1. acrn-users@lists.projectacrn.org
  2. Messages
   Date   
Re: Dynamically adding VM's

Lonnie Cumberland <lonnie@...>
 

Hi Geoffroy,

I was just making preparations for getting things going and it occurred to me that you had mentioned the possibility of a refresh video in the similar vein as setting ACRN up with ClearLinux in the older video.

Just was wondering if this was currently in the plans to make a new vider using Ubuntu or similar?

Best Regards,
Lonnie

On Fri, Jan 15, 2021 at 7:10 PM Geoffroy Van Cutsem <geoffroy.vancutsem@...> wrote:

Hi Lonnie,

 

That reminds me that perhaps we should do a refresh of that video :-/

 

We do not use ClearLinux anymore inside the Service VM. We have switched to Ubuntu (for reasons linked to the way we boot, see below for a bit more details [1]). Now, that’s not to say you cannot run a different OS in the Service VM, the key will be to see if you can install all the right dependencies in it in order to run the Device Model (acrn-dm) which is the component providing the drivers (shared devices) for the User VMs. You can have a rough idea about those dependencies by looking at this section: https://projectacrn.github.io/latest/getting-started/rt_industry_ubuntu.html#build-the-acrn-hypervisor-on-ubuntu. These are the tools and development libraries needed to *build* ACRN. The runtime dependencies list is a little smaller, i.e. I don’t believe you need things like bison, flex, pkg-config, python3, git, make (and possibly others). I do not know TinyCore myself but if those packages are readily available for it, it may be a relatively straightforward exercise.

 

Cheers,

Geoffroy

 

[1] Staged removal of deprivileged boot mode support. ACRN has supported deprivileged boot mode to ease the integration of Linux distributions such as Clear Linux. Unfortunately, deprivileged boot mode limits ACRN’s scalability and is unsuitable for ACRN’s hybrid hypervisor mode. In ACRN v2.2, deprivileged boot mode is no longer the default and will be completely removed in ACRN v2.3. We’re focusing instead on using multiboot2 boot (via Grub).

 

 

 

From: acrn-users@... <acrn-users@...> On Behalf Of Lonnie Cumberland
Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2021 12:40 AM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: Re: [acrn-users] Dynamically adding VM's

 

Hello Geoffroy,

 

I actually just came across a great video that cleared up the way that ACRN runs:

 

 

It helps a lot, but I see that Clear Linux is used a lot and for my project goals, it is still much too large. I need to be able to run something like TinyCore Linux or something with an Xserver that is around 20 - 50 MB max.

 

Cheers,

Lonnie

 

On Fri, Jan 15, 2021 at 6:16 PM Geoffroy Van Cutsem <geoffroy.vancutsem@...> wrote:

Hi Lonnie,

 

It’s great to see you interested to learn and potential contribute to ACRN!! :-)

 

The most flexible pre-defined scenario that we have is the “industry” scenario. It runs up to 8 VMs (inc. the Service VM), so that’s 7 User VMs – see also this table https://projectacrn.github.io/latest/introduction/index.html#id3

 

What do you mean by “bare-metal GUI”? Are you looking for a GUI that allows you to control ACRN (something akin to virt-manager for example)?

 

Have a nice week-end too!
Geoffroy

 

From: acrn-users@... <acrn-users@...> On Behalf Of Lonnie Cumberland
Sent: Friday, January 15, 2021 9:27 PM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: [acrn-users] Dynamically adding VM's

 

Hi All,

 

I am beginning my exploration for ACRN as I think that it could offer what I need for my project which is based upon a nUltra-Litghtweight Hypervisor & Virtualizer like ACRN that will run a number of pre-loaded and dynamically loaded VM's which are composed of streamlined Unikernel applications all of which is run in RAM.

 

After searching for a VERY long time for possible candidates to use as a starting point with the strong criteria of:

 

1. Super small footprint

2. Able to run commodity guest OS's

3. Reliable and stable to semi-stable performance

4. Monolithic in design (as much as possible)

5. Would prefer it to run on Intel & AMD X86_64 based systems (others to follow)

 

I was able to narrow things down to:

 

A.) NOVA Hyervisor (Still Experimental and not mucd development, used in the Genode project)

B.) Xvisor

C.) ACRN Hypervisor

 

Both ACRN and Xvisor seem to be progressing and can offer many features but need development in some areas as well.

 

I like the very small footprint of ACRN and also that it is industrial grade for security which makes me want to use it as a starting point.

 

My goal is to do what I can to see if I can get it to run on AMD systems as well as the currently supported Intel systems and then give the patch back to the ACRN project.

 

I would also be interested to know if there is a scenario in which ACRN can dynamically load and start VM's as I did not read that in the scenario list.

 

Also, maybe finding a bare-metal GUI and adding it at a later time or perhaps in a VM as well.

 

Anyway, I look forward to seeing what I can learn and contribute to the ACRN project.

 

Cheers and have a great weekend,

Lonnie
Re: How to run acrn on my Intel PC?

Geoffroy Van Cutsem
 

Thanks Jacky. We’ll be limited in what we can try as I assume you do not have a serial port on that platform, do you? This would be the most efficient way to debug this as it’s the only output for debug info from the hypervisor at that point.

 

But we can verify and try a couple of things still:

* Make sure you have VT (Intel Virtualization) enabled in your bios

* Disable secure boot in your bios

 

I see your bios is from 2017. I would also recommend to upgrade to the latest version if there is a newer one.

 

The pre-defined config we have is for 16GB of memory, we may need to change that to 8GB and rebuild it. There is some information on how to configure ACRN for a specific platform here: https://projectacrn.github.io/latest/tutorials/acrn_configuration_tool.html (note: we’re in the process of changing that tool but this is valid for the 2.3 release that you are using).

 

Thanks!
Geoffroy

 

From: acrn-users@... <acrn-users@...> On Behalf Of Jacky Lau
Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2021 3:34 PM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: Re: [acrn-users] How to run acrn on my Intel PC?

 

There are 8G DRAM(4Gx2) installed on my computer.

 

Jacky Lau <i90091e@...> 于2021年1月21日周四 下午10:28写道：

Thank you, Geoffroy.

 

I rebuild acrn-hypervisor using "make BOARD=nuc7i7dnb SCENARIO=industry", install to /boot/acrn.

After reboot, the screen show "loading ACRN..." and nothing happens, my computer just hang.

 

I'm using ubuntu 20.04, the kernel version is 5.4.0-64-generic, and I built release_v2.3 branch of acrn-hypervisor and acrn-kernel.

This is part of lshw output on my system:

acrn                 
    description: Desktop Computer
    product: MS-7A69 (Default string)
    vendor: MSI
    version: 1.0
    serial: Default string
    width: 64 bits
    capabilities: smbios-3.0.0 dmi-3.0.0 smp vsyscall32
    configuration: boot=normal chassis=desktop family=Default string sku=Default string uuid=00000000-0000-0000-0000-309C231D2897
  *-core
       description: Motherboard
       product: B250M MORTAR (MS-7A69)
       vendor: MSI
       physical id: 0
       version: 1.0
       serial: H616541189
       slot: Default string
     *-firmware
          description: BIOS
          vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
          physical id: 0
          version: 2.40
          date: 11/17/2017
          size: 64KiB
          capacity: 16MiB
          capabilities: pci upgrade shadowing cdboot bootselect socketedrom edd int13floppy1200 int13floppy720 int13floppy2880 int5printscreen int9keyboard int14serial int17printer acpi usb biosbootspecification uefi
     *-memory
          description: System Memory
          physical id: 3c
          slot: System board or motherboard
          size: 8GiB
        *-bank:0
             description: [empty]
             physical id: 0
             slot: ChannelA-DIMM0
        *-bank:1
             description: DIMM DDR4 Synchronous Unbuffered (Unregistered) 2400 MHz (0.4 ns)

 

Geoffroy Van Cutsem <geoffroy.vancutsem@...> 于2021年1月21日周四 下午9:02写道：

Hi!

 

You may need to “port” it to your hardware. But in general, this is a Kaby Lake processor and we already use that on the NUCs so we may be able to get this to work without too much effort (famous last words… 😉)

 

Can you describe in more details what happens after you’ve followed all the instructions in the Getting Started Guide? Any logs/errors that you see on the screen?

 

One thing I would already do as well is switch to the industrial scenario, that is the one we have focused most of our efforts on over the last year (since the 1.0 release). So I’d recommend building ACRN using “make BOARD=nuc7i7dnb SCENARIO=industry”.

 

Give us more information about your system too, e.g.:
* Memory installed

* ACRN and kernel version you are using

And anything else you believe may be relevant.

 

Thanks,

Geoffroy

 

 

 

From: acrn-users@... <acrn-users@...> On Behalf Of Jacky Lau
Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2021 1:43 PM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: [acrn-users] How to run acrn on my Intel PC?

 

Hi, all.

I have a PC which have Intel i3-7100 CPU and MSI B250M MORTAR main board.

I want to run acrn on my PC, I follow acrn Getting Started document, and build the SDC scenario on the nuc7i7dnb (make all BOARD_FILE=$PWD/misc/vm_configs/xmls/board-xmls/nuc7i7dnb.xml SCENARIO_FILE=$PWD/misc/vm_configs/xmls/config-xmls/nuc7i7dnb/sdc.xml), but acrn can't boot to SOS (ubuntu 20.04).

I want to know how to run acrn on my PC? Do I need to port it to my hardware?

 

Regards

Re: How to run acrn on my Intel PC?

