On Sunday 06 July 2008 19:36, someone who identifies as *J.O. Aho* wrote
in /alt.os.linux.gentoo:/

> The idea was to have to graphics cards, each dedicated to it's own
> instance of X (sharing a graphics card makes it so slow) and for one
> instance it had been enough with my old ATi Remote.

That is possible, yes. However, be advised that you'll probably want to
have a videocard dedicated to /dom0,/ in order to see boot-up and shutdown
messages.

I wouldn't advise running X inside /dom0./ You'd be introducing a stability
hazard - i.e. a proprietary video driver - to the controller/driver domain,
and if it gives you trouble, it'll take down all /domU/ virtual machines
with it.

> At the moment I'm back with Xen dom0 on Linux, got the 2.6.21 kernel to
> boot now, i had to make a BIOS change and make the SATA to work with
> AHCI.

Make sure you have PCI passthrough enabled in the /dom0/ kernel, under the
Xen options... ;-)

> At the moment the nic isn't working, I may have to back port sky2
> driver from 2.6.22, another trouble I have is the keyboard, don't seem
> to work, I'll test with a PS/2 one too before taking more look at the
> options I have selected. At least something going in the right direction.

Well, I try to stay away from USB for HID anyway. I do have a Logitech
cordless mouse - MX-1000, I believe - but it's plugged into the PS/2 mouse
port, and the keyboard is PS/2 too. In my humble opinion, that's not what
USB was invented for, and I can think of far better use for my USB
ports. ;-)

--
*Aragorn*
(registered GNU/Linux user #223157)

Aragorn wrote:
> On Sunday 06 July 2008 19:36, someone who identifies as *J.O. Aho* wrote
> in /alt.os.linux.gentoo:/
>
>> The idea was to have to graphics cards, each dedicated to it's own
>> instance of X (sharing a graphics card makes it so slow) and for one
>> instance it had been enough with my old ATi Remote.
>
> That is possible, yes. However, be advised that you'll probably want to
> have a videocard dedicated to /dom0,/ in order to see boot-up and shutdown
> messages.
>
> I wouldn't advise running X inside /dom0./ You'd be introducing a stability
> hazard - i.e. a proprietary video driver - to the controller/driver domain,
> and if it gives you trouble, it'll take down all /domU/ virtual machines
> with it.

The idea above was for a xenless setup, for the xen environment I have 3
graphics cards, one for dom0 (console only), one for the desktop domU
and yet another for mediapalyer domU.

The funny thing with dom0 is that the cursor is misplaced, it's 4-5
positions to the left, which makes it a bit difficult to edit, at the
moment I ssh to the machine, which makes it a lot easier.


>> At the moment I'm back with Xen dom0 on Linux, got the 2.6.21 kernel to
>> boot now, i had to make a BIOS change and make the SATA to work with
>> AHCI.
>
> Make sure you have PCI passthrough enabled in the /dom0/ kernel, under the
> Xen options... ;-)

I did select Virtual PCI, which supposed to work, just
renaming/numbering the the exported devices.


>> At the moment the nic isn't working, I may have to back port sky2
>> driver from 2.6.22,

It turned out it was working, just that the firewire got to become the
eth0 for some reason, which made the nic to become eth1/eth2 and
wouldn't work as I had configured only eth0.


>> another trouble I have is the keyboard, don't seem
>> to work, I'll test with a PS/2 one too before taking more look at the
>> options I have selected. At least something going in the right direction.
>
> Well, I try to stay away from USB for HID anyway. I do have a Logitech
> cordless mouse - MX-1000, I believe - but it's plugged into the PS/2 mouse
> port, and the keyboard is PS/2 too. In my humble opinion, that's not what
> USB was invented for, and I can think of far better use for my USB
> ports. ;-)

Nowadays there are so many USB ports that one don't know what to do with
all of them, think I have 10 on this machine and I'm used to have only
6, to have a keyboard to the desktop and one for the dom0, I will need
one setup to go with USB.


--

//Aho

On Tuesday 08 July 2008 06:45, someone who identifies as *J.O. Aho* wrote
in /alt.os.linux.gentoo:/

> Aragorn wrote:
>
>> I wouldn't advise running X inside /dom0./ You'd be introducing a
>> stability hazard - i.e. a proprietary video driver - to the
>> controller/driver domain, and if it gives you trouble, it'll take down
>> all /domU/ virtual machines with it.
>
> The idea above was for a xenless setup, for the xen environment I have 3
> graphics cards, one for dom0 (console only), one for the desktop domU
> and yet another for mediapalyer domU.

Do you run X inside /dom0?/

> The funny thing with dom0 is that the cursor is misplaced, it's 4-5
> positions to the left, which makes it a bit difficult to edit, at the
> moment I ssh to the machine, which makes it a lot easier.

Is this in X or in a character mode console?

>>> At the moment I'm back with Xen dom0 on Linux, got the 2.6.21 kernel to
>>> boot now, i had to make a BIOS change and make the SATA to work with
>>> AHCI.
>>
>> Make sure you have PCI passthrough enabled in the /dom0/ kernel, under
>> the Xen options... ;-)
>
> I did select Virtual PCI, which supposed to work, just
> renaming/numbering the the exported devices.

