On Thu 11/29/07 at 12:01 PM, Tim.Marsland at Sun.COM wrote: > >If we determine we are running in an hvm domain on a supported version > >of Xen, we will add /platform/i86hvm/kernel to the beginning of the > >default search path. Otherwise, we will leave the search path > >untouched, and Solaris will access all devices through the (possibly > >emulated) physical interfaces. > > But up until now (my understanding was) we didn't have to touch the > kernel to make these PV drivers work. There's considerable advantage in > the perception that we're just adding drivers, rather than patching the > kernel .. > > (Were you *already* patching the kernel and I just didn't realize it?)
We can deliver the PV drivers without making any kernel modifications. Providing tranparent access to those drivers through the existing physical interfaces does require some minor kernel modifications. Since we're already going to depend on a kernel patch to deliver these in an update, we decided to use this cleaner i86hvm approach, rather than hanging a PV bag off the side of the existing cmdk driver. Nils
