Required components

Host components

To enable input sharing, you must ensure that:

• The vdev shared object, vdev-virtio-input.so, is included in the hypervisor host image by your host buildfile.
• For each VM that hosts a guest that needs access to input devices, the virtio-input vdev is configured. For information on how to do this, see vdev virtio-input.
• The path to the configuration file (*.qvmconf file) for each guest that's running in a VM is included in your host buildfile.
• The Screen Graphics Subsystem and related input drivers, such as mtouch and io-hid, are included in the host image. See the Screen Developer's Guide for details on using and configuring Screen.
• At least one physical input device is connected to your host system. The vdev expects to find an input device; if it doesn't, the vdev prevents the qvm process from starting.
• The USB stack (io-usb-otg) and any USB device drivers (devu-*) needed for the USB keyboards or pointers connected to your host system are included in the host image. See the io-usb-otg entry in the QNX Neutrino Utilities Reference for details on the USB stack.

For information on how to configure your hypervisor host, see the “Configuration” section of the QNX Hypervisor User's Guide.

Guest components

The virtio-input vdev is a para-virtualized device. It runs in a hypervisor VM, but it doesn't emulate a specific hardware device. Instead, it provides the functionality that one or more physical devices (keyboard, mouse, touchscreen) might provide in a conventional, nonvirtualized environment.

Because the vdev is a para-virtualized device, the guest must know that it is running in a virtualized environment and add the VirtIO input kernel driver (e.g., virtio_input.ko for an Android or Linux guest) to its image. See “Building guests” in the QNX Hypervisor User's Guide for more guidelines.