# xen-sources?

## groovin

just noticed recently xen-sources is in sys-kernel... the changelog makes me think that this kernel version was recently added. has anyone used it? i only used xen briefly before moving onto qemu and vmware (needed something that can run windows as well) but now ive been getting really interested in xen again. when i tried it out, i didnt like my how my host kernel turned out because i couldnt get drivers for my hardware working. maybe i just didnt do somethign right. looking at xen-sources, when i run menuconfig, i still cant find my hardware anywhere. i did a quick google buy i couldnt find any docs on xen-sources... can someone please give me some more details about it? thanks

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## ziopipo

Basically it's a normal 2.6.12 kernel with additional stuff for xen. It's only worth to use it in conjunction with xen. Otherwise it doesn't bring you any advantage.

cheers,

z

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## xming

it's woking fine and so do the xen ebuilds, just built a new server with gentoo on xen/gentoo + nfs unionfs root

xming

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## ejmiddleton

Gento Xen resources

Xen and Gentoo Howto

Original Bug

Forum thread

Xen resources

Homepage

Screenshots

User Manual

FAQ

Benchmarks

Wiki

User Mailing list archive

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## Algorithms

When I attempt to build a Xen kernel from xen-sources, it doesn't allow me to select my network device. So I can never get networking going on it. Xen LiveCDs work flawlessly.

Trying to build with make ARCH=xen menuconfig

I turn on domain 0, needed backends, and enable network devices (DANGEROUS). Go to Device Drivers, Network, 10/100, Only 1 thing listed, some Generic device.

Any ideas?

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## encieno

I am having the exact same issue on three different machines. I've googled out the @$$ and can't find any reason for this. I have tried patching the kernel manually as well and still cannot access ANY of my hardware in the menuconfig ..... I'm surprised we're the only ones with this issue?! I've tried both kernels...

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## encieno

ok, this is sad. i skipped too quickly through the kernel config and noticed for some reason xen-sources likes to remove all PCI/ISA?PCMCIA/whatever options that were formerly enabled, thereby blocking all of the network/hardware config. Went back in and enabled it, currently configuring again and am fairly positive it will work this time. =]

*edit* forgot to mention i'm testing this out on my laptop before going full scale with it.

*edit* one more note, i'm confused as to why it did this when I was using an existing .config file.... hmmm. i'm just glad its fixed!

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## Algorithms

What do you know, same issue here <<doh!>>. Looks like it will be working all well and fine now.

Does seem odd it would disable that, even when it was enabled in the pre-existing .config.

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## ejmiddleton

I think it is just useing the default configuration file for the xen ARCH because your current config is for a different ARCH.

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## encieno

Yeah, that sounds right. I've never really tried moving a .config file between two 'arch' types, haha. I didn't think about the kernel seeing xen different from x86 or whatever.

-dave

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## Braempje

 *xming wrote:*   

> it's woking fine and so do the xen ebuilds, just built a new server with gentoo on xen/gentoo + nfs unionfs root

 

Could you explain how that works? I'm looking into a solution to have several Xen instances running simultaneously, preferably using the same portage tree. I guess your approach would save me diskspace?

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## xming

Basically you create a DomU, in this domU use unionfs to join the its own filesystem (ro) + empty dir (rw). The use nfs to export the union, for each new DomU you have to create a new union. And all you othe DomUs are using nfsroot.

But I have abandon this setup for the time being, because I cannot update the filesystem which is a part of the union. So I am just sharing /usr/portage with nfs.

xming

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## groovin

xen 3 was just released. its supposed to run under amd64 host and have amd64 guest...

when i try to emerge it, it gives me "missing keyword" errors. So I tried ACCEPT_KEYWORDS=~amd64 emerge xen but I still get the same error. Using keyword ~x86 however seems to work. 

anyone know if this is supposed to happen or if i could use ~x86 on an amd64 (opteron) system? thanks

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## kox

Xen 3.0 ebuild ins't marked for ~amd64 yet. It's already submitted in bugzilla.

At the moment I recomend you to use xen sources for 64bit platform.

Get it from here:

http://tx.downloads.xensource.com/torrents/xen-3.0.0-install-x86_64.tgz.torrent

I tried Xen 3.0 sources version on ~x86 several times without problem but now am using ebuild  :Smile: 

Please post your result, thanks.

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## kox

xen 3.0 final is masked in portage

Does anybody know why it has dependency with dev86?

I think I built xen 3.0 from original sources without it so why gentoo ebuild has such dependency?

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## xming

I don't know why xen3 need dev86, but it certainly does not need twisted any more. And gcc-3.4.4 is mark stable now, so the installation is a bit easier.

I have a xen3 running with 7 domUs, everything seems great.

xming

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## mlybarger

silly question maybe, i'm a bit interested in xen, but do i need the host machine to be running a xen kernel as well as the virtuals? if my quick research is correct, xen is similar to vmware?

