-- Ben Armstrong, Virtualization Program Manager
Talking about core virtualization at Microsoft (Hyper-V, Virtual PC and Virtual Server).
After a short delay, the RTM build of the Linux Integration Components for Hyper-V can now be downloaded from connect.microsoft.com (You need to register for this - but registration is free and easy).
These integration components contain some critical features:
A number of people have asked me what this last item is, so let me explain. Hyper-V and Xen (an open source hypervisor based virtualization solution that you are probably aware of) have very similar architectures - despite being developed in isolation from each other. The hypercall adapter is basically a layer that translates between the Xen hypercall API and the Hyper-V hypercall API. This allows you to install a Xen paravirtualized Linux kernel inside the virtual machine in order to get the best performance possible.
With this release we are still only supporting SuSE Linux - however you can search the connect newsgroup to see posts from users who have successfully installed the Linux integration components on other versions of Linux.
Cheers, Ben
Are there any official plans to support the most widely used Linux distributions apart from Suse?
I am thinking about Redhat, Debian, Ubuntu, Mandriva and possibly others.
Ben, the link to connect is a 404.
Robert, Microsoft have done a deal with SuSE, so don't expect to see official support for any other distributions any time soon.
Is this Linux Integration Components working for openSuse ?
You say hear that the mouse support is included but on other sites I read that it will be available shortly. I can't seem to find a way to get it working the way I did with RC2. What is the scoop?
Robert -
There are no announcements right now - but we will continue to listen to customers about which operating systems should be supported on Hyper-V
Rik -
The link should work fine
Marvin256 -
Though not officially supported, I have heard from people who have got this to work
Cheers,
Ben
No - the page really does 404...
Will
@Robert, blogs are starting to appear which walk you through the install process on Debian. It is kind of a battle but if you have some experience with Linux it is doable (you need to compile a new kernel so it is not for the "weak of heart".
See here blog.manglar.com/how-to-install-linux-integration-services-version-2-1-on-a-hyper-v-virtual-machine-running-debian