Re: [Qemu-devel] Plex86 and Qemu

[jeebs]

From: "Jim C. Brown" <address@hidden>

> a) is taken care of by letting user space qemu use dynamic translation on
> ring 0 instructions (same as qemu + kqemu works now), and b) is taken care of

If I remember right (and I may not), one of the problems with Plex86 v1 was the 
difficulty of catching all possible transistions, from areas where it was safe 
to let the code run, to areas that had to be carefully monitored.

It sounds like your idea of letting qemu handle the ring 0 stuff is going to 
have the same kind of problems.

But, I could be wrong.  I'm not that good of a programmer, and I certainly am 
not familiar with emulator programming.


>> Then that's still going to be extremely limited.  Effecting probably 95%+ of 
>> the potential users.
> 
> It will support the same series of users that kqemu does.

Right.  And that's still very limited.

There has been a lot of excitement in the mailing list, but few have bothered 
to mention that for most users, the kqemu stuff doesn't matter.  I suspect most 
of those people either got distracted by the license, or just kept their mouth 
shut.


>> I wouldn't call that "majority of potential users"...  Maybe "many in this 
>> mailing list", but that's not quite the same thing.
>> 
>> [grimace]
>> 
>> Oh well.
> 
> Feel free to port it to a Windows host then. I noticed that you didn't 
> complain

I'm not that good of a programmer.  I have never made any comments to suggest 
that I was.


> when kqemu was announced, despite the fact that it only supports linux hosts.
> Care to explain why?

1) I don't need a reason to not complain.

2) I don't need to *justify* not complaing.

3) The question is a little insulting.

But, to answer it anyway...

Fabrice mentioned long ago that his module would only work with Linux hosts.  I 
don't know why.  Whether its his familiarity with Linux, or if it's something 
that can only be done under Linux and not Windows.  (I have no idea how vmware 
& virtualPC do their stuff, or what method kqemu uses.)

So when he did finally release it, it was no surprise.  I was already resigned 
to the fact that it wasn't going to help me in the slightest.  And therefor I 
don't care what license it is released under.  If it ever works under Windows, 
then I'll care.

When you announced your plans, I was hoping that it might be something that I 
and 95% of the rest of the world could actually use.  You weren't clear in your 
original message, so I asked.

Turns out I was wrong though.

Since it's not going to help us, I have no further interest in your project.

Your project sounds like it falls into the exact same category as qemu-fast and 
now kqemu... Mildly worth knowing they exist, but of no practical value for me. 
 No reason to get excited or upset.