METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DISPLAY DEVICE CONFIGURATION IN A VIRTUAL MACHINE ENVIRONMENT

• US 20100306771A1
• Filed: 05/31/2009
• Published: 12/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat Israel Ltd. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat Israel Ltd. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Gilboa, Arnon, Kamay, Yaniv
• Granted Patent: US 8,473,958 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

A method and system for display device configuration in a VM environment are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes determining one or more display devices of a client and transmitting client display information to a host running one or more VMs. Further, a notification is received by the client from the host indicating that display settings of the VM were configured based on the client display information.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

determining, by a client, one or more display devices of the client;

transmitting, by the client, client display information to a host, the client display information identifying the one or more display devices, the host running one or more virtual machines (VMs); and

receiving, by the client, a notification from the host indicating that display information of a VM was configured based on the client display information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the client display information further identifies one or more current settings associated with each display device of the client.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the client display information further identifies one or more alternative settings supported by each display device of the client.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising adjusting the settings of the client display devices according to current display settings of the VM prior to establishing a display connection between the VM and the client display devices, the current display settings of the VM being included in the notification received from the host.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising adjusting the settings of the client display devices according to current display settings of the VM after establishing a display connection between the VM and the client display devices, the current display settings of the VM being included in a mode operation message received from the host.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the one or more settings include at least one of resolution, orientation, display position, color depth, and sub-pixel order.

7. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

detecting a change in the settings of the client display devices during an active display connection between the VM and the client display device;

sending changed settings of the client display devices to the VM; and

receiving a notification from the VM indicating that the display information of the VM was configured based on the changed settings of the client display devices.

8. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving, by a virtual machine (VM) running on a host computer, client display information identifying one or more display devices of a client remotely coupled to the host;

configuring, by the VM, display device information of the VM based on the client display information; and

sending, by the VM, a notification that the display device information of the VM was configured based on the client display information.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the client display information further identifies one or more settings associated with each display device of the client.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising disabling, by the VM, a virtual device of the VM if a corresponding client display device is not included in the client display information.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein configuring the display device information of the VM further comprises updating one or more settings of at least one virtual device of the VM with settings specified for a corresponding display device of the client.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the settings specified for the corresponding client display device in the client display information include at least one of resolution, orientation, display position, color depth, and sub-pixel order.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving changed settings of the client display devices from the client during an active display connection;

adjusting the display information of the VM based on the changed settings of the client display devices; and

sending a notification to the client indicating that the display information of the VM was adjusted based on the changed settings of the client display devices.

14. A method comprising:

receiving, by a device agent within a virtual machine (VM) hosted by a computer, data identifying one or more display devices of the computer and one or more settings associated with each display device;

determining, by the device agent within the VM hosted by the computer, whether display device settings of the VM have different settings than the one or more settings associated with each display device of the computer; and

adjusting, by the device agent within the VM hosted by the computer, the display device settings of the VM based on the settings of the display devices of the computer.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein adjusting the display device settings of the VM comprises updating settings of one or more virtual devices of the VM with the one or more settings associated with the one or more display devices of the computer if the one or more settings associated with the one or more display devices are supported by the virtual devices of the VM.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein adjusting the display device settings of the VM comprises disabling a virtual device of the VM if a corresponding display device is not included in the received data.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the received data contains a list of alternative settings.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein adjusting the display device settings of the VM comprises configuring one or more virtual devices of the VM using alternative settings supported by the virtual devices of the VM.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving changed settings of a display device of the computer during an active display connection;

adjusting the display device settings of the VM based on the changed settings of the display device of the computer; and

sending a notification indicating that the display device settings of the VM were adjusted based on the changed settings of the client display devices.

20. A system, comprising:

a processor;

a memory;

one or more display devices coupled to the processor and memory; and

a virtual machine (VM) executed from the memory to virtualize the processor and memory, the VM

including a device agent operable to;

receive data identifying the one or more display devices and one or more settings associated with each display device,

determine whether display settings of the VM have different settings than the one or more settings associated with each display device; and

adjust the display settings of the VM based on the settings of the display devices.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the display devices are display devices of a client coupled to the processor and memory remotely.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the client comprises a client display manager to create a list with display devices of the client and settings of the display devices of the client, to transmit the list to a host including the memory and the processor, and to receive a notification from the host indicating that display information of the VM was configured based on the list received from the client.

23. An of manufacture comprising a machine-readable storage medium including data that, when accessed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

determining, by a client, one or more display devices of the client;

transmitting, by the client, client display information to a host, the client display information identifying the one or more display devices, the host running one or more virtual machines (VMs); and

receiving, by the client, a notification from the host indicating that display

information of a VM was configured based on the client display information.

24. An article of manufacture comprising a machine-readable storage medium including data that, when accessed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

receiving, by a virtual machine (VM) running on a host computer, client display information identifying one or more display devices of a client remotely coupled to the host;

configuring, by the VM, display device information of the VM based on the client display information; and

sending, by the VM, a notification that the display device information of the VM was configured based on the client display information.