Hello folks, I''m wondering why Xen doesn''t provide WiFi interface for guest OS. I can only find rtl8139, e1000 kind of wired ethernet interfaces. Here is a thing. My system has a WiFi interface on host and have no problem to make guest OS''s leverage Host-side WiFi interface for their internet connection. But in this case, guest OS''s always have only ethernet interface. The reason why I''m trying to figure out how to make guest OS''s have a WiFi interface is to make guest OS''s being able to scan WiFi access points Just like the guest OS has an actual WiFi interface. Somehow different from network bridge through WiFi. Any brilliant tip? Cheers, Nate -- Dongsoo Nathaniel Kim Linux kernel, media device S/W engineer / Ph.D Student Dept. of Computer Science, KAIST Real-time & Embedded Systems Lab. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
John Sherwood
2011-Nov-25 05:30 UTC
Re: Any tip on making guest OS to have WiFi interface?
It sounds like what you want is to give the guest direct access to the wifi adapter. You''ll need to pass it through rather than bridging the NIC. PCI passthrough should work if you have the compatible hardware, and USB passthrough may work as well (though I''ve never tried that with a wireless adapter). On Thu, Nov 24, 2011 at 11:59 PM, Dongsoo Kim <dongsoo.kim@resl.kaist.ac.kr>wrote:> Hello folks, > > I''m wondering why Xen doesn''t provide WiFi interface for guest OS. > > I can only find rtl8139, e1000 kind of wired ethernet interfaces. > > Here is a thing. > > My system has a WiFi interface on host and have no problem to make guest > OS''s leverage Host-side WiFi interface for their internet connection. > > But in this case, guest OS''s always have only ethernet interface. > > The reason why I''m trying to figure out how to make guest OS''s have a WiFi > interface is to make guest OS''s being able to scan WiFi access points > > Just like the guest OS has an actual WiFi interface. Somehow different > from network bridge through WiFi. > > Any brilliant tip? > > Cheers, > > Nate > > -- > > Dongsoo Nathaniel Kim > Linux kernel, media device S/W engineer / Ph.D Student > Dept. of Computer Science, KAIST > Real-time & Embedded Systems Lab. > > _______________________________________________ > 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 tip John. Then I''ve got one more question. As far as I know, passthrough device can be assigned to only one single guest. right? But what if multiple guest OS''s need that passthrough device? Can we make it happen to passthrough a single device to multiple guest OS''s? On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 2:30 PM, John Sherwood <jrs@vt.edu> wrote:> It sounds like what you want is to give the guest direct access to the > wifi adapter. You''ll need to pass it through rather than bridging the NIC. > PCI passthrough should work if you have the compatible hardware, and USB > passthrough may work as well (though I''ve never tried that with a wireless > adapter). > > On Thu, Nov 24, 2011 at 11:59 PM, Dongsoo Kim < > dongsoo.kim@resl.kaist.ac.kr> wrote: > >> Hello folks, >> >> I''m wondering why Xen doesn''t provide WiFi interface for guest OS. >> >> I can only find rtl8139, e1000 kind of wired ethernet interfaces. >> >> Here is a thing. >> >> My system has a WiFi interface on host and have no problem to make guest >> OS''s leverage Host-side WiFi interface for their internet connection. >> >> But in this case, guest OS''s always have only ethernet interface. >> >> The reason why I''m trying to figure out how to make guest OS''s have a >> WiFi interface is to make guest OS''s being able to scan WiFi access points >> >> Just like the guest OS has an actual WiFi interface. Somehow different >> from network bridge through WiFi. >> >> Any brilliant tip? >> >> Cheers, >> >> Nate >> >> -- >> >> Dongsoo Nathaniel Kim >> Linux kernel, media device S/W engineer / Ph.D Student >> Dept. of Computer Science, KAIST >> Real-time & Embedded Systems Lab. >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Xen-users mailing list >> Xen-users@lists.xensource.com >> http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users >> >> >-- Dongsoo Nathaniel Kim Linux kernel, media device S/W engineer / Ph.D Student Dept. of Computer Science, KAIST Real-time & Embedded Systems Lab. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Fajar A. Nugraha
2011-Nov-25 05:48 UTC
Re: Any tip on making guest OS to have WiFi interface?
On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 12:43 PM, Dongsoo Kim <dongsoo.kim@resl.kaist.ac.kr> wrote:> But what if multiple guest OS''s need that passthrough device? Can we make it > happen to passthrough a single device to multiple guest OS''s? >You can''t. -- Fajar
John Sherwood
2011-Nov-25 05:54 UTC
Re: Any tip on making guest OS to have WiFi interface?
