Xen users - Jun 2007 - How to install an HVM linux guest without bootcd?

Hi all!

Has somebody found a way to install an HVM linux guest without a bootcd?

Thanks

Goran


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> Has somebody found a way to install an HVM linux guest without a bootcd?
>
> Thanks
Hi Goran,

It''d probably help if we knew what you are trying to achieve here...?

You can probably install a guest using emulated floppy disks, but that would 
be a bit masochistic :-)  You could also do a network install, I guess.

You could try to craft a bootable filesystem from dom0 - that''s doable,
but
I''m not really sure what the advantage would be.

IMHO the best way to install guests is to have a "gold" image that you
installed from CD-ROM (or whatever your normal install process is) then just 
copy that disk image to make new virtual machines.

Cheers,
Mark

-- 
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Mark: To answer a question with a question: What use is a skateboard?
Dave: Skateboards have wheels.
Mark: My wheel has a wheel!

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On Wed, Jun 13, 2007 at 01:20:17PM +0200, Goran Vukoman
wrote:
> 
> Has somebody found a way to install an HVM linux guest without a bootcd?
You could install it with pure qemu which can do pxe-boot as of version
0.9, and afterwards start that with xen. 


Christian

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Or you could make a running system on bare metal and dd it to whatever
media you''re going to run the guest on (LV, loopback, etc...).

Why do want to avoid using a boot cd?  The best solution probably
depends on why you want to do that.
> On Wed, Jun 13, 2007 at 01:20:17PM +0200, Goran Vukoman wrote:
> > 
> > Has somebody found a way to install an HVM linux guest without a
bootcd?
> 
> You could install it with pure qemu which can do pxe-boot as of version
> 0.9, and afterwards start that with xen. 
> 
> 
> Christian
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Xen-users mailing list
> Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
> http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
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> [...]
> Why do want to avoid using a boot cd?  The best solution probably
> depends on why you want to do that.
> [...]
I want to write a program which creates, starts and stops virtual
machines on demand.

To start and stop is no problem but to create one.

I''ve started to work with files but I can''t partitionate a
file with
fdisk. The bootloader is copied by dd and also the fs. But to get a full
working MBR I need a partition table there.

If I find a solution I can easy configure a new system on demand via
debootstrap and other tools.

Goran



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On Wed, Jun 13, 2007 at 09:46:50PM +0200, Goran Vukoman
wrote:
> 
> > [...]
> > Why do want to avoid using a boot cd?  The best solution probably
> > depends on why you want to do that.
> > [...]
> 
> I want to write a program which creates, starts and stops virtual
> machines on demand.
> 
> To start and stop is no problem but to create one.
> 
> I''ve started to work with files but I can''t partitionate
a file with
> fdisk. 
Sure you can. Just setup a loop device pointing do the file while
you are partitioning.

  losetup myfile.img
  fdisk /dev/loop0
  loseutp -d /dev/loop0

Though you probably also need to tell fdisk geometry 

Dan.
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> > > [...]
> > > Why do want to avoid using a boot cd?  The best solution probably
> > > depends on why you want to do that.
> > > [...]
> > 
> > I want to write a program which creates, starts and stops virtual
> > machines on demand.
> > 
> > To start and stop is no problem but to create one.
> > 
> > I''ve started to work with files but I can''t
partitionate a file with
> > fdisk. 
> 
> Sure you can. Just setup a loop device pointing do the file while
> you are partitioning.
> 
>   losetup myfile.img
>   fdisk /dev/loop0
>   loseutp -d /dev/loop0
> 
> Though you probably also need to tell fdisk geometry 
> 
> Dan.
>
To make it boot properly, you''ll also have to install grub on it (or
lilo or whatever).  Once you have it mounted, that should work the
same as with fdisk.


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Hi all,

thanks for answering. My goal to partitionate a file is to be flexible
in setting up a new virtual machine.

My steps in mind are so far...

1.A. Create an Image with "dd"
1.B. Partitionate it
1.C. Copy a bootloader into the MBR with "dd"

2.A Create an second Image with a size which is exactly the size of
image from 1.A MINUS 63 sectors.
2.B Format the image
2.C Install everything what is needed with debootstrap into Image
2.D Configure Image
2.E Overwrite Image from 1.A from sector 63 to end WITH image from 2.C

I hope it''ll work

Thanks

Am Mittwoch, den 13.06.2007, 20:54 +0100 schrieb Daniel P.
Berrange:
> On Wed, Jun 13, 2007 at 09:46:50PM +0200, Goran Vukoman wrote:
> > 
> > > [...]
> > > Why do want to avoid using a boot cd?  The best solution probably
> > > depends on why you want to do that.
> > > [...]
> > 
> > I want to write a program which creates, starts and stops virtual
> > machines on demand.
> > 
> > To start and stop is no problem but to create one.
> > 
> > I''ve started to work with files but I can''t
partitionate a file with
> > fdisk. 
> 
> Sure you can. Just setup a loop device pointing do the file while
> you are partitioning.
> 
>   losetup myfile.img
>   fdisk /dev/loop0
>   loseutp -d /dev/loop0
> 
> Though you probably also need to tell fdisk geometry 
> 
> Dan.

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