JHJE (Jan Holst Jensen)
2004-May-08 17:29 UTC
[Xen-devel] Xen on VMware - how to install ?
Hi. Weird as I am, I am trying to run Xen in VMware. Though it might sound like I am just testing the limits of VM-on-VM technology, it would be nice to try out Xen without having to lay my hands on some extra piece of hardware. And since the Xen 1.2 demo CD iso image boots without problems in VMware workstation (at least in 4.0.1 build 5289), I thought "Hey, let''s install it on top of a RedHat VM". So I made a minimal RedHat 9 on a virtual SCSI disk. Copied xen.gz and xenolinux.gz from the demo CD to /boot. Added this to grub''s menu.lst: title Xen root (hd0,0) kernel /xen.gz dom0_mem=64000 watchdog noreboot ignorebiostables module /xenolinux.gz root=/dev/sda2 ro console=tty0 This quick-install worked for me on a physical machine with Xen 1.1. But this one fails with a kernel stack fault and never even gets to uncompressing the kernel. VMware notifies me of a "Virtual machine kernel stack fault (hardware reset). The virtual machine just suffered a stack fault in kernel mode. On a real computer this would amount to a reset of the processor." Just for the heck of it, I installed RedHat again, but this time on a virtual IDE disk and pointed root to /dev/hda2 in /boot/grub/menu.lst. Same thing. This is what I see when the boot process starts: Starting up Red Hat: ________________ Booting ''Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-8)'' root (hd0,0) Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83 kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 ro root=LABEL=/ [Linux-bzImage, setup=0x1400, size=0x11098a] initrd /initrd-2.4.20-8.img [Linux-initrd @ 0x7ebb000, 0x249b1 bytes] Uncompressing Linux... Ok, booting the kernel. ________________ ...and then it boots normally Starting up Xen: ________________ Booting ''Xen'' root (hd0,0) Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83 kernel /xen.gz dom0_mem=64000 watchdog noreboot ignorebiostables [Multiboot-elf, <0x100000:0x110e08:0x0>, <0x212000:0x1c3b8:0x1c548>, shtab=0x24b258, entry=0x100000] module /xenolinux.gz root=/dev/hda2 ro console=tty0 [Multiboot-module @ 0x24c000, 0x1918cc bytes] ________________ Wham! Kernel stack fault. When booting the Xen demo 1.2 CD, xenolinux.gz says [Multiboot-module @ 0x26d000, 0x1918cc bytes] looking like it''s location in memory is different. Don''t know if that is significant ? I guess this is not (and probably should not be :-)) supported, but has anyone made this work ? Cheers -- Jan Holst Jensen, Novo Nordisk A/S, Denmark ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by Sleepycat Software Learn developer strategies Cisco, Motorola, Ericsson & Lucent use to deliver higher performing products faster, at low TCO. http://www.sleepycat.com/telcomwpreg.php?From=osdnemail3 _______________________________________________ Xen-devel mailing list Xen-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xen-devel
> Weird as I am, I am trying to run Xen in VMware. Though it might sound > like I am just testing the limits of VM-on-VM technology, it would be > nice to try out Xen without having to lay my hands on some extra piece > of hardware.We''ve generally found that Xen runs just fine on VMware.> So I made a minimal RedHat 9 on a virtual SCSI disk. Copied xen.gz and > xenolinux.gz from the demo CD to /boot. Added this to grub''s menu.lst:So your failing installation uses the same Xen/Xenolinux images as the successfully-booting Demo CD?> When booting the Xen demo 1.2 CD, xenolinux.gz says [Multiboot-module @ > 0x26d000, 0x1918cc bytes] looking like it''s location in memory is > different. Don''t know if that is significant ?Maybe. Are the xen.gz and xenolinux.gz files the same as on the Demo CD? If so, then the most likely difference is that you are using a different version or build of GRUB. You could stick an infinite loop[*] at the start of Xen (in boot.S) and see if that prevents the crash. If it doesn''t then GRUB is to blame. -- Keir *: e.g., change the line ''jmp hal_entry'' to ''jmp start''. ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by Sleepycat Software Learn developer strategies Cisco, Motorola, Ericsson & Lucent use to deliver higher performing products faster, at low TCO. http://www.sleepycat.com/telcomwpreg.php?From=osdnemail3 _______________________________________________ Xen-devel mailing list Xen-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xen-devel
JHJE (Jan Holst Jensen)
2004-May-09 09:36 UTC
RE: [Xen-devel] Xen on VMware - how to install ?
