Implement virtio-net driver

[Jakub Jermář]

Implement a native HelenOS driver for virtio network device.

Details

Virtio is a ​specification for virtual I/O devices that allows to use paravirtualized drivers with an otherwise fully-virtualized guest OS, leading to more efficient I/O.

Virtio network device (virtio-net) is currently supported by KVM and VirtualBox.

The new driver should be realized as a PCI device driver which plugs itself into the HelenOS Device Driver Framework (DDF) and networking stack, and implements the network interface card interface (NICF) in the virtio-net specific way.

What Gains and Benefits will this bring?

HelenOS might need a virtio network device driver if we want to run it in a KVM-based hosting (e.g. Google Compute Engine) and serve some web content (e.g. microkernel.info or even self-host helenos.org) to the public from it.

Difficulty

medium to high

Required skills

A successful applicant will have good skills of programming in the C language and the ability to learn and use HelenOS specific I/O functions. A successful applicant should have a fair understanding of the workings of the networking stack and the DDF and NICF too.

Documentation

• ​specification Virtio network device
• ​HelenOS NICF documentation
• ​Dive into HelenOS Device Drivers
• ​Writing Device Drivers for HelenOS

Possible mentors

HelenOS Core Team, Jakub Jermar

[Jakub Jermář]

Basic virtio-net driver was merged in commit ​fbfe59dafcc4f7e06cbbf09e2d88ed3e434b4a33.