gsoc: porting virtio device drivers from NetBSD to DragonFly BSD

[Stéphanie Ouillon]

    Hello,
    
    My project is to port virtio device drivers from NetBSD to DragonFly
    BSD, so that when DragonFly is a KVM guest, it gets better
    performances. Some work was already done by Tim Bisson and Pratyush
    Kshirsagar. 
    
    
      Three viritio devices are concerned: the block device, the
        network device and the memory ballooning device. They are set up
        through a common virtio driver.
    
                    1) The block device driver has been already ported
    and it has been tested. I need to clear some portions of the code
    because                     the driver was written to work
    independently. 
                    2) The network device driver exists at the state of
    a skeleton of driver. It needs to be completed, and tested.
                    3) The memory ballooning driver has to be completely
    ported.
    
    
      Here is what I plan to do first (the sooner the better): 
      
    
                    While looking at the NetBSD code: 
                    1) Read documentation about some notions (dma, mbuf,
    I/O routines, ...) to understand the NetBSD code. Read about device
                        drivers implementation in FreeBSD.
                    2) Get used with virtio specifications.
                    3) The block device driver has already been ported
    to DragonFly and it has been tested: it may be a good starting point
    to get                     used with this code in order to see how
    to deal with virtio specifications and some differences between
    NetBSD and                                 DragonFly BSD. 
    
                    After this phase of documentation, I think I will
    have a better undertanding of some key points of the virtio drivers.
    
    
    
      After that, I'll test again by myself the block device driver
        (so I'll be able to check and compare the results).
    
    
      Then, I'll code the network device driver, which would have to
        be finished and tested by the mid-term.
    
    
      The memory ballooning device will be coded during the second
        period.
    
    
    
    Regards,
    Stéphanie Ouillon
    
    
    Le 27/04/11 17:58, Pratyush Kshirsagar a écrit :
    <blockquote
      cite=""
      type="cite">Hello,
      Congrats, your proposal for the Virtio Drivers is being
        accepted.
      Better you mail brief description of the working status on
        the mailing list and any questions.
      I think Justin mailed about steps needed to be taken.
      Also, we would like you to start as soon as possible.
      
      
      Thank You,
      Pratyush Kshirsagar.