[Xen-users] Re: Some questions from a novice

[Zhiming Wu <zhiming.wu.atgm@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Mark,

Thank you very much for you detailed explanation. Now I understand the 
situation and can decide what I should do.
Best Regards,
Zhiming Wu

Mark Williamson wrote:
> Hello,
>
>   
> > I am a novice at Xen and I have some questions about it and I will
> > deeply appreciate the answer from any of you.
> >     
> Sure.
>
>   
> > 1. Can Xen be run on CPU that not support Virtualization Technology?
> > Because I have a Pentium M CPU that does not support VT.
> >     
> Yes but you'll only be able to run Xen-aware (paravirtualised) guests.  You 
> can't run unmodified OSes such as Windows.
>   
> > 2. What is each variety of Xen kernel for? For example kernel-2.6-xen,
> > kernel-2.6-xen0 and kernel-2.6-xenU. Which one should be used for the
> > host OS? What are the differences between kernel-2.6-xen and
> > kernel-2.6-xen0?
> >     
> 2.6-xen0 is a kernel with dom0 functionality compiled in, with a fair number 
> of device drivers built into the kernel (if I recall correctly) and not that 
> many other driver built as modules.
> 2.6-xen also has dom0 functionality compiled in and it compiles a much larger 
> set of modules to ensure compatibility with more hardware.  This is probably 
> a good choice for a dom0 kernel, as it'll support lots of devices by default.
> 2.6-xenU is a kernel that does not include dom0 functionality, so it can only 
> run in an unprivileged domain.  You can use this as the kernel in your guest 
> VMs.
> You can use a dom0-aware kernel (2.6-xen or 2.6-xen0) in *any* domain, 
> including an unprivileged domain.  It is safe to use a dom0-aware kernel in 
> an unprivileged domain, it won't be able to do any harm.
> A 2.6-xenU build is just slightly smaller because it doesn't include dom0 
> functionality - that's the only difference.
>   
> > 3. I have to build the customer Xen kernel to support some special
> > device, can a newer version, such as 2.6.23.9 used in my system now, of
> > linux kernel be used?
> >     
> Not really, no.
>
> You can't build 2.6.23 from kernel.org to run as a dom0 *at all*, so you won't 
> be able to use that to get better device support.  You can run 2.6.23 as a 
> domU kernel, although the support is better tested and more complete if you 
> use the XenLinux kernel from XenSource, at the moment.
> If you use a distro with good Xen support, such as Fedora or CentOS then it 
> will include a distro-patched XenLinux kernel with extra driver support, etc.  
> Fedora ports the Xen patches to work with newer versions of Linux.  If you 
> want a more stable, server OS, then you could try CentOS.  CentOS 5 uses the 
> 2.6.18 kernel but other drivers are backported to enhance its hardware 
> support.
> There are other distros that do similar modifications, so you might find you 
> have luck with one of those instead.  Fedora and CentOS are just the ones I 
> know most about ;-)
> Cheers,
> Mark
>
>   

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