
> staffed - naturally balancing against the product delivery
> requirements.
> 

I'm not sure what the "more support for PCI / VGA cards" above meant,
but Xen would at least need someone to be the "GPU passthrough" maintainer,
there are many unmerged patches laying around on the mailinglists,
for all the three major GPU vendors: Intel, Nvidia and AMD.


> 
> > ** Other features: Sharing dom0 keyboard / mouse
>

This should be a pretty small task actually, we did some planning and 
analysis of various options available at last year's XenSummit 
with Gianluca and Stefano.

> >
> >
> > * GPU passthrough
> > ** We have an issue with graphics card support
> > ** A lot of users care about GPU passthrough (but not many vendors)
> > ** Maybe we could mentor somebody about GPU passthrough?
> >
> > ** Maybe we could get XenClient, VirtualComputer or Qubes to pick this up
> > (or partly do so)?
> >
> >

GPU passthrough is an important feature, and currently it's not well 
supported out-of-the-box with Xen. It is being discussed very often 
on xen related mailinglists and irc channels, so it seems to be "hot" feature 
for users.

-- Pasi


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