Hello everyone, I''m taking a quick look at the xen internals, and it looks as though xen creates a layer that runs directly on the hardware, and this layer is basically a stripped down and modified linux i386. This would mean any fixes for linux and new hardware support need to be explicitly ported to xen. Are there plans to instead have a xen enabling patch for the linux kernel? This should make it much easier to maintain xen over time. -chris ------------------------------------------------------- This SF. Net email is sponsored by: GoToMyPC GoToMyPC is the fast, easy and secure way to access your computer from any Web browser or wireless device. Click here to Try it Free! https://www.gotomypc.com/tr/OSDN/AW/Q4_2003/t/g22lp?Target=mm/g22lp.tmpl _______________________________________________ Xen-devel mailing list Xen-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xen-devel
On 17 Nov 2003, at 20:11, Chris Mason wrote:> Hello everyone, > > I''m taking a quick look at the xen internals, and it looks as though > xen > creates a layer that runs directly on the hardware, and this layer is > basically a stripped down and modified linux i386. > > This would mean any fixes for linux and new hardware support need to be > explicitly ported to xen. Are there plans to instead have a xen > enabling patch for the linux kernel? This should make it much easier > to > maintain xen over time. > > -chrisIt''s relevant to say that Xen re-uses some Linux kernel source codes, and chooses a similar directory structure, Xen authors gain much knowledge and inspiration from Linux kernel. The similarity ends here. If you tried to make a patch between Linux kernel and Xen, I''m afraid you would end up with patch that deletes most files in Linux kernel and introduces most new codes in Xen. A patch is relevant between conventional Linux kernel and XenoLinux kernel. -- Bin ------------------------------------------------------- This SF. Net email is sponsored by: GoToMyPC GoToMyPC is the fast, easy and secure way to access your computer from any Web browser or wireless device. Click here to Try it Free! https://www.gotomypc.com/tr/OSDN/AW/Q4_2003/t/g22lp?Target=mm/g22lp.tmpl _______________________________________________ Xen-devel mailing list Xen-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xen-devel
Hi! Chris Mason wrote:> Hello everyone, > > I''m taking a quick look at the xen internals, and it looks as though xen > creates a layer that runs directly on the hardware, and this layer is > basically a stripped down and modified linux i386. > > This would mean any fixes for linux and new hardware support need to be > explicitly ported to xen. Are there plans to instead have a xen > enabling patch for the linux kernel? This should make it much easier to > maintain xen over time. >A Linux-with-Xen-hardware-abstraction-built-in would be nice because xen would get 10.000.000 new users overnight (eheheh well, at least 100 times more than current users). But this would be a "fat-xen". Xen developers want a "very-slim-xen" that can become the next-generation-BIOS. Fat-xen and slim-xen both have pros/cons... That''s a very long discussion :) (I don''t even know if it''s possible to make this fat-xen...) Regards, Nuno ''today-feeling-like-joining-words'' Silva> -chris >------------------------------------------------------- This SF. Net email is sponsored by: GoToMyPC GoToMyPC is the fast, easy and secure way to access your computer from any Web browser or wireless device. Click here to Try it Free! https://www.gotomypc.com/tr/OSDN/AW/Q4_2003/t/g22lp?Target=mm/g22lp.tmpl _______________________________________________ Xen-devel mailing list Xen-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xen-devel
On Mon, 2003-11-17 at 15:38, Bin Ren wrote:> > It''s relevant to say that Xen re-uses some Linux kernel source codes, > and chooses a similar directory structure, Xen authors gain much > knowledge and inspiration from Linux kernel. > > The similarity ends here.Fair enough, I suppose a better question is how do you plan on maintaining support for all the new hardware (even ia32 only)over time? If I had the goal of porting xen to amd64, I''d much rather port a xen patch onto the linux kernel than fork the kernel, stuff in the xen infrastructure and then maintain my fork for all eternity ;-) Is this a reasonable idea? And if so, do you have suggestions on places to start. -chris ------------------------------------------------------- This SF. Net email is sponsored by: GoToMyPC GoToMyPC is the fast, easy and secure way to access your computer from any Web browser or wireless device. Click here to Try it Free! https://www.gotomypc.com/tr/OSDN/AW/Q4_2003/t/g22lp?Target=mm/g22lp.tmpl _______________________________________________ Xen-devel mailing list Xen-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xen-devel
> On Mon, 2003-11-17 at 15:38, Bin Ren wrote: > > > > > It''s relevant to say that Xen re-uses some Linux kernel source codes, > > and chooses a similar directory structure, Xen authors gain much > > knowledge and inspiration from Linux kernel. > > > > The similarity ends here. > > Fair enough, I suppose a better question is how do you plan on > maintaining support for all the new hardware (even ia32 only)over time? > If I had the goal of porting xen to amd64, I''d much rather port a xen > patch onto the linux kernel than fork the kernel, stuff in the xen > infrastructure and then maintain my fork for all eternity ;-)Chris, As regards maintaining support for new hardware there are two areas to consider: hardware device drivers and cpu variant support. Our plan for the former is to provide source-level compatibility with Linux device drivers. We''re already pretty close to this for network drivers, but we still have some work to do for SCSI and other drivers. (this is on our todo list) As regards CPU variants, these don''t occur too frequently. Looking at the Intel x86 line, the most frequent thing that needs updating is IOAPIC support. Since Xen''s start of day code is very similar to Linux''s, we''re able to import these changes pretty easily. Major changes to the CPU like PAE36 or x86_64 have a significant impact on Xen, and there''s not really much Linux code we could borrow to help us here, as its rather different. [BTW: We do have plans (and a design) for x86_64 support, but PAE36 isn''t currently high on our agenda right now.] Apart from the start of day code and device drivers, Xen really doesn''t have much in common with Linux. I think trying to merge the two would get ugly very quickly. Xen is really quite small compared to an OS, and I think it''s best to think of Xen as a ''next-generation BIOS replacement'' --- OS neutral, and an opportunity to sort out the current PC device driver mess, to everyone''s benefit. Best, Ian ------------------------------------------------------- This SF. Net email is sponsored by: GoToMyPC GoToMyPC is the fast, easy and secure way to access your computer from any Web browser or wireless device. Click here to Try it Free! https://www.gotomypc.com/tr/OSDN/AW/Q4_2003/t/g22lp?Target=mm/g22lp.tmpl _______________________________________________ Xen-devel mailing list Xen-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xen-devel