Xen users - Apr 2010 - boot MS Windows installed natively in its own partition

I am new to xen and maybe this question has been asked and been answered
before, but searching with google I didn''t find any adequate info:

I have installed (on gentoo linux)

app-emulation/xen
app-emulation/xen-tools
sys-kernel/xen-sources (kernel)

on a laptop with a turion cpu (supports svm), and which has MS Windows
installed as dual boot in its own partition (/dev/sda1).
Is it possible to boot that Windows installation using xen?




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>>> On 2010/04/20 at 11:31, Aggelos <marmango@freemail.gr> wrote:
> I am new to xen and maybe this question has been asked and been answered
> before, but searching with google I didn''t find any adequate info:
> 
> I have installed (on gentoo linux)
> 
> app-emulation/xen
> app-emulation/xen-tools
> sys-kernel/xen-sources (kernel)
> 
> on a laptop with a turion cpu (supports svm), and which has MS Windows
> installed as dual boot in its own partition (/dev/sda1).
> Is it possible to boot that Windows installation using xen?
It is *possible* but not necessarily easy.  First of all, the hardware layer
that a Xen HVM domU presents is different than your physical hardware layer. 
The main chipset, along with disk controllers, network controllers, display,
etc., is different from your physical hardware.  This means that 1) there is a
process you have to go through to convert the Windows installation so that it is
capable of booting correctly on Xen, and 2) it may or may not boot natively
(outside of Xen) after you do this conversion.  The primary challenge for
converting the Windows installation is that you need to add IDE chipset support
at boot time.  There are a couple of scripts and instructions out there (one of
them is called MergeIDE, I think) that tell you how to modify the registry such
that the IDE drivers will load at boot time.  After you get the storage taken
care of, you will have another half dozen or so drivers that need to be
installed (most of them for the Xen platform are already included with Windows)
so that all of the devices will work correctly.

-Nick



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on 04/21/2010 12:21 AM Nick Couchman wrote the
following:
>>>> On 2010/04/20 at 11:31, Aggelos <marmango@freemail.gr>
wrote:
>> I am new to xen and maybe this question has been asked and been
answered
>> before, but searching with google I didn''t find any adequate
info:
>>
>> I have installed (on gentoo linux)
>>
>> app-emulation/xen
>> app-emulation/xen-tools
>> sys-kernel/xen-sources (kernel)
>>
>> on a laptop with a turion cpu (supports svm), and which has MS Windows
>> installed as dual boot in its own partition (/dev/sda1).
>> Is it possible to boot that Windows installation using xen?
>
> It is *possible* but not necessarily easy.  First of all, the hardware
layer that a Xen HVM domU presents is different than your physical hardware
layer.  The main chipset, along with disk controllers, network controllers,
display, etc., is different from your physical hardware.  This means that 1)
there is a process you have to go through to convert the Windows installation so
that it is capable of booting correctly on Xen, and 2) it may or may not boot
natively (outside of Xen) after you do this conversion.  The primary challenge
for converting the Windows installation is that you need to add IDE chipset
support at boot time.  There are a couple of scripts and instructions out there
(one of them is called MergeIDE, I think) that tell you how to modify the
registry such that the IDE drivers will load at boot time.  After you get the
storage taken care of, you will have another half dozen or so drivers that need
to be installed (most of them for the Xen platform are already included with
Windows) so that all of the devices will work correctly.
>
> -Nick
I think I am beginning to get the idea...
Suppose, before changing any drivers in the native Windows (7)
installation, I want to give it a trial, how do I start it? I mean, the
xen configuration, what it should look like, for a Windows native
installation in /dev/sda[X]?


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2010/4/21 Aggelos <marmango@freemail.gr>:
> I think I am beginning to get the idea...
> Suppose, before changing any drivers in the native Windows (7)
> installation, I want to give it a trial, how do I start it? I mean, the
> xen configuration, what it should look like, for a Windows native
> installation in /dev/sda[X]?
I highly suggest you do not try it.
For one thing, most Windows version will detect a hardware change when
you run it under virtualization (the same way it''d detect a change if
you move the disk and put it on different computer). That would
usually result in having to reactivate Windows. The only exceptions
that I know if is when using Windows XP/2003 with corporate volume
license key.

Second, you might accidently chose to run dom0 OS under the virtual
environment (example: when Linux entry is set to default, and you
didn''t get to domU console in time to choose Windows entry), making
the same disk/partition mounted twice (in dom0 and in domU). That
would lead to data corruption.

If you''re aware of those, and want to try it anyway, you need to have
IDE drivers installed first. Otherwise you''d just get blue screen. See
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Migrate_Windows for explanation
(applies to Xen as well).