That is one option. I've opted for PCI passthrough on my preliminary
set-up, although I haven't actually tried that out yet. Just configured
and built the kernels, but haven't even gotten around to making the system
bootable yet. ;-)

>>> At the moment the nic isn't working, I may have to back port sky2
>>> driver from 2.6.22,
>
> It turned out it was working, just that the firewire got to become the
> eth0 for some reason, which made the nic to become eth1/eth2 and
> wouldn't work as I had configured only eth0.

That's bizarre, and good to know as well, given that I also have Firewire on
that machine.

>> Well, I try to stay away from USB for HID anyway. I do have a Logitech
>> cordless mouse - MX-1000, I believe - but it's plugged into the PS/2
>> mouse port, and the keyboard is PS/2 too. In my humble opinion, that's
>> not what USB was invented for, and I can think of far better use for my
>> USB ports. ;-)
>
> Nowadays there are so many USB ports that one don't know what to do with
> all of them, think I have 10 on this machine and I'm used to have only
> 6, to have a keyboard to the desktop and one for the dom0, I will need
> one setup to go with USB.

From what I've read on one of the forums, such a set-up would work in theory
but not in practice. Someone reported a dual-seat set-up like that on a
Xen machine, one virtual machine - presumably /dom0/ - set up with the PS/2
keyboard and mouse, and a /domU/ virtual machine with a dedicated videocard
and dedicated USB keyboard and mouse.

In addition, it seems that with Xen 3.x, one needs to dedicate an entire USB
hub to /domU,/ whereas in Xen 2.x it was still possible to dedicate
individual USB ports to /domU./

Your mileage may of course vary. I'm just reporting on some of the things
I've read. :-)

--
*Aragorn*
(registered GNU/Linux user #223157)

Aragorn wrote:
> On Tuesday 08 July 2008 06:45, someone who identifies as *J.O. Aho* wrote
> in /alt.os.linux.gentoo:/
>
>> Aragorn wrote:
>>
>>> I wouldn't advise running X inside /dom0./ You'd be introducing a
>>> stability hazard - i.e. a proprietary video driver - to the
>>> controller/driver domain, and if it gives you trouble, it'll take down
>>> all /domU/ virtual machines with it.
>> The idea above was for a xenless setup, for the xen environment I have 3
>> graphics cards, one for dom0 (console only), one for the desktop domU
>> and yet another for mediapalyer domU.
>
> Do you run X inside /dom0?/

No, just a normal default console.

>> The funny thing with dom0 is that the cursor is misplaced, it's 4-5
>> positions to the left, which makes it a bit difficult to edit, at the
>> moment I ssh to the machine, which makes it a lot easier.
>
> Is this in X or in a character mode console?

yes, and I should correct myself, it's 4-5 positions to the right, there
is a half line of text in the bottom of the screen too, funny thing I
can't fit it to anything else on the screen.


>>> Make sure you have PCI passthrough enabled in the /dom0/ kernel, under
>>> the Xen options... ;-)
>> I did select Virtual PCI, which supposed to work, just
>> renaming/numbering the the exported devices.
>
> That is one option. I've opted for PCI passthrough on my preliminary
> set-up, although I haven't actually tried that out yet. Just configured
> and built the kernels, but haven't even gotten around to making the system
> bootable yet. ;-)

i thought of making one of my first domU, neet to compile a kernel for
it, otherwise it's more or less just a copy of my dom0, with the
exception that it has apache installed too.


>>>> At the moment the nic isn't working, I may have to back port sky2
>>>> driver from 2.6.22,
>> It turned out it was working, just that the firewire got to become the
>> eth0 for some reason, which made the nic to become eth1/eth2 and
>> wouldn't work as I had configured only eth0.
>
> That's bizarre, and good to know as well, given that I also have Firewire on
> that machine.

Can be good to not compile the network-over-firewire, don't know why I
tend to compile that one, I don't have any firewire cable, so even if I
have it on all my current computers, I won't be able to use it.


>>> Well, I try to stay away from USB for HID anyway. I do have a Logitech
>>> cordless mouse - MX-1000, I believe - but it's plugged into the PS/2
>>> mouse port, and the keyboard is PS/2 too. In my humble opinion, that's
>>> not what USB was invented for, and I can think of far better use for my
>>> USB ports. ;-)
>> Nowadays there are so many USB ports that one don't know what to do with
>> all of them, think I have 10 on this machine and I'm used to have only
>> 6, to have a keyboard to the desktop and one for the dom0, I will need
>> one setup to go with USB.
>
> From what I've read on one of the forums, such a set-up would work in theory
> but not in practice. Someone reported a dual-seat set-up like that on a
> Xen machine, one virtual machine - presumably /dom0/ - set up with the PS/2
> keyboard and mouse, and a /domU/ virtual machine with a dedicated videocard
> and dedicated USB keyboard and mouse.
>
> In addition, it seems that with Xen 3.x, one needs to dedicate an entire USB
> hub to /domU,/ whereas in Xen 2.x it was still possible to dedicate
> individual USB ports to /domU./
>
> Your mileage may of course vary. I'm just reporting on some of the things
> I've read. :-)
>
I saw something about that too, but don't believe it until you have
banged your head bloody over it ;)
I think this board has three hubs, so that wouldn't be any trouble for
me and USB for the dom0 ain't too important, but of course I have to
rethink if I don't everything to work.


--

//Aho