Xen users - May 2008 - Xen 3.2.1, Intel DQ35JO tips

I thought I''d pass along a few tips for getting the Intel DQ35JO 
motherboard to play nice with Xen:

1. The dom0 kernel won''t boot with CONFIG_PCI_MMCONFIG enabled.

If you get a hang during boot after seeing this message:

	ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [PCI0] (0000:00)

...then MMCONFIG is your problem.

Some kernels seem to support a pci=nommconfig option, but my Gentoo 
2.6.21 Xen kernel didn''t.  The solution was to build the kernel without
MMCONFIG.  A temporary workaround is to boot with acpi=off, but you 
won''t get SMP support if you turn off ACPI.

(Confirmed with BIOS 0882 and 0559)

2. The on-board 82566DM-2 Ethernet chip is supported by the e1000e 
driver, not the old e1000 driver.  You can get it from Sourceforge. 
(I''m running kernel 2.6.21)

3. VT-d is not available unless you enable it on the Xen command line 
(not just in the BIOS).  Xen prints a non-intuitive error message 
suggesting that VT-d is not available, when in fact it''s just not
turned on.

4. The AMT/vPro management function seems to work just fine with Xen & Linux

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On Thu, May 22, 2008 at 09:48:08AM -0500, Jefferson E. Noxon
wrote:
> I thought I''d pass along a few tips for getting the Intel DQ35JO 
> motherboard to play nice with Xen:
> 
> 1. The dom0 kernel won''t boot with CONFIG_PCI_MMCONFIG enabled.
> 
> If you get a hang during boot after seeing this message:
> 
> 	ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [PCI0] (0000:00)
> 
> ...then MMCONFIG is your problem.
> 
> Some kernels seem to support a pci=nommconfig option, but my Gentoo 
> 2.6.21 Xen kernel didn''t.  The solution was to build the kernel
without
> MMCONFIG.  A temporary workaround is to boot with acpi=off, but you 
> won''t get SMP support if you turn off ACPI.
> 
> (Confirmed with BIOS 0882 and 0559)
>
I''m using "pci=nommconf" with RHEL/CentOS 5.1 kernels.
 
> 4. The AMT/vPro management function seems to work just fine with Xen &
Linux
> 
Did you get the remote console working with grub? ie. being able to reboot
the server through intel amt/vpro and and access grub over the
serial-over-lan thing to be able to choose what kernel to boot etc.. 

-- Pasi

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Pasi Kärkkäinen wrote:
> On Thu, May 22, 2008 at 09:48:08AM -0500, Jefferson E. Noxon wrote:
>> Some kernels seem to support a pci=nommconfig option, but my Gentoo 
 >
> I''m using "pci=nommconf" with RHEL/CentOS 5.1 kernels.
I bet my problem was spelling out "config" instead of
"conf".  Thanks
for the correction.
>> 4. The AMT/vPro management function seems to work just fine with Xen
& Linux
> 
> Did you get the remote console working with grub? ie. being able to reboot
> the server through intel amt/vpro and and access grub over the
> serial-over-lan thing to be able to choose what kernel to boot etc.. 
I have not tried the console redirection yet.  Are there any free 
Windows clients that support it?  It would be a great feature to be able 
to use.

I was hoping to be able to do BIOS updates over AMT.  Too bad it''s not 
supported, at least by the port 16992 web interface.

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On Thu, May 22, 2008 at 10:29:57AM -0500, Jefferson E. Noxon
wrote:
> 
> >>4. The AMT/vPro management function seems to work just fine with
Xen &
> >>Linux
> >
> >Did you get the remote console working with grub? ie. being able to
reboot
> >the server through intel amt/vpro and and access grub over the
> >serial-over-lan thing to be able to choose what kernel to boot etc.. 
> 
> I have not tried the console redirection yet.  Are there any free 
> Windows clients that support it?  It would be a great feature to be able 
> to use.
> 
> I was hoping to be able to do BIOS updates over AMT.  Too bad it''s
not
> supported, at least by the port 16992 web interface.
Yes, there''s the client made by Intel.. you can remotely access BIOS
and
get remote console with that. It also supports remote CD etc.. 

Search for "Intel AMT Developer Tool Kit".. the tool is called
"Intel AMT
Commander".

-- Pasi

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