Has anybody using VMWare been able to run two Windows XP systems one using
the vga driver and another one using the native graphics driver?
Let me expand on my question a little. I have never used VMWare for kernel
debugging and therefore have some basic academic questions about how it
works.
I beleive the product to be used is GSX server (VMWare). Suppose that I am
writing an I/O device driver, e.g., a graphics driver. Now when I install
the driver on my guest Windows XP, does this guest OS really use the driver
I have provided? My understanding is that it will use a VGA device provided
to it by the host OS.
So in other words, does the guest OS use the I/O device using the driver on
the guest OS or with the driver on the Host OS.
“bank kus” wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntdev…
> Has anybody using VMWare been able to run two Windows XP systems one using
> the vga driver and another one using the native graphics driver?
>
>
bank kus,
I am not affiliated with VMWare other than to have been a happy customer
since workstation 1.0. I’m sure one of the VMWare developers that
participate in this list could give you a much better answer. Mine is based
on having been working with kernel debugging VM’s for a few years now. I
have had very positive results using the virtual environment to test and
debug kernel drivers for ‘virtual’ (non-hardware) devices.
The VMWare (and other products like VirtualPC, etc.) typically emulate a
standard hardware environment for the virtual machine that is independent of
the host hardware environment (the exception being the choice of CPU).
No matter what graphics adapter your host pc has installed, the virtual
machine will see an emulated (in this case VMWare) VGA-like adapter. If
your graphics driver is expecting to see specific ‘hardware’, the virtual
environment will not likely work for you.
The Guest OS is oblivious to the host hardware. The Guest OS loads a device
driver appropriate for the ‘apparent’ hardware (the VMWare VGA adapter).
The emulation environment traps accesses to the virtual hardware and
re-interprets them on the Host hardware using the Host graphics rendering
facilities. It is actually the host OS (for Windows think GDI) that is
dealing with the specifics of the host graphics adapter.
Good Luck,
Dave Cattley
Consulting Engineer
Systems Software Development
-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of bank kus
Sent: Saturday, August 20, 2005 10:36 PM
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: Re:[ntdev] graphics adapter with VMWare
Let me expand on my question a little. I have never used VMWare for kernel
debugging and therefore have some basic academic questions about how it
works.
I beleive the product to be used is GSX server (VMWare). Suppose that I am
writing an I/O device driver, e.g., a graphics driver. Now when I install
the driver on my guest Windows XP, does this guest OS really use the driver
I have provided? My understanding is that it will use a VGA device provided
to it by the host OS.
So in other words, does the guest OS use the I/O device using the driver on
the guest OS or with the driver on the Host OS.
“bank kus” wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntdev…
> Has anybody using VMWare been able to run two Windows XP systems one using
> the vga driver and another one using the native graphics driver?
>
>
—
Questions? First check the Kernel Driver FAQ at
http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=256
You are currently subscribed to ntdev as: xxxxx@msn.com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to xxxxx@lists.osr.com
well bank,
I have used VMWare quite a lot, though the workstation version of it.
AFAIK, vitrual PC environments like VMWARE and others, emulate a
specific hardware list. When you load a specific OS on vmware, the OS
thinks that the hardware is *real* and loads the driver for it. It is
possible, that your machine is having an NVIDIA gforce card installed,
where as the emulator creates a virtual intel i-740 for it’s purposes.
The guest OS, will see i-740 instead of your original NVIDIA card, and
load drivers accordingly. Thus, if you are making drivers for specific
hardware, then I have doubts whether it is going to work with
emulators.
Ofcourse I might be wrong, but this is what my findings say.
-Developer
On 8/21/05, bank kus wrote:
> Let me expand on my question a little. I have never used VMWare for kernel
> debugging and therefore have some basic academic questions about how it
> works.
>
> I beleive the product to be used is GSX server (VMWare). Suppose that I am
> writing an I/O device driver, e.g., a graphics driver. Now when I install
> the driver on my guest Windows XP, does this guest OS really use the driver
> I have provided? My understanding is that it will use a VGA device provided
> to it by the host OS.
>
> So in other words, does the guest OS use the I/O device using the driver on
> the guest OS or with the driver on the Host OS.
>
>
> “bank kus” wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntdev…
> > Has anybody using VMWare been able to run two Windows XP systems one using
> > the vga driver and another one using the native graphics driver?
> >
> >
>
>
>
> —
> Questions? First check the Kernel Driver FAQ at http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=256
>
> You are currently subscribed to ntdev as: xxxxx@gmail.com
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to xxxxx@lists.osr.com
>
–
- Developer