RE: [Xen-users] Graphics Pass-Through Questions

["Dustin Henning" <Dustin.Henning@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Nick,
        Regarding passing through USB controllers, I'd say the reason they
don't work during boot is the same reason you can't boot to a virtual SCSI
disk, the virtual BIOS doesn't support it.  I'm also guessing that making
the virtual BIOS boot to virtual SCSI disks would be FAR easier than making
it support real physical USB cards (because there are so many, and each may
be unique, when USB first came out, it wasn't an option to use a USB
keyboard until Windows booted because the BIOS wouldn't emulate the legacy
device from the USB HID device, and I'm guessing this is still true of
add-on USB cards vs BIOSes that do).  That said, you might be able to get by
with buying a PCI-PS/2 card and passing it through with a PS/2 keyboard and
mouse, but I don't know, it would be an experiment, and you might even be
just as likely to end up with a PCI USB card that converts its PS/2 ports to
HID, in which case it would still be a no-go (I'm assuming the native
Windows drivers would support the PS/2 chip if you got the right card).
        Regarding graphics pass-through and VFB, I assume a driver might be
written to support this, UltraVNC uses a driver to pick up what is on the
video card quicker than VNC otherwise would, and there is no visible
dual-monitor setup in Windows for that.  nVidia drivers have a setting to
clone video to two monitors as well, but that is on the same video card, so
perhaps simpler.  Regardless, someone would have to be willing to work on
setting it up.  However, if you are just shooting for remote assistance,
installing a VNC server on the domU would probably make more sense.
        Dustin

-----Original Message-----
From: xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Nick Couchman
Sent: Friday, April 23, 2010 11:06
To: XEN Mailing List
Subject: [Xen-users] Graphics Pass-Through Questions

Just a couple of questions on the graphics/vga pass-through topic:

- I'm currently also passing through the USB controllers, which gives me
keyboard and mouse access to my domU.  However, this only works after the
O/S has booted and loaded drivers - it does not work during BIOS boot or the
Windows boot sequence, which makes debugging Windows boot issues
challenging.  Can anyone offer any advice for making keyboard/mouse
functional during boot time?
- One thing that would be a nice-to-have is the possibility of doing the
graphics pass-through AND having the VNC-based VFB mirror what's on the
graphics card.  First, is this something that can be done today?  If not,
I'm sure that there's a good reason for it, and that it's probably quite
challenging to implement, but I figured I'd ask.  This would be great for
combining the ability to have the native graphics card work locally with the
ability to log in remotely for things like remote assistance.

Thanks!
-Nick



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