RE: [Xen-users] Xen to Desktop/Workstation questions

["Petersson, Mats" <Mats.Petersson@xxxxxxx>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
> [mailto:xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of 
> Jerry Amundson
> Sent: 03 July 2006 16:35
> To: xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [Xen-users] Xen to Desktop/Workstation questions
> 
> On Sun July 2 2006 21:09, Alexandre Miguel Pedro Gomes wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I'm buying a new computer with a Pentium D 9xx processor and I was
> > thinking of using Xen to run Linux and Windows XP Pro. The first
> > thing I noticed in the Xen Manual is that Pentium D isn't 
> listed as a
> > supported processor, only x86 is support and not 64Bits. Can I still
> > run Xen?
> 
> Probably. Depends on your "xx" - see 
> http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/HVM_Compatible_Processors
> The manual lists "x86/64" - did you mean something else?
> 
> > Related to graphics support I whish to know how do we "switch" guest
> > OS if only one monitor is availble? If I've a graphics card with 2
> > outputs (dual head), or a SLI configuration, is it possible to use
> > dual head in the guests? And to have one OS in one monitor and the
> > other in the second monitor? If I've two guests, Fedora and Windows
> > XP Pro, can I run 3D accelerated games in Windows?
> 
> Can't help there - you might look for recent thread 
> on "devices", "graphical", etc.

Simple answer is NO, you can't run 3D accellerated anything under Xen,
because the way that graphics cards (except really REALLY old ones) work
means that driver needs to know the actual physical address in memory,
which is "lied" about to the OS in HVM guests... 
> 
> > Can I "tri"-boot one of the OSes, that is, run a guest 
> under Xen then
> > reboot and run that same OS without Xen?
> 
> Probably. (sorry - ask a general question, get a general answer ;-)

As Jerry said, probably: As long as the OS lives in a partition rather
than a file, yes, it would be possible... But some PnP-OS's get a bit[1]
confused when the modern IDE controller suddenly gets replaced with a
pretty basic old-style one (QEMU IDE) after reboot, at may not even work
correctly under those circumstances... Same with graphics cards that
appear/disappear depending on which way you boot the system, not always
handled OK [although since the graphics card isn't immediately needed
for the actual boot, more likely to work]. 

[1] Some OS's go a bit beyond "a bit" on the confused scale, more like
completely and outright confounded under these circumstances... Win98
does not like having the main chipset replaced under it's feet, for
example - it just plain stops working if the new chipset isn't nearly
identical to the old one - unless you set some particular value in the
registry just before shutting down to say "Please use basic components,
I've just changed everything - rescan PnP components on boot", which is
slow and easy to forget... ;-)

--
Mats
> 
> jerry
> 
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