[Xen-users] Release 0.8.0 of GPL PV Drivers for Windows

["James Harper" <james.harper@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I've just uploaded the latest release of the GPL PV drivers for Windows.
The changes in this version are:

. Bug fixes to xennet.
. Bug fixes elsewhere.
. Better prevention of the qemu block device loading when /gplpv is
specified
. pvSCSI support (eg can pass through tape drives and cd burners,
although I haven't tested the latter). This hasn't seen nearly as much
testing as everything else, but I've run the tests in the HP Library &
Tape Tools successfully, including a firmware update.
. very basic installer - just run install.bat and then click lots of
times.

I highly recommend uninstalling all trace of any previous version before
installing this one. Particularly put the Windows PCI Bus driver back
the way it was (eg update drivers and just click next a few times).

Also, if you boot up with /GPLPV, and notice any qemu block devices,
destroy the domain immediately as there is a high chance of data
corruption! Also please let me know if this happens.

Still outstanding bugs:
. If windows bug checks, it still won't write out a bug check file, just
hangs instead.
. pvSCSI appears to have a race in it that leaves windows stuck at the
loading screen sometimes.
. SMP hasn't been thoroughly tested
. XP doesn't support the synchronisation calls I am using so they have
been omitted - very slight chance of races during device enumeration.

If you want to make use of the pvSCSI drivers, see the patches posted to
-dev by Jun Kamada. I have managed to build it under Debian by applying
the patches to the Debian Xen source and then making the hypervisor and
tools packages, and then building the backend out of tree. I needed to
greatly increase the scsi timeout for my tape drive to work reliably
(default is 5 seconds, needs to be more like 10 minutes or more - I made
it an hour).

Download at http://www.meadowcourt.org/WindowsXenPV-0.8.0.zip . Any and
all feedback appreciated.

Thanks

James

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