Hi, Just wondering, is there any way to forward individual USB devices to domU''s? My desktop has a USB PCI card (2 ports) and onboard USB (8 ports); I''d like dom0 and two domU''s to all have direct hardware access to various USB devices (mostly keyboards and mice; I''ve gotten my graphics cards to forward to the domU''s via the published NVidia hack). Right now, the onboard USB only works in dom0; it breaks painfully when I try to use it in a domU. Otherwise, I''d just give one USB device to each domU and let dom0 deal with PS/2 keyboards/mice and no USB devices. Adam _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
> Just wondering, is there any way to forward individual USB devices > to domU''s?There was once, and one day there will be again.> My desktop has a USB PCI card (2 ports) and onboard USB (8 ports); > I''d like dom0 and two domU''s to all have direct hardware access to > various USB devices (mostly keyboards and mice; I''ve gotten my > graphics cards to forward to the domU''s via the published NVidia hack). > > Right now, the onboard USB only works in dom0; it breaks painfully > when I try to use it in a domU. Otherwise, I''d just give one USB > device to each domU and let dom0 deal with PS/2 keyboards/mice and no > USB devices.USB add-in cards, at least, have been reported successfully assigned to domUs using PCI passthrough. The USB back / front driver went out of date because it couldn''t work once the 2.4 kernel support was broken. Expect a new 2.6-compatible driver to appear at some point in the future, but workarounds will be necessary for the meantime. I think the HVM guests can have access to virtual USB - and possibly real - devices, via QEmu''s support for that, though... HTH, Mark -- Dave: Just a question. What use is a unicyle with no seat? And no pedals! Mark: To answer a question with a question: What use is a skateboard? Dave: Skateboards have wheels. Mark: My wheel has a wheel! _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
> USB add-in cards, at least, have been reported successfully assigned to domUs > using PCI passthrough.I successfully use USB printer in domU via PCI passthrough. Alex _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Alexey Koptsevich wrote:>> USB add-in cards, at least, have been reported successfully assigned >> to domUs >> using PCI passthrough. > > I successfully use USB printer in domU via PCI passthrough.How do you find the speed? Is it noticably slower than native? -- Julian Davison Note: 1) This may have come from an address @cbhs.school.nz but isn''t necessarily the (or even an) official view of Christchurch Boys'' High School 2) While replying to this address may get into my mailbox it will almost certainly be filtered into a mailing list folder. To actually reach actual me, strip off the bit after the ''-'' in the name. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
> > I successfully use USB printer in domU via PCI passthrough. > > How do you find the speed? Is it noticably slower than native?I did not measure it, but it was not any slower than I expected. As far as I understand this technology, it _is_ native speed: domU gets direct access to this PCI device, just like dom0 would. Alex _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
> > I successfully use USB printer in domU via PCI passthrough. > > How do you find the speed? Is it noticably slower than native?Using PCI passthrough to hand an entire USB controller to the domU should be (pretty much) as fast as dom0 accessing it, i.e. about the same as the unvirtualised case. Obviously if you need a lot of CPU time to process the data (e.g. you''re straeming video) then you''ll have to make sure you have enough of it despite the other running domains, otherwise you won''t be able to keep up. But the IO itself should be relatively unaffected. Cheers, Mark -- Dave: Just a question. What use is a unicyle with no seat? And no pedals! Mark: To answer a question with a question: What use is a skateboard? Dave: Skateboards have wheels. Mark: My wheel has a wheel! _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Alexey Koptsevich wrote:>> > I successfully use USB printer in domU via PCI passthrough. >> >> How do you find the speed? Is it noticably slower than native? > > I did not measure it, but it was not any slower than I expected. > > As far as I understand this technology, it _is_ native speed: domU > gets direct access to this PCI device, just like dom0 would.That''s the theory :) I''ve been running X in a domU and the mouse response was a little sluggish at times. It didn''t seem to do quite the same thing when X was running in dom0. -- Julian Davison Note: 1) This may have come from an address @cbhs.school.nz but isn''t necessarily the (or even an) official view of Christchurch Boys'' High School 2) While replying to this address may get into my mailbox it will almost certainly be filtered into a mailing list folder. To actually reach actual me, strip off the bit after the ''-'' in the name. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
> That''s the theory :) > I''ve been running X in a domU and the mouse response was a little > sluggish at times. It didn''t seem to do quite the same thing when > X was running in dom0.That sounds like it would be interesting to investigate. Worth noticing that by default dom0 has more permissive scheduling parameters than the domU and that the domU itself might conceivably have less memory, depending on your setup - these could also be factors. Of course, if it''s jerking when the domU is unloaded, that seems kinda strange and would be interesting to investigate... Cheers, Mark -- Dave: Just a question. What use is a unicyle with no seat? And no pedals! Mark: To answer a question with a question: What use is a skateboard? Dave: Skateboards have wheels. Mark: My wheel has a wheel! _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Mark Williamson wrote:>> That''s the theory :) >> I''ve been running X in a domU and the mouse response was a little >> sluggish at times. It didn''t seem to do quite the same thing when >> X was running in dom0. > > That sounds like it would be interesting to investigate.I thought so :) We are hoping to use a single box with several video cards to run 3 desktops (as library catalogue viewers) so the usbback question is particularly interesting to us too. Unfortunately other things have been given priority so progress has slowed somewhat and I''ve not had time to explore exactly what was going on.> Worth noticing that by default dom0 has more permissive scheduling parameters > than the domU and that the domU itself might conceivably have less memory, > depending on your setup - these could also be factors.I''m fairly sure that every domX was told to use the same amount of RAM. The RAM size certainly impacted on firefox'' performance, but less so than the apparent sluggishness of the mouse.> Of course, if it''s jerking when the domU is unloaded, that seems kinda strange > and would be interesting to investigate...I''m not sure I understand this... Do you mean jerking with X in dom0 without domU running? -- Julian Davison Note: 1) This may have come from an address @cbhs.school.nz but isn''t necessarily the (or even an) official view of Christchurch Boys'' High School 2) While replying to this address may get into my mailbox it will almost certainly be filtered into a mailing list folder. To actually reach actual me, strip off the bit after the ''-'' in the name. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
> I think the HVM guests can have access to virtual USB - and > possibly real - > devices, via QEmu''s support for that, though...Unfortunately, I don''t have hardware support for HVM. Oh well; I guess I''ll just wait until usb-sharing support is rereleased. Don''t suppose there''s anywhere I should watch for that, other than this list? Adam _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
> Unfortunately, I don''t have hardware support for HVM. Oh well; I > guess I''ll just wait until usb-sharing support is rereleased. Don''t > suppose there''s anywhere I should watch for that, other than this list?There are patches for it floated occasionally on xen-devel. You could even try applying one yourself if you''re interested - one was floated a week or two ago. There''s no particular timetable for it to be finalised though. I think some modifications are still likely before it''s included in a release. There''s also a plan to *maybe* support full virtualisation on non-HVM hardware, but again that''s a way away as yet. Cheers, Mark -- Dave: Just a question. What use is a unicyle with no seat? And no pedals! Mark: To answer a question with a question: What use is a skateboard? Dave: Skateboards have wheels. Mark: My wheel has a wheel! _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users