Re: [Xen-users] Xen handling of graphics card

[Molle Bestefich <molle.bestefich@xxxxxxxxx>]

Jean-Eric Cuendet wrote:
> > But would it be possible to tell Xen to "give" the entire
> > card to Windows and then get it back to dom0 and then back to
> > Linux X11 domU and then to Windows domU, etc... ?

Mats Petersson wrote:
> This is non-trivial:
> 1. Windows and Dom0 needs to run in parallel, or the device accesses
> that are virtualized on behalf of the DomU would not be performed.

I'm pretty sure that Jean-Eric doesn't *want* them to be performed..

Per his original posting, he wants full hardware accelleration in both
domains in full screen mode, so if whatever screen output the
'background' domain makes is lost, that is fine.

If the graphics card is a PCI device, Xen could simulate a PCI
hot-unplug of the graphics adapter in one domU and a PCI hotplug in
the other.

Can AGP devices be hotplugged in this way?  Don't know.
PCI-X?  Probably, but I'm not sure ATI/NVIDIA drivers will cope, even
if they should :-).

Obviously an easier, albeit more expensive, approach is to just buy a
motherboard with room for two PCI-X graphics adapters.  One can be
designated for one domU, the other for the other domU.  Most flat
screen monitors have dual input these days, so switching between your
domains could even be done by clicking a button on your monitor :-).

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