kernel-xen.sh: This script builds the Linux Kernel for a Xen Hypervisor.
* Kernel config files found here are based on generic Slackware ones with
some Xen settings enabled to get it going. Only x86_64 architecture is now
supported because Xen no longer builds a 32-bit VMM image. This readme is
by no means complete or a replacement for Linux Kernel and Xen docs.
* To run "make menuconfig" before compiling Xen kernel, use:
MENUCONFIG=yes ./kernel-xen.sh
* This script will also create an initrd image, with the following defaults:
ROOTMOD=ext4 ROOTFS=ext4 ROOTDEV=/dev/sda2 ./kernel-xen.sh
* Booting LILO with mbootpack has shown to be unreliable, and the easiest
method is to use EXTLINUX from Syslinux package. In this example, device
/dev/sda1 would have an ext2 filesystem mounted to /boot.
!!! Make sure to understand what are you doing at this point, you could
easily lose your data. Always create backups !!!
* To check and set the legacy BIOS bootable flag (bit 2 attribute):
sgdisk /dev/sda --attributes=1:show
sgdisk /dev/sda --attributes=1:set:2
* Install the binary:
mkdir /boot/extlinux
extlinux --install /boot/extlinux
dd if=/usr/share/syslinux/gptmbr.bin of=/dev/sda
cp -a /usr/share/syslinux/mboot.c32 /boot/extlinux/
* Edit the /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf file:
default XenLinux
prompt 1
timeout 50
label XenLinux
kernel mboot.c32
append /xen.gz --- /vmlinuz-xen root=/dev/sda2 nomodeset --- /initrd-xen.gz
* When using GRUB, /boot/grub/menu.lst should looks something like this:
title Slackware XenLinux 15.0
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/xen.gz dom0_mem=524288 console=vga
module /boot/vmlinuz-xen root=/dev/sda2 ro console=tty0 nomodeset
module /boot/initrd-xen.gz
* Booting Xen on a native EFI system (non-BIOS legacy mode) is probably the
best option, but the only clean solution at this time requires a modified
binutils package. More experienced user can add "x86_64-pep" to the list of
enabled targets and build/replace binutils on their system. Subsequently,
building Xen will then also create a Xen EFI binary.
* To make things a bit easier, a copy of Xen EFI binary can be found here:
http://slackware.hr/~mario/xen/xen-4.17.1.efi.gz
!!! Make sure to understand what are you doing at this point, you could
easily lose your data. Always create backups !!!
* In this example, partition /dev/sda1 with EF or EF00 type, and do:
mkfs.vfat /dev/sda1
mkdir /boot/efi
mount /dev/sda1 /boot/efi
* Copy/unpack EFI binary to /boot/efi/EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi and edit
/boot/efi/EFI/BOOT/bootx64.cfg file to add these:
[global]
default=XenLinux
[XenLinux]
options=dom0_mem=min:512M,max:512M,512M
kernel=vmlinuz-xen root=/dev/sda2 ro console=tty0 nomodeset
ramdisk=initrd-xen.gz
* Many more boot options are supported, this readme covers only some examples!
* Troubleshooting dom0 crashes, freezes, blank screen at boot, etc:
* Set an out-of-range device id, eg. fbcon=map:9 (Look for more in /proc/fb)
* Blacklist framebuffer devices (Look in dmesg/lsmod)
* Compile Linux kernel with CONFIG_FB=n
* Use a serial cable to see early boot messages
* Use another VGA card :-)
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