VMware balloon: force compiling as a module
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From: Alexander Clouter on 29 Jun 2010 04:40 Dmitry Torokhov <dtor(a)vmware.com> wrote: > > VMware Tools installer requires the upstream driver to be compiled > as a module in order to detect its presence and avoid installing > our own version on top of it. To avoid surprises with 2 versions > of the driver being installed and fighting with each other, let's > force the driver to be compiled as a module unless user selects > CONFIG_EMBEDDED. > *barf* This surely is a problem in the installer and not the kernel? Can you not nosey around in /sys/class/misc or where-ever your driver appears? If it does not, then I would probably suggest a patch to your balloon driver that dumps some details in there, including module version information. Eugh. -- Alexander Clouter ..sigmonster says: Who goeth a-borrowing goeth a-sorrowing. -- Thomas Tusser -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo(a)vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
From: Bruno Prémont on 29 Jun 2010 12:30 On Tue, 29 June 2010 Alexander Clouter <alex(a)digriz.org.uk> wrote: > Dmitry Torokhov <dtor(a)vmware.com> wrote: > > > > VMware Tools installer requires the upstream driver to be compiled > > as a module in order to detect its presence and avoid installing > > our own version on top of it. To avoid surprises with 2 versions > > of the driver being installed and fighting with each other, let's > > force the driver to be compiled as a module unless user selects > > CONFIG_EMBEDDED. > > > *barf* > > This surely is a problem in the installer and not the kernel? Can you > not nosey around in /sys/class/misc or where-ever your driver appears? > If it does not, then I would probably suggest a patch to your balloon > driver that dumps some details in there, including module version > information. > > Eugh. In addition, the installer may check under /sys/module/ for it (as for any/most code that can be built as a module), even for built-in code. (if balloon driver does not show up there when built-in it would be better to get it to show up there) Bruno -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo(a)vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
From: Dmitry Torokhov on 29 Jun 2010 12:40 Hi Alexander, On Tuesday, June 29, 2010 01:27:43 am Alexander Clouter wrote: > Dmitry Torokhov <dtor(a)vmware.com> wrote: > > VMware Tools installer requires the upstream driver to be compiled > > as a module in order to detect its presence and avoid installing > > our own version on top of it. To avoid surprises with 2 versions > > of the driver being installed and fighting with each other, let's > > force the driver to be compiled as a module unless user selects > > CONFIG_EMBEDDED. > > *barf* > > This surely is a problem in the installer and not the kernel? Can you > not nosey around in /sys/class/misc or where-ever your driver appears? The driver does not "appear" anywhere at the moment as it does not export any interfaces to userland. It only communicates with the hypervisor. Unfortunately the kernel, with the exception of module parameters which this driver does not have at the moment, does not populate /sys/module/<modulename> for modules built into the kernel and so installer can not rely on this data. Also, the module might be disabled (blacklisted) by the system administrator and thus being absent from the kernel. In such scenario we also so not want to install our version of the driver. > If it does not, then I would probably suggest a patch to your balloon > driver that dumps some details in there, including module version > information. > > Eugh. Exactly, eugh. I do not believe that dumping some unnecessary data in sysfs is better than making driver a module. Also, besides the installer logic, we prefer having the driver being compiled by default as a module so that we can deliver truly urgent fixes to customers without need of recompiling the kernel/wait for distribution to roll out the updates/needing to reboot the box. Thanks. -- Dmitry -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo(a)vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
From: Chetan Loke on 30 Jun 2010 14:50 > From: linux-kernel-owner(a)vger.kernel.org [mailto:linux-kernel- > owner(a)vger.kernel.org] On Behalf Of Dmitry Torokhov > Sent: June 28, 2010 7:01 PM > VMware Tools installer requires the upstream driver to be compiled > as a module in order to detect its presence and avoid installing > our own version on top of it. To avoid surprises with 2 versions > of the driver being installed and fighting with each other, let's > force the driver to be compiled as a module unless user selects > CONFIG_EMBEDDED. > > config VMWARE_BALLOON > tristate "VMware Balloon Driver" > - depends on X86 > + depends on X86 && (EMBEDDED || m) None of the following questions are related to this patch. Q1)Does vmtools handle pvscsi correctly? Q2)In case if a VM wants to be a good citizen, is there a way for a guest to know about the balloon-event? Q3)What if an app mlock's its memory resources and driver's have pinned down their pages then how does inflation work? regards Chetan Loke -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo(a)vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
From: Dmitry Torokhov on 30 Jun 2010 15:30
Hi Chetan, On Wednesday, June 30, 2010 11:42:53 am Chetan Loke wrote: > > From: linux-kernel-owner(a)vger.kernel.org [mailto:linux-kernel- > > owner(a)vger.kernel.org] On Behalf Of Dmitry Torokhov > > Sent: June 28, 2010 7:01 PM > > VMware Tools installer requires the upstream driver to be compiled > > as a module in order to detect its presence and avoid installing > > our own version on top of it. To avoid surprises with 2 versions > > of the driver being installed and fighting with each other, let's > > force the driver to be compiled as a module unless user selects > > CONFIG_EMBEDDED. > > > > config VMWARE_BALLOON > > > > tristate "VMware Balloon Driver" > > > > - depends on X86 > > + depends on X86 && (EMBEDDED || m) > > None of the following questions are related to this patch. > > Q1)Does vmtools handle pvscsi correctly? > Yes, as long as it compiled as a module or installer will not overwrite distribution-supplied version unless user explicitly requests installer to clobber it. So far distributions have not tried building their kernels with pvscsi or vmxnet3 built-in, but did so with our ballon driver, which prompted this particular change. > Q2)In case if a VM wants to be a good citizen, is there a way for a > guest to know about the balloon-event? I am not sure I follow. Ballooning supposed to be as transparent as possible... > > Q3)What if an app mlock's its memory resources and driver's have > pinned down their pages then how does inflation work? We will inflate as much as we can. Obviously if there are no more memory balloon may not grow to its full target size. Balloon driver communicates to the hypervisor the total amount of memory in the guest, we may want to adjust that number by subtracting memory allocated by the kernel, mlocked memory and so on, but it is not done currently. Thanks. -- Dmitry > > > regards > Chetan Loke -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo(a)vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/ |