What scope is there for improving VNC performance on HVM machines, mainly Windows? It would be really nice to be able to cut&paste (would require a userspace app), and to fake some accelerator functions (eg block moves). Thanks James _______________________________________________ Xen-devel mailing list Xen-devel@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-devel
On Mon, Jul 25, 2011 at 10:00 PM, James Harper <james.harper@bendigoit.com.au> wrote:> What scope is there for improving VNC performance on HVM machines, > mainly Windows? > > It would be really nice to be able to cut&paste (would require a > userspace app), and to fake some accelerator functions (eg block moves). >One alternative could be to use something like Spice (which has copy and paste and good user experience) http://spice-space.org/ http://code.google.com/p/spice4xen/ For copy and paste only there are utilities such as: http://sourceforge.net/projects/synergy2/ http://beyondcopy.sourceforge.net/ It seems that VNC does have some copy and paste ability too (OpenXenManager and XenCenter implement copy and paste for XCP/XenServer vnc consoles for example). More discussion on the topic here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/qemu/+bug/614958 Thanks, Todd _______________________________________________ Xen-devel mailing list Xen-devel@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-devel
On 07/26/2011 04:00 AM, James Harper wrote:> It would be really nice to be able to cut&paste (would require a > userspace app), and to fake some accelerator functions (eg block moves).Block moves are accelerated if you use the Cirrus VGA. Nothing else is, though. :) Paolo _______________________________________________ Xen-devel mailing list Xen-devel@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-devel
At 08:45 +0200 on 26 Jul (1311669952), Paolo Bonzini wrote:> On 07/26/2011 04:00 AM, James Harper wrote: > >It would be really nice to be able to cut&paste (would require a > >userspace app), and to fake some accelerator functions (eg block moves). > > Block moves are accelerated if you use the Cirrus VGA. Nothing else is, > though. :)Actually we found that it''s faster to turn that acceleration off, since it''s not really accelerated --- it''ll be a memcpy either in domU or in qemu, and you might as well skip the (slow, synchronous) emulated register writes that domU would use to drive the blitter. IIRC, the Citrix Windows drivers installer sneakily turns acceleration off on the Cirrus driver''s settings. Tim. -- Tim Deegan <tim@xen.org> Principal Software Engineer, Xen Platform Team Citrix Systems UK Ltd. (Company #02937203, SL9 0BG) _______________________________________________ Xen-devel mailing list Xen-devel@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-devel
On 07/26/2011 10:27 AM, Tim Deegan wrote:> At 08:45 +0200 on 26 Jul (1311669952), Paolo Bonzini wrote: >> On 07/26/2011 04:00 AM, James Harper wrote: >>> It would be really nice to be able to cut&paste (would require a >>> userspace app), and to fake some accelerator functions (eg block moves). >> >> Block moves are accelerated if you use the Cirrus VGA. Nothing else is, >> though. :) > > Actually we found that it''s faster to turn that acceleration off, since > it''s not really accelerated --- it''ll be a memcpy either in domU or in > qemu, and you might as well skip the (slow, synchronous) emulated > register writes that domU would use to drive the blitter.Yes, it''s slower but saves bandwidth. It depends on your use case. Paolo _______________________________________________ Xen-devel mailing list Xen-devel@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-devel
On 26 July 2011 03:00, James Harper <james.harper@bendigoit.com.au> wrote:> What scope is there for improving VNC performance on HVM machines, > mainly Windows? > > It would be really nice to be able to cut&paste (would require a > userspace app), and to fake some accelerator functions (eg block moves). >Switching from a linear framebuffer to a titled framebuffer would help a lot. We will hit much fewer pages on mouse motion in the dirty bit tracking. I don''t know if the Cirrus supports that. Jean _______________________________________________ Xen-devel mailing list Xen-devel@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-devel