Jacky Lau
 

There are 8G DRAM(4Gx2) installed on my computer.

Jacky Lau <i90091e@...> 于2021年1月21日周四 下午10:28写道：

Thank you, Geoffroy.

I rebuild acrn-hypervisor using "make BOARD=nuc7i7dnb SCENARIO=industry", install to /boot/acrn.
After reboot, the screen show "loading ACRN..." and nothing happens, my computer just hang.

I'm using ubuntu 20.04, the kernel version is 5.4.0-64-generic, and I built release_v2.3 branch of acrn-hypervisor and acrn-kernel.
This is part of lshw output on my system:
acrn                 
    description: Desktop Computer
    product: MS-7A69 (Default string)
    vendor: MSI
    version: 1.0
    serial: Default string
    width: 64 bits
    capabilities: smbios-3.0.0 dmi-3.0.0 smp vsyscall32
    configuration: boot=normal chassis=desktop family=Default string sku=Default string uuid=00000000-0000-0000-0000-309C231D2897
  *-core
       description: Motherboard
       product: B250M MORTAR (MS-7A69)
       vendor: MSI
       physical id: 0
       version: 1.0
       serial: H616541189
       slot: Default string
     *-firmware
          description: BIOS
          vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
          physical id: 0
          version: 2.40
          date: 11/17/2017
          size: 64KiB
          capacity: 16MiB
          capabilities: pci upgrade shadowing cdboot bootselect socketedrom edd int13floppy1200 int13floppy720 int13floppy2880 int5printscreen int9keyboard int14serial int17printer acpi usb biosbootspecification uefi
     *-memory
          description: System Memory
          physical id: 3c
          slot: System board or motherboard
          size: 8GiB
        *-bank:0
             description: [empty]
             physical id: 0
             slot: ChannelA-DIMM0
        *-bank:1
             description: DIMM DDR4 Synchronous Unbuffered (Unregistered) 2400 MHz (0.4 ns)

Geoffroy Van Cutsem <geoffroy.vancutsem@...> 于2021年1月21日周四 下午9:02写道：

Hi!

 

You may need to “port” it to your hardware. But in general, this is a Kaby Lake processor and we already use that on the NUCs so we may be able to get this to work without too much effort (famous last words… 😉)

 

Can you describe in more details what happens after you’ve followed all the instructions in the Getting Started Guide? Any logs/errors that you see on the screen?

 

One thing I would already do as well is switch to the industrial scenario, that is the one we have focused most of our efforts on over the last year (since the 1.0 release). So I’d recommend building ACRN using “make BOARD=nuc7i7dnb SCENARIO=industry”.

 

Give us more information about your system too, e.g.:
* Memory installed

* ACRN and kernel version you are using

And anything else you believe may be relevant.

 

Thanks,

Geoffroy

 

 

 

From: acrn-users@... <acrn-users@...> On Behalf Of Jacky Lau
Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2021 1:43 PM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: [acrn-users] How to run acrn on my Intel PC?

 

Hi, all.

I have a PC which have Intel i3-7100 CPU and MSI B250M MORTAR main board.

I want to run acrn on my PC, I follow acrn Getting Started document, and build the SDC scenario on the nuc7i7dnb (make all BOARD_FILE=$PWD/misc/vm_configs/xmls/board-xmls/nuc7i7dnb.xml SCENARIO_FILE=$PWD/misc/vm_configs/xmls/config-xmls/nuc7i7dnb/sdc.xml), but acrn can't boot to SOS (ubuntu 20.04).

I want to know how to run acrn on my PC? Do I need to port it to my hardware?

 

Regards

Re: How to run acrn on my Intel PC?

Jacky Lau
 

Thank you, Geoffroy.

I rebuild acrn-hypervisor using "make BOARD=nuc7i7dnb SCENARIO=industry", install to /boot/acrn.
After reboot, the screen show "loading ACRN..." and nothing happens, my computer just hang.

I'm using ubuntu 20.04, the kernel version is 5.4.0-64-generic, and I built release_v2.3 branch of acrn-hypervisor and acrn-kernel.
This is part of lshw output on my system:
acrn                 
    description: Desktop Computer
    product: MS-7A69 (Default string)
    vendor: MSI
    version: 1.0
    serial: Default string
    width: 64 bits
    capabilities: smbios-3.0.0 dmi-3.0.0 smp vsyscall32
    configuration: boot=normal chassis=desktop family=Default string sku=Default string uuid=00000000-0000-0000-0000-309C231D2897
  *-core
       description: Motherboard
       product: B250M MORTAR (MS-7A69)
       vendor: MSI
       physical id: 0
       version: 1.0
       serial: H616541189
       slot: Default string
     *-firmware
          description: BIOS
          vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
          physical id: 0
          version: 2.40
          date: 11/17/2017
          size: 64KiB
          capacity: 16MiB
          capabilities: pci upgrade shadowing cdboot bootselect socketedrom edd int13floppy1200 int13floppy720 int13floppy2880 int5printscreen int9keyboard int14serial int17printer acpi usb biosbootspecification uefi
     *-memory
          description: System Memory
          physical id: 3c
          slot: System board or motherboard
          size: 8GiB
        *-bank:0
             description: [empty]
             physical id: 0
             slot: ChannelA-DIMM0
        *-bank:1
             description: DIMM DDR4 Synchronous Unbuffered (Unregistered) 2400 MHz (0.4 ns)

Geoffroy Van Cutsem <geoffroy.vancutsem@...> 于2021年1月21日周四 下午9:02写道：

Hi!

 

You may need to “port” it to your hardware. But in general, this is a Kaby Lake processor and we already use that on the NUCs so we may be able to get this to work without too much effort (famous last words… 😉)

 

Can you describe in more details what happens after you’ve followed all the instructions in the Getting Started Guide? Any logs/errors that you see on the screen?

 

One thing I would already do as well is switch to the industrial scenario, that is the one we have focused most of our efforts on over the last year (since the 1.0 release). So I’d recommend building ACRN using “make BOARD=nuc7i7dnb SCENARIO=industry”.

 

Give us more information about your system too, e.g.:
* Memory installed

* ACRN and kernel version you are using

And anything else you believe may be relevant.

 

Thanks,

Geoffroy

 

 

 

From: acrn-users@... <acrn-users@...> On Behalf Of Jacky Lau
Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2021 1:43 PM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: [acrn-users] How to run acrn on my Intel PC?

 

Hi, all.

I have a PC which have Intel i3-7100 CPU and MSI B250M MORTAR main board.

I want to run acrn on my PC, I follow acrn Getting Started document, and build the SDC scenario on the nuc7i7dnb (make all BOARD_FILE=$PWD/misc/vm_configs/xmls/board-xmls/nuc7i7dnb.xml SCENARIO_FILE=$PWD/misc/vm_configs/xmls/config-xmls/nuc7i7dnb/sdc.xml), but acrn can't boot to SOS (ubuntu 20.04).

I want to know how to run acrn on my PC? Do I need to port it to my hardware?

 

Regards

Re: How to run acrn on my Intel PC?

Geoffroy Van Cutsem
 

Hi!

 

You may need to “port” it to your hardware. But in general, this is a Kaby Lake processor and we already use that on the NUCs so we may be able to get this to work without too much effort (famous last words… 😉)

 

Can you describe in more details what happens after you’ve followed all the instructions in the Getting Started Guide? Any logs/errors that you see on the screen?

 

One thing I would already do as well is switch to the industrial scenario, that is the one we have focused most of our efforts on over the last year (since the 1.0 release). So I’d recommend building ACRN using “make BOARD=nuc7i7dnb SCENARIO=industry”.

 

Give us more information about your system too, e.g.:
* Memory installed

* ACRN and kernel version you are using

And anything else you believe may be relevant.

 

Thanks,

Geoffroy

 

 

 

From: acrn-users@... <acrn-users@...> On Behalf Of Jacky Lau
Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2021 1:43 PM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: [acrn-users] How to run acrn on my Intel PC?

 

Hi, all.

I have a PC which have Intel i3-7100 CPU and MSI B250M MORTAR main board.

I want to run acrn on my PC, I follow acrn Getting Started document, and build the SDC scenario on the nuc7i7dnb (make all BOARD_FILE=$PWD/misc/vm_configs/xmls/board-xmls/nuc7i7dnb.xml SCENARIO_FILE=$PWD/misc/vm_configs/xmls/config-xmls/nuc7i7dnb/sdc.xml), but acrn can't boot to SOS (ubuntu 20.04).

I want to know how to run acrn on my PC? Do I need to port it to my hardware?

 

Regards

How to run acrn on my Intel PC?

Jacky Lau
 

Hi, all.
I have a PC which have Intel i3-7100 CPU and MSI B250M MORTAR main board.
I want to run acrn on my PC, I follow acrn Getting Started document, and build the SDC scenario on the nuc7i7dnb (make all BOARD_FILE=$PWD/misc/vm_configs/xmls/board-xmls/nuc7i7dnb.xml SCENARIO_FILE=$PWD/misc/vm_configs/xmls/config-xmls/nuc7i7dnb/sdc.xml), but acrn can't boot to SOS (ubuntu 20.04).
I want to know how to run acrn on my PC? Do I need to port it to my hardware?

