[Spice-devel] [spice-gtk v4 00/13] CD sharing feature

[Gerd Hoffmann]

  Hi,

> > Probably the bare minimum needed to get things going.
> > Which guests have you tested with this?
> 
> Several Windows + several Linuxes. What you recommend to add to the check
> list?

I'd suggest adding at least FreeBSD (most popular from the *BSDs I
think) to regular tests, maybe NetBSD and OpenBSD too.

Trying unusal stuff like msdos or minix or haiku might find issues too
(but it's probably not worth to test them on a regular basis).

> > Be prepared that this will become larger over time,
> > if you find that guests submit scsi commands which
> > you do not emulate.

> Of course, but the MMC spec has mandatory and optional features.
> All the mandatory ones implemented.

And mmc is probably easy as most of them don't do much as long as you
server iso files (aka data cds) only.  No audio, no weird sector sizes,
...

scsi has various versions of the read/write commands (at least three
IIRC, 6, 10 and 12 bytes long).  Do you have all of them implemented?

> > Well, physical computers have cdroms built in too.  And they are
> > likewise there even if not used.  I fail to see why this is a problem.
> >
> 
> If I'm not mistaken, the boot screen in this case will be like one on
> attached bitmap.
> This is definitely not a feature, correct?

Hiding empty drives should be doable, and on virtual hardware it should
be reasonable fast too.

Note that seabios runs (as coreboot payload) on physical machines too,
and a physical cdrom drive may need several seconds to finish
TEST_UNIT_READY after power-on, thats why current seabios code avoids
talking to the drive unless it actually wants boot from it.

> > > With usb redirection the number of emulated drives on single channel
> > > is potentially unlimited (using multi-unit device)
> >
> > No, the limit is 16 LUNs for bulk-only transport.  Should be enough
> > though, I have a hard time to imagine use cases where you need more
> > than 2-3 isos.
> >
> > Note that you can't hotplug the LUNs individually.

> Real removal of individual unit can be done only when we stop redirecting
> it.

Same for adding individual units.  You can unplug the usb device (stop
redirecting), add/remove LUNs, then re-plug the usb device (re-start
redirecting).  Makes all drives temporarely unavailable of course.

cheers,
  Gerd