Xen users - Jan 2006 - A port of Windows XP was developed for an earlier version of Xen

Following on from the previous discussions about Microsoft
products working under Xen, what is the status of the work
done on the XP port?

Clearly the full port would not be available but I presume
that some driver support may have been developed for the port
to work.

What is that status and availability of the driver support
to enable it under Xen?

regards

pjn

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> Following on from the previous discussions about Microsoft
> products working under Xen, what is the status of the work
> done on the XP port?
The XP port was written for Xen 1.0, which was quite different in a number of 
respects.
> Clearly the full port would not be available but I presume
> that some driver support may have been developed for the port
> to work.
I''ve not seen the code, but I imagine there is driver code that could
be
reused.  Exactly how useful it''d be is not clear: the Xen driver
interfaces
have changed a bit since then, although there would still be some 
commonality.
> What is that status and availability of the driver support
> to enable it under Xen?
Work is underway to make the paravirtualised device drivers run under 
otherwise fully-virtualised Linux.  Once the implementation approach has been 
agreed upon and completed, somebody should (in principle) be able to apply 
the same approach to Windows.  This could usefully employ the drivers from 
the original port, but there''s still going to be a load of work
implementing
stuff like a XenStore interface, grant tables support, etc.

Cheers,
Mark

-- 
Dave: Just a question. What use is a unicyle with no seat?  And no pedals!
Mark: To answer a question with a question: What use is a skateboard?
Dave: Skateboards have wheels.
Mark: My wheel has a wheel!

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In relation to this, has anyone considered using the colinux hacks? 
They''re
essentially a set of XP device drivers, IIRC.

Wesley Parish

On Mon, 30 Jan 2006 14:37, Mark Williamson wrote:
> > Following on from the previous discussions about Microsoft
> > products working under Xen, what is the status of the work
> > done on the XP port?
>
> The XP port was written for Xen 1.0, which was quite different in a number
> of respects.
>
> > Clearly the full port would not be available but I presume
> > that some driver support may have been developed for the port
> > to work.
>
> I''ve not seen the code, but I imagine there is driver code that
could be
> reused.  Exactly how useful it''d be is not clear: the Xen driver
interfaces
> have changed a bit since then, although there would still be some
> commonality.
>
> > What is that status and availability of the driver support
> > to enable it under Xen?
>
> Work is underway to make the paravirtualised device drivers run under
> otherwise fully-virtualised Linux.  Once the implementation approach has
> been agreed upon and completed, somebody should (in principle) be able to
> apply the same approach to Windows.  This could usefully employ the drivers
> from the original port, but there''s still going to be a load of
work
> implementing stuff like a XenStore interface, grant tables support, etc.
>
> Cheers,
> Mark
-- 
Clinersterton beademung, with all of love - RIP James Blish
-----
Mau e ki, he aha te mea nui?
You ask, what is the most important thing?
Maku e ki, he tangata, he tangata, he tangata.
I reply, it is people, it is people, it is people.

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colinux runs linux as essentially a thread within the windows kernel.  
Both execute in ring 0 and there is no protection.  It''s fundamentally 
incompatible with Xen.

An interesting thing to do would be to port qvm86 to Xen and create a 
domU initrd that just contained qemu.  This would let you run Windows 
(albiet with a performance impact) on Xen without VT/SVM.

Regards,

Anthony Liguori

Wesley Parish wrote:
>In relation to this, has anyone considered using the colinux hacks? 
They''re
>essentially a set of XP device drivers, IIRC.
>
>Wesley Parish
>
>On Mon, 30 Jan 2006 14:37, Mark Williamson wrote:
>  
>
>>>Following on from the previous discussions about Microsoft
>>>products working under Xen, what is the status of the work
>>>done on the XP port?
>>>      
>>>
>>The XP port was written for Xen 1.0, which was quite different in a
number
>>of respects.
>>
>>    
>>
>>>Clearly the full port would not be available but I presume
>>>that some driver support may have been developed for the port
>>>to work.
>>>      
>>>
>>I''ve not seen the code, but I imagine there is driver code that
could be
>>reused.  Exactly how useful it''d be is not clear: the Xen
driver interfaces
>>have changed a bit since then, although there would still be some
>>commonality.
>>
>>    
>>
>>>What is that status and availability of the driver support
>>>to enable it under Xen?
>>>      
>>>
>>Work is underway to make the paravirtualised device drivers run under
>>otherwise fully-virtualised Linux.  Once the implementation approach has
>>been agreed upon and completed, somebody should (in principle) be able
to
>>apply the same approach to Windows.  This could usefully employ the
drivers
>>from the original port, but there''s still going to be a load of
work
>>implementing stuff like a XenStore interface, grant tables support, etc.
>>
>>Cheers,
>>Mark
>>    
>>
>
>  
>

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