Regards
2021 ACRN Project Technical Community Meeting Minutes - WW04'21

Zou, Terry
 

ACRN Project TCM - 20th Jan 2021
Location
  1. Online by Zoom: https://zoom.com.cn/j/320664063   
    2.
Attendees (Total 15, 20/01)
 
Note: If you need to edit this document, please ask for access. We disabled anonymous editing to keep track of changes and identify who are the owners of the opens and agenda items.
Opens
Note: When adding opens or agenda items, please provide details (not only links), add your name next to the item you have added and specify your expectation from the TCM 
Agenda
  1. ACRN project update:
  1. Project Hardware Roadmap 2021 in projectacrn.org
    2.
  1. Open Source HW for TigerLake and ElkhartLake:  NUC and  UP2 are all good choices, we are doing the evaluation and will update in supported hardware page later: https://projectacrn.github.io/latest/reference/hardware.html
    2.
 
  1. “WW04’21 ACRN PCI based vUART introduction” Tao, Yuhong 
    2.
Download foil from ACRN Presentation->WW04’21
  1. Description: we will talk about the HV emulated UART port with PCI interface..
    2.
  1. All: Community open discussion.
    2.
Q&A: Key reason for moving from legacy vUART to PCI-based vUART is the limitation of <4 UART number and flexibility of device enumeration methodology.
 
  1. Next meeting agenda proposal:
    2.
WW Topic Presenter Status
WW04 ACRN PCI based vUART introduction Tao Yuhong 1/20/2021
Chinese NewYear Break
WW12 ACRN PTCM Introduction Wang Yu / Huang Yonghua 3/17/2021
Marketing/Events
  1. N/A
    2.
Resources
  1. Project URL: 
    2.
  1. Portal: https://projectacrn.org   
  2. Source code: https://github.com/projectacrn   
  3. email: info@... 
  4. Technical Mailing list: acrn-dev@... 
    5.
 
 

PDF
WW04'21 PCI_Based_vUART_in_HV.pdf

Re: Dynamically adding VM's

Geoffroy Van Cutsem
 

Sounds good, I look forward to hearing back from you once you’ve started to get your hands dirty!! 😉

 

From: acrn-users@... <acrn-users@...> On Behalf Of Lonnie Cumberland
Sent: Monday, January 18, 2021 11:25 PM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: Re: [acrn-users] Dynamically adding VM's

 

Hi Geiffrot,

 

That is awesome to hear as it sounds like I should be able to test the virtual GPU across User VM's as well as to do some testing for direct GPU assignment to a single user VM as well.

 

Just ordered the the NUC and am looking forward to it arriving later in the week.

 

Thanks again for all of your help and guidance.

Lonnie

 

 

On Mon, Jan 18, 2021 at 3:45 PM Geoffroy Van Cutsem <geoffroy.vancutsem@...> wrote:

Hi Lonnie,

 

Yes, you can share the graphics between VMs (Service and User VMs) on that platform. The technology is called GVT-g. Our latest release focusses more on GVT-d (i.e. direct assignment of the GPU to a VM), but I believe GVT-g should still work fine.

 

Cheers,

Geoffroy

 

From: acrn-users@... <acrn-users@...> On Behalf Of Lonnie Cumberland
Sent: Monday, January 18, 2021 5:31 PM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: Re: [acrn-users] Dynamically adding VM's

 

Hi Geoffroy,

 

for the NUC that I think that I am getting:

 

Intel NUC NUC7i7DNHE Mini PC/HTPC, Intel Quad-Core i7-8650U Upto 4.2GHz, 32GB DDR4, 512GB SSD, WiFi, Bluetooth, 4k Support, Dual Monitor Capable, Windows 10 Pro (32GB Ram + 512GB SSD)

 

with

 

·         8th Generation Intel Quad-Core i7-8650U 1.9GHz With Turbo Boost Upto 4.2GHz, 8MB Cache

·         32GB DDR4 2400MHz, 512GB Solid State Drive SATA III (You Could Add A m.2 2nd Drive)

·         Intel UHD Graphics 620, Wifi, Bluetooth 4.2, Gigabit Ethernet, 4k Support, Dual Monitor Capable

·         Windows 10 Professional 64Bit, 4x USB 3.0, 2x HDMI, 1x Headphone/Microphone Combo Jack

 

It has the "Intel UHD Graphcis 620" which I am hoping to be able to share, at least for simple testing as vGPU's for some host OS's like Windows and Linux for development and testing.

Cheers,

Lonnie

 

On Mon, Jan 18, 2021 at 10:36 AM Geoffroy Van Cutsem <geoffroy.vancutsem@...> wrote:

Quick question on the GPU side: are you planning to share the GPU between different User VMs? Or will it be dedicated to one?

 

Thanks,

Geoffroy

 

From: acrn-users@... <acrn-users@...> On Behalf Of Lonnie Cumberland
Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2021 5:37 PM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: Re: [acrn-users] Dynamically adding VM's

 

Hi All,

 

Well, I may have narrowed down the spec for the test rig:

 

1. Intel NUC NUC7i7DNKE Mini PC/HTPC, Intel Quad-Core i7-8650U Upto 4.2GHz, 32GB DDR4, 512GB m.2 SSD, WiFi, Bluetooth, 4k Support, Dual Monitor Capable, Windows 10 Pro (32GB Ram + 512GB SSD) -- $754.99

 

 

Since the https://projectacrn.github.io/latest/reference/hardware.html#hardware suggests that this system can support all of the usage scenarios.

 

2. Intel NUC NUC7i3DNHE Mini PC/HTPC, Intel Dual-Core i3-7100U 2.4GHz, 16GB DDR4, 512GB SSD, WiFi, Bluetooth, 4k Support, Dual Monitor Capable, Windows 10 Professional 64Bit (16GB Ram + 512GB SSD) -- $439.99

 

 

This one is a little cheaper as well a sa bit less powerful and may not support all of the ACRN scenarios but still might be a good deal

 

My criteria was basically:

 

A.) Able to run ACRN

B.) Reasonable RAM, and HDD (or SSD)

C.) Good Graphics Card for some GPU work and Dual HDMI

 

Any Other suggestions for a possible selection would be greatly appreciated?

 

Cheers,

Lonnie

 

 

 

On Sat, Jan 16, 2021 at 8:52 AM Lonnie Cumberland via lists.projectacrn.org <lonnie=outstep.com@...> wrote:

Hi Geoffroy,

 

Do you have any recommendations for a small inexpensive test rig (possibly NUC) with reasonable graphics that can run ACRN?  I think that instead of jumping to trying to get AMD working initially, that I should get a small Intel NUC test rig setup and start working with ACRN itself after which I can perhaps move to work towards making it work on AMD systems.  Baby steps first are better.

 

I am trying to decipher the acceptable hardware for a reasonable test rig with a reasonable GPU and a minimum of 8 - 16GB RAM, and perhaps a 500GB Drive or better but not sure of the Intel processor that is good. I see a lot of NUC systems with Core-i3, Core-i5, and Core-i7.  Seems like so many choices.

 

Any suggestions?

Lonnie

 

 

On Fri, Jan 15, 2021 at 7:10 PM Geoffroy Van Cutsem <geoffroy.vancutsem@...> wrote:

Hi Lonnie,

 

That reminds me that perhaps we should do a refresh of that video :-/

 

We do not use ClearLinux anymore inside the Service VM. We have switched to Ubuntu (for reasons linked to the way we boot, see below for a bit more details [1]). Now, that’s not to say you cannot run a different OS in the Service VM, the key will be to see if you can install all the right dependencies in it in order to run the Device Model (acrn-dm) which is the component providing the drivers (shared devices) for the User VMs. You can have a rough idea about those dependencies by looking at this section: https://projectacrn.github.io/latest/getting-started/rt_industry_ubuntu.html#build-the-acrn-hypervisor-on-ubuntu. These are the tools and development libraries needed to *build* ACRN. The runtime dependencies list is a little smaller, i.e. I don’t believe you need things like bison, flex, pkg-config, python3, git, make (and possibly others). I do not know TinyCore myself but if those packages are readily available for it, it may be a relatively straightforward exercise.

 

Cheers,

Geoffroy

 

[1] Staged removal of deprivileged boot mode support. ACRN has supported deprivileged boot mode to ease the integration of Linux distributions such as Clear Linux. Unfortunately, deprivileged boot mode limits ACRN’s scalability and is unsuitable for ACRN’s hybrid hypervisor mode. In ACRN v2.2, deprivileged boot mode is no longer the default and will be completely removed in ACRN v2.3. We’re focusing instead on using multiboot2 boot (via Grub).

 

 

 

From: acrn-users@... <acrn-users@...> On Behalf Of Lonnie Cumberland
Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2021 12:40 AM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: Re: [acrn-users] Dynamically adding VM's

 

Hello Geoffroy,

 

I actually just came across a great video that cleared up the way that ACRN runs:

 

 

It helps a lot, but I see that Clear Linux is used a lot and for my project goals, it is still much too large. I need to be able to run something like TinyCore Linux or something with an Xserver that is around 20 - 50 MB max.

 

Cheers,

Lonnie

 

On Fri, Jan 15, 2021 at 6:16 PM Geoffroy Van Cutsem <geoffroy.vancutsem@...> wrote:

Hi Lonnie,

 

It’s great to see you interested to learn and potential contribute to ACRN!! :-)

 

The most flexible pre-defined scenario that we have is the “industry” scenario. It runs up to 8 VMs (inc. the Service VM), so that’s 7 User VMs – see also this table https://projectacrn.github.io/latest/introduction/index.html#id3

 

What do you mean by “bare-metal GUI”? Are you looking for a GUI that allows you to control ACRN (something akin to virt-manager for example)?

