Re: [Xen-users] Apple iMac / Mac Mini Core Duo, OS X under Xen?

["Dirk H. Schulz" <dirk.schulz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Erik Dykema schrieb:

> > I thought about that quite some time and decided not to try. If you have
> > a Mac, you want MacOS X to use the builtin graphics and other hardware
> > (which is impossible in a domU).
> >    
> Herr Schulz-
>     Thanks for your response.  In fact, this is exactly what I would
> like to do, namely, use Mac hardware (Intel imac / mac mini / etc.) to
> run all three of the most popular OS's, like so:
>
>          hardware
>                ||
>             Linux
>            /    |     \
>      OS X  M$   Linux
>
>     Why is this impossible in a domU ?  I thought that the point of
> the hardware virtualization (VTX, VMX, etc.) was that unmodified guest
> OS's can be run, as if they are running on the 'bare metal'.
>  
As long as the dom0 is a system that can activate VT via BIOS or EFI. 
But Macs do not have a BIOS, and their EFI does not activate VT (since 
Apple does not feel to need it). So you have to setup a system that 
boots from EFI (Linux can do that) AND you have to setup your own EFI. 
Since that is not too well documented this might be hard work - there's 
people out there who have damaged their brand new Macs trying that.
And what then? If you get it running, what advantages do yo have over 
the Mac running Mac OS X and Quemu and there running M$ and Linux? Quemu 
is hardware emulation, yes, but they have some kind of accelerator that 
comes in if it has to emulate the same hardware it runs on anyway. If 
that thingy is working on MacOS X/Intel, there is no need to get the big 
big work done of getting xen to run on a Mac.
At least I think so. :-) Feel free for yourself.

And by the way: Hardware virtualization does not mean that you can make 
use of the existing hardware inside domU. Lets say: In your design above 
none of the domUs can use the graphics chipset of the base Mac. The 
domUs are presented virtualized devices with standard functions, not 
drivers for every single hardware instance - at least that is what I 
understand.


Dirk

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