[vbox-dev] [PROPOSAL] Mainline vboxguest Kernel Module for Linux

[Alex Pavel]

Hello! I have been looking again at how to implement the passing of a
config file to our Ignition first boot provisioner, which would allow us to
fully, officially support VirtualBox. For reference, see
https://www.virtualbox.org/pipermail/vbox-dev/2016-September/014057.html.

We would like to be able to use Guest Properties to accomplish this, but
the Guest Additions module being out-of-tree is a big problem for us, as we
only ship vanilla kernel (no out-of-tree modules). This leaves us with two
options:
1. Mainline the VirtualBox guest modules into the Linux kernel
(specifically vboxguest, as that exposes the guest properties interface)
2. Modify the hypervisor to allow the passing of data from the host to the
guest without the need for a special driver, allowing us to access the data
directly from userspace without having to go through a special driver and
thus require an out of tree driver. Perhaps we could make a simpler device
that we can only read from and can be accessed using more generic kernel
modules that exist in the mainline kernel.

This brings us to the main question/proposal. Would it be a possibility to
submit the VirtualBox guest modules to be merged into the mainline kernel?
Thank you in advance.

-- Alex Pavel
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