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| 1 | +# Device Tree Overlays support in Xen |
| 2 | + |
| 3 | +Xen experimentally supports dynamic device assignment to running |
| 4 | +domains, i.e. adding/removing nodes (using .dtbo) to/from Xen device |
| 5 | +tree, and attaching them to a running domain with given $domid. |
| 6 | + |
| 7 | +Dynamic node assignment works in two steps: |
| 8 | + |
| 9 | +## Add/Remove device tree overlay to/from Xen device tree |
| 10 | + |
| 11 | +1. Xen tools check the dtbo given and parse all other user provided arguments |
| 12 | +2. Xen tools pass the dtbo to Xen hypervisor via hypercall. |
| 13 | +3. Xen hypervisor applies/removes the dtbo to/from Xen device tree. |
| 14 | + |
| 15 | +## Attach device from the DT overlay to domain |
| 16 | + |
| 17 | +1. Xen tools check the dtbo given and parse all other user provided arguments |
| 18 | +2. Xen tools pass the dtbo to Xen hypervisor via hypercall. |
| 19 | +3. Xen hypervisor attach the device to the user-provided $domid by |
| 20 | + mapping node resources in the DT overlay. |
| 21 | + |
| 22 | +# Examples |
| 23 | + |
| 24 | +Here are a few examples on how to use it. |
| 25 | + |
| 26 | +## Dom0 device add |
| 27 | + |
| 28 | +For assigning a device tree overlay to Dom0, user should firstly properly |
| 29 | +prepare the DT overlay. More information about device tree overlays can be |
| 30 | +found in [1]. Then, in Dom0, enter the following: |
| 31 | + |
| 32 | + (dom0) xl dt-overlay add overlay.dtbo |
| 33 | + |
| 34 | +This will allocate the devices mentioned in overlay.dtbo to Xen device tree. |
| 35 | + |
| 36 | +To assign the newly added device from the dtbo to Dom0: |
| 37 | + |
| 38 | + (dom0) xl dt-overlay attach overlay.dtbo 0 |
| 39 | + |
| 40 | +Next, if the user wants to add the same device tree overlay to dom0 |
| 41 | +Linux, execute the following: |
| 42 | + |
| 43 | + (dom0) mkdir -p /sys/kernel/config/device-tree/overlays/new_overlay |
| 44 | + (dom0) cat overlay.dtbo > /sys/kernel/config/device-tree/overlays/new_overlay/dtbo |
| 45 | + |
| 46 | +Finally if needed, the relevant Linux kernel drive can be loaded using: |
| 47 | + |
| 48 | + (dom0) modprobe module_name.ko |
| 49 | + |
| 50 | +## DomU device add/remove |
| 51 | + |
| 52 | +All the nodes in dtbo will be assigned to one domain. The user will need |
| 53 | +to prepare a different dtbo for the domU. For example, the |
| 54 | +`interrupt-parent` property of the DomU overlay should be changed to the |
| 55 | +Xen hardcoded value `0xfde8` and the xen,reg property should be added to |
| 56 | +specify the address mappings. If the domain is not 1:1 mapped, xen,reg |
| 57 | +must be present. See the xen,reg format description in |
| 58 | +docs/misc/arm/passthrough.txt. Below assumes the properly written DomU |
| 59 | +dtbo is `overlay_domu.dtbo`. |
| 60 | + |
| 61 | +The user needs to set the `passthrough` property in the xl config file |
| 62 | +if you plan to use DT overlay and devices requiring an IOMMU. |
| 63 | + |
| 64 | +User will also need to modprobe the relevant drivers. For already |
| 65 | +running domains, the user can use the xl dt-overlay attach command, |
| 66 | +example: |
| 67 | + |
| 68 | + (dom0) xl dt-overlay add overlay.dtbo # If not executed before |
| 69 | + (dom0) xl dt-overlay attach overlay_domu.dtbo $domid |
| 70 | + (dom0) xl console $domid # To access $domid console |
| 71 | + |
| 72 | +Next, if the user needs to modify/prepare the overlay.dtbo suitable for |
| 73 | +the domU: |
| 74 | + |
| 75 | + (domU) mkdir -p /sys/kernel/config/device-tree/overlays/new_overlay |
| 76 | + (domU) cat overlay_domu.dtbo > /sys/kernel/config/device-tree/overlays/new_overlay/dtbo |
| 77 | + |
| 78 | +Finally, if needed, the relevant Linux kernel drive can be probed: |
| 79 | + |
| 80 | + (domU) modprobe module_name.ko |
| 81 | + |
| 82 | +[1] https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/devicetree/overlay-notes.txt |
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