can KVM do pci-mapping like xen?

can KVM do pci-mapping like xen?

[Mathijs Kwik]

Hello,

One of the features of xen that I find really interesting is the
ability to "map" pci slots straight to the guest OS.

I just recently got myself a VT-capable processor, so I started looking around.

Since my mainboard supports 2x PCI-Ex16, I bought 2 GFX-cards.
I normally use 3 monitors using xinerama.

My idea/hope is that I can "map" one of my GFX-cards to the guest-os
(windows), so there is no emulation on that. This way I can play some
windows-games without rebooting.

Xen claims to support this.
Is there any chance KVM will do this too?

Greetings.

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Re: can KVM do pci-mapping like xen?

[Muli Ben-Yehuda]

On Mon, Feb 05, 2007 at 09:28:26PM +0100, Mathijs Kwik wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> One of the features of xen that I find really interesting is the
> ability to "map" pci slots straight to the guest OS.
> 
> I just recently got myself a VT-capable processor, so I started looking around.
> 
> Since my mainboard supports 2x PCI-Ex16, I bought 2 GFX-cards.
> I normally use 3 monitors using xinerama.
> 
> My idea/hope is that I can "map" one of my GFX-cards to the guest-os
> (windows), so there is no emulation on that. This way I can play
> some windows-games without rebooting.
> 
> Xen claims to support this.

Xen support this for "para-virtualized" guests, which means guests
kernels that have been modified to know they're running on
Xen. Specifically, giving direct access to a PCI device to a guest
requires a special "driver" running in the guest (pci-front, in Xen
parlance).

> Is there any chance KVM will do this too?

There's no inherent reason why not, but it doesn't at the
moment. Neither does Xen for fully-virtualized guests AFAIK.

Cheers,
Muli

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Re: can KVM do pci-mapping like xen?

[Anthony Liguori]

Mathijs Kwik wrote:
> Hello,
>
> One of the features of xen that I find really interesting is the
> ability to "map" pci slots straight to the guest OS.
>
> I just recently got myself a VT-capable processor, so I started looking around.
>
> Since my mainboard supports 2x PCI-Ex16, I bought 2 GFX-cards.
> I normally use 3 monitors using xinerama.
>
> My idea/hope is that I can "map" one of my GFX-cards to the guest-os
> (windows), so there is no emulation on that. This way I can play some
> windows-games without rebooting.
>
> Xen claims to support this.
>   

Xen doesn't support this.  It requires IOMMU support (the hardware is 
not widely available at the moment).

Xen supports passing PCI devices to *paravirtual* domains.  Windows 
won't run paravirtualized.

Regards,

Anthony Liguori

> Is there any chance KVM will do this too?
> Greetings.
>
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>   


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can KVM do pci-mapping like xen?

[richardvoigt-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w]

On 2/5/07, Anthony Liguori <aliguori-23VcF4HTsmIX0ybBhKVfKdBPR1lH4CV8@public.gmane.org> wrote:
> Mathijs Kwik wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > One of the features of xen that I find really interesting is the
> > ability to "map" pci slots straight to the guest OS.
> >
> > I just recently got myself a VT-capable processor, so I started looking around.
> >
> > Since my mainboard supports 2x PCI-Ex16, I bought 2 GFX-cards.
> > I normally use 3 monitors using xinerama.
> >
> > My idea/hope is that I can "map" one of my GFX-cards to the guest-os
> > (windows), so there is no emulation on that. This way I can play some
> > windows-games without rebooting.

Tried running the games in wine?

> >
> > Xen claims to support this.
> >
>
> Xen doesn't support this.  It requires IOMMU support (the hardware is
> not widely available at the moment).
>
> Xen supports passing PCI devices to *paravirtual* domains.  Windows
> won't run paravirtualized.

It is theoretically possible with a paravirtual *driver* without the
entire guest OS having paravirtual support.  However this requires
support from the driver writers, who historically haven't had very
good support for Linux.  First video card manufacturer to implement
this is going to earn some loyal Linux customers.

>
> Regards,
>
> Anthony Liguori
>
> > Is there any chance KVM will do this too?
> > Greetings.
> >
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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> > Download IBM WebSphere Application Server v.1.0.1 based on Apache Geronimo
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> > _______________________________________________
> > kvm-devel mailing list
> > kvm-devel-5NWGOfrQmneRv+LV9MX5uipxlwaOVQ5f@public.gmane.org
> > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/kvm-devel
> >
>
>
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>

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