 

Have a nice week-end too!
Geoffroy

 

From: acrn-users@... <acrn-users@...> On Behalf Of Lonnie Cumberland
Sent: Friday, January 15, 2021 9:27 PM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: [acrn-users] Dynamically adding VM's

 

Hi All,

 

I am beginning my exploration for ACRN as I think that it could offer what I need for my project which is based upon a nUltra-Litghtweight Hypervisor & Virtualizer like ACRN that will run a number of pre-loaded and dynamically loaded VM's which are composed of streamlined Unikernel applications all of which is run in RAM.

 

After searching for a VERY long time for possible candidates to use as a starting point with the strong criteria of:

 

1. Super small footprint

2. Able to run commodity guest OS's

3. Reliable and stable to semi-stable performance

4. Monolithic in design (as much as possible)

5. Would prefer it to run on Intel & AMD X86_64 based systems (others to follow)

 

I was able to narrow things down to:

 

A.) NOVA Hyervisor (Still Experimental and not mucd development, used in the Genode project)

B.) Xvisor

C.) ACRN Hypervisor

 

Both ACRN and Xvisor seem to be progressing and can offer many features but need development in some areas as well.

 

I like the very small footprint of ACRN and also that it is industrial grade for security which makes me want to use it as a starting point.

 

My goal is to do what I can to see if I can get it to run on AMD systems as well as the currently supported Intel systems and then give the patch back to the ACRN project.

 

I would also be interested to know if there is a scenario in which ACRN can dynamically load and start VM's as I did not read that in the scenario list.

 

Also, maybe finding a bare-metal GUI and adding it at a later time or perhaps in a VM as well.

 

Anyway, I look forward to seeing what I can learn and contribute to the ACRN project.

 

Cheers and have a great weekend,

Lonnie
Re: Dynamically adding VM's

Lonnie Cumberland <lonnie@...>
 

Hi Geiffrot,

That is awesome to hear as it sounds like I should be able to test the virtual GPU across User VM's as well as to do some testing for direct GPU assignment to a single user VM as well.

Just ordered the the NUC and am looking forward to it arriving later in the week.

Thanks again for all of your help and guidance.
Lonnie


On Mon, Jan 18, 2021 at 3:45 PM Geoffroy Van Cutsem <geoffroy.vancutsem@...> wrote:

Hi Lonnie,

 

Yes, you can share the graphics between VMs (Service and User VMs) on that platform. The technology is called GVT-g. Our latest release focusses more on GVT-d (i.e. direct assignment of the GPU to a VM), but I believe GVT-g should still work fine.

 

Cheers,

Geoffroy

 

From: acrn-users@... <acrn-users@...> On Behalf Of Lonnie Cumberland
Sent: Monday, January 18, 2021 5:31 PM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: Re: [acrn-users] Dynamically adding VM's

 

Hi Geoffroy,

 

for the NUC that I think that I am getting:

 

Intel NUC NUC7i7DNHE Mini PC/HTPC, Intel Quad-Core i7-8650U Upto 4.2GHz, 32GB DDR4, 512GB SSD, WiFi, Bluetooth, 4k Support, Dual Monitor Capable, Windows 10 Pro (32GB Ram + 512GB SSD)

 

with

 

·         8th Generation Intel Quad-Core i7-8650U 1.9GHz With Turbo Boost Upto 4.2GHz, 8MB Cache

·         32GB DDR4 2400MHz, 512GB Solid State Drive SATA III (You Could Add A m.2 2nd Drive)

·         Intel UHD Graphics 620, Wifi, Bluetooth 4.2, Gigabit Ethernet, 4k Support, Dual Monitor Capable

·         Windows 10 Professional 64Bit, 4x USB 3.0, 2x HDMI, 1x Headphone/Microphone Combo Jack

 

It has the "Intel UHD Graphcis 620" which I am hoping to be able to share, at least for simple testing as vGPU's for some host OS's like Windows and Linux for development and testing.

Cheers,

Lonnie

 

On Mon, Jan 18, 2021 at 10:36 AM Geoffroy Van Cutsem <geoffroy.vancutsem@...> wrote:

Quick question on the GPU side: are you planning to share the GPU between different User VMs? Or will it be dedicated to one?

 

Thanks,

Geoffroy

 

From: acrn-users@... <acrn-users@...> On Behalf Of Lonnie Cumberland
Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2021 5:37 PM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: Re: [acrn-users] Dynamically adding VM's

 

Hi All,

 

Well, I may have narrowed down the spec for the test rig:

 

1. Intel NUC NUC7i7DNKE Mini PC/HTPC, Intel Quad-Core i7-8650U Upto 4.2GHz, 32GB DDR4, 512GB m.2 SSD, WiFi, Bluetooth, 4k Support, Dual Monitor Capable, Windows 10 Pro (32GB Ram + 512GB SSD) -- $754.99

 

 

Since the https://projectacrn.github.io/latest/reference/hardware.html#hardware suggests that this system can support all of the usage scenarios.

 

2. Intel NUC NUC7i3DNHE Mini PC/HTPC, Intel Dual-Core i3-7100U 2.4GHz, 16GB DDR4, 512GB SSD, WiFi, Bluetooth, 4k Support, Dual Monitor Capable, Windows 10 Professional 64Bit (16GB Ram + 512GB SSD) -- $439.99

 

 

This one is a little cheaper as well a sa bit less powerful and may not support all of the ACRN scenarios but still might be a good deal

 

My criteria was basically:

 

A.) Able to run ACRN

B.) Reasonable RAM, and HDD (or SSD)

C.) Good Graphics Card for some GPU work and Dual HDMI

 

Any Other suggestions for a possible selection would be greatly appreciated?

 

Cheers,

Lonnie

 

 

 

On Sat, Jan 16, 2021 at 8:52 AM Lonnie Cumberland via lists.projectacrn.org <lonnie=outstep.com@...> wrote:

Hi Geoffroy,

 

Do you have any recommendations for a small inexpensive test rig (possibly NUC) with reasonable graphics that can run ACRN?  I think that instead of jumping to trying to get AMD working initially, that I should get a small Intel NUC test rig setup and start working with ACRN itself after which I can perhaps move to work towards making it work on AMD systems.  Baby steps first are better.

 

I am trying to decipher the acceptable hardware for a reasonable test rig with a reasonable GPU and a minimum of 8 - 16GB RAM, and perhaps a 500GB Drive or better but not sure of the Intel processor that is good. I see a lot of NUC systems with Core-i3, Core-i5, and Core-i7.  Seems like so many choices.

 

Any suggestions?

Lonnie

 

 

On Fri, Jan 15, 2021 at 7:10 PM Geoffroy Van Cutsem <geoffroy.vancutsem@...> wrote:

Hi Lonnie,

 

That reminds me that perhaps we should do a refresh of that video :-/

 

We do not use ClearLinux anymore inside the Service VM. We have switched to Ubuntu (for reasons linked to the way we boot, see below for a bit more details [1]). Now, that’s not to say you cannot run a different OS in the Service VM, the key will be to see if you can install all the right dependencies in it in order to run the Device Model (acrn-dm) which is the component providing the drivers (shared devices) for the User VMs. You can have a rough idea about those dependencies by looking at this section: https://projectacrn.github.io/latest/getting-started/rt_industry_ubuntu.html#build-the-acrn-hypervisor-on-ubuntu. These are the tools and development libraries needed to *build* ACRN. The runtime dependencies list is a little smaller, i.e. I don’t believe you need things like bison, flex, pkg-config, python3, git, make (and possibly others). I do not know TinyCore myself but if those packages are readily available for it, it may be a relatively straightforward exercise.

 

Cheers,

Geoffroy

 

[1] Staged removal of deprivileged boot mode support. ACRN has supported deprivileged boot mode to ease the integration of Linux distributions such as Clear Linux. Unfortunately, deprivileged boot mode limits ACRN’s scalability and is unsuitable for ACRN’s hybrid hypervisor mode. In ACRN v2.2, deprivileged boot mode is no longer the default and will be completely removed in ACRN v2.3. We’re focusing instead on using multiboot2 boot (via Grub).

 

 

 

From: acrn-users@... <acrn-users@...> On Behalf Of Lonnie Cumberland
Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2021 12:40 AM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: Re: [acrn-users] Dynamically adding VM's

 

Hello Geoffroy,

 

I actually just came across a great video that cleared up the way that ACRN runs:

 

 

It helps a lot, but I see that Clear Linux is used a lot and for my project goals, it is still much too large. I need to be able to run something like TinyCore Linux or something with an Xserver that is around 20 - 50 MB max.

 

Cheers,

Lonnie

 

On Fri, Jan 15, 2021 at 6:16 PM Geoffroy Van Cutsem <geoffroy.vancutsem@...> wrote:

Hi Lonnie,

 

It’s great to see you interested to learn and potential contribute to ACRN!! :-)

 

The most flexible pre-defined scenario that we have is the “industry” scenario. It runs up to 8 VMs (inc. the Service VM), so that’s 7 User VMs – see also this table https://projectacrn.github.io/latest/introduction/index.html#id3

 

What do you mean by “bare-metal GUI”? Are you looking for a GUI that allows you to control ACRN (something akin to virt-manager for example)?

 

Have a nice week-end too!
Geoffroy

 

From: acrn-users@... <acrn-users@...> On Behalf Of Lonnie Cumberland
Sent: Friday, January 15, 2021 9:27 PM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: [acrn-users] Dynamically adding VM's

 

Hi All,

 

I am beginning my exploration for ACRN as I think that it could offer what I need for my project which is based upon a nUltra-Litghtweight Hypervisor & Virtualizer like ACRN that will run a number of pre-loaded and dynamically loaded VM's which are composed of streamlined Unikernel applications all of which is run in RAM.

