Re: [Xen-devel] Xen+coLinux

[Steven Hand <Steven.Hand@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>On Fri, Mar 19, 2004 at 04:01:38PM +0100, Jacob Gorm Hansen wrote:
>> On Fri, 2004-03-19 at 13:29, Digital Infra, Inc. wrote:
>> > 
>> > Hello Xen team.
>> > 
>> > I think Xen and coLinux have similarity in its algorithm.
>> > How about combining two technologies?
>> > I mean, for example, making XEN.SYS - which makes WindowsXP/2K as Xen host
.
>> > (coLinux has LINUX.SYS, which makes Windows as coLinux host.)
>> 
>> > The poing is, you can do it by "live migration".
>> > you dont have to stop your VM.
>> 
>> I am currently working on live migration in Xen. I agree that getting
>> Xen to run within/alongside Windows would be extremely useful. Are you
>> involved with the coLinux project?
>
>According to what I understand, a machine running Xen, runs using a  
>Xen-patched Linux kernel, right? So, if the coLinux patch doesn't 
>conflict much with the Xen patch, you'd be able to easily create a 
>coXenoLinux that runs under Windows just like the regular coLinux 
>does.

Not really; XenoLinux runs on top of Xen rather than on the bare metal; 
the changes made to linux are to replace some of the low-level parts 
which interact with the real machine (e.g. cli/sti, raw device access, 
raw cr3 and page table access) with code which interfaces with Xen. 

To get XenoLinux working in a manner similar to coLoinux, it would be
necessary to get Xen working alongside Windows. If this could be achieved, 
then 1 or more XenoLinux instances should be able to run on top of that. 
I've not looked at the coLinux work in detail, but doing "coXen" may well
be possible, although it'd need to be somewhat lobotimized I believe (e.g.
I'm guessing coLinux is uniprocessor). 

cheers, 

S.