Xen users - Jan 2006 - ERROR: Kernel image does not have a a.out9 header

Hi,

A new XEN follower (well nearly) I seem to have hit a brick wall and am
seeking some help. I installed XEN on a Fedora 4 installation and I
receive the following error ...

ERROR: Kernel image does not have a a.out9 header.
ERROR: Unrecognized image format
ERROR: Error constructing guest OS

when I try to start the guest domain using xm create -c myconfig vmid=1.

Question:

Should I be using a specially prepared kernel? My guest kernel is a
standard FC4 release kernel (2.6.14-1.1644_FC4). By what I read it should
work OK out of the box, or do I need to recompile the kernel specifically
for xen? I read references to the above message in the xen-devel archives
( http://lists.xensource.com/archives/html/xen-devel/2005-06/msg00869.html
) but am unsure how to proceed as it mentions problems with gcc 4.0 (and I
have gcc 4.0 installed). Surely others have had my problem but I can''t
seem to find a reference or fix to the problem that I can understand.

gcc packages installed are ...

libgcc-4.0.0-8
gcc-gnat-4.0.0-8
gcc-java-4.0.0-8
gcc-4.0.0-8
gcc-c++-4.0.0-8
compat-gcc-32-3.2.3-47.fc4
compat-libgcc-296-2.96-132.fc4
compat-gcc-32-c++-3.2.3-47.fc4
gcc32-3.2.3-6
gcc-gfortran-4.0.0-8
compat-gcc-32-g77-3.2.3-47.fc4

whilst on does anyone know if a redhat 7.3 kernel (2.4.18-10) will run ok
under xen 3.0?

Any help appreciated.

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> Should I be using a specially prepared kernel? My guest kernel is a
> standard FC4 release kernel (2.6.14-1.1644_FC4). By what I read it should
> work OK out of the box, or do I need to recompile the kernel specifically
> for xen? I read references to the above message in the xen-devel archives
> ( http://lists.xensource.com/archives/html/xen-devel/2005-06/msg00869.html
> ) but am unsure how to proceed as it mentions problems with gcc 4.0 (and I
> have gcc 4.0 installed). Surely others have had my problem but I
can''t
> seem to find a reference or fix to the problem that I can understand.
You need to be running a Xen-enabled kernel in the guest...  You are 
presumably already running one for dom0, so you should just use that. 
It''ll
be in /boot, likely with the extension -xen.
> whilst on does anyone know if a redhat 7.3 kernel (2.4.18-10) will run ok
> under xen 3.0?
It won''t run directly on Xen because it''s not ported for Xen. 
If you have
VT/Pacifica hardware you could run it under full virtualisation.  
Alternatively, you could try and persuade it to run on a newer kernel...

Cheers,
Mark

-- 
Dave: Just a question. What use is a unicyle with no seat?  And no pedals!
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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>> Should I be using a specially prepared kernel? My guest kernel is a
>> standard FC4 release kernel (2.6.14-1.1644_FC4). By what I read it
>> should
>> work OK out of the box, or do I need to recompile the kernel
>> specifically
>> for xen? I read references to the above message in the xen-devel
>> archives
>> (
>>
http://lists.xensource.com/archives/html/xen-devel/2005-06/msg00869.html
>> ) but am unsure how to proceed as it mentions problems with gcc 4.0
(and
>> I
>> have gcc 4.0 installed). Surely others have had my problem but I
can''t
>> seem to find a reference or fix to the problem that I can understand.
>
> You need to be running a Xen-enabled kernel in the guest...  You are
> presumably already running one for dom0, so you should just use that.
> It''ll
> be in /boot, likely with the extension -xen.
>
>> whilst on does anyone know if a redhat 7.3 kernel (2.4.18-10) will run
>> ok
>> under xen 3.0?
>
> It won''t run directly on Xen because it''s not ported for
Xen.  If you have
> VT/Pacifica hardware you could run it under full virtualisation.
> Alternatively, you could try and persuade it to run on a newer kernel...
>
> Cheers,
> Mark
>
> --
> Dave: Just a question. What use is a unicyle with no seat?  And no pedals!
> Mark: To answer a question with a question: What use is a skateboard?
> Dave: Skateboards have wheels.
> Mark: My wheel has a wheel!
>
> _______________________________________________
> Xen-users mailing list
> Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
> http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
>
Thanks for your time, my mistake (novice). I tried again and this time
with the supplied xen-kernel, and yes I could get it to startup as dom1.
It looks like (please correct me if I''m wrong) that I''m
not/never going to
be able to run my 2.4.18-10 kernel under xen (obviously I can rebuild the
kernel but what are the options I should pick, if indeed the options exist
for xen complience?). I need this exact version as the VPN solution we
currently run only works with this exact version. Do you happen to know
the exact version of the kernel that comes with version 2 of xen. I tried
to install version 2 to have a look but failed on dependencies, nothing
new there. Never mind maybe qemu.

Laurence

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