 

After searching for a VERY long time for possible candidates to use as a starting point with the strong criteria of:

 

1. Super small footprint

2. Able to run commodity guest OS's

3. Reliable and stable to semi-stable performance

4. Monolithic in design (as much as possible)

5. Would prefer it to run on Intel & AMD X86_64 based systems (others to follow)

 

I was able to narrow things down to:

 

A.) NOVA Hyervisor (Still Experimental and not mucd development, used in the Genode project)

B.) Xvisor

C.) ACRN Hypervisor

 

Both ACRN and Xvisor seem to be progressing and can offer many features but need development in some areas as well.

 

I like the very small footprint of ACRN and also that it is industrial grade for security which makes me want to use it as a starting point.

 

My goal is to do what I can to see if I can get it to run on AMD systems as well as the currently supported Intel systems and then give the patch back to the ACRN project.

 

I would also be interested to know if there is a scenario in which ACRN can dynamically load and start VM's as I did not read that in the scenario list.

 

Also, maybe finding a bare-metal GUI and adding it at a later time or perhaps in a VM as well.

 

Anyway, I look forward to seeing what I can learn and contribute to the ACRN project.

 

Cheers and have a great weekend,

Lonnie
Re: Dynamically adding VM's

Geoffroy Van Cutsem
 

Hi Lonnie,

 

Yes, you can share the graphics between VMs (Service and User VMs) on that platform. The technology is called GVT-g. Our latest release focusses more on GVT-d (i.e. direct assignment of the GPU to a VM), but I believe GVT-g should still work fine.

 

Cheers,

Geoffroy

 

From: acrn-users@... <acrn-users@...> On Behalf Of Lonnie Cumberland
Sent: Monday, January 18, 2021 5:31 PM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: Re: [acrn-users] Dynamically adding VM's

 

Hi Geoffroy,

 

for the NUC that I think that I am getting:

 

Intel NUC NUC7i7DNHE Mini PC/HTPC, Intel Quad-Core i7-8650U Upto 4.2GHz, 32GB DDR4, 512GB SSD, WiFi, Bluetooth, 4k Support, Dual Monitor Capable, Windows 10 Pro (32GB Ram + 512GB SSD)

 

with

 

·         8th Generation Intel Quad-Core i7-8650U 1.9GHz With Turbo Boost Upto 4.2GHz, 8MB Cache

·         32GB DDR4 2400MHz, 512GB Solid State Drive SATA III (You Could Add A m.2 2nd Drive)

·         Intel UHD Graphics 620, Wifi, Bluetooth 4.2, Gigabit Ethernet, 4k Support, Dual Monitor Capable

·         Windows 10 Professional 64Bit, 4x USB 3.0, 2x HDMI, 1x Headphone/Microphone Combo Jack

 

It has the "Intel UHD Graphcis 620" which I am hoping to be able to share, at least for simple testing as vGPU's for some host OS's like Windows and Linux for development and testing.

Cheers,

Lonnie

 

On Mon, Jan 18, 2021 at 10:36 AM Geoffroy Van Cutsem <geoffroy.vancutsem@...> wrote:

Quick question on the GPU side: are you planning to share the GPU between different User VMs? Or will it be dedicated to one?

 

Thanks,

Geoffroy

 

From: acrn-users@... <acrn-users@...> On Behalf Of Lonnie Cumberland
Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2021 5:37 PM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: Re: [acrn-users] Dynamically adding VM's

 

Hi All,

 

Well, I may have narrowed down the spec for the test rig:

 

1. Intel NUC NUC7i7DNKE Mini PC/HTPC, Intel Quad-Core i7-8650U Upto 4.2GHz, 32GB DDR4, 512GB m.2 SSD, WiFi, Bluetooth, 4k Support, Dual Monitor Capable, Windows 10 Pro (32GB Ram + 512GB SSD) -- $754.99

 

 

Since the https://projectacrn.github.io/latest/reference/hardware.html#hardware suggests that this system can support all of the usage scenarios.

 

2. Intel NUC NUC7i3DNHE Mini PC/HTPC, Intel Dual-Core i3-7100U 2.4GHz, 16GB DDR4, 512GB SSD, WiFi, Bluetooth, 4k Support, Dual Monitor Capable, Windows 10 Professional 64Bit (16GB Ram + 512GB SSD) -- $439.99

 

 

This one is a little cheaper as well a sa bit less powerful and may not support all of the ACRN scenarios but still might be a good deal

 

My criteria was basically:

 

A.) Able to run ACRN

B.) Reasonable RAM, and HDD (or SSD)

C.) Good Graphics Card for some GPU work and Dual HDMI

 

Any Other suggestions for a possible selection would be greatly appreciated?

 

Cheers,

Lonnie

 

 

 

On Sat, Jan 16, 2021 at 8:52 AM Lonnie Cumberland via lists.projectacrn.org <lonnie=outstep.com@...> wrote:

Hi Geoffroy,

 

Do you have any recommendations for a small inexpensive test rig (possibly NUC) with reasonable graphics that can run ACRN?  I think that instead of jumping to trying to get AMD working initially, that I should get a small Intel NUC test rig setup and start working with ACRN itself after which I can perhaps move to work towards making it work on AMD systems.  Baby steps first are better.

 

I am trying to decipher the acceptable hardware for a reasonable test rig with a reasonable GPU and a minimum of 8 - 16GB RAM, and perhaps a 500GB Drive or better but not sure of the Intel processor that is good. I see a lot of NUC systems with Core-i3, Core-i5, and Core-i7.  Seems like so many choices.

 

Any suggestions?

Lonnie

 

 

On Fri, Jan 15, 2021 at 7:10 PM Geoffroy Van Cutsem <geoffroy.vancutsem@...> wrote:

Hi Lonnie,

 

That reminds me that perhaps we should do a refresh of that video :-/

 

We do not use ClearLinux anymore inside the Service VM. We have switched to Ubuntu (for reasons linked to the way we boot, see below for a bit more details [1]). Now, that’s not to say you cannot run a different OS in the Service VM, the key will be to see if you can install all the right dependencies in it in order to run the Device Model (acrn-dm) which is the component providing the drivers (shared devices) for the User VMs. You can have a rough idea about those dependencies by looking at this section: https://projectacrn.github.io/latest/getting-started/rt_industry_ubuntu.html#build-the-acrn-hypervisor-on-ubuntu. These are the tools and development libraries needed to *build* ACRN. The runtime dependencies list is a little smaller, i.e. I don’t believe you need things like bison, flex, pkg-config, python3, git, make (and possibly others). I do not know TinyCore myself but if those packages are readily available for it, it may be a relatively straightforward exercise.

 

Cheers,

Geoffroy

 

[1] Staged removal of deprivileged boot mode support. ACRN has supported deprivileged boot mode to ease the integration of Linux distributions such as Clear Linux. Unfortunately, deprivileged boot mode limits ACRN’s scalability and is unsuitable for ACRN’s hybrid hypervisor mode. In ACRN v2.2, deprivileged boot mode is no longer the default and will be completely removed in ACRN v2.3. We’re focusing instead on using multiboot2 boot (via Grub).

 

 

 

From: acrn-users@... <acrn-users@...> On Behalf Of Lonnie Cumberland
Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2021 12:40 AM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: Re: [acrn-users] Dynamically adding VM's

 

Hello Geoffroy,

 

I actually just came across a great video that cleared up the way that ACRN runs:

 

 

It helps a lot, but I see that Clear Linux is used a lot and for my project goals, it is still much too large. I need to be able to run something like TinyCore Linux or something with an Xserver that is around 20 - 50 MB max.

 

Cheers,

Lonnie

 

On Fri, Jan 15, 2021 at 6:16 PM Geoffroy Van Cutsem <geoffroy.vancutsem@...> wrote:

Hi Lonnie,

 

It’s great to see you interested to learn and potential contribute to ACRN!! :-)

 

The most flexible pre-defined scenario that we have is the “industry” scenario. It runs up to 8 VMs (inc. the Service VM), so that’s 7 User VMs – see also this table https://projectacrn.github.io/latest/introduction/index.html#id3

 

What do you mean by “bare-metal GUI”? Are you looking for a GUI that allows you to control ACRN (something akin to virt-manager for example)?

 

Have a nice week-end too!
Geoffroy

 

From: acrn-users@... <acrn-users@...> On Behalf Of Lonnie Cumberland
Sent: Friday, January 15, 2021 9:27 PM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: [acrn-users] Dynamically adding VM's

 

Hi All,

 

I am beginning my exploration for ACRN as I think that it could offer what I need for my project which is based upon a nUltra-Litghtweight Hypervisor & Virtualizer like ACRN that will run a number of pre-loaded and dynamically loaded VM's which are composed of streamlined Unikernel applications all of which is run in RAM.

 

After searching for a VERY long time for possible candidates to use as a starting point with the strong criteria of:

 

1. Super small footprint

2. Able to run commodity guest OS's

3. Reliable and stable to semi-stable performance

4. Monolithic in design (as much as possible)

5. Would prefer it to run on Intel & AMD X86_64 based systems (others to follow)

 

I was able to narrow things down to:

 

A.) NOVA Hyervisor (Still Experimental and not mucd development, used in the Genode project)

B.) Xvisor

C.) ACRN Hypervisor

 

Both ACRN and Xvisor seem to be progressing and can offer many features but need development in some areas as well.

