Xen users - Nov 2006 - hvm mode and windows xp (xen 3.0.3-rc3)

hello,

I''m a bit of a failure at running windows xp in the hvm mode. to be
honest nothing went the way it should have on my notebook with turion
64 x2 processor inside.

first i was unable to install windows. the only combination of
parameters which did not lead to freeze in text phase of instalation
of the xp system was acpi=1, apic=1 and vcpu=2.  but even that
combination resulted in an error message produced by windows installer
somewhere in the middle of instalation process. i used qemu alone to
install the system without any problems. btw win xp runs surprisingly
fast with that emulator.

second at windows startup all that could be seen was a blank screen of
console. if i tried to run in safe mode, initial text messages
appeared, but i was unable to choose the right option, because i had
no control over my keyboard (as if key events went unnoticed). and it
took ages to reach the counter to zero (which supposed to be set to 30
s - that amount of time you have to decide what mode windows should
run in). afterwards well known blank screen appeared. that''s all. i
tried in vain any reasonable combinatiation of the following domain
parameters: acpi, apic and vcpu (eg. apic=0 and vcpu=2 was excluded).
the rest were unchanged.

i use fedora core 6: xen 3.0.3-rc3 and kernel 2.6.18.1 with a 3
patches that improve thermal and fan control (more details at
http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7122 and
http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5534). however using
unpatched kernel results in the same behaviour of windows domain. i
attached several dumps which you might find useful.

any clue what went wrong?

-- 
aleksander

Hi,

On 11/3/06, Aleksander Trofimowicz <aatrof@gmail.com>
wrote:
> hello,
>
> I''m a bit of a failure at running windows xp in the hvm mode. to
be
> honest nothing went the way it should have on my notebook with turion
> 64 x2 processor inside.
Just a quick note: I had good luck installing WinXP on FC6 today.
Dunno if it''ll help you, but I''ve attached my config file. 
The big
thing that made it work for me:  when the Windows installer asks you
to press F6 to load drivers, press F5, and select ''Standard PC
...(something)''.

Once I did that, it worked great.
-- 
David L. Parsley
Linux Systems Engineer, James Madison University
"If I have seen further, it is by standing on ye shoulders of giants"
- Isaac Newton

On 03/11/06, David Parsley <parsley@linuxjedi.org>
wrote:
>
> > I''m a bit of a failure at running windows xp in the hvm mode.
to be
> > honest nothing went the way it should have on my notebook with turion
> > 64 x2 processor inside.
>
> Just a quick note: I had good luck installing WinXP on FC6 today.
> Dunno if it''ll help you, but I''ve attached my config
file.  The big
> thing that made it work for me:  when the Windows installer asks you
> to press F6 to load drivers, press F5, and select ''Standard PC
> ...(something)''.
>
thanks for the hint. i guess all the problems i faced with during win
2k/xp setup have their origins in static hal that is chosen at the
very beginning and probably because of the way xen handles presence of
acpi in a hvm domain.

nevertheless a general rule for those who just want that os running
without bells and whistles is to install windows without acpi support
(to do so ''standard pc'' or ''standard pc with c-step
i486'' should be
selected).

btw i still have to use qemu to install windows xp properly. otherwise
i''m unable to select an appropriate hal after pressing f5 key, as
''up''
and ''down'' keys don''t respond regardless of graphical
interface (sdl
or vnc) i use. strange, isn''t it?
-- 
aleksander