[Qemu-devel] Re: bug reports and suggestions

[Anthony Liguori <anthony@codemonkey.ws>]

On Fri, 05 May 2006 14:51:28 -0700, Don Kitchen wrote:

> Next, it seems the *one* thing QEMU lacks that you-know-who does correctly
> is networking, specifically bridged mode. I know about creating a tap
> device and sticking it into a bridge (really hasn't worked for me, but
> that's the subject for a different day.)

I use bridging with qemu so I can attest that it works quite well once you
get it to work.

We face a similar problem in Xen.  The solution we've come up with is a
*very* complicated script that attempts to reconfigure your networking
setup.  The problem with this general approach is that how networking is
configured is *very* distro-specific.  In Xen, we attempt to be generic
but in reality, it only works on a very specific set of distros that we
frequently test on.

VMware faces the same problem (of course).  Networking doesn't tend to
work well at all unless you're on a supported distro.

What's really needed is the NetworkManager equivalent for network
configuration.  That is, something that has backends for all of the
popular distros that can provide a consistent interface to reconfiguring
networking.

Of course, it all falls apart if you do crazy things locally (like using
insane iptables rules) but it would help for the majority of users.

Regards,

Anthony Liguori