 

I like the very small footprint of ACRN and also that it is industrial grade for security which makes me want to use it as a starting point.

 

My goal is to do what I can to see if I can get it to run on AMD systems as well as the currently supported Intel systems and then give the patch back to the ACRN project.

 

I would also be interested to know if there is a scenario in which ACRN can dynamically load and start VM's as I did not read that in the scenario list.

 

Also, maybe finding a bare-metal GUI and adding it at a later time or perhaps in a VM as well.

 

Anyway, I look forward to seeing what I can learn and contribute to the ACRN project.

 

Cheers and have a great weekend,

Lonnie
Re: Dynamically adding VM's

Lonnie Cumberland <lonnie@...>
 

Hi Geoffroy,

for the NUC that I think that I am getting:

Intel NUC NUC7i7DNHE Mini PC/HTPC, Intel Quad-Core i7-8650U Upto 4.2GHz, 32GB DDR4, 512GB SSD, WiFi, Bluetooth, 4k Support, Dual Monitor Capable, Windows 10 Pro (32GB Ram + 512GB SSD)

with

  • 8th Generation Intel Quad-Core i7-8650U 1.9GHz With Turbo Boost Upto 4.2GHz, 8MB Cache
  • 32GB DDR4 2400MHz, 512GB Solid State Drive SATA III (You Could Add A m.2 2nd Drive)
  • Intel UHD Graphics 620, Wifi, Bluetooth 4.2, Gigabit Ethernet, 4k Support, Dual Monitor Capable
  • Windows 10 Professional 64Bit, 4x USB 3.0, 2x HDMI, 1x Headphone/Microphone Combo Jack

It has the "Intel UHD Graphcis 620" which I am hoping to be able to share, at least for simple testing as vGPU's for some host OS's like Windows and Linux for development and testing.
Cheers,
Lonnie

On Mon, Jan 18, 2021 at 10:36 AM Geoffroy Van Cutsem <geoffroy.vancutsem@...> wrote:

Quick question on the GPU side: are you planning to share the GPU between different User VMs? Or will it be dedicated to one?

 

Thanks,

Geoffroy

 

From: acrn-users@... <acrn-users@...> On Behalf Of Lonnie Cumberland
Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2021 5:37 PM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: Re: [acrn-users] Dynamically adding VM's

 

Hi All,

 

Well, I may have narrowed down the spec for the test rig:

 

1. Intel NUC NUC7i7DNKE Mini PC/HTPC, Intel Quad-Core i7-8650U Upto 4.2GHz, 32GB DDR4, 512GB m.2 SSD, WiFi, Bluetooth, 4k Support, Dual Monitor Capable, Windows 10 Pro (32GB Ram + 512GB SSD) -- $754.99

 

 

Since the https://projectacrn.github.io/latest/reference/hardware.html#hardware suggests that this system can support all of the usage scenarios.

 

2. Intel NUC NUC7i3DNHE Mini PC/HTPC, Intel Dual-Core i3-7100U 2.4GHz, 16GB DDR4, 512GB SSD, WiFi, Bluetooth, 4k Support, Dual Monitor Capable, Windows 10 Professional 64Bit (16GB Ram + 512GB SSD) -- $439.99

 

 

This one is a little cheaper as well a sa bit less powerful and may not support all of the ACRN scenarios but still might be a good deal

 

My criteria was basically:

 

A.) Able to run ACRN

B.) Reasonable RAM, and HDD (or SSD)

C.) Good Graphics Card for some GPU work and Dual HDMI

 

Any Other suggestions for a possible selection would be greatly appreciated?

 

Cheers,

Lonnie

 

 

 

On Sat, Jan 16, 2021 at 8:52 AM Lonnie Cumberland via lists.projectacrn.org <lonnie=outstep.com@...> wrote:

Hi Geoffroy,

 

Do you have any recommendations for a small inexpensive test rig (possibly NUC) with reasonable graphics that can run ACRN?  I think that instead of jumping to trying to get AMD working initially, that I should get a small Intel NUC test rig setup and start working with ACRN itself after which I can perhaps move to work towards making it work on AMD systems.  Baby steps first are better.

 

I am trying to decipher the acceptable hardware for a reasonable test rig with a reasonable GPU and a minimum of 8 - 16GB RAM, and perhaps a 500GB Drive or better but not sure of the Intel processor that is good. I see a lot of NUC systems with Core-i3, Core-i5, and Core-i7.  Seems like so many choices.

 

Any suggestions?

Lonnie

 

 

On Fri, Jan 15, 2021 at 7:10 PM Geoffroy Van Cutsem <geoffroy.vancutsem@...> wrote:

Hi Lonnie,

 

That reminds me that perhaps we should do a refresh of that video :-/

 

We do not use ClearLinux anymore inside the Service VM. We have switched to Ubuntu (for reasons linked to the way we boot, see below for a bit more details [1]). Now, that’s not to say you cannot run a different OS in the Service VM, the key will be to see if you can install all the right dependencies in it in order to run the Device Model (acrn-dm) which is the component providing the drivers (shared devices) for the User VMs. You can have a rough idea about those dependencies by looking at this section: https://projectacrn.github.io/latest/getting-started/rt_industry_ubuntu.html#build-the-acrn-hypervisor-on-ubuntu. These are the tools and development libraries needed to *build* ACRN. The runtime dependencies list is a little smaller, i.e. I don’t believe you need things like bison, flex, pkg-config, python3, git, make (and possibly others). I do not know TinyCore myself but if those packages are readily available for it, it may be a relatively straightforward exercise.

 

Cheers,

Geoffroy

 

[1] Staged removal of deprivileged boot mode support. ACRN has supported deprivileged boot mode to ease the integration of Linux distributions such as Clear Linux. Unfortunately, deprivileged boot mode limits ACRN’s scalability and is unsuitable for ACRN’s hybrid hypervisor mode. In ACRN v2.2, deprivileged boot mode is no longer the default and will be completely removed in ACRN v2.3. We’re focusing instead on using multiboot2 boot (via Grub).

 

 

 

From: acrn-users@... <acrn-users@...> On Behalf Of Lonnie Cumberland
Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2021 12:40 AM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: Re: [acrn-users] Dynamically adding VM's

 

Hello Geoffroy,

 

I actually just came across a great video that cleared up the way that ACRN runs:

 

 

It helps a lot, but I see that Clear Linux is used a lot and for my project goals, it is still much too large. I need to be able to run something like TinyCore Linux or something with an Xserver that is around 20 - 50 MB max.

 

Cheers,

Lonnie

 

On Fri, Jan 15, 2021 at 6:16 PM Geoffroy Van Cutsem <geoffroy.vancutsem@...> wrote:

Hi Lonnie,

 

It’s great to see you interested to learn and potential contribute to ACRN!! :-)

 

The most flexible pre-defined scenario that we have is the “industry” scenario. It runs up to 8 VMs (inc. the Service VM), so that’s 7 User VMs – see also this table https://projectacrn.github.io/latest/introduction/index.html#id3

 

What do you mean by “bare-metal GUI”? Are you looking for a GUI that allows you to control ACRN (something akin to virt-manager for example)?

 

Have a nice week-end too!
Geoffroy

 

From: acrn-users@... <acrn-users@...> On Behalf Of Lonnie Cumberland
Sent: Friday, January 15, 2021 9:27 PM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: [acrn-users] Dynamically adding VM's

 

Hi All,

 

I am beginning my exploration for ACRN as I think that it could offer what I need for my project which is based upon a nUltra-Litghtweight Hypervisor & Virtualizer like ACRN that will run a number of pre-loaded and dynamically loaded VM's which are composed of streamlined Unikernel applications all of which is run in RAM.

 

After searching for a VERY long time for possible candidates to use as a starting point with the strong criteria of:

 

1. Super small footprint

2. Able to run commodity guest OS's

3. Reliable and stable to semi-stable performance

4. Monolithic in design (as much as possible)

5. Would prefer it to run on Intel & AMD X86_64 based systems (others to follow)

 

I was able to narrow things down to:

 

A.) NOVA Hyervisor (Still Experimental and not mucd development, used in the Genode project)

B.) Xvisor

C.) ACRN Hypervisor

 

Both ACRN and Xvisor seem to be progressing and can offer many features but need development in some areas as well.

 

I like the very small footprint of ACRN and also that it is industrial grade for security which makes me want to use it as a starting point.

 

My goal is to do what I can to see if I can get it to run on AMD systems as well as the currently supported Intel systems and then give the patch back to the ACRN project.

 

I would also be interested to know if there is a scenario in which ACRN can dynamically load and start VM's as I did not read that in the scenario list.

 

Also, maybe finding a bare-metal GUI and adding it at a later time or perhaps in a VM as well.

 

Anyway, I look forward to seeing what I can learn and contribute to the ACRN project.

 

Cheers and have a great weekend,

Lonnie
Re: Dynamically adding VM's

Geoffroy Van Cutsem
 

Quick question on the GPU side: are you planning to share the GPU between different User VMs? Or will it be dedicated to one?

 

Thanks,

Geoffroy

 

From: acrn-users@... <acrn-users@...> On Behalf Of Lonnie Cumberland
Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2021 5:37 PM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: Re: [acrn-users] Dynamically adding VM's

 

Hi All,

 

Well, I may have narrowed down the spec for the test rig:

 

1. Intel NUC NUC7i7DNKE Mini PC/HTPC, Intel Quad-Core i7-8650U Upto 4.2GHz, 32GB DDR4, 512GB m.2 SSD, WiFi, Bluetooth, 4k Support, Dual Monitor Capable, Windows 10 Pro (32GB Ram + 512GB SSD) -- $754.99

 

 

Since the https://projectacrn.github.io/latest/reference/hardware.html#hardware suggests that this system can support all of the usage scenarios.

