Re: Run the MSWindows on wd0g as a domU

On Fri, Jan 19, 2007 at 11:46:36PM +0100, Joel CARNAT
wrote:
> I'd like to try xen on my Dell D420 that has the
hardware virtualization
> module. My question is : is there any known issue to
run an already
> installed Windows instance inside netbsd/dom0 ?

Yes, the same issue that you can get on an Intel Mac if you
try to use
your Bootcamp Windows XP inside Paralles:
1.) Windows might not boot because of missing drivers.
2.) Windows will ask you to reactive everytime because the
hardware
    was changed. And Microsoft will only let you active one
set of
    hardware over the Internet every 3 (or 4?) month.

> ... the idea is to be able to boot the windows when I
need my 3G
> card and to not have 2 windows install.

1.) Sharing one Windows partition between the physical and a
virtual
    machine will result in the problems mentioned above.
2.) How do you want to access the 3G card from a Xen virtual
machine?
    NetBSD's Xen3 implementation supports neither PCI nor
USB
    passthrough.

	Kind regards

-- 
Matthias Scheler                                  http://zhadum.org.uk/

On Mon, 22 Jan 2007, Matthias Scheler wrote:
>> ... the idea is to be able to boot the windows when
I need my 3G
>> card and to not have 2 windows install.
>
> 2.) How do you want to access the 3G card from a Xen
virtual machine?
>    NetBSD's Xen3 implementation supports neither PCI
nor USB
>    passthrough.

Potentially silly question... Have you tried the 3G card
under NetBSD? 
I've had quite a lot of luck getting them cardbus and USB
ones to work in 
the past.

-- 
Stephen

> On Fri, Jan 19, 2007 at 11:46:36PM +0100, Joel CARNAT
wrote:
>> I'd like to try xen on my Dell D420 that has the
hardware virtualization
>> module. My question is : is there any known issue
to run an already
>> installed Windows instance inside netbsd/dom0 ?
>
> Yes, the same issue that you can get on an Intel Mac if
you try to use
> your Bootcamp Windows XP inside Paralles:
> 1.) Windows might not boot because of missing drivers.
> 2.) Windows will ask you to reactive everytime because
the hardware
>     was changed. And Microsoft will only let you active
one set of
>     hardware over the Internet every 3 (or 4?) month.
>
>> ... the idea is to be able to boot the windows when
I need my 3G
>> card and to not have 2 windows install.
>
> 1.) Sharing one Windows partition between the physical
and a virtual
>     machine will result in the problems mentioned
above.

I expected that... I faced the same problem when trying to
boot "real"
windows partition with things like qemu.

> 2.) How do you want to access the 3G card from a Xen
virtual machine?
>     NetBSD's Xen3 implementation supports neither PCI
nor USB
>     passthrough.

I didn't expect to.
I meant I keep the "real" windows installation to
be able to use the 3G
card - hence not in Xen anymore. But if I work 80% on the
Xened windows, I
would have liked to get my profile back. Maybe I could have
my profile
stored in another NTFS partition that would be accessible
from both (real
and xened) windows installations.

For now I have Windows installed and running (without
network yet, and
video card is cirrus or such) as a domU. Not usable for
working time (yet)
but I expect it to be a matter or configuration