aboutsummaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/Documentation/lguest/lguest.txt
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/lguest/lguest.txt')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/lguest/lguest.txt129
1 files changed, 129 insertions, 0 deletions
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 @@
1Rusty's Remarkably Unreliable Guide to Lguest
2 - or, A Young Coder's Illustrated Hypervisor
3http://lguest.ozlabs.org
4
5Lguest is designed to be a minimal hypervisor for the Linux kernel, for
6Linux developers and users to experiment with virtualization with the
7minimum of complexity. Nonetheless, it should have sufficient
8features to make it useful for specific tasks, and, of course, you are
9encouraged to fork and enhance it.
10
11Features:
12
13- Kernel module which runs in a normal kernel.
14- Simple I/O model for communication.
15- Simple program to create new guests.
16- Logo contains cute puppies: http://lguest.ozlabs.org
17
18Developer features:
19
20- Fun to hack on.
21- No ABI: being tied to a specific kernel anyway, you can change anything.
22- Many opportunities for improvement or feature implementation.
23
24Running Lguest:
25
26- Lguest runs the same kernel as guest and host. You can configure
27 them differently, but usually it's easiest not to.
28
29 You will need to configure your kernel with the following options:
30
31 CONFIG_HIGHMEM64G=n ("High Memory Support" "64GB")[1]
32 CONFIG_TUN=y/m ("Universal TUN/TAP device driver support")
33 CONFIG_EXPERIMENTAL=y ("Prompt for development and/or incomplete code/drivers")
34 CONFIG_PARAVIRT=y ("Paravirtualization support (EXPERIMENTAL)")
35 CONFIG_LGUEST=y/m ("Linux hypervisor example code")
36
37 and I recommend:
38 CONFIG_HZ=100 ("Timer frequency")[2]
39
40- A tool called "lguest" is available in this directory: type "make"
41 to build it. If you didn't build your kernel in-tree, use "make
42 O=<builddir>".
43
44- Create or find a root disk image. There are several useful ones
45 around, such as the xm-test tiny root image at
46 http://xm-test.xensource.com/ramdisks/initrd-1.1-i386.img
47
48 For more serious work, I usually use a distribution ISO image and
49 install it under qemu, then make multiple copies:
50
51 dd if=/dev/zero of=rootfile bs=1M count=2048
52 qemu -cdrom image.iso -hda rootfile -net user -net nic -boot d
53
54- "modprobe lg" if you built it as a module.
55
56- Run an lguest as root:
57
58 Documentation/lguest/lguest 64m vmlinux --tunnet=192.168.19.1 --block=rootfile root=/dev/lgba
59
60 Explanation:
61 64m: the amount of memory to use.
62
63 vmlinux: the kernel image found in the top of your build directory. You
64 can also use a standard bzImage.
65
66 --tunnet=192.168.19.1: configures a "tap" device for networking with this
67 IP address.
68
69 --block=rootfile: a file or block device which becomes /dev/lgba
70 inside the guest.
71
72 root=/dev/lgba: this (and anything else on the command line) are
73 kernel boot parameters.
74
75- Configuring networking. I usually have the host masquerade, using
76 "iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE" and "echo 1 >
77 /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward". In this example, I would configure
78 eth0 inside the guest at 192.168.19.2.
79
80 Another method is to bridge the tap device to an external interface
81 using --tunnet=bridge:<bridgename>, and perhaps run dhcp on the guest
82 to obtain an IP address. The bridge needs to be configured first:
83 this option simply adds the tap interface to it.
84
85 A simple example on my system:
86
87 ifconfig eth0 0.0.0.0
88 brctl addbr lg0
89 ifconfig lg0 up
90 brctl addif lg0 eth0
91 dhclient lg0
92
93 Then use --tunnet=bridge:lg0 when launching the guest.
94
95 See http://linux-net.osdl.org/index.php/Bridge for general information
96 on how to get bridging working.
97
98- You can also create an inter-guest network using
99 "--sharenet=<filename>": any two guests using the same file are on
100 the same network. This file is created if it does not exist.
101
102Lguest I/O model:
103
104Lguest uses a simplified DMA model plus shared memory for I/O. Guests
105can communicate with each other if they share underlying memory
106(usually by the lguest program mmaping the same file), but they can
107use any non-shared memory to communicate with the lguest process.
108
109Guests can register DMA buffers at any key (must be a valid physical
110address) using the LHCALL_BIND_DMA(key, dmabufs, num<<8|irq)
111hypercall. "dmabufs" is the physical address of an array of "num"
112"struct lguest_dma": each contains a used_len, and an array of
113physical addresses and lengths. When a transfer occurs, the
114"used_len" field of one of the buffers which has used_len 0 will be
115set to the length transferred and the irq will fire.
116
117Using an irq value of 0 unbinds the dma buffers.
118
119To send DMA, the LHCALL_SEND_DMA(key, dma_physaddr) hypercall is used,
120and the bytes used is written to the used_len field. This can be 0 if
121noone else has bound a DMA buffer to that key or some other error.
122DMA buffers bound by the same guest are ignored.
123
124Cheers!
125Rusty Russell rusty@rustcorp.com.au.
126
127[1] These are on various places on the TODO list, waiting for you to
128 get annoyed enough at the limitation to fix it.
129[2] Lguest is not yet tickless when idle. See [1].