Messages in this thread | | | Date | Wed, 23 Jun 2004 20:26:13 +0200 | From | Vojtech Pavlik <> | Subject | Re: Stop the Linux kernel madness |
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On Wed, Jun 23, 2004 at 06:03:20PM +0200, Petr Vandrovec wrote: > On Wed, Jun 23, 2004 at 04:03:14PM +0100, Christoph Hellwig wrote: > > On Wed, Jun 23, 2004 at 10:58:27AM -0400, Timothy Miller wrote: > > > Whatever it is that VMware needs in the kernel can probably be > > > generalized in some way that makes it useful to other things (like > > > Win4Lin) and then merged into mainline. > > > > We already have drivers/net/tun.c thaqt works nicely with Hercules and MoL > > for me, but I guess the vmware folks want some additional deep magic. > > Unless I missed something, there can be only one userspace reader/writter > attached to the device, while vmnet works like real network segment to > which you can connect any number of userspace processes, and each of > processes gets only packets which are targeted for it (as each process > has its own MAC address). And vmnet interface does not have to have > any representation in host's networking (it can be used just as a channel > for communication between two VMs), which is important if your guests > are running potentially dangerous code, like network worms. > > vmnet module actually provides tun-like character device, but with several > differences: > * You can connect any number of userspace processes to it. > * You can connect kernel end to nothing (complete guest-host separation), or
These can be done purely in userspace - a daemon can exchange the data between the processes (VMs).
> * You can create new network device for kernel end (you'll route between > guests and real world) or
This can be done with tun, preferably opened by the abovementioned daemon.
> * You can attach this character device to some existing network device, > creating "bridge".
And this is IMO pretty ugly to do. It is probably needed to get NetBEUI working between the VM and real network.
> Of these features tun supports only third (creating new kernel network device), > and with help of "normal" bridge also fourth. Correct me if I'm wrong.
-- Vojtech Pavlik SuSE Labs, SuSE CR - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
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