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diff --git a/Documentation/lguest/lguest.txt b/Documentation/lguest/lguest.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..821617bd6c04 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/lguest/lguest.txt @@ -0,0 +1,129 @@ +Rusty's Remarkably Unreliable Guide to Lguest + - or, A Young Coder's Illustrated Hypervisor +http://lguest.ozlabs.org + +Lguest is designed to be a minimal hypervisor for the Linux kernel, for +Linux developers and users to experiment with virtualization with the +minimum of complexity. Nonetheless, it should have sufficient +features to make it useful for specific tasks, and, of course, you are +encouraged to fork and enhance it. + +Features: + +- Kernel module which runs in a normal kernel. +- Simple I/O model for communication. +- Simple program to create new guests. +- Logo contains cute puppies: http://lguest.ozlabs.org + +Developer features: + +- Fun to hack on. +- No ABI: being tied to a specific kernel anyway, you can change anything. +- Many opportunities for improvement or feature implementation. + +Running Lguest: + +- Lguest runs the same kernel as guest and host. You can configure + them differently, but usually it's easiest not to. + + You will need to configure your kernel with the following options: + + CONFIG_HIGHMEM64G=n ("High Memory Support" "64GB")[1] + CONFIG_TUN=y/m ("Universal TUN/TAP device driver support") + CONFIG_EXPERIMENTAL=y ("Prompt for development and/or incomplete code/drivers") + CONFIG_PARAVIRT=y ("Paravirtualization support (EXPERIMENTAL)") + CONFIG_LGUEST=y/m ("Linux hypervisor example code") + + and I recommend: + CONFIG_HZ=100 ("Timer frequency")[2] + +- A tool called "lguest" is available in this directory: type "make" + to build it. If you didn't build your kernel in-tree, use "make + O=<builddir>". + +- Create or find a root disk image. There are several useful ones + around, such as the xm-test tiny root image at + http://xm-test.xensource.com/ramdisks/initrd-1.1-i386.img + + For more serious work, I usually use a distribution ISO image and + install it under qemu, then make multiple copies: + + dd if=/dev/zero of=rootfile bs=1M count=2048 + qemu -cdrom image.iso -hda rootfile -net user -net nic -boot d + +- "modprobe lg" if you built it as a module. + +- Run an lguest as root: + + Documentation/lguest/lguest 64m vmlinux --tunnet=192.168.19.1 --block=rootfile root=/dev/lgba + + Explanation: + 64m: the amount of memory to use. + + vmlinux: the kernel image found in the top of your build directory. You + can also use a standard bzImage. + + --tunnet=192.168.19.1: configures a "tap" device for networking with this + IP address. + + --block=rootfile: a file or block device which becomes /dev/lgba + inside the guest. + + root=/dev/lgba: this (and anything else on the command line) are + kernel boot parameters. + +- Configuring networking. I usually have the host masquerade, using + "iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE" and "echo 1 > + /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward". In this example, I would configure + eth0 inside the guest at 192.168.19.2. + + Another method is to bridge the tap device to an external interface + using --tunnet=bridge:<bridgename>, and perhaps run dhcp on the guest + to obtain an IP address. The bridge needs to be configured first: + this option simply adds the tap interface to it. + + A simple example on my system: + + ifconfig eth0 0.0.0.0 + brctl addbr lg0 + ifconfig lg0 up + brctl addif lg0 eth0 + dhclient lg0 + + Then use --tunnet=bridge:lg0 when launching the guest. + + See http://linux-net.osdl.org/index.php/Bridge for general information + on how to get bridging working. + +- You can also create an inter-guest network using + "--sharenet=<filename>": any two guests using the same file are on + the same network. This file is created if it does not exist. + +Lguest I/O model: + +Lguest uses a simplified DMA model plus shared memory for I/O. Guests +can communicate with each other if they share underlying memory +(usually by the lguest program mmaping the same file), but they can +use any non-shared memory to communicate with the lguest process. + +Guests can register DMA buffers at any key (must be a valid physical +address) using the LHCALL_BIND_DMA(key, dmabufs, num<<8|irq) +hypercall. "dmabufs" is the physical address of an array of "num" +"struct lguest_dma": each contains a used_len, and an array of +physical addresses and lengths. When a transfer occurs, the +"used_len" field of one of the buffers which has used_len 0 will be +set to the length transferred and the irq will fire. + +Using an irq value of 0 unbinds the dma buffers. + +To send DMA, the LHCALL_SEND_DMA(key, dma_physaddr) hypercall is used, +and the bytes used is written to the used_len field. This can be 0 if +noone else has bound a DMA buffer to that key or some other error. +DMA buffers bound by the same guest are ignored. + +Cheers! +Rusty Russell rusty@rustcorp.com.au. + +[1] These are on various places on the TODO list, waiting for you to + get annoyed enough at the limitation to fix it. +[2] Lguest is not yet tickless when idle. See [1]. |