[Xen-devel] RE: [Xen-users] Effect of installing Xen on VT enabled machine

["Petersson, Mats" <Mats.Petersson@xxxxxxx>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Praveen Kushwaha [mailto:praveen.kushwaha@xxxxxxxxxxx] 
> Sent: 07 March 2007 10:28
> To: Petersson, Mats; xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; 
> xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: RE: [Xen-users] Effect of installing Xen on VT 
> enabled machine
> 
> Hi mat,
>               Thanks a lot for the reply. 
>               But I have one more confusion. Suppose in my 
> machine there
> is more than one partition. In one partition windows is 
> installed. Now I
> want to install xen on it, I will install linux on different partition
> and then will install xen in it(on linux). In that case, will there be
> any effect on the windows which is in different partition. If 
> there will
> be any effect, then to run that windows as a domu, will we have to
> install it again?

There will not be any effect on the Windows that is already installed as
such - but running that as a guest within Xen will possibly cause
problems (I think there's a feature called "Hardware profiles" in
Windows that COULD be used to fix the fact that the hardware "appears to
change completely", but I'm not at all confident that Windows will
actually cope with this) 

It's notoriously difficult to take a hard-disk with (any modern versions
of) Windows and move it to another machine without re-installing
Windows. Running Windows as a guest in a virtual machine is essentially
the same as moving the hard-disk, because ALL of the hardware will be
different - chipset, hard-disk interface, network, graphics,
usb-devices, etc, etc. 

So I suggest that you install another copy of Windows using Xen (then
Windows will detect the correct devices). If you install on a physical
partition, then Windows running on the hardware could be used to access
the same data as the virtual machine, so your documents can be accessed
from both the virtual and the real windows setups. 

--
Mats
> Please give me your ideas.      
> 
> Thanks,
> Praveen Kushwaha
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Petersson, Mats [mailto:Mats.Petersson@xxxxxxx] 
> Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2007 3:15 PM
> To: Praveen Kushwaha; xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx;
> xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: RE: [Xen-users] Effect of installing Xen on VT 
> enabled machine
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
> > [mailto:xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of 
> > Praveen Kushwaha
> > Sent: 06 March 2007 12:07
> > To: xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Subject: [Xen-users] Effect of installing Xen on VT enabled machine
> > 
> > Hi,
> > 
> >  
> > 
> >            I have a  VT enabled machine on which windows xp 
> > has been installed. Now I want to install xen on this VT 
> > enabled machine on which windows xp is already. 
> > 
> >            Is there will be any effect on windows xp after 
> > installing xen on it. If there will be any effect what will 
> > be those. If anyone will have any information please reply, 
> > it will be grate for me.
> 
> Well, you won't (successfully) be able to "install Xen on Windows". 
> 
> If you want to convert your machine to running Xen, you'll 
> have to also
> install Linux, which will be your "host operating system".
> 
> So let's presume that you have a free drive to install Linux 
> on and you
> do this, you will then have to set Linux to be your primary 
> boot, instal
> Xen on it (which is relatively easy if you go with one of the Linux's
> that have Xen included from the beginning). 
> 
> Now you have Xen + Linux on the machine - and you could, in theory,
> start your Windows as a virtual machine (aka guest or DomU) on that
> machine. However, the hardwar that Windows sees will be different from
> what the real hardware is, so drivers for hard-disk, network, 
> graphics,
> sound etc, would have to be re-installed. It's very likely that the
> Windows you have on the machine at the moment would not boot with the
> "new hardware". 
> 
> It's probably better to leave the machine in a dual-boot 
> mode, where you
> have Linux and Windows installed in parallel, and then install Windows
> AGAIN for use with Xen. That way, you don't get any hardware problems.
> The best way to do this would be to use a physical device 
> (partition) as
> your Windows install destination. That way, you could let your regular
> "hardware" windows installation share documents by also mounting this
> same partition. 
> 
> --
> Mats
> > 
> >  
> > 
> >    
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > 
> > Praveen Kushwaha
> > 
> > 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 



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