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## groovin

both the host and guest kernels need modifications under xen.

xen is similar to vmware only in that they allow a host OS to run a guest OS. because xen requires mods to the kernel, it cannot run under windows (but ive read some people got it to work).

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## Tender

Hello, this question may be OT but I do it anyway:

I have xen 3.0 working and in the dom0 I have added vmware 5.5.1 too.

The system boot is OK, the vmware host application starts but as soon as I start the guest (Win XP/2000) the host application freezes (closing the host window, after the timeout, remove the vmware application "gracefully" from dom0).

Does anybody know if xen dom0 + vmware cohabit?  :Rolling Eyes: 

Tender

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## ferp2

Hi everybody,

Hopefully this tread is still ongoing. I've noticed a few people who seem to have successfully set up Xen-3.0 on Gentoo. I have followed the Wiki Howto as closely as possible and have run into a problem which I haven't been able to resolve. Basically I can boot into dom0 but no matter what I do, I cannot get a network connection. This despite the fact that ifconfig shows the card running normally with a fixed ip address. A route -n shows routing to be running normally too. A further look at eth0 with mii-tool shows the card to be running normally. Finally, a look at netstat shows sshd running and listening on port 22. Like I said, everything shows networking to be running normally, and yet I cannot connect into or out from this box. 

If I do `dmesg | grep -i eth0` I get the following:

eth0 : RealTek RTL8139...

...snip...

NETDEV WATCHDOG : eth0 : transmit timed out

eth0 : Transmit timeout, status...

The above problem may be due to having more than one device sitting on an interrupt

`cat /proc/interrupts` shows eth0 to be the only device sitting on irq 11, so that's not the problem

One xen user stated that he solved the problem by recompiling with gcc-3.3.6 instead of gcc-3.4.4. I tried recompiling the kernel with gcc-3.3.6 to no avail Perhaps I should have recompiled the whole system, but I wasn't willing to do that.

In the meantime, I would like to know if anyone has got the network up having compiled or recompiled the system with gcc-3.4.4 and the latest xen-sources and hypervisor.

If yes, maybe you would have a suggestion about how to get my network card working. Please note that the network card works when I boot with the latest 2.6.14 kernel, so this is NOT a hardware problem.

Thanks in advance.

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## kox

1) XEN vs VMWare

    On my notebook I am using dualboot Gentoo with WXP Pro

    There are special partitions for both Win and Linux.

    I made custom kernel for dom0 which now includes drivers for both physical network card and vmware virtual network card.

    My VMWare instance is working with physical harddisk and I can freely boot my linux part of harddisk from running Windows inside VMWare 5.5  :Smile: 

    Works flawlesly.

2) Realtek8139 not working in dom0

    Look at this discussion:  https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-412580-highlight-xen.html

    I think it´s the same probblem:

    [*] Local APIC support on uniprocessors

    [*] IO-APIC support on uniprocessors

    [*] ACPI Support

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## ferp2

Thanks for responding. I actually came across that thread a while back and turned on everything having to do with APIC

A `grep -i apic .config` reveals

CONFIG_X86_GOOD_APIC=y

CONFIG_X86_LOCAL_APIC=y

CONFIG_X86_IO_APIC=y

CONFIG_X86_UP_APIC=y

CONFIG_X86_UP_IOAPIC=y

A `grep -i uniprocessor .config` draws a blank. I'm using the 2.6.12.6 kernel. Perhaps you're using a different one.

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## ferp2

Sorry, I realized that 

CONFIG_X86_UP_APIC=y

CONFIG_X86_UP_IOAPIC=y

is equivallent to 

[*] Local APIC support on uniprocessors

[*] IO-APIC support on uniprocessors

Here's another thread I found concerning APIC:

 *Quote:*   

> Activating the option 'Local APIC support on uniprocessors' prevents
> 
> the network device '8139too' from transmitting any packet.
> 
> Full description
> ...

 

I realize this applies to a 2.4 kernel, but in any case booting the kernel with noapic doesn't solve the problem.

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## ferp2

Hi Kox, could you give me some details on how you've set up your gentoo xen system.  Specifically I'd like to know what version of gcc you are using, and the type of network card installed on your computer.

Thanks.

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## kox

ASUS notebook - there is integrated tigon3 - gigabit. GCC am using is the todays gentoo portage standart  gcc-3.4.4 r1

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## ferp2

Final solution: boot xen kernel with "acpi=noirq" option.

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## Tinitus

 *xming wrote:*   

> I don't know why xen3 need dev86, but it certainly does not need twisted any more. And gcc-3.4.4 is mark stable now, so the installation is a bit easier.
> 
> I have a xen3 running with 7 domUs, everything seems great.
> 
> xming

 

Hello,

can you post your .config Files because will not work here.

Regards Roland

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