Re: White screen

[Avi Kivity <avi-atKUWr5tajBWk0Htik3J/w@public.gmane.org>]

Mark Clarkson wrote:
> Unfortunately the slow network performance and the fact that, on my
> setup at least, network io takes 100% of a single core means that kvm is
> not currently useful for server use.
>
>   

Certainly, kvm is slow right now for server use.  This will improve 
quickly though.

> I really like the idea of kvm over Xen as it's a much 'cleaner' solution
> and would dearly love to see paravirtualised network drivers, at least
> for Linux guests, which would allow me to consider moving from Xen to
> kvm.
>
> Do you think it possible/probable for someone with around 10 years
> knowledge of Linux and C programming but with no kernel module writing
> experience to be able to write a paravirtualised network driver for
> linux in under 6 months (in his/her spare time)? 

Well, it depends on how much spare time said someone is willing to 
commit.  This is a fairly complex system.  I will provide guidance 
however, should anyone require it.

For someone who is familiar with Linux and Windows networking, the task 
should take a few weeks.

> Is there any example
> code around for this? Would it be a case of say, modifying an ne2k
> driver? 

Certainly that's the easiest way to start, as only the xmit/receive 
paths need to be accelerated.

> In fact, I've literally just seen that paravirtualised drivers
> exist for xen for linux 2.6 kernels and I presume these are open source
>   

I understand only the Linux guest drivers are open source.

The Xen paravirtualized drivers are quite complex and heavily tied to 
Xen (by using Xen features such as grant tables and event channels, 
which are all unnecessary for kvm).  While we might borrow code from 
them, outright sharing is questionable.

-- 
error compiling committee.c: too many arguments to function


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