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PCIBACK(4) Device Drivers Manual (xen) PCIBACK(4)
NAME
pciback - Xen backend paravirtualized PCI pass-through driver
SYNOPSIS
pciback* at pci?
DESCRIPTION
The pciback driver is the backend part of the PCI pass-through
functionality that can be used by the Xen dom0 to export pci(4) devices
to a guest domain. To export a PCI device to a guest domain, the device
has to be attached to pciback in the dom0.
When the guest domain is NetBSD, the device attached to the pciback
driver will attach to a xpci(4) bus inside the guest domain.
EXAMPLES
To attach a device to the pciback driver, follow these steps:
1. look for the device PCI ID, via pcictl(8).
2. edit boot.cfg(5) and add the PCI ID to the list of PCI IDs
that you want to attach to pciback, in bus:device.function
notation. The list is passed to dom0 module via the
pciback.hide parameter:
pciback.hide=(bus:dev.fun)(bus:dev.func)(...)
See also boot(8).
3. reboot dom0.
4. add the PCI ID to the list of PCI devices in the domain
configuration file:
pci = ['bus:dev.fun', '...']
5. start the guest domain.
SEE ALSO
pci(4), xpci(4), boot(8), pcictl(8)
HISTORY
The pciback driver first appeared in NetBSD 5.1.
AUTHORS
The pciback driver was written by Manuel Bouyer <bouyer@NetBSD.org>.
CAVEATS
Currently, to attach a device to the pciback backend, this procedure has
to be performed at boot(8) time. In the future, it will be possible to
do it without requiring a dom0 reboot.
SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
As PCI passthrough offers the possibility for guest domains to send
arbitrary PCI commands to a physical device, this has direct impact on
the overall stability and security of the system. For example, in case
of erroneous or malicious commands, the device could overwrite physical
memory portions, via DMA.
NetBSD 10.99 January 8, 2011 NetBSD 10.99