On Mon, Jul 25, 2011 at 10:22:47PM -0400, Todd Deshane wrote:> On Mon, Jul 25, 2011 at 10:00 PM, James Harper > <james.harper@bendigoit.com.au> wrote: > > What scope is there for improving VNC performance on HVM machines, > > mainly Windows? > > > > It would be really nice to be able to cut&paste (would require a > > userspace app), and to fake some accelerator functions (eg block moves). > > > > One alternative could be to use something like Spice (which has copy > and paste and good user experience) > http://spice-space.org/ > http://code.google.com/p/spice4xen/ > > For copy and paste only there are utilities such as: > http://sourceforge.net/projects/synergy2/ > http://beyondcopy.sourceforge.net/ > > It seems that VNC does have some copy and paste ability too > (OpenXenManager and XenCenter implement copy and paste for > XCP/XenServer vnc consoles for example). >Do you know if there''s an official VNC extension for copy&paste? -- Pasi> More discussion on the topic here: > https://bugs.launchpad.net/qemu/+bug/614958 > > Thanks, > Todd > > _______________________________________________ > Xen-devel mailing list > Xen-devel@lists.xensource.com > http://lists.xensource.com/xen-devel_______________________________________________ Xen-devel mailing list Xen-devel@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-devel
On 26 July 2011 09:44, Jean Guyader <jean.guyader@gmail.com> wrote:> On 26 July 2011 03:00, James Harper <james.harper@bendigoit.com.au> wrote: >> What scope is there for improving VNC performance on HVM machines, >> mainly Windows? >> >> It would be really nice to be able to cut&paste (would require a >> userspace app), and to fake some accelerator functions (eg block moves). >> > > Switching from a linear framebuffer to a titled framebuffer would help a lot. > We will hit much fewer pages on mouse motion in the dirty bit tracking. >Sorry typo, I meant tiled. Jean _______________________________________________ Xen-devel mailing list Xen-devel@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-devel
> > At 08:45 +0200 on 26 Jul (1311669952), Paolo Bonzini wrote: > > On 07/26/2011 04:00 AM, James Harper wrote: > > >It would be really nice to be able to cut&paste (would require a > > >userspace app), and to fake some accelerator functions (eg blockmoves).> > > > Block moves are accelerated if you use the Cirrus VGA. Nothing elseis,> > though. :) > > Actually we found that it''s faster to turn that acceleration off,since> it''s not really accelerated --- it''ll be a memcpy either in domU or in > qemu, and you might as well skip the (slow, synchronous) emulated > register writes that domU would use to drive the blitter. > > IIRC, the Citrix Windows drivers installer sneakily turns acceleration > off on the Cirrus driver''s settings. >The sort of acceleration I was referring to would happen on the vnc client end, eg a window scrolling up might blit the contents of the window 10 pixels up. James _______________________________________________ Xen-devel mailing list Xen-devel@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-devel
> > On Mon, Jul 25, 2011 at 10:22:47PM -0400, Todd Deshane wrote: > > On Mon, Jul 25, 2011 at 10:00 PM, James Harper > > <james.harper@bendigoit.com.au> wrote: > > > What scope is there for improving VNC performance on HVM machines, > > > mainly Windows? > > > > > > It would be really nice to be able to cut&paste (would require a > > > userspace app), and to fake some accelerator functions (eg block moves). > > > > > > > One alternative could be to use something like Spice (which has copy > > and paste and good user experience) > > http://spice-space.org/ > > http://code.google.com/p/spice4xen/ > > > > For copy and paste only there are utilities such as: > > http://sourceforge.net/projects/synergy2/ > > http://beyondcopy.sourceforge.net/ > > > > It seems that VNC does have some copy and paste ability too > > (OpenXenManager and XenCenter implement copy and paste for > > XCP/XenServer vnc consoles for example). > > > > Do you know if there''s an official VNC extension for copy&paste? >I always assumed that it was part of the core protocol and that it just didn''t work under xen because the vnc is happening at the raw framebuffer level rather than at the gdi level... I was hoping that someone might have already thought about hooking into the gdi level with a driver and bypassing the xen framebuffer and taking over the backend vnc connection that way... on reflection it sounds like something fraught with security holes though :) James _______________________________________________ Xen-devel mailing list Xen-devel@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-devel