Re: virtualization Android OS + XEN.

[anshul makkar <anshulmakkar@gmail.com>]

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Thanks Leonardo and Stefano.

The information you shared is really helpful to get me started and get
basic understanding of where Xen stands in its support for ARM.

Below is my understanding, request your help to correct me if I am wrong.

1) XEN support for the ARM processor where hardware virtualization is not
supported is not there.

2) Presently XEN port has been tested  on the following cards.

   - The Cortex A15 Real-time System Model's provided by ARM
   - A Cortex-A15 Processor running on the Versatile Express
   - The Arndale board
   - The Calxeda ECX-2000 (aka Midway) server
   - Allwinner A20/A31 boards

I have Odroid Cortex A9 board, which doesn't have hardware virtualization.
So for sure XEN can't be ported on that.

Any idea or test results for Cortex A15 board (ODroidXU3 ) provided by
ODroid. Whether this board is supported or not ?

Please can you share some other board models that are cheap and supported
by XEN ARM. What I have found on net is that all boards having Cortex A15
and hardware virtualization support, so that they are compatible with XEN,
are quite expensive.



Thanks
Anshul Makkar
www.justkernel.com


On Wed, Aug 6, 2014 at 1:58 PM, Leonardo Taccari <iamleot@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello Anshul,
>
> On Wed, Aug 06, 2014 at 11:19:28AM +0200, anshul makkar wrote:
> > [...]
> > I am working on a project Virtualdroid where I aim to achieve isolation
> for
> > each VM.
> > [...]
> > Please can you share your thoughts on above. I am target Cortex A9
> without
> > hardware virtualization support and Cortex A15 with HW virtualization
> > support.
> The Xen ARM project (that requires ARM hardware virtualization
> extensions) is pretty stable and very active...
>
> A feature that is missing, compared to Xen x86, is the guest VM
> save/restore/migration[0] but reading your email probably you will not
> need it.
> An interesting page about other features not available or WIP is this:
>
>  http://wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/Xen_ARM_TODO
>
> ...but I suggest you to also search that on xen-devel@ ML as well.
>
> A good introduction to Xen ARM is ``Xen ARM with Virtualization
> Extensions whitepaper'':
>
>
> http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Xen_ARM_with_Virtualization_Extensions_whitepaper
>
> I've investigated and used a bit Xen ARM on Debian GNU/Linux armhf
> testing system both for Dom0 and DomU on a cubieboard2.
> Every steps needed are documented here (probably you can adapt them
> easily):
>
>
> http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Xen_ARMv7_with_Virtualization_Extensions/Allwinner
>
> ...this link is also very helpful:
>
>  http://openmirage.org/wiki/xen-on-cubieboard2
>
> In very few words for the GNU/Linux case (but probably you can apply
> them also for Android):
>  * You need a modified version of u-boot in order to start the CPU in
>    non-secure mode (Xen runs in HYP mode):
>     https://github.com/jwrdegoede/u-boot-sunxi
>  * Initial Xen ARM support was added in Linux 3.7[1], and better support is
>    available on more recent versions.
>  * u-boot, Linux kernel and Xen hypervisors are easily cross-compilable,
>    in the Debian GNU/Linux case you will find Emdebian project useful:
>     http://emdebian.org/crosstools.html
>    The interesting package that includes everything needed for
>    cross-compilation is ``gcc-4.7-arm-linux-gnueabihf''.
>  * For compiling the Xen toolstack (xl, libxl, ...) I've used
>    debootstrap to generate an armhf chroot and then I've compiled it
>    thanks to QEMU user mode emulation (dynamic binary translation).
>    Interesting package for Debian GNU/Linux is ``qemu-user-static''.
>    After you have succesfully generated a chroot then copy
>    ``qemu-arm-static''in the chroot's /usr/bin and then simply by
>    chroot(8)-ing into it you can install the gcc packages and use it
>    like you are in an armhf system without any problems.
>    I've done that on my university laboratory that has old Intel Core
>    Duo and compiling Xen toolstack on them is pretty fast.
>
> If you would like to know more about ARM hardware virtualization
> extensions ``Hardware-Supported Virtualization on ARM'' by P. Varanasi
> and G. Heiser IMHO is a well written paper:
>
>  http://apsys11.ucsd.edu/papers/apsys11-varanasi.pdf
>
>
> HTH!
> Have fun! :)
> Ciao,
> L.
>
>
>  [0]: http://lists.xen.org/archives/html/xen-devel/2014-04/msg02057.html
>     Here you can find patches (not applied AFAIK) regarding guest VM
>     save/restore/migration
>  [1]:
> http://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_3.7#head-7e55c4d19ada23abf473d08e4384cbe7a7d7772d
>



-- 
Thanks
Anshul Makkar
www.justkernel.com
<http://www.linkedin.com/just-kernel>
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Just-Kernel-3033180

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