Xen devel - Feb 2008 - os-type and variant as hvm platform parameters?

Quoting from a different thread on timer_mode:
> IMHO what we want in the end is  a comprehensive list of
> "if you are running Windows 2003 SMP, use timer_mode X".
> "if you are running Linux x86_64 >2.6.16, timer_mode Y",
> etc.  I''m just not sure how to get there, though the
> "os-type" and "variant" parameters used by virt-install
> might be a good approach (add them as hvm params?)
> (cf. http://linux.die.net/man/1/virt-install)
I know there''s been some discussion of related proposals
in the recent past, but thought I''d bring it up again:

Should os-type and variant be added as hvm platform parameters?
Virt-install (see link above), for example, uses the information
to improve ACPI, and timer_mode is another example where cognizance
of the OS being virtualized would be useful.  There may be more.

Perhaps they need not get propagated into the hypervisor
but if the information finds its way into xenstore, tools
may find it useful.

Comments?

Thanks,
Dan


==================================If Xen could save time in a bottle / then
clocks wouldn''t virtually skew /
It would save every tick / for VMs that aren''t quick /
and Xen then would send them anew
(with apologies to the late great Jim Croce)


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On Fri, Feb 01, 2008 at 05:04:31PM -0700, Dan Magenheimer
wrote:
> Quoting from a different thread on timer_mode:
> 
> > IMHO what we want in the end is  a comprehensive list of
> > "if you are running Windows 2003 SMP, use timer_mode X".
> > "if you are running Linux x86_64 >2.6.16, timer_mode Y",
> > etc.  I''m just not sure how to get there, though the
> > "os-type" and "variant" parameters used by
virt-install
> > might be a good approach (add them as hvm params?)
> > (cf. http://linux.die.net/man/1/virt-install)
> 
> I know there''s been some discussion of related proposals
> in the recent past, but thought I''d bring it up again:
> 
> Should os-type and variant be added as hvm platform parameters?
> Virt-install (see link above), for example, uses the information
> to improve ACPI, and timer_mode is another example where cognizance
> of the OS being virtualized would be useful.  There may be more.
The os-type/variant parameters in virt-install should not be considered
to be config parameters. They are merely used to pick out a set of default
config parameters - once a guest is installed they are irrelevant and the
user is free to override the default choices it made. The data associated
with them is also not Xen specific - its setting libvirt configs which 
apply across more or less any virt driver.  The core XenD config format
should restrict itself to providing the base level atomic config parameters
and let higher level tools deal with bundling up of OS specific defaults as
they see fit.

Dan,
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