Re: [Xen-devel] intel g965 + wine questions

[spooq <spoooq@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 10/12/06, Ian Pratt <m+Ian.Pratt@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > I'm about to put a 4-core Linux system together, and I would like to
> > be able to use Xen to run a very limited dom0 and a few
> > general-purpose domU's. It would be great if I could run the graphics
> > driver directly in one of the domU's rather than using the slower
> > emulated driver. I understand it would require modification of the
> > driver source, and fortunately Intel has seen fit to provide it.
> >
> > Has anyone considered doing this yet? Does anyone have any advice on
> > what mechanisms to use? Is there any general framework being created
> > for this sort of thing or would it be quicker to make a specific hack?
> > What would be the best way to solve the domU to physical lookup
> > problem? I imagine it may be possible to put a special mark in the
> > memory manager of dom0 that could guarantee physical regions are where
> > domU expects.
>
> Graphics drivers that work under dom0 actually have a pretty good chance
> of also working in a suitably privileged domU, without source
> modifications. Some work, some don't. Those that try to make BIOS calls
> seem to be most problematic, though I guess even they could be fixed. I
> think more success has been had using kernel drivers than driving the
> card from X.
>
> Give it a go, trying the various tricks that have been suggested on the
> list beforehand, and then please report back. At some point it would be
> nice to have concerted effort to make it work for a wider range of
> graphics cards.
I can see BIOS calls might be a problem, because the emulated BIOS
might not do the right thing - I have no idea whether this specific
driver uses them or not. Im guessing the drivers that do work avoid
memory-mapped framebuffers and registers, and stick to onboard ram and
i/o ports?

Also, this chance of working only refers to source-code compatibility,
not binary kernel module compatibility, correct? Not a problem in this
case, of course, but it would affect NVidia drivers. I've been
assuming that I would have to use the Intel chipset to get a
moderately powerful 3d chip, but if I could put in say, a 7900GTX in
instead, that would be fantastic! I saw a page talking about
compatibility with NVidia drivers, but I thought the author meant he
was running the driver in dom0 and using software rendering in domU.

Im waiting on the Kentsfield CPU release, so I wont be trying any of
this for a month or so unfortunately. I'll definitely post my results.

_______________________________________________
Xen-devel mailing list
Xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-devel