> We''ve generally found that Xen runs just fine on VMware.Ah! Sweet music in my ears :-) !> So your failing installation uses the same Xen/Xenolinux images as the > successfully-booting Demo CD?Yes. I booted the Xen 1.2 demo CD again and searched it for xen.gz and xenolinux.gz. I found them in both /usr/boot/ and /usr/local/src/xeno-1.2/install/boot/. Furthermore, there was a xenolinux.gz in /usr/local/src/xeno-1.2/xenolinux-2.4.25/arch/xeno/boot/. diff shows no differences between those instances (thankfully :-) ), so yes - I definitely do have the exact same xen.gz and xenolinux.gz files as on the demo CD.> Maybe. Are the xen.gz and xenolinux.gz files the same as on the Demo > CD? If so, then the most likely difference is that you are using a > different version or build of GRUB. > You could stick an infinite loop[*] at the start of Xen (in boot.S)and> see if that prevents the crash. If it doesn''t then GRUB is to blame.Uh-oh. Sounds like a build-adventure :-). Since I''ve never built Xen before it would probably take quite some time for me to set this up. I think trying another version of Grub or another distro would probably be quicker for me. /sbin/grub is version 0.93 (says so when I start it) on both the demo CD and in my VM. File sizes are identical: 196220 bytes. However, file date is Jan 25 2003 in my RedHat VM and Jun 25 2003 on the demo CD - different build ? I could copy grub from the demo CD and reinstall it in the boot sector, and see if that helps. Which Linux distro have you used to run Xen on top of VMware ? The demo CD looks debianish, so is Debian Woody a fair guess ? Cheers -- Jan ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by Sleepycat Software Learn developer strategies Cisco, Motorola, Ericsson & Lucent use to deliver higher performing products faster, at low TCO. http://www.sleepycat.com/telcomwpreg.php?From=osdnemail3 _______________________________________________ Xen-devel mailing list Xen-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xen-devel
> > We''ve generally found that Xen runs just fine on VMware. > > Ah! Sweet music in my ears :-) !I''ve used Xen fine on VMWare Workstation 3.2 and 4.0 on both Windows and Linux. I have tried accessing a disk via vmware in quite a while, but it sounds like your blow up is way too early for this to be the cause.> /sbin/grub is version 0.93 (says so when I start it) on both the demo CD > and in my VM. File sizes are identical: 196220 bytes. However, file date > is Jan 25 2003 in my RedHat VM and Jun 25 2003 on the demo CD - > different build ? I could copy grub from the demo CD and reinstall it in > the boot sector, and see if that helps.Copying grub off the boot CD seems a sensible way forward. Ian ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by Sleepycat Software Learn developer strategies Cisco, Motorola, Ericsson & Lucent use to deliver higher performing products faster, at low TCO. http://www.sleepycat.com/telcomwpreg.php?From=osdnemail3 _______________________________________________ Xen-devel mailing list Xen-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xen-devel
> Uh-oh. Sounds like a build-adventure :-). Since I''ve never built Xen > before it would probably take quite some time for me to set this up. I > think trying another version of Grub or another distro would probably be > quicker for me.Try the following two Xen images: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~kaf24/xen-normal.gz http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~kaf24/xen-loop.gz These files are replacements for your current xen.gz -- they should be copied on top of it. The first image will probably have the same problem as the one on the demo CD. If not then a bug has probably been fixed since the CD was released. The second image may also crash, or it may hang. If the latter then teh problem is in GRUB.> /sbin/grub is version 0.93 (says so when I start it) on both the demo CD > and in my VM. File sizes are identical: 196220 bytes. However, file date > is Jan 25 2003 in my RedHat VM and Jun 25 2003 on the demo CD - > different build ? I could copy grub from the demo CD and reinstall it in > the boot sector, and see if that helps./sbin/grub isn''t the bootloader itself. The main bootloader file is /boot/grub/stage2.> Which Linux distro have you used to run Xen on top of VMware ? The demo > CD looks debianish, so is Debian Woody a fair guess ?It''s Red Hat -- probably version 9 (cat /etc/redhat-release). -- Keir ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by Sleepycat Software Learn developer strategies Cisco, Motorola, Ericsson & Lucent use to deliver higher performing products faster, at low TCO. http://www.sleepycat.com/telcomwpreg.php?From=osdnemail3 _______________________________________________ Xen-devel mailing list Xen-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xen-devel
JHJE (Jan Holst Jensen)
2004-May-10 07:47 UTC
RE: [Xen-devel] Xen on VMware - how to install ?
> Try the following two Xen images: > http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~kaf24/xen-normal.gz > http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~kaf24/xen-loop.gz > > These files are replacements for your current xen.gz -- they should be > copied on top of it.Hi Keir and Ian. Thank you both for the rapid answers. I''ll give the above images a spin tonight.> /sbin/grub isn''t the bootloader itself. The main bootloader file is > /boot/grub/stage2.Ah yes. I learned that too yesterday when running "setup (hd0,0)" in grub. I tried to copy both /sbin/grub and /usr/boot/stage2 from the demo CD and re-install grub in the MBR (issuing "root (hd0,0)" and "setup (hd0,0)" within grub) but that did not seem to make a difference. Neither behavior nor the load address of xenolinux.gz was changed. I''ll read up on what grub does, so I am sure that I am installing the correct MBR images.> > Which Linux distro have you used to run Xen on top of VMware ? Thedemo> > CD looks debianish, so is Debian Woody a fair guess ? > > It''s Red Hat -- probably version 9 (cat /etc/redhat-release).Well - should work then. I''ll try a Debian Woody VM as well, just to see. Cheers -- Jan ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by Sleepycat Software Learn developer strategies Cisco, Motorola, Ericsson & Lucent use to deliver higher performing products faster, at low TCO. http://www.sleepycat.com/telcomwpreg.php?From=osdnemail3 _______________________________________________ Xen-devel mailing list Xen-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xen-devel