Does Xen 4.7 support PVUSB?

[Albin Otterhaell]

I will first say that I don't know anything about how Xen works, so my
question could be wrong totally wrong. Please correct me!

According to Xen's wiki[1] "[...] support for PVUSB in xl/libxl is
introduced sinceXen 4.7, including both PVUSB device from config file
and PVUSB device hot-plug and unplug. Currently it supports USB 1.1 and
USB 2.0", does this mean that we'll be able to attach USB devices (other
than block devices, e.g. mobile phones and webcams) to qubes and still
be able to use USB keyboard and mouses?

[1] http://wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/Xen_USB_Passthrough

[Marek Marczykowski-Górecki]

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Yes, but not because of PVUSB support in xl.

According to that wiki, only dom0 backend is currently supported. And
our previous experience with PVUSB kernel drivers reveals it's really
unstable. Alternative they propose is to use backend in qemu process in
dom0, which is security disaster.

On the other hand, it turned out USBIP to be greatly improved over the
time and is quite useable. And it is possible to use it over any socket,
not only network, so we've connected it using Qubes RPC[2]. It will be
available in upcoming Qubes 3.2. There will be a separate announcement
about this major feature.

> [1] http://wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/Xen_USB_Passthrough

[2]
https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues/issues/531#issuecomment-199329326

- --
Best Regards,
Marek Marczykowski-Górecki
Invisible Things Lab
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
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[Albin Otterhaell]

Marek Marczykowski-Górecki:

> On Wed, Jun 01, 2016 at 10:41:35PM +0000, Albin Otterhaell wrote:
>> I will first say that I don't know anything about how Xen works, so my
>> question could be wrong totally wrong. Please correct me!
>
>> According to Xen's wiki[1] "[...] support for PVUSB in xl/libxl is
>> introduced sinceXen 4.7, including both PVUSB device from config file
>> and PVUSB device hot-plug and unplug. Currently it supports USB 1.1 and
>> USB 2.0", does this mean that we'll be able to attach USB devices (other
>> than block devices, e.g. mobile phones and webcams) to qubes and still
>> be able to use USB keyboard and mouses?
>
> Yes, but not because of PVUSB support in xl.
>
> According to that wiki, only dom0 backend is currently supported. And
> our previous experience with PVUSB kernel drivers reveals it's really
> unstable. Alternative they propose is to use backend in qemu process in
> dom0, which is security disaster.
>
> On the other hand, it turned out USBIP to be greatly improved over the
> time and is quite useable. And it is possible to use it over any socket,
> not only network, so we've connected it using Qubes RPC[2]. It will be
> available in upcoming Qubes 3.2. There will be a separate announcement
> about this major feature.
>
>> [1] http://wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/Xen_USB_Passthrough
>
> [2]
> https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues/issues/531#issuecomment-199329326
>
>

Thank you! This is a very important feature for me. Will we be able to
attach USB devices to different qubes, or is it still only a USBVM that
works?

And what's the ETA for R3.2?

[Ivan]

Hi,

Quoting Marek from a recent post:

There are still few blockers (see github issues), but we hope to resolve
them somehow this week and have 3.2-rc1 shortly after. From this point,
final 3.2 will be probably in two months.

>