Hi I have started playing with Xen on SuSE 9.3 and just discovered something that I can not understand. In the config file for a virtual machine there are two parameters kernel = path to kernel to load root = root device I assumed that Xen would look for the kernel on the root device, but instead it just uses the path given in the kernel parameter in the domain0 directory tree. So, am I doing something wrong, or is it supposed to work this way? If it is supposed to work this way, does anyone have any suggestions on how to do updates of the kernel in domainN>0. If I do a yast update in domN>0 the kernel will not be updated since it is actually stored in dom0. /Anders Nygren _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
The actual kernel resides in dom0. It is in dom0, after all, that you start/stop domain instances. To update your kernel, simply change the kernel= param in your config file. One way of looking at it is that all "xen stuff" (hypervisor, tools, dom0 and domU kernels) will reside in dom0, and you can leave all domUs as-is without having to worry about them being "xen" or whatnot. That way, if you decide to migrate a xen host to a real machine, the changes are minimal if any at all. I''ve packaged xen into an RPM as follows: xen (hypervisor, tools, docs, etc), xen-kernel-dom0, and xen-kernel-domU, all being used within dom0. :-) HTH, - gino ledesma On 8/30/05, Anders Nygren <anders.nygren@gmail.com> wrote:> Hi > I have started playing with Xen on SuSE 9.3 and just discovered > something that I can not understand. > > In the config file for a virtual machine there are two parameters > kernel = path to kernel to load > root = root device > > I assumed that Xen would look for the kernel on the root device, but > instead it just uses the path given in the kernel parameter in the > domain0 directory tree. > > So, am I doing something wrong, or is it supposed to work this way? > > If it is supposed to work this way, does anyone have any suggestions > on how to do updates of the kernel in domainN>0. > > If I do a yast update in domN>0 the kernel will not be updated since > it is actually stored in dom0. > > /Anders Nygren > > _______________________________________________ > 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 have started playing with Xen on SuSE 9.3 and just discovered > something that I can not understand.Using the SuSE packages, right?> In the config file for a virtual machine there are two parameters > kernel = path to kernel to load > root = root deviceYup.> I assumed that Xen would look for the kernel on the root device, but > instead it just uses the path given in the kernel parameter in the > domain0 directory tree.Yeah, this is because of the way domains are built: there''s not a bootloader that runs in the domain (although we''re planning to add one), instead a tool in dom0 loads the guest kernel into memory and then kicks it into life.> So, am I doing something wrong, or is it supposed to work this way? > > If it is supposed to work this way, does anyone have any suggestions > on how to do updates of the kernel in domainN>0.Yup, that''s fine. Update-wise, if you''re just interested in keeping up to date with kernel patches, just update the kernel RPM in dom0 and make sure the config file points to it (there''s probably a symlink such as vmlinuz-xen that you can use so you don''t have to update the config file each time you update the kernel). If you want to allow guests to choose what kernel they run, it''s not possible under 2.0 right now. Cheers, Mark> If I do a yast update in domN>0 the kernel will not be updated since > it is actually stored in dom0. > > /Anders Nygren > > _______________________________________________ > 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