RE: [Xen-users] Xen with newer-than-2.6.16.26

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

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From: xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Derek
Sent: 13 September 2006 18:15
To: xen ml
Subject: [Xen-users] Xen with newer-than-2.6.16.26

I'm having problems with my dom0 linux kernel, which I beleive could be fixed by going to a newer linux kernel.   (The problems are not related to XEN, and have to do with device driver support for ATAPI support under SATA).  I've tried updating to 2.6.17 _non-xen_ and my device driver problems are solved.  Now, if only I can update to 2.6.17 _with_ XEN.

So I'd like to be able to run XEN with a 2.6.17 or later dom0 kernel.  It's not clear to me how to do this or even if it's possible.  I'm running Gentoo.  The latest xen-sources they currently have available for emerge is 2.6.16.28. 

A few possible approaches which I've considered:

  - Convert a redhat fedora kernel-sources package from RPM to tgz using rpm2targz, and try that.  They seem to have xen dom0 compatible release up to one of the 2.6.18 release candidates. 

 

Any particular reason you can't juse use these packages directly? It seems like the easiest way... Or is the problem that Gentoo doesn't have a RPM-capable tool?

 

  - Start with a vanilla gentoo kernel-sources emerge, and apply whatever patches are necessary to make them xen-dom0 compatible.  I have absolutely no idea how to find these patches, or how realistic a goal this is.

  - Start with the xen-sources 2.6.16.26 emerge, and apply incrimental patches from kernel.org to get it up to 2.6.17 or later.

Any folks with wisdom to share on which of the above approaches is best?  Or any others I haven't thought of?  And any hints or tips that will help me along the way.  

 

If this was me, I would take the current Xen-Unstable (which uses 2.6.16.13), and apply ONLY the patch that fixes the particular problem you're having (ATAPI + SATA). There should be a patch available on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (I presume) for this particular problem. If this patch doesn't apply cleanly, then you may want to look at adding other patches prior to this patch, based on what's needed. This will work best if there are relatively few changes to the SATA/ATAPI components in between 2.6.16.13 and the 2.6.17 kernel that you need. Which there is some chance that you'll get away with only one single patch. I had a quick google for a suitable patch, but I couldn't find one - but if you know what the exact problem description is, I think you may be able to find it... I did find this tho': http://linux-ata.org/software-status.html#atapi which states that ATAPI is fixed from 2.6.15, which means that the stock kernel that comes with Xen should work. Presumably you're having some further problems to that - I can't say because I don't quite know the ins/outs of SATA + ATAPI.

 

--

Mats

 

Thanks,
Derek.

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