Serial communication between VMs

Fellow Parallelians,

Has anyone been able to get serial communication to work between VMs? I'd like
to use it for kernel debugging of an XP client.

Thanks for your help. Robert

 

I have. In one VM, create a serial socket like /tmp/serial, configure it as a server. Start it up. Configure the other VM to use the same socket /tmp/serial and configure it as a client.

I got to see a linux system's console bootup messages this way in WinXP's comm program.

 

Tried that without success

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried that first thing months ago.

That leads me to believe it's just a config problem here so there is hope.

Robert

 

Also tried without success

I also am trying to run a Windows Kernel debugger across the virtual serial port. I'm using build 1862.2. First I tried:

* Running the debug target as server, debugger as client
* Running the debugger as server, debug target as client
* Booting without Windows debugging, and using Hyperterm

When I use Hyperterm, it appears that both sides can talk to each other, but in one direction, there are "errors" as I type.

Has anyone else had any success with the virtual serial ports?

 

Note that when I posted my response above, I was running 1862.2. Continuing with that, this is what I've found so far:

* With 1862.2:

** Waited for an hour or more (lunchtime) after the kernel debugger should have connected. During that time, an initial connection was made, but not completed. The debug target is still hanging before the Windows boot screen. In other words, I believe that the serial port stuff "works", but it's full of so many errors that it is extremely slow and unusable.

** Changed baud rate to 19200 from 115200. This didn't seem to help.

* Then I downgraded to build 1848.

** Tried to connect with kernel debugger at 19200. Still no success, after waiting for 15 minutes. The debug target is hung before Windows boot, and the debugger says "Waiting to reconnect..." There is some traffic on the serial port, as it is flashing...
** Used Hyperterminal in both VM's. Now at 115200, I can communicate across both without errors.
** Tried to connect with kernel debugger at 115200. Still no success, after waiting for 10 minutes. Again, the debug target is hung before Windows boot, and the debugger says "Waiting to reconnect..." There is some traffic on the serial port, as it is flashing...

I seem to have found that the Beta 1862.2 makes the virtual serial port worse, with the communication errors that I saw. I could not replicate those comm errors in 1848. However, it still doesn't work. I think that I'm doing something wrong with Windows Kernel debugging, but when I did this on VMware with my Linux machine with two WIndows virtual guests, it always just worked.

 

Has any progress been made on this with the latest betas?

 

To follow-up on my last question:

Finally installed 3106 beta 3 based on the feedback from the forum. Kernel debug across VMs works over serial as long as WinDBG isn't trying to connect at client boot.

Kudos and thanks to the development team!