I''m planning to use Xen to virtualize my new desktop at home- a bit of an experiment for me. Should I a) use my primary working linux distro that I use day-to-day as dom0 so I have easy access to peripherals and control over things, or b) use a minimal headless install for dom0 and make my day-to-day desktop a domU so I minimze risk of breaking the entire Xen environment and just passthrough the peripherals? Anyone have any experience or advice? Thanks --------------------- Detailed background for anyone interested: Have a new 8 core machine I''m setting up. Consider the following VMs to isolate some tasks so services are somewhat isolated and dont break each other: - Linux Desktop - Win7 Desktop - Media server to stream music and video collection (considering Plex) - File and print server (Samba, CUPS, NFS, etc) - Backup server to pull/sync data with other machines in house (considering Backup PC) and probably a handful of distros Im trying out to test things, probably a LAMP stack for some development This would be the central computer in the house thats always on. Home network consists of this machine, ipad, Asus tablet, iphone, android phone, a smart BlueRay, a windows laptop and a few linux laptops. If the media streaming works out then will probably add a Roku or something similar. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xen.org http://lists.xen.org/xen-users
Hi, I''ve been fiddling with that same question and went for minimal dom0 with domU desktop. Some notes which may or may not apply to you: * if you''re into graphics don''t count or easy VGA passthrough (or most PCI* either) or any kind of Windows gaming; * remote (albeit LAN) XDMCP may not be performant (but i''m still goofing around with it; plus i''ll have to grok pulseaudio some bit): my test was youtube; * ended up using ATI''s driver ''cos radeon/hd didn''t really work - at all - with Xorg. HTH, Nuno _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xen.org http://lists.xen.org/xen-users
Gordon Cooke wrote:> I''m planning to use Xen to virtualize my new desktop at home > Should I a) use my primary working linux distro that I use day-to-day > as dom0 so I have easy access to peripherals and control over things, > or b) use a minimal headless install for dom0 and make my day-to-day > desktop a domU so I minimze risk of breaking the entire Xen > environment and just passthrough the peripherals?You might want to consider security as well. If your browser is hacked while you''re on the Web, is it OK for that to happen in dom0? Or better to limit that to a domU built for that purpose? Even with option (b), headless might be going too far. Maybe you''d want to control some features through a GUI.
I''m in middle of doing the same thing.. That bums me put to hear about VGA pass through. On Apr 1, 2013 6:11 PM, "Mike" <debian@good-with-numbers.com> wrote:> Gordon Cooke wrote: > > I''m planning to use Xen to virtualize my new desktop at home > > Should I a) use my primary working linux distro that I use day-to-day > > as dom0 so I have easy access to peripherals and control over things, > > or b) use a minimal headless install for dom0 and make my day-to-day > > desktop a domU so I minimze risk of breaking the entire Xen > > environment and just passthrough the peripherals? > > You might want to consider security as well. If your browser is hacked > while you''re on the Web, is it OK for that to happen in dom0? Or better > to limit that to a domU built for that purpose? > > Even with option (b), headless might be going too far. Maybe you''d want > to control some features through a GUI. > > _______________________________________________ > Xen-users mailing list > Xen-users@lists.xen.org > http://lists.xen.org/xen-users >_______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xen.org http://lists.xen.org/xen-users
On 04/01/2013 10:25 AM, Gordon Cooke wrote:> I''m planning to use Xen to virtualize my new desktop at home- a bit of > an experiment for me. Should I a) use my primary working linux distro > that I use day-to-day as dom0 so I have easy access to peripherals and > control over things, or b) use a minimal headless install for dom0 and > make my day-to-day desktop a domU so I minimze risk of breaking the > entire Xen environment and just passthrough the peripherals? Anyone > have any experience or advice? > > Thanks > --------------------- > Detailed background for anyone interested: > Have a new 8 core machine I''m setting up. > Consider the following VMs to isolate some tasks so services are > somewhat isolated and dont break each other: > - Linux Desktop > - Win7 Desktop > - Media server to stream music and video collection (considering Plex) > - File and print server (Samba, CUPS, NFS, etc) > - Backup server to pull/sync data with other machines in house > (considering Backup PC) > and probably a handful of distros Im trying out to test things, > probably a LAMP stack for some development > > This would be the central computer in the house thats always on. Home > network consists of this machine, ipad, Asus tablet, iphone, android > phone, a smart BlueRay, a windows laptop and a few linux laptops. If > the media streaming works out then will probably add a Roku or > something similar. >You should look at Qubes OS - even if you don''t use it, it has some great ideas for using Xen in a desktop situation.> > > _______________________________________________ > Xen-users mailing list > Xen-users@lists.xen.org > http://lists.xen.org/xen-users_______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xen.org http://lists.xen.org/xen-users
I have been running Ubuntu 12.04LTS Desktop as dom0 for some time without any issues. It''s quite seamless experience! This is only possible if you know how to compile kernel with xen dom0/domU options. Plenty of links<http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/XenParavirtOps>/docs exists on Xen wiki, so do go through those first before venturing. It took me a few trials to get it right, so back up the things and be prepared for some rough time :-) In a nutshell - 1. during kernel compile start with ''make localmodconfig'' to have all the currently used modules in. 2. do ''make menuconfig'' and carefully go through all options and select appropriate to your system 3. if in doubt (especially with block/file system drivers), include the modules as built into kernel 4. after that ensure .config file has correct xen config directives for dom0 If your intention is only to virtualize desktop and you do not necessarily care about the virualization technology per se - i.e. Xen vs KVM etc, then my suggestion would be to use KVM virtualization, especially if your processor supports VT-x extensions. KVM is very straightforward to install and configure through GUI tools and you will save yourself quite a bit of pain. Also KVM supports unmodified guest OS installation just like you would do by popping a downloaded iso CD in the CD drive (virtual cd drive in case of KVM) But if your intention is to learn and experiment with Xen then by all means! Welcome aboard ;-) - Vijay On Mon, Apr 1, 2013 at 10:25 AM, Gordon Cooke <gordon.cooke3@gmail.com>wrote:> I''m planning to use Xen to virtualize my new desktop at home- a bit of an > experiment for me. Should I a) use my primary working linux distro that I > use day-to-day as dom0 so I have easy access to peripherals and control > over things, or b) use a minimal headless install for dom0 and make my > day-to-day desktop a domU so I minimze risk of breaking the entire Xen > environment and just passthrough the peripherals? Anyone have any > experience or advice? > > Thanks > --------------------- > Detailed background for anyone interested: > Have a new 8 core machine I''m setting up. > Consider the following VMs to isolate some tasks so services are somewhat > isolated and dont break each other: > - Linux Desktop > - Win7 Desktop > - Media server to stream music and video collection (considering Plex) > - File and print server (Samba, CUPS, NFS, etc) > - Backup server to pull/sync data with other machines in house > (considering Backup PC) > and probably a handful of distros Im trying out to test things, probably a > LAMP stack for some development > > This would be the central computer in the house thats always on. Home > network consists of this machine, ipad, Asus tablet, iphone, android phone, > a smart BlueRay, a windows laptop and a few linux laptops. If the media > streaming works out then will probably add a Roku or something similar. > > _______________________________________________ > Xen-users mailing list > Xen-users@lists.xen.org > http://lists.xen.org/xen-users >_______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xen.org http://lists.xen.org/xen-users