[2024-feb-29] Sad news: Eric Layton aka Nocturnal Slacker aka vtel57 passed away on Feb 26th, shortly after hospitalization. He was one of our Wiki's most prominent admins. He will be missed.

Welcome to the Slackware Documentation Project

Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

Link to this comparison view

Both sides previous revisionPrevious revision
Next revision
Previous revision
howtos:misc:xen_domu_guest [2020/07/03 18:56 (UTC)] bifferoshowtos:misc:xen_domu_guest [2020/07/03 23:35 (UTC)] (current) – [Test the kernel] bifferos
Line 1: Line 1:
 <!-- Add your text below. We strongly advise to start with a Headline (see button bar above). --> <!-- Add your text below. We strongly advise to start with a Headline (see button bar above). -->
-====== Creating a Xen DomU Guest ======+====== Slackware as a Xen DomU Guest ======
  
 ===== Introduction ===== ===== Introduction =====
  
-This document explains how to go about creating a guest virtual machine for a Xen environment using HVM (with PV drivers) virtualisation mode.  Such a VM could be used on AWS (Amazon Web Services) or with an on-premise Xen setup but has the added advantage that it will still boot into VirtualBox, KVM, VMWare as it uses a conventional MBR to boot.  There is no requirement to use grub and we can stick with the familiar LILO.+This document explains how to create a guest virtual machine for a Xen environment using HVM (with PV drivers) virtualisation mode.  Such a VM could be used on AWS (Amazon Web Services) or with an on-premise Xen setup but has the added advantage that it will still boot into Desktop virtualisation software like VirtualBox, KVM, VMWare as it uses a conventional MBR.  There is no requirement to use Grub and we can stick with the familiar LILO.
  
 ===== Installation ===== ===== Installation =====
  
-First, we must prepare a Slackware install in a virtual machine.  You could always do this in Xen itself, however I recommend using something else, e.g. VirtualBox, KVM, VMWare or something because I suspect it will be faster.  My experience of HVM (non-paravirtualised) Xen is that it is not as fast as KVM/VirtualBox, and we will need to recompile a kernel for this.+First, we must prepare a Slackware install in a virtual machine.  You could always do this in Xen itself, however I'using VirtualBox because it's easier to setup.
  
-Select at a minimum disk sets A, AP, D, K, L and N sets.  Install everything.  You can try with less if you like, this is the way I've tested.+Select at a minimum disk sets A, AP, D, K, L and N sets.  Install everything.  You can try with less if you like, but this is tested and working.
  
 ===== Make an Initrd ===== ===== Make an Initrd =====
  
-Now we must create an initrd.+Now we must create an initrd.  Any initrd.  Yes, that's right it doesn't has to contain any modules just exist.
  
 <code> <code>
Line 60: Line 60:
 </code> </code>
  
-After this you may wish to run lilo, check that your system still boots.  All we have done is convert the root device to use UUID, nothing else. This is explained elsewhere in Slackware documentation but added here to speed things up.+After this you may wish to run lilo, check that your system still boots.  All we have done is change the root device specification such that it's in terms of UUID, nothing else. This is explained more fully [[howtos:slackware_admin:how_to_configure_fstab_and_lilo.conf_with_persistent_naming|elsewhere]].
  
  
Line 141: Line 141:
 </code> </code>
  
-Note we don't need the modules unless you formatted rootfs with the non-default filesystem.+Note we don't need the modules unless you formatted rootfs with some obscure filesystem :).
  
 ===== Test the kernel ===== ===== Test the kernel =====
Line 172: Line 172:
 </code> </code>
  
-Now test that your system still boots when using the Xen kernel.  Nothing much should have changed, but you can now import this virtual machine into a DomU environment, and it should boot from a paravirtualised hard disk volume if it's detected.+Now test that your system still boots when using the Xen kernel.  Nothing much should have changed, but you can now import this virtual machine into a DomU environment, and it should detect and use paravirtualised hardware if available.  You'll know if it has succeeded because device node /dev/xvda exists and various files are found in /sys/bus/xen/devices/.
  
 ====== Sources ====== ====== Sources ======
 <!-- Authors are allowed to give credit to themselves! --> <!-- Authors are allowed to give credit to themselves! -->
-<!-- * Originally written by [[wiki:user:bifferos | User Bifferos]] -->+* Originally written by [[wiki:user:bifferos | User Bifferos]]
  
 <!-- Please do not modify anything below, except adding new tags.--> <!-- Please do not modify anything below, except adding new tags.-->
 <!-- You must remove the tag-word "template" below before saving your new page --> <!-- You must remove the tag-word "template" below before saving your new page -->
 {{tag>howtos virtualisation xen domu}} {{tag>howtos virtualisation xen domu}}
 howtos:misc:xen_domu_guest ()