[Qemu-devel] Re: [PATCH] Add VirtIO Frame Buffer Support

[Alexander Graf]

On 03.11.2009, at 07:34, Avi Kivity wrote:

> On 11/03/2009 08:27 AM, Alexander Graf wrote:
> > > How does it work today?
> >
> > You boot into a TERM=dumb line based emulation on 3270 (worst thing  
> > haunting people's nightmares ever), trying to get out of that mode  
> > as quickly as possible and off into SSH / VNC.
>
> Despite the coolness factor, IMO a few minutes during install time  
> do not justify a new hardware model and a new driver.

It's more than just coolness factor. There are use cases out there (www.susestudio.com 
) that don't want to rely on the guest exporting a VNC server to the  
outside just to access graphics. You also want to see boot messages,  
have a console login screen, be able to debug things without switching  
between virtio-console and vnc, etc. etc.

The hardware model isn't exactly new either. It's just the next  
logical step to a full PV machine using virtio. If the virtio-fb stuff  
turns out to be really fast and reliable, I could even imagine it  
being the default target for kvm on ppc as well, as we can't switch  
resolutions on the fly there atm.

> > > Does installation over vnc work?
> >
> > Yes, but it requires a working network setup. That's a pretty  
> > requirement on guests IMHO.
>
> Why?  the guest will typically have networking when it's set up, so  
> it should have network access during install.  You can easily use  
> slirp redirection and the built-in dhcp server to set this up with  
> relatively few hassles.

That's how I use it right now. It's no fun.


Alex