Apparently a James Harper in Australia has been working on
PV drivers for Windows on GPL Xen for some time. I don''t know if this
link
will work for others, but it looks like it should (though probably not
permanently):
http://markmail.org/search/?q=WindowsXenPV-0.8.9.zip#query:WindowsXenPV-0.8.
9.zip+page:1+mid:gmf4kraasqdxxamm+state:facets
I downloaded his latest work, WindowsXenPV-0.8.9.zip, but
apparently compilation is required. I know Windows drivers and programs
don''t have to be different (on account of Windows) the way they do on
Linux
(because of the many different distros), so I am not sure why compilation is
required unless it is somehow related to the version of Xen running on the
host system potentially offering up paravirtualization in a different way.
I am not sure on this because the directions are slightly vague and if I
read them properly, source code for the version of Xen in question is not
mentioned. Anyway, I am curious as to whether or not anyone can point me
toward a these drivers in an already compiled state. I don''t know if
they
would be included in any certain repository of which I am unaware or whether
it is more likely that they simply don''t exist (yet). As I am running
F7, I
am also curious as to whether or not Fedora''s custom Xen kernels would
even
support the PV capabilities on HVMs. I say on HVMs because it is my
understanding that the Windows machine decides which drivers to load (and
which devices to detect) based on a boot switch in the VM OS and I
haven''t
seen anything indicating a separate Xen setup for full PV.
I ask because I would love to download binary drivers and
have a go at this, but actually building it all is a bit more complicated
and time consuming for me (especially if I''m re-inventing the wheel),
as
I''ve never compiled anything in Windows and don''t have any of
the necessary
software readily available (free to download, but I don''t have any
seriously
high speed access). I also don''t know whether it is possible that the
Fedora team (or any third party) would have any interest in compiling these
drivers or making them available even if someone else did the work since
they are for Windows and would certainly require manual installation after
download/(yum) "install". It would be possible (though far from
automated)
to mount the VM partition and copy the directory tree to it, so downloading
them directly to the Dom0 doesn''t seem like a problem to me, but
downloading
them on the DomU would work as well if they were available some other way.
I would love to find out that the version of Xen doesn''t matter for PV
drivers (beyond being above 3.0 or whatever), that the Fedora version is
standard in regards to PV, that a compiled version is available because of
that, and that one can download it from URL X as such, but I am rarely so
lucky.
As an interesting aside, apparently the KVM project includes
a PV driver for Windows networking, but this (not necessarily production
ready) Xen GPLPV driver package includes not only networking, but also block
devices and a service to enable the xm shutdown and xm restart commands.
Anyway, I welcome all input. Thanks,
Dustin