Xen users - Jan 2008 - Xen Virtual Console xvc (Was: Re: Pardon me for possibly dumb question but....)

Thread stealing is not nice, even if the subject is generic.

> Related question - what physical device does /dev/xvc0 refer to? What can
> I
> connect to get to the agetty running on this device?
>
xvc0 is a xen virtual console and does not correspond directly to a physical
device that I am aware of.

Yves-Gaël Chény seemed to have answered the second part of the question:
> guest# vim /etc/inittab ### check that following line is present:
>
> x0:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 xvc0
>
> guest# echo xvc0 >> /etc/securetty
Regards,
Todd


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On Sunday 27 January 2008 08:01:45 pm Todd Deshane
wrote:
> xvc0 is a xen virtual console and does not correspond directly to a
> physical device that I am aware of.
>
> Yves-Gaël Chény seemed to have answered the second part of the question:
> > guest# vim /etc/inittab ### check that following line is present:
> >
> > x0:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 xvc0
> >
> > guest# echo xvc0 >> /etc/securetty
Actually, no. I know how it is setup in software. I''m wondering 
what "physical" or virtual device I use to talk to (a)getty once the
software
is setup. Eg, if there is a getty variant on /dev/ttyS0, I better have a 
terminal or modem I''m talking with. If it''s /dev/ttyn,
I''m talking to a
virtual console accessed with ctrl-alt-n. Where do I have to go to get this 
getty prompt to login on?

As far as thread stealing goes, I suppose the real Subject for this thread 
should be "Where is the documentation for the devices added since the 3.0 
documentation?", like xvda, xvc0, etc.

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On Jan 27, 2008 9:35 PM, jim burns <jim_burn@bellsouth.net> wrote:
> On Sunday 27 January 2008 08:01:45 pm Todd Deshane wrote:
> > xvc0 is a xen virtual console and does not correspond directly to a
> > physical device that I am aware of.
> >
> > Yves-Gaël Chény seemed to have answered the second part of the
question:
> > > guest# vim /etc/inittab ### check that following line is present:
> > >
> > > x0:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 xvc0
> > >
> > > guest# echo xvc0 >> /etc/securetty
>
> Actually, no. I know how it is setup in software. I''m wondering
> what "physical" or virtual device I use to talk to (a)getty once
the
> software
> is setup. Eg, if there is a getty variant on /dev/ttyS0, I better have a
> terminal or modem I''m talking with. If it''s /dev/ttyn,
I''m talking to a
> virtual console accessed with ctrl-alt-n. Where do I have to go to get
> this
> getty prompt to login on?
>From my experience, the xen virtual console only works like the normal getty
"login:" prompt on first boot of the guest. After that you use xm
console to
get into the guest. I am not sure if there is something on dom0 that can be
accessed more directly or not. I think that is what you are asking, just to
clarify.

Also as far as I know, you can only have one virtual console for a guest by
default and you can do tricks to make other ones available I have heard you
can, I don''t have a reference on that I just heard it from someone. But
the
guest virtual consoles are not available with the standard ctr-alt-n
automatically - this would take some extra work to accomplish

Any other advice or experience with guest virtual consoles?

>
> As far as thread stealing goes, I suppose the real Subject for this thread
> should be "Where is the documentation for the devices added since the
3.0
> documentation?", like xvda, xvc0, etc.

The newest documentation can be built from sources and is still labelled Xen
3.0 User Manual.  Last I knew the user manual online was out of date, but it
should be able to be updated based on the Xen 3.2 release source docs. Could
this be setup to be created automatically after each release I wonder?

I also like your new thread subject idea. I would just recommend actually
making that change so that others that follow looking for information can
pick it out by subject. That is why I changed the subject of the first email
and then this new thread response as well.

Best Regards,
Todd


>
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On Sunday 27 January 2008 09:53:50 pm Todd Deshane
wrote:
> From my experience, the xen virtual console only works like the normal
> getty "login:" prompt on first boot of the guest. After that you
use xm
> console to get into the guest. I am not sure if there is something on dom0
> that can be accessed more directly or not. I think that is what you are
> asking, just to clarify.
Thanx. I actually wasn''t thinking of the domu case. Fedora sets up
dom0''s
inittab and securetty, and I was wondering why. You obviously can''t use
''xm
console'' for this, so what can you use (he asks, befuddled ;-)
> The newest documentation can be built from sources and is still labelled
Xen
> 3.0 User Manual.  Last I knew the user manual online was out of date, but
>
> it should be able to be updated based on the Xen 3.2 release source docs.
>
> Could this be setup to be created automatically after each release I 
wonder?
 
