I getting close to trying hardware virtualization with a new AMD cpu, and was wondering if anyone has had any luck with the new AMD cpu and if anyones knows of any How-to''s out there. Thanks. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
I set up HVM on an AM2 Athlon64 X2 3800+. I don''t have a HOWTO for it, but I downoaded the xen-unstable source to do it. I installed on Debian Etch. The documentation you get with xen-unstable includes an appendix describing what you need to do to run an OS with HVM (e.g. Windows on an AM2 chip). One thing that got me was that you need to install a few extra packages before you run ''make world'', otherwise the HVM won''t work. These extra packages are only mentioned in the appendix, so before you build Xen, read the appendix. The packages are libsdl, libvncserver and dev86 (on Debian, my system, there is no dev86 and I had to install 2 packages: bin86 and bcc which provide the same functionality I think). I also had problems using a physical partition as a VBD for the HVM guest. I had to use a file-backed VBD which works fine. Incidentally, I didn''t have to fiddle around with any BIOS settings to get this to work. From what I understand, HVM on AM2 systems should work without having to change anything in the BIOS, but I could be wrong on that. I hope that helps. It''s definitely doable. Yasir I getting close to trying hardware virtualization with a new AMD cpu, and was wondering if anyone has had any luck with the new AMD cpu and if anyones knows of any How-to''s out there. Thanks. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
I should add that although I used xen-unstable, there''s nothing to stop you using the stable or testing versions, as far as I''m aware. Yasir I set up HVM on an AM2 Athlon64 X2 3800+. I don''t have a HOWTO for it, but I downoaded the xen-unstable source to do it. I installed on Debian Etch. The documentation you get with xen-unstable includes an appendix describing what you need to do to run an OS with HVM (e.g. Windows on an AM2 chip). One thing that got me was that you need to install a few extra packages before you run ''make world'', otherwise the HVM won''t work. These extra packages are only mentioned in the appendix, so before you build Xen, read the appendix. The packages are libsdl, libvncserver and dev86 (on Debian, my system, there is no dev86 and I had to install 2 packages: bin86 and bcc which provide the same functionality I think). I also had problems using a physical partition as a VBD for the HVM guest. I had to use a file-backed VBD which works fine. Incidentally, I didn''t have to fiddle around with any BIOS settings to get this to work. From what I understand, HVM on AM2 systems should work without having to change anything in the BIOS, but I could be wrong on that. I hope that helps. It''s definitely doable. Yasir I getting close to trying hardware virtualization with a new AMD cpu, and was wondering if anyone has had any luck with the new AMD cpu and if anyones knows of any How-to''s out there. Thanks. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Yasir Assam <list1@endlessvoid.com> wrote on 07/17/2006 08:15:58 PM:> I also had problems using a physical partition as a VBD for the HVM > guest. I had to use a file-backed VBD which works fine.I have not had any problem using a block device as a VBD for an HVM guest, although I have seen others on the list report similar problems. Granted, my block devices are LVM volumes instead of partitions or disks (disk [''phy:/dev/virt-blkdev-backend/hvm1,ioemu:hda,w'']), but I don''t see how that would make a difference, since a block device is a block device. My apologies if this is obvious an you tried it already, but my initial thought is to make sure that the block device you use looks like a bootable disk with a boot loader, partition tables, and a partition with a file system. PV guests only require a block device or file image that contains a file system. HVM guests require a block device or file image that looks like a bootable disk. It''s easiest to just use a disk on which you installed an OS, for example, disk = [''phy:/dev/sdb,ioemu:hda,w''] If you are going to use a partition, the partition must contain a boot loader, partition tables, etc. In our test setup, the scripts create a bootable LVM volume by running fdisk to create a partition on the volume, installing grub on the volume, and then copying a root file system to the partition on the volume. Steve D. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Steve, You''re right - I didn''t try this. All I did was to create an empty unformatted partition using GParted running on dom0. I didn''t try using an LVM volume - just a normal partition. Windows did install on it but when I rebooted, the 2nd stage of the install (from drive c, rather than drive d) was very slow. It did boot up off drive c, but it took a very long time to install. After about 2 hours I gave up and reinstalled on a file-backed VBD and it was quick. Do you think the slow speed was due to not copying a boot loader and partition table? Doesn''t the Windows install CD create these itself? Thanks, Yasir Yasir Assam wrote on 07/17/2006 08:15:58 PM: I also had problems using a physical partition as a VBD for the HVM guest. I had to use a file-backed VBD which works fine. I have not had any problem using a block device as a VBD for an HVM guest, although I have seen others on the list report similar problems. Granted, my block devices are LVM volumes instead of partitions or disks (disk [''phy:/dev/virt-blkdev-backend/hvm1,ioemu:hda,w'']), but I don''t see how that would make a difference, since a block device is a block device. My apologies if this is obvious an you tried it already, but my initial thought is to make sure that the block device you use looks like a bootable disk with a boot loader, partition tables, and a partition with a file system. PV guests only require a block device or file image that contains a file system. HVM guests require a block device or file image that looks like a bootable disk. It''s easiest to just use a disk on which you installed an OS, for example, disk = [''phy:/dev/sdb,ioemu:hda,w''] If you are going to use a partition, the partition must contain a boot loader, partition tables, etc. In our test setup, the scripts create a bootable LVM volume by running fdisk to create a partition on the volume, installing grub on the volume, and then copying a root file system to the partition on the volume. Steve D. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users