Xen users - Apr 2006 - Xen 3.0.2 on AMD64 - and initrd fun :)

Mm, I have a big Quad-Opteron.. thing.. that I''m trying to get Xen
onto.
I''ve used the 3.0.2 binary-install mode, updated menu.lst as per the 
README, but I need an initrd which contains the HP cciss RAID driver, 
and no Xen initrd image was installed into /boot.

Now I notice 
xen-3.0.2-2-install/install/lib/modules/2.6.16-xen/kernel/drivers 
/block/cciss.ko

But I can''t get this into an initrd; the Xen README suggests using 
"mkinitrd -v -f --with=cciss" etc. but the version of mkinitrd in
Debian
does not support that syntax. Any ideas?  Where can I get that version 
of mkinitrd that does support "--with" syntax?

Cheers,
Gavin.


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On Thu, 27 Apr 2006 16:38:07 +0100
Gavin Hamill <gdh@acentral.co.uk> wrote:
> Mm, I have a big Quad-Opteron.. thing.. that I'm trying to get Xen
> onto. I've used the 3.0.2 binary-install mode, updated menu.lst as
> per the README, but I need an initrd which contains the HP cciss RAID
> driver, and no Xen initrd image was installed into /boot.
> 
> Now I notice 
> xen-3.0.2-2-install/install/lib/modules/2.6.16-xen/kernel/drivers 
> /block/cciss.ko
> 
> But I can't get this into an initrd; the Xen README suggests using 
> "mkinitrd -v -f --with=cciss" etc. but the version of mkinitrd in
> Debian does not support that syntax. Any ideas?  Where can I get that
> version of mkinitrd that does support "--with" syntax?
Try adding a line containing 'cciss' to /etc/mkinitrd/modules and then
run mkinitrd without the "--with=cciss" part. 

HTH,
Jacob
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Gavin Hamill schrieb:
> the Xen README suggests using "mkinitrd -v -f --with=cciss" etc.
but
> the version of mkinitrd in Debian does not support that syntax. Any ideas?
Debian''s mkinitrd is configured in /etc/mkinitrd/
You have to add cciss to your /etc/modules and /etc/mkinitrd/modules 
before building the initrd.

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On Thu, 27 Apr 2006 18:37:01 +0200
Jan Philipp Giel <mail@philsown.de> wrote:
> Gavin Hamill schrieb:
> > the Xen README suggests using "mkinitrd -v -f --with=cciss"
etc.
> > but the version of mkinitrd in Debian does not support that syntax.
> > Any ideas?
> Debian''s mkinitrd is configured in /etc/mkinitrd/
> You have to add cciss to your /etc/modules and /etc/mkinitrd/modules 
> before building the initrd.
> 
Ah there''s the rub - I didn''t know how to force initrd
creation for a
specific version from a certain directory
(/root/xen-3.0.2-2-install/lib... etc.) when I didn''t realise the
install proceduce copied all the modules to /lib/modules/2.6.16-xen :)

After that I just needed to run

$ depmod -F /boot/System.map-2.6.16-xen 2.6.16-xen
$ mkinitrd -o /boot/xen.img 2.6.16-xen

And away we went - hurrah! =)

So, one question answered, and another two to replace it. :)

Xen complained about the tls stuff at boot up and invited me to mv it
out of the way, which I was expecting. Will I need to undo this if I
ever want to use a non-Xen system in future?

And finally, if I''m running Xen on amd64 hardware, can I also run amd64
VMs inside it? Is there any performance benefit/penalty for doing so?

Cheers,
Gavin.

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Gavin Hamill wrote:
> Xen complained about the tls stuff at boot up and invited me to mv it
> out of the way, which I was expecting. Will I need to undo this if I
> ever want to use a non-Xen system in future?
You don''t have to, that just disables NPTL and Linuxthreads are used
instead. If
you''re happy with Linuxthreads you can keep everything just as it was
with Xen
when you decide to go back.


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Gavin Hamill schrieb:
> And finally, if I''m running Xen on amd64 hardware, can I also run
amd64
> VMs inside it? Is there any performance benefit/penalty for doing so?
>   
Yes you can. I cannot tell if there is a performance benefit but I think 
there is no penalty.

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