[vbox-dev] Using VirtualBox network drivers

[Ivo Smits]

Just a few ideas which are probably somewhat easier:
- Use libpcap to capture and inject network packets (useable directly 
from userspace, you will need to handle packet filtering yourself but 
it's easy)
- Use a tap device and a linux kernel network bridge (the tap device 
will work like a real switch port, with some filtering provided by the 
network bridge)
- Use VDE (should be easy to use, can connect to host network 
interfaces, tap devices or act as a NAT gateway)

Ivo Smits

Op 5-12-2012 23:17, Gary Palter schreef:
> I am working on a project for a client which involves migrating a 20+ year old application to Linux.  (All I can say about the application is that it's an emulator for an almost 30 year old computer architecture.)
>
> The guest's operating system is aware that it's running in a virtual machine.  For network access, it communicates with the emulator through a set of queues to send and receive Ethernet packets.  In the original emulator, we attach a packet filter to the Ethernet interface in order to inject packets onto the wire and grab packets intended for the guest.
>
> For the new emulator, we want to use the VirtualBox network drivers to setup a bridged interface.  I've spent several hours reading through the source code and, frankly, I'm lost.
>
> How, exactly, does VirtualBox setup a bridged interface?  (I know that VboxNetFlt driver is involved but I don't know how it's hooked up.)  How is ARP handled?  How would I use the VirtualBox drivers in our emulator, keeping in mind that there's no VBox guest involved?
>
> Thank you for your assistance,
>
>   - Gary Palter
>     Principal Software Engineer
>     Clozure Associates
>
>
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