Re: Xen 4.3 development update, and stock-taking

[George Dunlap <george.dunlap@eu.citrix.com>]

On 17/01/13 16:14, Jan Beulich wrote:
>> Therefore, if we want Ubuntu+Xen to have the same functionality as
>> Ubuntu w/o Xen, then:
>> * When the dom0 kernel is signed, Xen will need to leave boot-time
>> services enabled
> Once again - this is a no-go. All boot services memory got
> reclaimed by the time Dom0 gets launched, so there's no way
> for Dom0 to access boot services. Even Xen itself cannot
> arbitrarily use them - they get turned of near the end of
> efi_start(). Anything else is conceptually wrong, even if it
> might be possible to be made work.

Right -- well "this is probably impossible" is different than, "you 
shouldn't need to". :-)

>> So unless we plan to handle the same quirks in Xen, we're going to need
>> to make it possible for dom0 to do it.
> We will have to - see my other reply.
I suppose then we'll have to plan on it.

In that case, it would be good if, sometime in the next month or two, 
someone could take a look at exactly what these "quirks" are that Linux 
needs boot services for, and figure out whether we are likely to need 
them.  I'll put that in a sort of "call to action", along with any other 
important features not currently on track to make it into 4.3.

  -George