acrn-hypervisor/doc/developer-guides/hld/vuart-virt-hld.rst

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.. _vuart_virtualization:
vUART Virtualization
####################
Architecture
************
A vUART is a virtual 16550 UART implemented in the hypervisor. It can work as a
console or a communication port. Currently, the vUART is mapped to the
traditional COM port address. A UART driver in the kernel can auto detect the
port base and IRQ.
.. figure:: images/uart-virt-hld-1.png
:align: center
:name: uart-arch-pic
UART virtualization architecture
Each vUART has two FIFOs: 8192 bytes Tx FIFO and 256 bytes Rx FIFO.
Currently, we only provide 4 ports for use.
- COM1 (port base: 0x3F8, irq: 4)
- COM2 (port base: 0x2F8, irq: 3)
- COM3 (port base: 0x3E8, irq: 6)
- COM4 (port base: 0x2E8, irq: 7)
A VM can enable one console vUART and several communication vUARTs.
Console vUART
*************
A vUART can be used as a console port, and it can be activated by
a ``vm_console <vm_id>`` command in the hypervisor console. From
:numref:`console-uart-arch`, there is only one physical UART, but four
console vUARTs (green color blocks). A hypervisor console is implemented
above the physical UART, and it works in polling mode. There is a timer
in the hv console. The timer handler dispatches the input from physical UART
to the vUART or the hypervisor shell process and gets data from vUART's
Tx FIFO and sends it to the physical UART. The data in vUART's FIFOs will be
overwritten when it is not taken out in time.
.. figure:: images/uart-virt-hld-2.png
:align: center
:name: console-uart-arch
console vUART architecture
Communication vUART
*******************
The communication vUART is used to transfer data between two VMs in low
speed. For the kernel driver, it is a general UART that can be detected and
probed by 8250 serial driver. But in the hypervisor, it has a special process.
From :numref:`communication-uart-arch`, the vUART in two VMs is
connected according to the configuration in the hypervisor. When a user
writes a byte to the communication UART in VM0:
Operations in VM0
- VM0 UART driver puts the data to THR.
- VM traps to hypervisor, and the vUART PIO handler is called.
- Puts the data to its target vUART's Rx FIFO.
- Injects a Data Ready interrupt to VM1.
- If the target vUART's FIFO is not full, injects a THRE interrupt to VM0.
- Returns.
Operations in VM1
- Receives an interrupt, dispatches to UART driver.
- Reads LSR register, finds a Data Ready interrupt.
- Reads data from Rx FIFO.
- If Rx FIFO is not full, injects THRE interrupt to VM0.
.. figure:: images/uart-virt-hld-3.png
:align: center
:name: communication-uart-arch
communication vUART architecture
Usage
*****
- For console vUART
To enable the console port for a VM, change the
port_base and IRQ in ``acrn-hypervisor/hypervisor/scenarios/<scenario
name>/vm_configurations.c``. If the IRQ number has been used in your
system ( ``cat /proc/interrupt``), you can choose other IRQ number. Set
the .irq =0, the vUART will work in polling mode.
- COM1_BASE (0x3F8) + COM1_IRQ(4)
- COM2_BASE (0x2F8) + COM2_IRQ(3)
- COM3_BASE (0x3E8) + COM3_IRQ(6)
- COM4_BASE (0x2E8) + COM4_IRQ(7)
Example::
.vuart[0] = {
.type = VUART_LEGACY_PIO,
.addr.port_base = COM1_BASE,
.irq = COM1_IRQ,
}
The kernel bootargs ``console=ttySx`` should be the same with
vuart[0]; otherwise, the kernel console log can not be captured by
hypervisor. Then, after bringing up the system, you can switch the console
to the target VM by:
.. code-block:: console
ACRN:\>vm_console 0
----- Entering VM 0 Shell -----
- For communication vUART
To enable the communication port, you should configure vuart[1] in
the two VMs which want to communicate. The port_base and IRQ should
not repeat with the vuart[0] in the same VM. t_vuart.vm_id is the
target VM's vm_id, start from 0 (0 means VM0). t_vuart.vuart_id is the
target vUART index in the target VM, start from 1 (1 means vuart[1]).
Example::
/* VM0 */
...
/* VM1 */
.vuart[1] = {
.type = VUART_LEGACY_PIO,
.addr.port_base = COM2_BASE,
.irq = COM2_IRQ,
.t_vuart.vm_id = 2U,
.t_vuart.vuart_id = 1U,
},
...
/* VM2 */
.vuart[1] = {
.type = VUART_LEGACY_PIO,
.addr.port_base = COM2_BASE,
.irq = COM2_IRQ,
.t_vuart.vm_id = 1U,
.t_vuart.vuart_id = 1U,
},
.. note:: The device mode also has a virtual UART, and also uses 0x3F8
and 0x2F8 as port base. If you add ``-s <slot>, lpc`` in the launch
script, the device model will create COM0 and COM1 for the post
launched VM. It will also add the port info to the ACPI table. This is
useful for Windows and vxworks as they probe the driver according to the ACPI
table.
If the user enables both the device model UART and the hypervisor vUART at the
same port address, access to the port address will be responded to
by the hypervisor vUART directly, and will not pass to the device model.