Re: [PATCH] Add VirtIO Frame Buffer Support

Alexander Graf
2009-11-03T06:39:31Z

On 03.11.2009, at 07:34, Avi Kivity wrote:

> On 11/03/2009 08:27 AM, Alexander Graf wrote:
>>
>>> How does it work today?
>>
>> You boot into a TERM=dumb line based emulation on 3270 (worst thing
>> haunting people's nightmares ever), trying to get out of that mode
>> as quickly as possible and off into SSH / VNC.
>
> Despite the coolness factor, IMO a few minutes during install time
> do not justify a new hardware model and a new driver.

It's more than just coolness factor. There are use cases out there (www.susestudio.com
) that don't want to rely on the guest exporting a VNC server to the
outside just to access graphics. You also want to see boot messages,
have a console login screen, be able to debug things without switching
between virtio-console and vnc, etc. etc.

The hardware model isn't exactly new either. It's just the next
logical step to a full PV machine using virtio. If the virtio-fb stuff
turns out to be really fast and reliable, I could even imagine it
being the default target for kvm on ppc as well, as we can't switch
resolutions on the fly there atm.

>>> Does installation over vnc work?
>>
>> Yes, but it requires a working network setup. That's a pretty
>> requirement on guests IMHO.
>
> Why? the guest will typically have networking when it's set up, so
> it should have network access during install. You can easily use
> slirp redirection and the built-in dhcp server to set this up with
> relatively few hassles.

That's how I use it right now. It's no fun.

Alex