Re: [Qemu-devel] KVM call agenda for Tuesday 3

[Stefan Hajnoczi]

On Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 2:47 AM, Cao,Bing Bu <address@hidden> wrote:
> On 01/03/2012 09:12 PM, Stefan Hajnoczi wrote:
>>
>> On Tue, Jan 3, 2012 at 12:15 PM, Dor Laor<address@hidden>  wrote:
>>>
>>> On 01/03/2012 10:33 AM, Stefan Hajnoczi wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Jan 02, 2012 at 01:09:40PM +0100, Juan Quintela wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Please send in any agenda items you are interested in covering.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Status of virtio drivers for Windows:
>>>>  * Unsupported in community today
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Why?
>>
>>
>> Because there is no one around to answer questions or look into bugs
>> in a timely manner.
>>
>> I'm not saying that virtio Windows drivers are unsupported, I'm saying
>> that the _QEMU community_ isn't supporting them if you look at the
>> mailing list and bug tracker activity.  Perhaps we should direct
>> questions about the virtio drivers to some place?  I've already been
>> CCing and bouncing questions from users to Vadim for several months.
>>
>>>>  * Bugs languish on bug tracker/mailing list
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> There are 1.2 developers on them and Vadim does the enlightenment support
>>> for kvm too. I don't see plenty of issues that are currently actively,
>>> open,
>>> can you point us to such?
>>
>>
>> Yes, this is exactly the point.  Vadim is doing a great job but he's
>> only 1 person.  Having 1.2 people that handle virtio Windows driver
>> means the bus factor is dangerous and we cannot scale.
>>
>> The bug that brought this to mind again:
>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/qemu/+bug/818673
>>
>> Another email thread on virtio-balloon driver issues (looks unsolved):
>> http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2011-10/msg01240.html
>>
>>> There is a legal issue w/ WHQL drivers but self sign is not a probably
>>> and I
>>> believe that's what we have today.
>>
>>
>> For a user anything other than first-class native drivers is a red
>> flag that this software may work poorly - on modern Windows that means
>> properly signed drivers.
>>
>> Although signing might seem like a secondary issue I think it's what
>> actually has stopped us from growing a community around the virtio
>> Windows drivers.  There are very few people who can help because a
>> development environment where you can only contribute patches but not
>> build the code fully takes the fun away.
>>
>> Basically I'm asking: is there a way we can do the virtio Windows
>> driver development more in public, in the community, so that we will
>> grow stronger in KVM Windows guest support?
>>
>> How do we bootstrap this into more than 1.2 people who can hack on and
>> help with guest drivers?
>>
>> My suggestions are for those already involved to actively join IRC,
>> mailing list, and bug tracker so they can pass on their knowledge and
>> watch for questions.  Also, if there are known bugs and TODOs then
>> please post them so folks with time and interest can help get them
>> fixed.
>>
>> Stefan
>>
>
> Agree.
>
> I am focusing on virtio drivers for windows in the past half a year.
> I did some virtio driver test on several windows editions.
> And read some virtio driver code to help me understanding it deeper.
>
> But some questions surely will be met,in this occasion,the only way to get
> help is sending mail to Vadim. ;P
>
> I do think it will be very good and helpful for me if there will be a
> place(mailing list,bug tracker,...)that I can join,QA,contribute.

Great, the best way to start is to watch qemu-devel and kvm mailing
lists for Windows-related questions.  The bug tracker automatically
sends notifications to the mailing list so you'll also see new bugs.

Perhaps you want to look into the bug I linked in my previous email.
Several users have reported the problem and it would be great to fix
it:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/qemu/+bug/818673

> BTW:
> what is 1.2 people?
> It's 1 and 1/5 ? :)

The 0.2 is someone who is not working full-time on virtio Windows
drivers.  They have other responsibilities too.

Stefan