virtualization Android OS + XEN.

virtualization Android OS + XEN.

[anshul makkar]

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Hi,

I am working on a project Virtualdroid where I aim to achieve isolation for
each VM.

After having considered various options like QEMU or XVIsor now I have
narrowed down to Xen reason being that its architecture of domains suits
what my requirements are.

I am new to Xen, having spent most of the time on QEMU and Virtualbox, so
sorry for basic question, but just wanted to check that is XEN community
targeting ARM for mobile devices and do we have releases specific for ARM
mobile devices.

In most of the forums I read about the support for ARM servers and on the
other hand I saw a presentation from Samsung for virtual android OS, so
just confused .

Please can you share your thoughts on above. I am target Cortex A9 without
hardware virtualization support and Cortex A15 with HW virtualization
support.

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

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_______________________________________________
Xen-devel mailing list
Xen-devel@lists.xen.org
http://lists.xen.org/xen-devel

Re: virtualization Android OS + XEN.

[Stefano Stabellini]

On Wed, 6 Aug 2014, anshul makkar wrote:
> Hi,
> I am working on a project Virtualdroid where I aim to achieve isolation for each VM.
> 
> After having considered various options like QEMU or XVIsor now I have narrowed down to Xen reason being that its
> architecture of domains suits what my requirements are.

Welcome on board!


> I am new to Xen, having spent most of the time on QEMU and Virtualbox, so sorry for basic question, but just wanted
> to check that is XEN community targeting ARM for mobile devices and do we have releases specific for ARM mobile
> devices.

The main Xen releases target both x86 and ARM. If you are going to do
development I would recommend to checkout xen-unstable, the working tree:

git://xenbits.xen.org/xen.git


> In most of the forums I read about the support for ARM servers and on the other hand I saw a presentation from
> Samsung for virtual android OS, so just confused .
> 
> 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 upstream Xen on ARM project, the one you'll find in xen.git,
requires virtualization extensions. See:
http://wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/Xen_ARMv7_with_Virtualization_Extensions
http://wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/Xen_ARM_with_Virtualization_Extensions_whitepaper


Samsung has been maintaining a separate non-upstream Xen port to ARM
that can run on ARM cpus without virtualization extensions.
Unfortunately the mailing list for this project has been archived due to
lack of activity.  This is the wiki page on the subject:

http://wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/Xen_ARM_(PV)

Re: virtualization Android OS + XEN.

[Leonardo Taccari]

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

Re: virtualization Android OS + XEN.

[anshul makkar]

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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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Xen-devel mailing list
Xen-devel@lists.xen.org
http://lists.xen.org/xen-devel

Re: virtualization Android OS + XEN.

[Julien Grall]

Hello,

On 08/07/2014 10:44 AM, anshul makkar wrote:
> 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

Porting Xen to a new board it's only a matter of a hundred lines if your
platform support virtualization.

> 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 ?

There is some on-going work to upstream support for ODroid XU.

You can give a look here:

http://lists.xen.org/archives/html/xen-devel/2014-07/msg03363.html

> 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.

The Cubietruck is supported by Xen. IIRC, the price is less 100$.

Regards,

-- 
Julien Grall

Re: virtualization Android OS + XEN.

[anshul makkar]

Hi Julien,

Thanks for the information.

I am looking for Cubietruck or Cubieboard 2 with Allwinner A20
processor but at present its not available in Germany. Any information
about support/testing of XEN on A20-OLinuXino board
(https://www.olimex.com/Products/OLinuXino/A20/A20-OLinuXino-MICRO-4GB/open-source-hardware),
as I am planning to buy it as an alternative to Cubieboard. If at
present XEN support is not therefor OLinuXindo, do you see any issues
in supporting it ?

Thanks
Anshul Makkar

On Thu, Aug 7, 2014 at 4:01 PM, Julien Grall <julien.grall@linaro.org> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> On 08/07/2014 10:44 AM, anshul makkar wrote:
>> 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
>
> Porting Xen to a new board it's only a matter of a hundred lines if your
> platform support virtualization.
>
>> 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 ?
>
> There is some on-going work to upstream support for ODroid XU.
>
> You can give a look here:
>
> http://lists.xen.org/archives/html/xen-devel/2014-07/msg03363.html
>
>> 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.
>
> The Cubietruck is supported by Xen. IIRC, the price is less 100$.
>
> Regards,
>
> --
> Julien Grall



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

Re: virtualization Android OS + XEN.

