Bernard wrote:
On 4/23/07, Grok Mogger <linuximp@gmail.com> wrote:Bernard wrote: > Hi, > > I need a kernel to install in guest systems in Xen. This kernel > should NOT have the PAE option enable while the kernel was compiled. > Does someone can tell me if all the kernels in Etch are compiled with > this option enabled? Should I recompile a kernel for my guest systems > or is it possible to download a kernel with PAE disabled? > > Thanks, > Bernard > > Do you already have Xen installed and running? If so, I'll assume you've managed to get it setup to run unmodified Guests. In which case you just need an ordinary Debian kernel, right? If so, I see two kernel packages. linux-image-686 linux-image-686-bigmem 686 seems to be without PAE. 686-bigmem seems to be with PAE. These are for the x86 architecture, of course. I'm sure the names are similar for others. If you don't have Xen installed and running, then that changes things. =) And one question I have for anyone out there: Does the Debian Xen package have VMX support enabled for running unmodified Guests? - GMok, I got the kernel with and without PAE. Now my problem is that I don't find the kernel: xm create ./vmetch.conf Using config file "./vmetch.conf". Error: Kernel image does not exist: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-4-686I checked the kernel is available, if it was misspelled and everything is ok.What is wrong? Thanks, Bern
Since I think there's a few different ways to use Xen, why don't I tell you how things work in my setup?
I run Xen "paravirtualized". That means that my Guest OS kernels must all be modified to work with Xen. That means that I can't run, for instance, a Windows guest, because obviously I can't modify the Windows kernel.
I have a Dom0 that boots off of a kernel in /boot/ called "vmlinuz-2.6.16-2-xen-686". Here is the relevant entry from my /boot/grub/menu.lst.
## ## End Default Options ## title Xen 3.0 / XenLinux 2.6 kernel /boot/xen-3.0.2-1-i386.gz dom0_mem=256M console=vgamodule /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.16-2-xen-686 root=/dev/md0 ro console=tty0
module /boot/initrd.img-2.6.16-2-xen-686 savedefault bootThen, all my Guest Domains use that same kernel. All their /boot directories are actually completely EMPTY. Here is the relevant line from one of my guest domain's conf files.
#---------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Kernel image file. kernel = "/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.16-2-xen-686"I have a feeling that you are hoping to run an unmodified Guest OS. One with a kernel different than that of your Dom0. I probably can't help you much there, never done that myself. But here is what I've gathered from reading a lot of crap on the Internet.
I think that in order to run an unmodified Guest OS in Xen, you must have a processor with IntelVT or AMDV, Intel and AMD's Virtualization Extensions for their newer processors. I think VMWare can do said feat without these extensions, but I am pretty sure Xen cannot. Here is a link to how you can figure out if your processor has these extensions or not.
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-5-manual/Virtualization-en-US/ch-op-sys-support.htmlIn addition, I think that Xen must have VMX support enabled during compile time. I'm not sure if the Debian package has it enabled or not, but I read someone say somewhere that in his experience it usually was enabled by default and it was the rare case that it was actually off instead.
Finally, I think there were several example guest domain config files with the Debian Xen package, right? I think one or two of those were examples for running an unmodified Guest. Try looking in /usr/share/doc/xen-utils-common/ for these example files.
And one last thing, just a thought: You might be able to use the Xen PAE kernel for your Dom0 and then just use the Xen non-PAE kernel for your Guest domains. I'm not sure if it would work or not.
Good luck, hope that helped, let me know how it goes, - GM