Re: [Xen-devel] Fwd: [Xen-users] Missing 3.2 binary install package

Mark Williamson
2008-04-13T18:04:46Z

> > Failing that, I would
> > suggest building the hypervisor or the kernel (whichever you
don''t
> > have) from the source tarballs on the xen.org website.
 Vendors'' dom0
> > kernels intended for 3.1 are generally useable with 3.2.
>
> What are the limits here? Would the xen.gz 3.0.3 compiled with the dom0
> kernel, such as found with Centos, work with the xen 3.2 tarball? I would
> assume the compatibility code would let it work, but what features would
> be unsupported/not functional? Thanx.

The dom0 interface got stabilised around Xen 3.0.3 or 3.0.4, I think.
I''m not
sure which, but certainly I believe dom0 kernels from 3.0.4 onwards ought to
work OK with newer Xen (and vice versa)..

Doing mix-and-match in this way may limit the functionality available, however
(e.g. for 32-on-64 you need a recent dom0 kernel as well as a recent Xen).

Arbitrarily old XenLinux kernels from Xen 3.x releases ought to work on any
newer version of Xen.

Another limitation is that around the 3.0.4->3.1 transition (I think) the
default memory mode on 32-bit x86 switched from non-PAE to PAE.  This will
mean that some Xen and dom0 combinations will have been broken due to a
change in memory model; as long as you do compile Xen and dom0 to use the
same memory model then mixing of versions will still work.

Cheers,
Mark

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