Re: [Xen-devel] [PATCH v4 00/04] HVM firmware passthrough

[Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk <konrad.wilk@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, Dec 20, 2012 at 01:55:10PM -0500, Ross Philipson wrote:
> This patch series introduces support of loading external blocks of firmware
> into a guest. These blocks can currently contain SMBIOS and/or ACPI firmware
> information that is used by HVMLOADER to modify a guests virtual firmware at
> startup. These modules are only used by HVMLOADER and are effectively 
> discarded after HVMLOADER has completed.
> 
> The domain building code in libxenguest is passed these firmware blocks
> in the xc_hvm_build_args structure and loads them into the new guest,
> returning the load address. The loading is done in what will become the guests
> low RAM area just behind to load location for HVMLOADER. After their use by
> HVMLOADER they are effectively discarded. It is the caller's job to load the
> base address and length values in xenstore using the paths defined in the new
> hvm_defs.h header so HVMLOADER can located the blocks.
> 

Are there patches to plug this in the 'xl'?

> Currently two types of firmware information are recognized and processed
> in the HVMLOADER though this could be extended.
> 
> 1. SMBIOS: The SMBIOS table building code will attempt to retrieve (for
> predefined set of structure types) any passed in structures. If a match is
> found the passed in table will be used overriding the default values. In
> addition, the SMBIOS code will also enumerate and load any vendor defined
> strutures (in the range of types 128 - 255) that as are passed in. See the
> hvm_defs.h header for information on the format of this block.
> 2. ACPI: Static and secondary descriptor tables can be added to the set of
> ACPI table built by HVMLOADER. The ACPI builder code will enumerate passed in
> tables and add them at the end of the secondary table list. See the hvm_defs.h
> header for information on the format of this block.
> 
> There are 4 patches in the series:
> 01 - Add HVM definitions header for firmware passthrough support.
> 02 - Xen control tools support for loading the firmware blocks.
> 03 - Passthrough support for SMBIOS.
> 04 - Passthrough support for ACPI.
> 
> Note this is version 3 of this patch set. Some of the differences:
>  - Generic module support removed, overall functionality was simplified.
>  - Use of xenstore to supply firmware passthrough information to HVMLOADER.
>  - Fixed issues pointed out in the SMBIOS processing code.
>  - Created defines for the SMBIOS handles in use and switched to using
>    the xenstore values in the new hvm_defs.h file.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Ross Philipson <ross.philipson@xxxxxxxxxx>
> 
> (Based on xen-4.3 staging/unstable cs 26317)
> 
> 
> 
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> 

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