Once you have IDE drivers installed, you can use a domU config similar to this:

########################
memory = 1024

vif = [ '''' ]
disk =	[
	''phy:/dev/sda,hda,w!'',
	]

boot="c"

device_model = ''/usr/lib64/xen/bin/qemu-dm''
kernel = "/usr/lib/xen/boot/hvmloader"
builder=''hvm''

sdl=0
vnc=1
vnclisten="0.0.0.0"
#vncunused=0
vncpasswd=''''
stdvga=0
serial=''pty''
localtime=1

usbdevice=''tablet''
acpi=1
apic=1
pae=1

vcpus=1
#########################################

-- 
Fajar

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> Once you have IDE drivers installed, you can use a domU config similar to
this:
> 
> ########################
> memory = 1024
> 
> vif = [ '''' ]
> disk =	[
> 	''phy:/dev/sda,hda,w!'',
> 	]
I strongly suggest not to use "w!" but "w" instead. The
"!" allows to
export a disk to several domUs which will lead to data corruption in case
of an ordinary file system (ntfs, vfat, ext[234], xfs and so on) and is
only useful when used with cluster aware file systems like ocfs2 or gfs.

-- Adi

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on 04/21/2010 12:08 PM Fajar A. Nugraha wrote the
following:
> 2010/4/21 Aggelos <marmango@freemail.gr>:
>> I think I am beginning to get the idea...
>> Suppose, before changing any drivers in the native Windows (7)
>> installation, I want to give it a trial, how do I start it? I mean, the
>> xen configuration, what it should look like, for a Windows native
>> installation in /dev/sda[X]?
> 
> I highly suggest you do not try it.
> For one thing, most Windows version will detect a hardware change when
> you run it under virtualization (the same way it''d detect a change
if
> you move the disk and put it on different computer). That would
> usually result in having to reactivate Windows. 
I must say I was aware of it, thanks for the warning, though.
> The only exceptions that I know if is when using Windows XP/2003 with
corporate volume
> license key.
Yes, you could say my case is like that. But, on a second thought, I
think I will try installing first on a 20GB disk image file.
> 
> Second, you might accidently chose to run dom0 OS under the virtual
> environment (example: when Linux entry is set to default, and you
> didn''t get to domU console in time to choose Windows entry),
making
> the same disk/partition mounted twice (in dom0 and in domU). That
> would lead to data corruption.
Hmm. Sounds like a dangerous situation, anyone could get in, if he is
not careful enough and aware of it.
Would you mind elaborating a bit?
> 
> If you''re aware of those, and want to try it anyway, you need to
have
> IDE drivers installed first. Otherwise you''d just get blue screen.
See
> http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Migrate_Windows for explanation
> (applies to Xen as well).
> 
> Once you have IDE drivers installed, you can use a domU config similar to
this:
> 
> ########################
> memory = 1024
> 
> vif = [ '''' ]
> disk =	[
> 	''phy:/dev/sda,hda,w!'',
> 	]
> 
> boot="c"
> 
> device_model = ''/usr/lib64/xen/bin/qemu-dm''
> kernel = "/usr/lib/xen/boot/hvmloader"
> builder=''hvm''
> 
> sdl=0
> vnc=1
> vnclisten="0.0.0.0"
> #vncunused=0
> vncpasswd=''''
> stdvga=0
> serial=''pty''
> localtime=1
> 
> usbdevice=''tablet''
> acpi=1
> apic=1
> pae=1
> 
> vcpus=1
> #########################################
> 
Thanks.

I also found this page with step by step instructions on installing
Windows 7 as a Xen HVM domainU Guest:

http://www.virtuatopia.com/index.php/Installing_and_Running_Windows_7_as_a_Xen_HVM_domainU_Guest
;-)

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on 04/21/2010 01:13 PM Adi Kriegisch wrote the
following:
>> Once you have IDE drivers installed, you can use a domU config similar
to this:
>>
>> ########################
>> memory = 1024
>>
>> vif = [ '''' ]
>> disk =	[
>> 	''phy:/dev/sda,hda,w!'',
>> 	]
> I strongly suggest not to use "w!" but "w" instead. The
"!" allows to
> export a disk to several domUs which will lead to data corruption in case
> of an ordinary file system (ntfs, vfat, ext[234], xfs and so on) and is
> only useful when used with cluster aware file systems like ocfs2 or gfs.
> 
Thanks !

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>> -Nick
> I think I am beginning to get the idea...
> Suppose, before changing any drivers in the native Windows (7)
> installation, I want to give it a trial, how do I start it? I mean, the
> xen configuration, what it should look like, for a Windows native
> installation in /dev/sda[X]?
Set up a domU as normal, and put the following for the disk line:
disk = [ ''phy:/dev/sda1,hda,w'' ]

-Nick




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