similar to: [RFC, PATCH 1/24] i386 Vmi documentation

Macros to use VMI calls from assembly and C languages are introduced. The macros are quite complex, but the end result is rather impressive. The result is that when compiling a VMI kernel, the native code is emitted inline, with no function call overhead, and some wiggle room for register allocation. The hypervisor compatibility code is emitted out of line into a separate section, and patched

Macros to use VMI calls from assembly and C languages are introduced. The macros are quite complex, but the end result is rather impressive. The result is that when compiling a VMI kernel, the native code is emitted inline, with no function call overhead, and some wiggle room for register allocation. The hypervisor compatibility code is emitted out of line into a separate section, and patched

Master definition of VMI interface, including calls, constants, and interface version. Signed-off-by: Zachary Amsden <zach@vmware.com> Index: linux-2.6.16-rc5/include/asm-i386/mach-vmi/paravirtualInterface.h =================================================================== --- linux-2.6.16-rc5.orig/include/asm-i386/mach-vmi/paravirtualInterface.h 2006-03-08 10:08:45.000000000 -0800 +++

Master definition of VMI interface, including calls, constants, and interface version. Signed-off-by: Zachary Amsden <zach@vmware.com> Index: linux-2.6.16-rc5/include/asm-i386/mach-vmi/paravirtualInterface.h =================================================================== --- linux-2.6.16-rc5.orig/include/asm-i386/mach-vmi/paravirtualInterface.h 2006-03-08 10:08:45.000000000 -0800 +++

The VMI ROM detection and code patching mechanism is illustrated in setup.c. There ROM is a binary block published by the hypervisor, and and there are certainly implications of this. ROMs certainly have a history of being proprietary, very differently licensed pieces of software, and mostly under non-free licenses. Before jumping to the conclusion that this is a bad thing, let us consider more

The VMI ROM detection and code patching mechanism is illustrated in setup.c. There ROM is a binary block published by the hypervisor, and and there are certainly implications of this. ROMs certainly have a history of being proprietary, very differently licensed pieces of software, and mostly under non-free licenses. Before jumping to the conclusion that this is a bad thing, let us consider more

Move I/O instruction building to the sub-arch layer. Some very crafty but esoteric macros are used here to get optimized native instructions for port I/O in Linux be writing raw instruction strings. Adding a wrapper layer here is fairly easy, and makes the full range of I/O instructions available to the VMI interface. Also, slowing down I/O is not a useful operation in a VM, so there is a VMI

Move I/O instruction building to the sub-arch layer. Some very crafty but esoteric macros are used here to get optimized native instructions for port I/O in Linux be writing raw instruction strings. Adding a wrapper layer here is fairly easy, and makes the full range of I/O instructions available to the VMI interface. Also, slowing down I/O is not a useful operation in a VM, so there is a VMI

In a virtualized environment, virtual machines will time share the system with each other and with other processes running on the host system. Therefore, a VM's virtual CPUs (VCPUs) will be executing on the host's physical CPUs (pcpus) for only some portion of time. The VMI exposes a paravirtual view of time to the guest operating systems so that they may operate more effectively in a

In a virtualized environment, virtual machines will time share the system with each other and with other processes running on the host system. Therefore, a VM's virtual CPUs (VCPUs) will be executing on the host's physical CPUs (pcpus) for only some portion of time. The VMI exposes a paravirtual view of time to the guest operating systems so that they may operate more effectively in a

So there is a logic error that would prevent us from ever using NOP = relocations, thus stopping any unnecessary callouts into a VMI ROM. It = doesn't affect us so much, but could conceivably affect open source = implementations of a VMI ROM in the future. It is not absolutely = critical, but it would be extremely nice to get it fixed in 2.6.21 so = there are no broken older kernels

So there is a logic error that would prevent us from ever using NOP = relocations, thus stopping any unnecessary callouts into a VMI ROM. It = doesn't affect us so much, but could conceivably affect open source = implementations of a VMI ROM in the future. It is not absolutely = critical, but it would be extremely nice to get it fixed in 2.6.21 so = there are no broken older kernels

Hi Peter, Removal of VMI(VMware's para-virtualization technique) is scheduled for 2.6.37, I was wondering what would be the right time frame for submitting a patch which does that. Does the x86-tip tree have any next branch where we can park this patch ? Below is the patch for your reference which just removes VMI specific bits, applies on top of x86-tip. There is also an opportunity to

Hi Peter, Removal of VMI(VMware's para-virtualization technique) is scheduled for 2.6.37, I was wondering what would be the right time frame for submitting a patch which does that. Does the x86-tip tree have any next branch where we can park this patch ? Below is the patch for your reference which just removes VMI specific bits, applies on top of x86-tip. There is also an opportunity to

Use para_fill instead of directly setting the APIC ops to the result of the vmi_get_function call - this allows one to implement a VMI ROM without implementing APIC functions, just using the native APIC functions. While doing this, I realized that there is a lot more cleanup that should have been done. Basically, we should never assume that the ROM implements a specific set of functions, and

Use para_fill instead of directly setting the APIC ops to the result of the vmi_get_function call - this allows one to implement a VMI ROM without implementing APIC functions, just using the native APIC functions. While doing this, I realized that there is a lot more cleanup that should have been done. Basically, we should never assume that the ROM implements a specific set of functions, and

VMI backend for paravirt-ops; fairly straightforward drop-in to paravirt-ops. Signed-off-by: Zachary Amsden <zach@vmware.com> diff -r d8711b11c1eb arch/i386/Kconfig --- a/arch/i386/Kconfig Tue Dec 12 13:51:06 2006 -0800 +++ b/arch/i386/Kconfig Tue Dec 12 13:51:13 2006 -0800 @@ -192,6 +192,15 @@ config PARAVIRT under a hypervisor, improving performance significantly. However, when

VMI backend for paravirt-ops; fairly straightforward drop-in to paravirt-ops. Signed-off-by: Zachary Amsden <zach@vmware.com> diff -r d8711b11c1eb arch/i386/Kconfig --- a/arch/i386/Kconfig Tue Dec 12 13:51:06 2006 -0800 +++ b/arch/i386/Kconfig Tue Dec 12 13:51:13 2006 -0800 @@ -192,6 +192,15 @@ config PARAVIRT under a hypervisor, improving performance significantly. However, when

Fairly straightforward implementation of VMI backend for paravirt-ops. Subject: VMI backend for paravirt-ops Signed-off-by: Zachary Amsden <zach@vmware.com> diff -r d8711b11c1eb arch/i386/Kconfig --- a/arch/i386/Kconfig Tue Dec 12 13:51:06 2006 -0800 +++ b/arch/i386/Kconfig Tue Dec 12 13:51:13 2006 -0800 @@ -192,6 +192,15 @@ config PARAVIRT under a hypervisor, improving performance

Fairly straightforward implementation of VMI backend for paravirt-ops. Subject: VMI backend for paravirt-ops Signed-off-by: Zachary Amsden <zach@vmware.com> diff -r d8711b11c1eb arch/i386/Kconfig --- a/arch/i386/Kconfig Tue Dec 12 13:51:06 2006 -0800 +++ b/arch/i386/Kconfig Tue Dec 12 13:51:13 2006 -0800 @@ -192,6 +192,15 @@ config PARAVIRT under a hypervisor, improving performance