Xen users - Jun 2008 - Windows GPL PV Drivers 0.9.9-pre2

I''ve just uploaded a prerelease of 0.9.9 to
http://www.meadowcourt.org/downloads/

Please read the following before using:

It fixes a few disk related bugs... I''ve just been testing it on a
Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2 I have just restored from tape
into a DomU from a backup of a physical system and it''s working fine -
0.9.8 BSOD''d almost immediately and then left me with a corrupt
filesystem, so that not happening with 0.9.9 is a good sign. Also,
hdtune now works for me without any problems, although performance is
sucky because it uses unaligned memory buffers.

The thing that''s bugging me at the moment is how to make upgrades from
previous versions work nicely. Part of the problem is that some of the
drivers BSOD on close sometimes, which I should be able to fix if I can
catch it happening, but the main problem is that xenpci 0.9.8 (probably)
isn''t going to work with xennet 0.9.9, and when windows upgrades the
drivers it will know that it has to upgrade xenpci next boot so it
defers it (because xenvbd is using it to manage the system drive), but
knows that it can upgrade xennet now, which introduces the version
mismatches. 

I think booting without gplpv, performing the upgrade, then booting with
gplpv again might be a workaround but I''m not even sure if that will
work reliably, although probably more from the driver bugs.

In previous versions it would also have been sufficient just to copy the
.sys files to system32\drivers, but even that won''t work with this
version as there is a new device filter installed for xenvbd (and soon
xenscsi), and there are associated .inf file updates.

Any and all suggestions greatly appreciated. Any testing anyone can do
to tell me what works and what doesn''t also appreciated, at least then
I
can document it on the wiki.

Thanks

James

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James Harper wrote:

> The thing that''s bugging me at the moment is how to make upgrades
from
> previous versions work nicely. Part of the problem is that some of the
> drivers BSOD on close sometimes, which I should be able to fix if I can
> catch it happening, but the main problem is that xenpci 0.9.8 (probably)
> isn''t going to work with xennet 0.9.9, and when windows upgrades
the
> drivers it will know that it has to upgrade xenpci next boot so it
> defers it (because xenvbd is using it to manage the system drive), but
> knows that it can upgrade xennet now, which introduces the version
> mismatches. 
James,

I would make it a requirement of installation for 0.9.9 and greater
that all previous versions be uninstalled prior to installation and
not even try to do it as part of the install. Have the install test
the presence of prior drivers and have it abort it install with a
please uninstall first message.

Then all you need to to write-up a manual uninstall procedure for the
differing versions and include it as a README to the download.

It''s both the easiest and safest approach.

-Ross

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James Harper schreef:
> I''ve just uploaded a prerelease of 0.9.9 to
> http://www.meadowcourt.org/downloads/
>
> Please read the following before using:
>
> It fixes a few disk related bugs... I''ve just been testing it on a
> Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2 I have just restored from tape
> into a DomU from a backup of a physical system and it''s working
fine -
> 0.9.8 BSOD''d almost immediately and then left me with a corrupt
> filesystem, so that not happening with 0.9.9 is a good sign. Also,
> hdtune now works for me without any problems, although performance is
> sucky because it uses unaligned memory buffers.
>
> The thing that''s bugging me at the moment is how to make upgrades
from
> previous versions work nicely. Part of the problem is that some of the
> drivers BSOD on close sometimes, which I should be able to fix if I can
> catch it happening, but the main problem is that xenpci 0.9.8 (probably)
> isn''t going to work with xennet 0.9.9, and when windows upgrades
the
> drivers it will know that it has to upgrade xenpci next boot so it
> defers it (because xenvbd is using it to manage the system drive), but
> knows that it can upgrade xennet now, which introduces the version
> mismatches. 
>
> I think booting without gplpv, performing the upgrade, then booting with
> gplpv again might be a workaround but I''m not even sure if that
will
> work reliably, although probably more from the driver bugs.
>
> In previous versions it would also have been sufficient just to copy the
> .sys files to system32\drivers, but even that won''t work with this
> version as there is a new device filter installed for xenvbd (and soon
> xenscsi), and there are associated .inf file updates.
>
> Any and all suggestions greatly appreciated. Any testing anyone can do
> to tell me what works and what doesn''t also appreciated, at least
then I
> can document it on the wiki.
>
> Thanks
>
> James
>   
Thanks James, seems like these drivers are again a little bit faster 
than before. Now I can run JkDefrag and HDtune without BSOD''s so
that''s
very nice. Interesting to see is that JkDefrag''s drive analyse seems to
be much faster done now than with 0.9.6.

Joost

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James Harper schrieb:
> I''ve just uploaded a prerelease of 0.9.9 to
> http://www.meadowcourt.org/downloads/
> 
How long we will have to wait for the release?

Florian


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On Friday June 13 2008 10:28:45 am Ross S. W. Walker
wrote:
> James Harper wrote:
> > The thing that''s bugging me at the moment is how to make
upgrades from
> > previous versions work nicely. Part of the problem is that some of the
> > drivers BSOD on close sometimes, which I should be able to fix if I
can
> > catch it happening, but the main problem is that xenpci 0.9.8
(probably)
> > isn''t going to work with xennet 0.9.9, and when windows
upgrades the
> > drivers it will know that it has to upgrade xenpci next boot so it
> > defers it (because xenvbd is using it to manage the system drive), but
> > knows that it can upgrade xennet now, which introduces the version
> > mismatches.
It''s definitely preferable to defer ALL upgrades till the next reboot.
This
sounds like what you did for 0.9.9 final.
> James,
>
> I would make it a requirement of installation for 0.9.9 and greater
> that all previous versions be uninstalled prior to installation and
> not even try to do it as part of the install. Have the install test
> the presence of prior drivers and have it abort it install with a
> please uninstall first message.
>
> Then all you need to to write-up a manual uninstall procedure for the
> differing versions and include it as a README to the download.
>
> It''s both the easiest and safest approach.
Maybe a middle approach? For drastic architecture changes like Wdf -> Wdm, or
0.8.x -> 0.9.x, require an uninstall with the script that came with the old 
version. Maybe you could even pop up a box asking where your old install 
directory is, tho'' that should be in the registry. If the registry path
is
not found or invalid (or you removed it), you can ask. For minor changes 
(meaning you have to look up the current version), you probably know enough 
to do the uninstall yourself. This is assuming the ''defer upgrades till
the
next reboot'' path proves problematic.

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