As Fajar said, by nature of passthrough, it has to go to 1 machine. However, in this specific case, do you really need multiple machines to have access to the hardware itself? One way or another, even if multiple guests had access to the hardware, you''d still have just the one wifi radio to go around. If you''re doing stuff in monitor mode, you can always just read that data on one machine and send it to the others through your own protocol. On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 12:43 AM, Dongsoo Kim <dongsoo.kim@resl.kaist.ac.kr>wrote:> Thanks for tip John. > > Then I''ve got one more question. As far as I know, passthrough device can > be assigned to only one single guest. right? > > But what if multiple guest OS''s need that passthrough device? Can we make > it happen to passthrough a single device to multiple guest OS''s? > > > On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 2:30 PM, John Sherwood <jrs@vt.edu> wrote: > >> It sounds like what you want is to give the guest direct access to the >> wifi adapter. You''ll need to pass it through rather than bridging the NIC. >> PCI passthrough should work if you have the compatible hardware, and USB >> passthrough may work as well (though I''ve never tried that with a wireless >> adapter). >> >> On Thu, Nov 24, 2011 at 11:59 PM, Dongsoo Kim < >> dongsoo.kim@resl.kaist.ac.kr> wrote: >> >>> Hello folks, >>> >>> I''m wondering why Xen doesn''t provide WiFi interface for guest OS. >>> >>> I can only find rtl8139, e1000 kind of wired ethernet interfaces. >>> >>> Here is a thing. >>> >>> My system has a WiFi interface on host and have no problem to make guest >>> OS''s leverage Host-side WiFi interface for their internet connection. >>> >>> But in this case, guest OS''s always have only ethernet interface. >>> >>> The reason why I''m trying to figure out how to make guest OS''s have a >>> WiFi interface is to make guest OS''s being able to scan WiFi access points >>> >>> Just like the guest OS has an actual WiFi interface. Somehow different >>> from network bridge through WiFi. >>> >>> Any brilliant tip? >>> >>> Cheers, >>> >>> Nate >>> >>> -- >>> >>> Dongsoo Nathaniel Kim >>> Linux kernel, media device S/W engineer / Ph.D Student >>> Dept. of Computer Science, KAIST >>> Real-time & Embedded Systems Lab. >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Xen-users mailing list >>> Xen-users@lists.xensource.com >>> http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users >>> >>> >> > > > -- > > Dongsoo Nathaniel Kim > Linux kernel, media device S/W engineer / Ph.D Student > Dept. of Computer Science, KAIST > Real-time & Embedded Systems Lab. >_______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Oh...I thought that it will be feasible if I run my WiFi device in ad-hoc mode. I know, this is not an usual case...and that can be reason there is no support for this. So..no way for this? I''ll dig further more. Thanks On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 2:54 PM, John Sherwood <jrs@vt.edu> wrote:> As Fajar said, by nature of passthrough, it has to go to 1 machine. > However, in this specific case, do you really need multiple machines to > have access to the hardware itself? One way or another, even if multiple > guests had access to the hardware, you''d still have just the one wifi radio > to go around. If you''re doing stuff in monitor mode, you can always just > read that data on one machine and send it to the others through your own > protocol. > > On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 12:43 AM, Dongsoo Kim < > dongsoo.kim@resl.kaist.ac.kr> wrote: > >> Thanks for tip John. >> >> Then I''ve got one more question. As far as I know, passthrough device can >> be assigned to only one single guest. right? >> >> But what if multiple guest OS''s need that passthrough device? Can we make >> it happen to passthrough a single device to multiple guest OS''s? >> >> >> On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 2:30 PM, John Sherwood <jrs@vt.edu> wrote: >> >>> It sounds like what you want is to give the guest direct access to the >>> wifi adapter. You''ll need to pass it through rather than bridging the NIC. >>> PCI passthrough should work if you have the compatible hardware, and USB >>> passthrough may work as well (though I''ve never tried that with a wireless >>> adapter). >>> >>> On Thu, Nov 24, 2011 at 11:59 PM, Dongsoo Kim < >>> dongsoo.kim@resl.kaist.ac.kr> wrote: >>> >>>> Hello folks, >>>> >>>> I''m wondering why Xen doesn''t provide WiFi interface for guest OS. >>>> >>>> I can only find rtl8139, e1000 kind of wired ethernet interfaces. >>>> >>>> Here is a thing. >>>> >>>> My system has a WiFi interface on host and have no problem to make >>>> guest OS''s leverage Host-side WiFi interface for their internet connection. >>>> >>>> But in this case, guest OS''s always have only ethernet interface. >>>> >>>> The reason why I''m trying to figure out how to make guest OS''s have a >>>> WiFi interface is to make guest OS''s being able to scan WiFi access points >>>> >>>> Just like the guest OS has an actual WiFi interface. Somehow different >>>> from network bridge through WiFi. >>>> >>>> Any brilliant tip? >>>> >>>> Cheers, >>>> >>>> Nate >>>> >>>> -- >>>> >>>> Dongsoo Nathaniel Kim >>>> Linux kernel, media device S/W engineer / Ph.D Student >>>> Dept. of Computer Science, KAIST >>>> Real-time & Embedded Systems Lab. >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Xen-users mailing list >>>> Xen-users@lists.xensource.com >>>> http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users >>>> >>>> >>> >> >> >> -- >> >> Dongsoo Nathaniel Kim >> Linux kernel, media device S/W engineer / Ph.D Student >> Dept. of Computer Science, KAIST >> Real-time & Embedded Systems Lab. >> > >-- Dongsoo Nathaniel Kim Linux kernel, media device S/W engineer / Ph.D Student Dept. of Computer Science, KAIST Real-time & Embedded Systems Lab. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Fajar A. Nugraha
2011-Nov-25 06:31 UTC
Re: Any tip on making guest OS to have WiFi interface?
On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 1:16 PM, Dongsoo Kim <dongsoo.kim@resl.kaist.ac.kr> wrote:> Oh...I thought that it will be feasible if I run my WiFi device in ad-hoc > mode. > I know, this is not an usual case...and that can be reason there is no > support for this. > So..no way for this? I''ll dig further more.Not with only one adapter. You can get cheap USB wireless adapter for less than $15, so it''s probably easier for you to just buy a bunch of them. And if you''re having trouble with Xen''s USB passthru, try it first with virtualbox. A small warning though: last time I tried wireless USB passthru with virtualbox, the CPU usage goes over the roof. Something to consider before you decide to implement this kind of setup for production use. As usual, whatever solution you choose, make sure you test it thoroughly. -- Fajar