Re: Virtualization project idea

["Pasi Kärkkäinen" <pasik@iki.fi>]

On Fri, Aug 27, 2010 at 10:20:44AM +0100, David Markey wrote:
>    Would USB over IP not be helpful here?
>

USB over IP is just another way of doing direct USB passthru,
it doesn't really allow sharing the devices.

-- Pasi

> 
>    On 27 August 2010 10:19, Pasi Kärkkäinen <[1]pasik@iki.fi> wrote:
> 
>      On Fri, Aug 27, 2010 at 02:45:12PM +0530, Dhananjay Goel wrote:
>      >    No, that's not possible with pvusb. pvusb is for direct passthru to
>      >    one/single vm.
>      >    You'd need some filesystem share (cifs/nfs/whatnot) to make such
>      sharing
>      >    possible.
>      >    Comments: Is it possible to share USB keyboard, USB mouse, USB
>      modem, etc
>      >    across VMs i.e host and guest(s)? If we connect USB keyboard, is it
>      >    possible to use it in guests?
>      >
> 
>      This is implemented in XCI (Xen Client Initiative), and there has been
>      some discussions how to get it traditional Xen, to help Xen VGA
>      Passthrough usage.
> 
>      See: [2]http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/XenVGAPassthrough
>      >    Also, is it possible for us to modify the device driver of USB 2.0
>      so that
>      >    all USB 2.0 devices are visible and can be used across all VMs?
>      Please
>      >    suggest.
>      >
> 
>      This won't be straight forward. Think about USB memory/flash stick.
>      If every VM sees it, and simultaneously writes to it, the filesystem
>      in it will get corrupted immediately!
> 
>      USB Passthru cannot be used to 'share' devices, it's for giving
>      one/single VM
>      direct access to the device.
> 
>      -- Pasi
> 
>      >    Thanks,
>      >    Dhananjay
>      >
>      >    On Fri, Aug 27, 2010 at 2:16 PM, Pasi Kärkkäinen
>      <[1][3]pasik@iki.fi> wrote:
>      >
>      >      On Fri, Aug 27, 2010 at 01:37:49PM +0530, Dhananjay Goel wrote:
>      >      >    Hi James/Pasi,
>      >      >    I had a look at
>      >      [1][2][4]http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/XenUSBPassthrough
>      >      >    But I'm not sure if it supports sharing USB devices across
>      VMs
>      >      (host and
>      >      >    guest) i.e. if I plug in a flash drive then it would detect
>      in both
>      >      host
>      >      >    and guest and I'd be able edit files from all VMs rather
>      than
>      >      mounting and
>      >      >    unmounting everytime from 1 VM to other.
>      >      >    Please let me know your thoughts on it.
>      >      >
>      >
>      >      No, that's not possible with pvusb. pvusb is for direct passthru
>      to
>      >      one/single vm.
>      >      You'd need some filesystem share (cifs/nfs/whatnot) to make such
>      sharing
>      >      possible.
>      >
>      >      -- Pasi
>      >      >    Thanks,
>      >      >    Dhananjay
>      >      >
>      >      >    On Fri, Aug 27, 2010 at 4:28 AM, James Harper
>      >      >    <[2][3][5]james.harper@bendigoit.com.au> wrote:
>      >      >
>      >      >      > Hi there!
>      >      >      >
>      >      >      > First I'd like to say that XEN plaform is really cool
>      and
>      >      awesome.
>      >      >      >
>      >      >      > I'm an engineering student and is searching for a
>      feasible
>      >      project in
>      >      >      > virtualization. I'd like to know if its possible to
>      share USB
>      >      devices
>      >      >      (flash
>      >      >      > drive, hard disk, mouse, keyboards etc) across guests
>      and host
>      >      (VMs).
>      >      >      Also, do
>      >      >      > you have any idea to extend it? Or any innovative idea
>      so that
>      >      we can
>      >      >      > implement it.
>      >      >      >
>      >      >      > I'd appreciate any help. Thanks in advance.
>      >      >      >
>      >      >
>      >      >      Further to what Pasi said, I have partially ported the
>      backend
>      >      interface
>      >      >      and can hand you the code if you want. It's probable a bit
>      stale
>      >      vs the
>      >      >      current kernels and leaks memory under some circumstances
>      but is
>      >      >      probably better than starting from scratch.
>      >      >      James
>      >      >
>      >      > References
>      >      >
>      >      >    Visible links
>      >      >    1. [4][6]http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/XenUSBPassthrough
>      >      >    2. mailto:[5][7]james.harper@bendigoit.com.au
>      >
>      > References
>      >
>      >    Visible links
>      >    1. mailto:[8]pasik@iki.fi
>      >    2. [9]http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/XenUSBPassthrough
>      >    3. mailto:[10]james.harper@bendigoit.com.au
>      >    4. [11]http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/XenUSBPassthrough
>      >    5. mailto:[12]james.harper@bendigoit.com.au
> 
>      _______________________________________________
>      Xen-devel mailing list
>      [13]Xen-devel@lists.xensource.com
>      [14]http://lists.xensource.com/xen-devel
> 
> References
> 
>    Visible links
>    1. mailto:pasik@iki.fi
>    2. http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/XenVGAPassthrough
>    3. mailto:pasik@iki.fi
>    4. http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/XenUSBPassthrough
>    5. mailto:james.harper@bendigoit.com.au
>    6. http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/XenUSBPassthrough
>    7. mailto:james.harper@bendigoit.com.au
>    8. mailto:pasik@iki.fi
>    9. http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/XenUSBPassthrough
>   10. mailto:james.harper@bendigoit.com.au
>   11. http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/XenUSBPassthrough
>   12. mailto:james.harper@bendigoit.com.au
>   13. mailto:Xen-devel@lists.xensource.com
>   14. http://lists.xensource.com/xen-devel