Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH] virtio_ring: Use DMA API if guest memory is encrypted

From: Christoph Hellwig <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2019 08:24:07 +0100

On Mon, Feb 04, 2019 at 04:38:21PM -0500, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote:
> It was designed to make, when set, as many guests as we can work
> correctly, and it seems to be successful in doing exactly that.
> 
> Unfortunately there could be legacy guests that do work correctly but
> become slow. Whether trying to somehow work around that
> can paint us into a corner where things again don't
> work for some people is a question worth discussing.

The other problem is that some qemu machines just throw passthrough
devices and virtio devices on the same virtual PCI(e) bus, and have a
common IOMMU setup for the whole bus / root port / domain.  I think
this is completely bogus, but unfortunately it is out in the field.

Given that power is one of these examples I suspect that is what
Thiago referes to.  But in this case the answer can't be that we
pile on hack ontop of another, but instead introduce a new qemu
machine that separates these clearly, and make that mandatory for
the secure guest support.