Development
Introduction
Please see the Getting Started and How to Contribute pages. There are 50+ source repositories on Github, with build instructions.
Issues and enhancements are tracked in JIRA. To request a JIRA account, send a message to the mailing list.
Questions and comments are welcome on the mailing list. To join the mailing list, send an empty email to openxt+subscribe@googlegroups.com. There is an OpenXT IRC channel and Slack workspace.
Documentation
The documents below are dated, especially with respect to video architecture, but may be useful to new developers.
- OpenXT Architecture Guide
- OpenXT Appliance Developer Guide
- OpenXT Appliance Administrator Guide
- OpenXT Management Administrator Guide
Build
- How to build OpenXT
- Container-based (Version 6+)
- Debian Wheezy (Version 5-)
- Build System Wiki
- OpenEmbedded and Xen
We are hosting a mirror of 3rd-party components needed for an appliance build. Please cache these files locally and build from your local mirror. The system hosting the mirror has limited bandwidth.
Quality Assurance
OpenXT testing:
- Unsigned development builds
- Wiki: Testing, Validation and Troubleshooting
- Automated Test Harness: BVT · BATS
- Manual Test Cases
Xen, Linux and QEMU/KVM testing:
- RedHat Testing: cobbler · avocado-vt · Continuous Kernel Integration (CKI)
- QubesOS Automated Tests · openQA · HCL
- Safety Certification: Xen · OSADL · LF ELISA
- Intel Graphics CI · gitlab · igt-gpu-tools
- Intel CHIPSEC firmware security · github
- Phoronix Linux Benchmarking History · Software
- Guest Debug: pyvmidbg · xendbg
- 2018, Yocto Automated Testing Summit
- 2018, Xen testing at Intel (WindRiver Simics)
- 2018, Performance tuning on Xen
- 2018, Microsoft Security Features and Firmware Configurations
- 2017, Andrew Cooper, Xen Test Framework
- 2016, Yocto Toaster: video · manual
- 2016, Fedora: Testing secureboot with KVM
- 2015, KVM Unit Testing
- 2014, DornerWorks: Xen and the art of certification
- 2013, Xen OSSTest Standalone Mode Step by Step
- 2013, Alex Brett, Test-as-a-Service: video · slides
- 2013, Citrix XenRT Code · Architecture · Getting Started · User Guide
- 2009, Practical Xen Testing at Intel
- 2009, Kernel Autotest: Testing the Untestable · Software
- 2005, IBM, Testing the Xen Hypervisor and Linux Virtual Machines
- 2005, Xen 3.0 Test CD
Hardware
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Intel maintains a list of Dell, HP & Lenovo vPro devices. OpenXT requires a vPro device with an integrated Intel GPU. Desktops can add AMD GPUs via IOMMU and PCI passthrough. Nvidia GPUs are not supported, except on desktops with Quadro 2000 and higher models.
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OpenXT does not claim compatibility with specific hardware models or BIOS versions. Hardware is validated by OEMs and/or integrators of tailored solutions based on the OpenXT toolkit. The following test reports are informal and advisory:
Year Client Generation OpenXT Xen Linux 2019 Coffee Lake 9.0 4.12 4.19 2018 Kaby Lake Refresh 8.0 4.9 4.14 2017 Kaby Lake 7.0 4.6 4.9 2016 Skylake 6.0 4.3 4.4
- QEMU/KVM users perform IOMMU and PCI device testing, often for gaming:
- The Passthrough Post · Hardware · Level1Techs
- VFIO subreddit
- Arch Linux PCI passthrough
- RedHat’s vfio-users mailing list
- Alex Williamson’s VFIO tips & tricks
- Intel NEMU VFIO passthrough