On Thu, 31 May 2001, Kevin Lawton wrote:
> David C wrote:
> >
[snip]
> > Which reminds me, this seems to be a good time to restate my idea of
> > networking. The guest os is provided an emulated network device that it
> > uses without having to write any drivers specific to plex86. On the host
> > end, the data sent through the virtual network card would be given to
> > a kernel module specifically written for plex86 (the monitor is already
> > being inserted; I don't see this as a big deal). The kernel module
> > would then emulate a network device on the host system that it can't
> > distinguish from a physical card put in. The host system can then act as
> > if it's on two networks and be a router using standard tools for data that
> > is coming from the guest. I know next to nothing about specifics of
> > assembly and low level drivers and kernel hacking, so I don't know how
> > this method's speed/performance compares to other ideas. This is just the
> > cleanest way I envision allowing the guest access to a network. There is
> > not really a special case on either the host or the guest.
>
> This sounds quite interesting. I haven't played with network
> drivers on Linux, but since we are free to define our own network
> card interface (which is really a redirect to the VM monitor),
> sounds like it'd be quite doable. As well as on other guests.
>
> Not only is it good in that all the standard tools/infrastructure
> work without modification, but it also saves a round trip for data
> packets (eliminates the extra hostOS -> host user -> hostOS trip),
> since packets stay at the kernel level.
>
> We would need to be able to move the network card emulation, and
> some minimal IO device interface stuff into the VM monitor.
>
> Special guestOS specific drivers could use the same network
> packet VM -> host interface as would the real network card emulation.
>
> Other people want to comment? I like this idea.
>
> -Kevin
I hadn't thought of those special guestOS drivers. That's a good idea
too. While I was laying in bed trying to wake up this morning, I wondered
how multiple plex86 guests at the same time would be handled. If this is
going to be allowed (I don't know even if it's possible to use two plex86
instances at the same time.) then a full internal network would have to be
built with the two (or more) plex86 instances able to talk to each other
and the host. Is it or will it be possible to run two or more plex86
instances at the same time?
David Creswick http://braznet.com/david Jabber:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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