Re: [win-pv-devel] Next signed release - support for readonly disks?

[Paul Durrant <Paul.Durrant@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: win-pv-devel [mailto:win-pv-devel-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
> Behalf Of Chris McClymont
> Sent: 14 October 2017 02:19
> To: win-pv-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [win-pv-devel] Next signed release - support for readonly disks?
> 
> Hi everyone,
> 
> Support for readonly disks was fixed in xenvbd commit
> 3bb41b49ff66433ab5ebb5d36d24946f40390d7c. When is this likely to make
> it into a signed release?
> 
> 
> I'm working on Windows templates for Xen and would love to use the
> newer Xen Project drivers signed by the Linux Foundation, rather than
> the EJB Digital or others floating around. But I have a requirement to
> support readonly disks, which don't work in the 8.2.0 release.
> Readonly disks appear in device manage only when emulated, and
> disappear (even with Show Hidden Devices) after the PV drivers are
> installed.
> 
> The commit I mentioned is somewhere between 8.2.0 and master.
> Previously, pdo.c would set ScsiStatus to SCSI_ABORT if
> (DiskInfo->DiskInfo & VDISK_READONLY). Now, pdo.c is called target.c
> and the commit removes the readonly limitation.
> 

Hi Chris,

Owen may have more to say, but I assume this was an unintended consequence of 
the patch.

In my experience an NTFS filesystem requires a disk to be read/write otherwise 
it will not function... certainly this is true of a system disk. Are you using 
a different filesystem? TBH I think it's quite reasonable for Windows to assume 
that a non-removable medium calling itself is a disk is read/write.

> I'm wondering a few things:
>   1) When is this commit likely to make it into a signed release

It's not currently a back-port candidate and there is no firm timeline for 
releasing 9.0 drivers.

>   2) Is there a roadmap? I.e. How is it decided when to make releases
> and which features/fixes to include

Because the Xen Project does not have dedicated infrastructure for testing the 
PV drivers, we generally rely on the testing done by Citrix XenServer and 
therefore releases tend to be aligned with updates made to the Citrix branded 
variant of the drivers.

>   3) How can I search this mailing list? It doesn't seem to be
> included on http://xen.markmail.org/search/
> 

You can see the mailing list archives at 
https://lists.xenproject.org/archives/html/win-pv-devel. As for searching via 
markmail... I have requested that the list be added in the past, but I'll have 
another go.

Cheers,

  Paul

> Thanks,
> Chris McClymont
> 
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