Hi everyone, I am new to Xen, in fact I downloaded it but didn''t install it yet and I am not sure my first intend use of it is appropriate. I would like to run multiple guests on my laptop as a laboratory, however at the same time, I would not like to lost the 3-D graphical capabilities of my graphics adapter for at least one guest. As far as I understand the way Xen is working, the graphics adapter will no longer be directly accessible by any guest, so, I don''t see how it will be possible to take advantage of it rather than sticking on a generic driver? My graphics adapter is a Nvidia adapter and my laptop a Lenovo Thinkpad T61p. Am I trying to do something impossible here? I may install another Linux and boot it instead of booting Xen when I need to take advantage of my graphics adapter, however, this is not my best option. Any advice here will be welcome. TIA -- ----------------- Daniel Savard _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
On 11/29/07, Daniel Savard <daniel.savard@gmail.com> wrote:> I would like to run multiple guests on my laptop as a laboratory, however at > the same time, I would not like to lost the 3-D graphical capabilities of my > graphics adapter for at least one guest.for testing different systems, qemu/kqemu/kvm is far easier. -- Javier _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Javier, I don''t want to test a system, I really want to have many guests running at the same time with networking, etc. This is for development and testing a multi-tiers software. However, I don''t want to lose my graphics capabilities for this. Is qemu/kqemu/kvm having the appropriate features for this? Regards, Daniel 2007/11/29, Javier Guerra <javier@guerrag.com>:> > On 11/29/07, Daniel Savard <daniel.savard@gmail.com> wrote: > > I would like to run multiple guests on my laptop as a laboratory, > however at > > the same time, I would not like to lost the 3-D graphical capabilities > of my > > graphics adapter for at least one guest. > > for testing different systems, qemu/kqemu/kvm is far easier. > > > -- > Javier >_______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
On 11/29/07, Daniel Savard <daniel.savard@gmail.com> wrote:> Is qemu/kqemu/kvm having the appropriate features for this?for me, it does. VMWare server is another good solution. the downside of Xen in this scenario is that the Dom0 is just another guest, so for non-server hardware you get some limitations. good 3d graphics is xen''s weakest point. for this you want a virtualization scheme that doesn''t modify the ''host'' system. if you want a server setup, Xen is among the very best. if you want to test a Xen server setup, would be silly to use anything else than Xen. but if you want test system (or several) ''on top'' of your current workstation, try something else. for me, KVM fits _very_ nicely. -- Javier _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
We are looking into using either Xen or VMware for a virtualization solution. There is a lot of FUD out there that VMWare is far better than Xen and outperforms it, etc. We are planning on running one Redhat Enterprise and one Windows 2003 guest each one. Does anyone have links to impartial reviews on the differences between Xen and Vmware in terms of performance and stability? Thanks! On Nov 29, 2007, at 9:39 AM, Daniel Savard wrote:> Javier, > > I don''t want to test a system, I really want to have many guests > running at the same time with networking, etc. This is for > development and testing a multi-tiers software. However, I don''t > want to lose my graphics capabilities for this. > > Is qemu/kqemu/kvm having the appropriate features for this? > > Regards, > Daniel > > 2007/11/29, Javier Guerra <javier@guerrag.com>: > On 11/29/07, Daniel Savard <daniel.savard@gmail.com > wrote: > > I would like to run multiple guests on my laptop as a laboratory, > however at > > the same time, I would not like to lost the 3-D graphical > capabilities of my > > graphics adapter for at least one guest. > > for testing different systems, qemu/kqemu/kvm is far easier. > > > -- > Javier > > > _______________________________________________ > Xen-users mailing list > Xen-users@lists.xensource.com > http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users_______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Thanks for taking time answering my question. I have now a better picture of where everything fits than before. I will reserve Xen for my servers and look at other solutions for my laptop environment. Daniel 2007/11/29, Javier Guerra <javier@guerrag.com>:> > On 11/29/07, Daniel Savard <daniel.savard@gmail.com> wrote: > > Is qemu/kqemu/kvm having the appropriate features for this? > > for me, it does. VMWare server is another good solution. > > the downside of Xen in this scenario is that the Dom0 is just another > guest, so for non-server hardware you get some limitations. good 3d > graphics is xen''s weakest point. for this you want a virtualization > scheme that doesn''t modify the ''host'' system. > > if you want a server setup, Xen is among the very best. if you want to > test a Xen server setup, would be silly to use anything else than Xen. > but if you want test system (or several) ''on top'' of your current > workstation, try something else. for me, KVM fits _very_ nicely. > > -- > Javier >_______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
On Thu, Nov 29, 2007 at 11:17:16AM -0500, Daniel Savard wrote:> > I would like to run multiple guests on my laptop as a laboratory, however at > the same time, I would not like to lost the 3-D graphical capabilities of my > graphics adapter for at least one guest. > > My graphics adapter is a Nvidia adapter and my laptop a Lenovo Thinkpad > T61p.You didnt specify the OS the guest has to run. Patching the nvidia-proprietary driver and running 3D-apps in dom0 should work, i have driverversion 100.14.11 running here. For using 3D-apps from domUs i see only one option for now: http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~andreslc/xen-gl/ can transport opengl from the domU to be rendered/displayed on the graphic-card used by dom0. Christian _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
2007/11/30, Christian Horn <chorn@fluxcoil.net>:> > On Thu, Nov 29, 2007 at 11:17:16AM -0500, Daniel Savard wrote: > > > > You didnt specify the OS the guest has to run. > Patching the nvidia-proprietary driver and running 3D-apps in dom0 should > work, > i have driverversion 100.14.11 running here. > For using 3D-apps from domUs i see only one option for now: > http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~andreslc/xen-gl/ can transport opengl from the > domU > to be rendered/displayed on the graphic-card used by dom0. > > > Christian >The guest have to run Linux and maybe Windows XP in the future. Thanks for the information, seems it is now feasible to use Xen. Daniel _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
> > You didnt specify the OS the guest has to run. > > Patching the nvidia-proprietary driver and running 3D-apps in dom0 should > > work, > > i have driverversion 100.14.11 running here. > > For using 3D-apps from domUs i see only one option for now: > > http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~andreslc/xen-gl/ can transport opengl from the > > domU > > to be rendered/displayed on the graphic-card used by dom0. > > > > > > Christian > > The guest have to run Linux and maybe Windows XP in the future. Thanks for > the information, seems it is now feasible to use Xen.Various people have managed to get 3D acceleration working in dom0 (which is the closest Xen has to the "host" operating system, and it owns the display by default). I suspect that if you want to use this machine as a desktop / laptop that you''ll find one of the non-hypervisor solutions (one of the free VMware flavours) or qemu / kqemu / kvm less hassle to get up and running (although the theoretically highest performance probably still comes from running paravirtualised Linux on Xen). 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! _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users