 

2. Intel NUC NUC7i3DNHE Mini PC/HTPC, Intel Dual-Core i3-7100U 2.4GHz, 16GB DDR4, 512GB SSD, WiFi, Bluetooth, 4k Support, Dual Monitor Capable, Windows 10 Professional 64Bit (16GB Ram + 512GB SSD) -- $439.99

 

 

This one is a little cheaper as well a sa bit less powerful and may not support all of the ACRN scenarios but still might be a good deal

 

My criteria was basically:

 

A.) Able to run ACRN

B.) Reasonable RAM, and HDD (or SSD)

C.) Good Graphics Card for some GPU work and Dual HDMI

 

Any Other suggestions for a possible selection would be greatly appreciated?

 

Cheers,

Lonnie

 

 

 

On Sat, Jan 16, 2021 at 8:52 AM Lonnie Cumberland via lists.projectacrn.org <lonnie=outstep.com@...> wrote:

Hi Geoffroy,

 

Do you have any recommendations for a small inexpensive test rig (possibly NUC) with reasonable graphics that can run ACRN?  I think that instead of jumping to trying to get AMD working initially, that I should get a small Intel NUC test rig setup and start working with ACRN itself after which I can perhaps move to work towards making it work on AMD systems.  Baby steps first are better.

 

I am trying to decipher the acceptable hardware for a reasonable test rig with a reasonable GPU and a minimum of 8 - 16GB RAM, and perhaps a 500GB Drive or better but not sure of the Intel processor that is good. I see a lot of NUC systems with Core-i3, Core-i5, and Core-i7.  Seems like so many choices.

 

Any suggestions?

Lonnie

 

 

On Fri, Jan 15, 2021 at 7:10 PM Geoffroy Van Cutsem <geoffroy.vancutsem@...> wrote:

Hi Lonnie,

 

That reminds me that perhaps we should do a refresh of that video :-/

 

We do not use ClearLinux anymore inside the Service VM. We have switched to Ubuntu (for reasons linked to the way we boot, see below for a bit more details [1]). Now, that’s not to say you cannot run a different OS in the Service VM, the key will be to see if you can install all the right dependencies in it in order to run the Device Model (acrn-dm) which is the component providing the drivers (shared devices) for the User VMs. You can have a rough idea about those dependencies by looking at this section: https://projectacrn.github.io/latest/getting-started/rt_industry_ubuntu.html#build-the-acrn-hypervisor-on-ubuntu. These are the tools and development libraries needed to *build* ACRN. The runtime dependencies list is a little smaller, i.e. I don’t believe you need things like bison, flex, pkg-config, python3, git, make (and possibly others). I do not know TinyCore myself but if those packages are readily available for it, it may be a relatively straightforward exercise.

 

Cheers,

Geoffroy

 

[1] Staged removal of deprivileged boot mode support. ACRN has supported deprivileged boot mode to ease the integration of Linux distributions such as Clear Linux. Unfortunately, deprivileged boot mode limits ACRN’s scalability and is unsuitable for ACRN’s hybrid hypervisor mode. In ACRN v2.2, deprivileged boot mode is no longer the default and will be completely removed in ACRN v2.3. We’re focusing instead on using multiboot2 boot (via Grub).

 

 

 

From: acrn-users@... <acrn-users@...> On Behalf Of Lonnie Cumberland
Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2021 12:40 AM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: Re: [acrn-users] Dynamically adding VM's

 

Hello Geoffroy,

 

I actually just came across a great video that cleared up the way that ACRN runs:

 

 

It helps a lot, but I see that Clear Linux is used a lot and for my project goals, it is still much too large. I need to be able to run something like TinyCore Linux or something with an Xserver that is around 20 - 50 MB max.

 

Cheers,

Lonnie

 

On Fri, Jan 15, 2021 at 6:16 PM Geoffroy Van Cutsem <geoffroy.vancutsem@...> wrote:

Hi Lonnie,

 

It’s great to see you interested to learn and potential contribute to ACRN!! :-)

 

The most flexible pre-defined scenario that we have is the “industry” scenario. It runs up to 8 VMs (inc. the Service VM), so that’s 7 User VMs – see also this table https://projectacrn.github.io/latest/introduction/index.html#id3

 

What do you mean by “bare-metal GUI”? Are you looking for a GUI that allows you to control ACRN (something akin to virt-manager for example)?

 

Have a nice week-end too!
Geoffroy

 

From: acrn-users@... <acrn-users@...> On Behalf Of Lonnie Cumberland
Sent: Friday, January 15, 2021 9:27 PM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: [acrn-users] Dynamically adding VM's

 

Hi All,

 

I am beginning my exploration for ACRN as I think that it could offer what I need for my project which is based upon a nUltra-Litghtweight Hypervisor & Virtualizer like ACRN that will run a number of pre-loaded and dynamically loaded VM's which are composed of streamlined Unikernel applications all of which is run in RAM.

 

After searching for a VERY long time for possible candidates to use as a starting point with the strong criteria of:

 

1. Super small footprint

2. Able to run commodity guest OS's

3. Reliable and stable to semi-stable performance

4. Monolithic in design (as much as possible)

5. Would prefer it to run on Intel & AMD X86_64 based systems (others to follow)

 

I was able to narrow things down to:

 

A.) NOVA Hyervisor (Still Experimental and not mucd development, used in the Genode project)

B.) Xvisor

C.) ACRN Hypervisor

 

Both ACRN and Xvisor seem to be progressing and can offer many features but need development in some areas as well.

 

I like the very small footprint of ACRN and also that it is industrial grade for security which makes me want to use it as a starting point.

 

My goal is to do what I can to see if I can get it to run on AMD systems as well as the currently supported Intel systems and then give the patch back to the ACRN project.

 

I would also be interested to know if there is a scenario in which ACRN can dynamically load and start VM's as I did not read that in the scenario list.

 

Also, maybe finding a bare-metal GUI and adding it at a later time or perhaps in a VM as well.

 

Anyway, I look forward to seeing what I can learn and contribute to the ACRN project.

 

Cheers and have a great weekend,

Lonnie
Re: Supported Hardware help needed

Geoffroy Van Cutsem
 

-----Original Message-----
From: acrn-users@... <acrn-users@...>
On Behalf Of Andrew Back
Sent: Sunday, January 17, 2021 9:39 PM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: Re: [acrn-users] Supported Hardware help needed

On 17/01/2021 16:10, Lonnie Cumberland wrote:
<snip>


If someone could please give me an idea as to what might be the best
option then I would greatly appreciate it as I want to order one of
these or something that may be recommended ASAP to start working on
things.

I'm not much further along than you and a total ACRN novice, but at the risk
of being corrected, I'd suggest sticking to officially supported hardware. In
which case, of all those you listed, the only two which would seem to be are
options (1) and (2), as they are NUC Series 7 with Intel Core i7 Kaby
Lake/Dawson Canyon (6th row in the first table).

There don't seem to be any NUC7i3, NUC8 series or Beelink models listed as
supported.
I would have the same recommendation than Andrew ;-). The easiest path initially is to stick to HW that is known to work and is being tested. I saw in a subsequent email that you have decided to go for the DNHE version, I also agree this is a good choice :-). It gives you flexibility in that you can easily add an additional disk in there (particularly interesting if you want to dedicate HW to a VM, for a pre-launched or a Real-Time VM for example).

The other nice advantage that NUC has is it's possible to add a serial port to it very easily (something that is not possible with many of the NUCs in general). For details on how to do that, take a look at those links:
- https://projectacrn.github.io/latest/tutorials/using_serial_port.html
- https://simplynuc.com/product/dawson-canyon-rs-232-serial-port-de-9p-expansion/

Note that the use of the serial port is considered a debug feature, if you build ACRN with RELEASE=1 then this is completely disabled. It's nevertheless a great asset when developing and working with ACRN initially!


FWIW I recently had success bringing up the Industry Scenario with an
UP2 Atom x7-E3950 (4GB RAM/32GB eMMC variant). Though I'm still finding
my way around and not managed to access the hypervisor CLI via serial port
yet. I suspect that 4GB RAM may be a bit limiting too.
Nice to hear that!!

4GB may be a bit limiting depending on what User VMs you want to run. But it shouldn't prevent ACRN from running at all. The UP2 board has 2 serial ports, which one are you trying to use?

Have you seen this guide? https://projectacrn.github.io/2.1/tutorials/up2.html


I also picked up a NUC7i7DNBE (board only - no case) to use with ACRN, but
haven't got started with this as yet.

Cheers,

Andrew

--
Andrew Back
http://abopen.com
2021 ACRN Project Technical Community Meeting (2021/1~2021/6): @ Monthly 3rd Wednesday 4PM (China-Shanghai), Wednesday 9AM (Europe-London), Tuesday 0AM (US-West Coast),

Zou, Terry
 

Special Notes: If you have Zoom connection issue by using web browser, please install & launch Zoom application, manually input the meeting ID (320664063) to join the Zoom meeting.
 
