Ketil Froyn wrote:
>
> Hi.
> I am wondering if fmw will have a feature, but I don't even know if it is
> possible. I have a PCI card which isn't supported under linux, but there
> are (as usual) windows drivers. Will it be possible to give windows (the
> virtual os) native access to this card, so that I can use it without
> rebooting?
There is the concept of the "pass-through" device, which
would let you do this. The idea is to let the guest OS
drive the device, given it is not being driven by the
host OS.
The issues of implementing this relate to the fact that
since we would no longer be emulating the hardware, we
have to deal with the effects of that PCI card interfacing
to the _real_ hardware. So, potentially, the card
could use IO ports, memory mapped IO, IRQs, DMA, and may
require some kind of interaction with a PnP BIOS.
Any card with adjustable settings is potentially
problematic, since the guest and host could try to
use different settings, yet it's using real hardware
so there can only be one.
Excepting for PnP issues, IO and IRQ usage should be
fairly simple. DMA is trickier. PnP is likely to
be a pain.
Anyways, what kind of card is this you're talking about?
-Kevin