I actually did build the xen docs from xen-3.2.0.tar.gz, and was disappointed 
to see it was exactly the same as the online docs, unless I missed a one 
paragraph difference. (As I say, I''m looking for docs on the new
devices.)

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On Sunday 27 January 2008 09:53:50 pm Todd Deshane
wrote:
>> Thanx. I actually wasn''t thinking of the domu case. Fedora
sets up dom0''s
>>  inittab and securetty, and I was wondering why. You obviously
can''t use
>> ''xm console'' for this, so what can you use (he asks,
befuddled ;-)
>
> I don''t understand the question then. Sorry :(
The thrust of my question is where does the getty prompt show up. I get the 
concept  of using ''xm console'' for a domu, but does anyone
know why it''s in
fedora''s dom0 setup? Where would I find the getty prompt corresponding
to
dom0''s xvc0? 

It may turn out that inittab and securetty should *not* be setup in a dom0, 
which would solve another problem: When I boot into the non-xen kernel on 
fedora fc8, I get the following repeated syslog message, since obviously 
there is no xvc0 in the non-xen-kernel:

Jan 27 00:24:38 Insp6400 init: Id "co" respawning too fast: disabled
for 5
minutes
Jan 27 00:31:24 Insp6400 init: Id "co" respawning too fast: disabled
for 5
minutes

etc.

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> On Sunday 27 January 2008 09:53:50 pm Todd Deshane wrote:
> >> Thanx. I actually wasn''t thinking of the domu case.
Fedora sets up
> >> dom0''s inittab and securetty, and I was wondering why.
You obviously
> >> can''t use ''xm console'' for this, so
what can you use (he asks, befuddled
> >> ;-)
> >
> > I don''t understand the question then. Sorry :(
>
> The thrust of my question is where does the getty prompt show up. I get the
> concept  of using ''xm console'' for a domu, but does
anyone know why it''s in
> fedora''s dom0 setup? Where would I find the getty prompt
corresponding to
> dom0''s xvc0?
To be honest I''ve been a bit confused by all the different console
names Xen
has used ;-)  But I imagine that in dom0 xvc0 is plumbed through to Xen so 
that if you have a serial line attached to the box you can use it to log in 
on dom0 (or control Xen - you switch using a magic key combination).
> It may turn out that inittab and securetty should *not* be setup in a dom0,
> which would solve another problem: When I boot into the non-xen kernel on
> fedora fc8, I get the following repeated syslog message, since obviously
> there is no xvc0 in the non-xen-kernel:
>
> Jan 27 00:24:38 Insp6400 init: Id "co" respawning too fast:
disabled for 5
> minutes
> Jan 27 00:31:24 Insp6400 init: Id "co" respawning too fast:
disabled for 5
> minutes
Oh, that''s unfortunate.  If this is on stock F8, maybe file a bug?

Cheers,
Mark

-- 
Push Me Pull You - Distributed SCM tool (http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~maw48/pmpu/)

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>> It may turn out that inittab and securetty should *not* be setup in a
dom0,
>> which would solve another problem: When I boot into the non-xen kernel
on
>> fedora fc8, I get the following repeated syslog message, since
obviously
>> there is no xvc0 in the non-xen-kernel:
>>
>> Jan 27 00:24:38 Insp6400 init: Id "co" respawning too fast:
disabled for 5
>> minutes
>> Jan 27 00:31:24 Insp6400 init: Id "co" respawning too fast:
disabled for 5
>> minutes
> 
> Oh, that''s unfortunate.  If this is on stock F8, maybe file a bug?
I asked recently on fedora-xen about the inittab modifications, and the 
respawning message (on my Xenned FC8, not the stock one), and why the 
serial line is unusable, but I gave up. Life''s too short.

- Evan

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