Agenda & Archives:
WW Topic Presenter Status
WW04 ACRN PCI based vUART introduction Tao Yuhong 1/20/2021
Chinese New Year Break
WW12 ACRN PTCM Introduction Wang Yu / Huang Yonghua 3/17/2021
 
Project ACRN: A flexible, light-weight, open source reference hypervisor for IoT devices
We invite you to attend a monthly "Technical Community" meeting where we'll meet community members and talk about the ACRN project and plans.
As we explore community interest and involvement opportunities, we'll (re)schedule these meetings at a time convenient to most attendees:
  • Meets every 3rd Wednesday, Starting Jan 20, 2021: 11AM-12AM (China-Shanghai), 7PM-8PM (US-West Coast), 3AM-4AM (Europe-London)
  • Chairperson: Terry ZOU, terry.zou@... (Intel)
  • Online conference link: https://zoom.com.cn/j/320664063
  • Zoom Meeting ID: 320 664 063
  • Special Notes: If you have Zoom connection issue by using web browser, please launch Zoom application, manually input the meeting ID (320664063) to join the Zoom meeting.
  • Online conference phone:
    •
  • China: +86 010 87833177  or 400 669 9381 (Toll Free)
  • Germany: +49 (0) 30 3080 6188  or +49 800 724 3138 (Toll Free)
  • US: +1 669 900 6833  or +1 646 558 8656   or +1 877 369 0926 (Toll Free) or +1 855 880 1246 (Toll Free)
  • Additional international phone numbers
    •
  • Meeting Notes:
    •
 

Calendar

Re: A question on ACRN Design

Chen, Jason CJ
 

Hi, Lonnie,

 

If I understand your point correctly, you actually want to build a logic partitioned scenario which ensure each guest is isolated w/ its partitioned HW resource?

 

From my P.O.V,  the idea is great 😊,  and ACRN actually supports such scenario. But the coming questions are:

  • How could we support IO sharing? eg. a few guests want to share the storage device
  • Even there is no need for IO sharing,  we still expect HW/platform improvement in the future to avoid cases such like the following:
    • Devices shared interrupt pin
    • Devices based on shared explicit device (eg. GPIO, I2C)
    • Devices based on shared implicit resource (eg. sideband to control the device power)
    • Devices with DMA but not protected by IOMMU
    • …

 

I may not be able to list all, my point here is that under current situation, ACRN can only claim to support pass-thru devices with limitations. So you may setup your scenario based on logical partition, but with a few known limitations.

 

Thanks & Best Regards,

 

Jason Chen

 

IAGS -> SSE -> Intel ACRN Hypervisor Team

 

From: acrn-users@... <acrn-users@...> On Behalf Of Lonnie Cumberland
Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2021 6:54 AM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: [acrn-users] A question on ACRN Design

 

Greetings All,

 

Although I am still very new to ACRN and various development efforts, I often wondered about this question as it relates to ACRN and other Type-1 Hypervisors as well.

 

ACRN, like XEN, uses the approach of having a Dom0 for device drivers and main control services and has DomU for the user VM's

 

So then, here is what I am wondering.

 

Why is this design used when it seems to me that there should not be a single Dom0 for the drivers and such that if one crashes hard then there is the possibility that it can crash other critical drivers and code that is currently running?

 

Would it not be better to have each system driver in its own Dom0 that is running independently from the other drivers such that if a crash, or malicious attack, occurs then only that driver fails while the rest of the system is protected.  Full OS's do not have to be run in these driver Dom0 instances as I was thinking along the lines of Unikernels for each driver.

 

It seems like there could be many ways to set this up and it appears to be safer to me, but I have wondered why this approach has not been used?

 

Just a Noob learning here so please forgive me if there is something blatantly obvious that I just do not see.

 

Cheers,

Lonnie
Re: VT-d posted interrupts support

reswara1@...
 

First of all, thank you for your insights!

ACRN paper described that it used Intel Celeron Processor J3455 and the hardware doesn't support the posted-interrupt feature. 

Can you please let me know the intel processor (Eg. ATOM or XEON or anything specific) that supports this posted-interrupt feature?
Re: [acrn-dev] Supported Hardware help needed

Victor Sun
 

Both NUC7i7DNKE and NUC7i7DNHE are using nuc7i7dnb board, which is officially supported by ACRN now.

You can use “make hypervisor BOARD=nuc7i7dnb SCENARIO=$your_scenario” or “make hypervisor BOARD_FILE=misc/vm_configs/xms/board-xms/nuc7i7dnb.xml SCENARIO_FILE=$your_scenario_file” to build the hypervisor.

Please refer Build ACRN from Source — Project ACRN™ 2.4-unstable documentation

 

BR,

Victor

 

From: acrn-dev@... <acrn-dev@...> On Behalf Of Lonnie Cumberland
Sent: Monday, January 18, 2021 12:10 AM
To: acrn-users@...; acrn-dev@...
Subject: [acrn-dev] Supported Hardware help needed

 

Hi All,

 

Hope that everyone is going well. Seems like the mailing list is not too active over the weekends.

 

I have been searching to match a NUC or similar system that will run ACRN and have proposed a couple and have been using the ACRN hardware list to help guide me:

 

 

Some of the reasonably priced systems that I have found are:

 

1. Intel NUC NUC7i7DNHE Mini PC/HTPC, Intel Quad-Core i7-8650U Upto 4.2GHz, 32GB DDR4, 512GB SSD, WiFi, Bluetooth, 4k Support, Dual Monitor Capable, Windows 10 Pro (32GB Ram + 512GB SSD) -- Intel UHD Graphics 620

 

2. Intel NUC NUC7i7DNKE Mini PC/HTPC, Intel Quad-Core i7-8650U Upto 4.2GHz, 32GB DDR4, 512GB m.2 SSD, WiFi, Bluetooth, 4k Support, Dual Monitor Capable, Windows 10 Pro (32GB Ram + 512GB SSD) -- Intel UHD Graphics 620

 

3.) Intel NUC NUC7i3DNHE Mini PC/HTPC, Intel Dual-Core i3-7100U 2.4GHz, 16GB DDR4, 512GB SSD, WiFi, Bluetooth, 4k Support, Dual Monitor Capable, Windows 10 Professional 64Bit (16GB Ram + 512GB SSD) -- Intel HD Graphics 620

 

But just came across these possible ones as well:

 

A.) Intel NUC NUC8i5BEK Mini PC/HTPC, Intel Quad-Core i5-8259U Upto 3.8GHz, 32GB DDR4, 512GB SSD, WiFi, Bluetooth, Thunderbolt 3, 4k Support, Dual Monitor Capable, Windows 10 Pro (32GB Ram + 512GB SSD) -- Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655

 

B.) Mini PC, Beelink U57 Intel Core i5-5257U Processor (up to 3.10GHz) Windows 10 Pro Mini Desktop Computer, 8GB DDR3L/256GB M.2 SSD, Supports Extended HDD & SSD 2.5″/4K HD/Dual HDMI/Dual WiFi /BT4.0 -- Intel Ultra HD Graphics 6100

 

If someone could please give me an idea as to what might be the best option then I would greatly appreciate it as I want to order one of these or something that may be recommended ASAP to start working on things.

 

Thanks in advance, and have a great weekeend

Lonnie
Re: VT-d posted interrupts support

Li, Fei1
 

On Sun, Jan 17, 2021 at 08:46:43AM -0800, reswara1@... wrote:
Hello,
Hi

I am looking forward to buying intel embedded SoC that supports VT-d posted
interrupts. There are a lot of intel processors used for embedded systems that
support VT-d.

Q1) Does VT-d support guarantees VT-d posted interrupts mechanism?
No, VT-d hardware could support Interrupt Remapping or Interrupt Posting or both of them.


Q2) If not, what are the intel embedded processors that support VT-d posted
interrupt mechanism?
Interrupt posting includes hardware support for optimized processing of interrupt requests from I/O
devices (Physical Functions, SR-IOV Virtual Functions, or Intel® Scalable IOV Assignable Device
Interfaces (ADIs)) that are directly assigned to a virtual machine.

Thanks.


Thank you so much for your help in advance!

Re: Supported Hardware help needed

Lonnie Cumberland <lonnie@...>
 

Thanks so very much for the clarification, Andrew.

That tells me exactly what I need and think that I will go ahead and get the first one on my list as it has a taller case which may allow for an additional HDD or SSD in the future.

Cheers,
Lonnie


On Sun, Jan 17, 2021 at 5:43 PM Andrew Back <andrew@...> wrote:
On 17/01/2021 20:59, Lonnie Cumberland wrote:

> Although I am not completely clear what the differences in (1) and (2)
> are in the ending naming of NUC Series 7 where it has "DNHE" and "DNKE".
> I think that this might have to do with the enclosure (maybe) that the
> boards are in, but could be totally wrong here.

For details see:

https://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/support/articles/000031273/intel-nuc.html

So B = board-only, K = slim case and H = tall case. The E at the end is
for extended life cycle, which might be important if you're designing
into a product and where long term availability is key.

Andrew

--
Andrew Back
http://abopen.com
Re: Supported Hardware help needed

Andrew Back
 

On 17/01/2021 20:59, Lonnie Cumberland wrote:

Although I am not completely clear what the differences in (1) and (2)
are in the ending naming of NUC Series 7 where it has "DNHE" and "DNKE".
I think that this might have to do with the enclosure (maybe) that the
boards are in, but could be totally wrong here.
For details see:

https://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/support/articles/000031273/intel-nuc.html

So B = board-only, K = slim case and H = tall case. The E at the end is
for extended life cycle, which might be important if you're designing
into a product and where long term availability is key.

Andrew

--
Andrew Back
http://abopen.com
401 - 420 of 1252