[Stefano Stabellini]

One thing to watch out for is whether the bootloader (I am guessing
u-boot) boots in HYP mode, SVC mode or secure SVC mode.

HYP mode is what we want.
>From secure SVC mode we can go into HYP mode, so that would still be OK.
If u-boot boots the platform in non-secure SVC mode, then Xen cannot run
on it.


On Fri, 8 Aug 2014, anshul makkar wrote:
> Hi Julien,
> 
> Thanks for the information.
> 
> I am looking for Cubietruck or Cubieboard 2 with Allwinner A20
> processor but at present its not available in Germany. Any information
> about support/testing of XEN on A20-OLinuXino board
> (https://www.olimex.com/Products/OLinuXino/A20/A20-OLinuXino-MICRO-4GB/open-source-hardware),
> as I am planning to buy it as an alternative to Cubieboard. If at
> present XEN support is not therefor OLinuXindo, do you see any issues
> in supporting it ?
> 
> Thanks
> Anshul Makkar
> 
> On Thu, Aug 7, 2014 at 4:01 PM, Julien Grall <julien.grall@linaro.org> wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > On 08/07/2014 10:44 AM, anshul makkar wrote:
> >> 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
> >
> > Porting Xen to a new board it's only a matter of a hundred lines if your
> > platform support virtualization.
> >
> >> 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 ?
> >
> > There is some on-going work to upstream support for ODroid XU.
> >
> > You can give a look here:
> >
> > http://lists.xen.org/archives/html/xen-devel/2014-07/msg03363.html
> >
> >> 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.
> >
> > The Cubietruck is supported by Xen. IIRC, the price is less 100$.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > --
> > Julien Grall
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Thanks
> Anshul Makkar
> www.justkernel.com
> http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Just-Kernel-3033180
> 

Re: virtualization Android OS + XEN.

[anshul makkar]

Thanks Stefano, got your point..

Anshul Makkar

On Fri, Aug 8, 2014 at 1:40 PM, Stefano Stabellini
<stefano.stabellini@eu.citrix.com> wrote:
> One thing to watch out for is whether the bootloader (I am guessing
> u-boot) boots in HYP mode, SVC mode or secure SVC mode.
>
> HYP mode is what we want.
> From secure SVC mode we can go into HYP mode, so that would still be OK.
> If u-boot boots the platform in non-secure SVC mode, then Xen cannot run
> on it.
>
>
> On Fri, 8 Aug 2014, anshul makkar wrote:
>> Hi Julien,
>>
>> Thanks for the information.
>>
>> I am looking for Cubietruck or Cubieboard 2 with Allwinner A20
>> processor but at present its not available in Germany. Any information
>> about support/testing of XEN on A20-OLinuXino board
>> (https://www.olimex.com/Products/OLinuXino/A20/A20-OLinuXino-MICRO-4GB/open-source-hardware),
>> as I am planning to buy it as an alternative to Cubieboard. If at
>> present XEN support is not therefor OLinuXindo, do you see any issues
>> in supporting it ?
>>
>> Thanks
>> Anshul Makkar
>>
>> On Thu, Aug 7, 2014 at 4:01 PM, Julien Grall <julien.grall@linaro.org> wrote:
>> > Hello,
>> >
>> > On 08/07/2014 10:44 AM, anshul makkar wrote:
>> >> 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
>> >
>> > Porting Xen to a new board it's only a matter of a hundred lines if your
>> > platform support virtualization.
>> >
>> >> 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 ?
>> >
>> > There is some on-going work to upstream support for ODroid XU.
>> >
>> > You can give a look here:
>> >
>> > http://lists.xen.org/archives/html/xen-devel/2014-07/msg03363.html
>> >
>> >> 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.
>> >
>> > The Cubietruck is supported by Xen. IIRC, the price is less 100$.
>> >
>> > Regards,
>> >
>> > --
>> > Julien Grall
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Thanks
>> Anshul Makkar
>> www.justkernel.com
>> http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Just-Kernel-3033180
>>



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