Re: [Xen-users] can Xen coexist/cooperate with a windows/linux dual-boot system?

["Nick Couchman" <Nick.Couchman@xxxxxxxxx>]

The challenge in this sort of setup is that the hardware configuration that 
Windows was installed onto and the hardware configuration that Xen presents to 
HVM-based domUs is different - in some cases very different.  For example, if 
you're running modern hardware, you probably have a SATA disk, which is usually 
seen by O/Ss as a SCSI-type controller with SCSI disks.  However, HVM domUs use 
IDE-based controllers and disks, which means booting is going to have issues 
seeing the change.  There are also differences in the chipset, network 
controllers, etc., that need to be seen correctly by Windows before it boots.

One of the basic things is to try converting the SCSI-based disk setup to IDE - 
there are instructions on Microsoft's support site for doing this.  The 
downside to this is that you probably won't be able to boot Windows back on the 
original hardware outside of the VM after this change - Windows is not very 
flexible in terms of differing hardware configurations outside of your basic 
docked and undocked laptop modes.

Note that this also may pose licensing issues - usually machines that come with 
Windows are installed using an OEM license, which licenses Windows to run on 
the original hardware only.  Using this same copy of Windows to run in a domU 
is likely a violation of the OEM license - you need another, full retail or 
volume license for Windows to run as a VM.

-Nick

>>> On 2009/12/27 at 07:52, richard heade <richard.heade@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I have a dual-boot setup, using grub, that I'm attempting to convert to
> a dual-boot plus xen setup. I'm running openSuSE 11.2 with the
> 2.6.31.5-0.1-xen kernel and Xen 3.4.1.  The hard drive is partitioned as:
> sda1 - xp (ntfs)
> sda2 - extended partition
> sda5 - /windows/D (fat32)
> sda6 - swap
> sda7 - / (ext4)
> sda8 - /home (ext4)
> 
> I've configured the windows xp vm as:
> name="windowsxp"
> uuid="b3a2c424-7df7-94f6-79a8-c641e412f68d"
> memory=512
> maxmem=512
> vcpus=2
> on_poweroff="destroy"
> on_reboot="restart"
> on_crash="destroy"
> localtime=1
> keymap="en-us"
> 
> builder="hvm"
> extid=0
> device_model="/usr/lib/xen/bin/qemu-dm"
> kernel="/usr/lib/xen/boot/hvmloader"
> boot="c"
> disk=[ 'phy:/dev/sda1,hda1,w', ]
> vif=[ 'bridge=br0,model=rtl8139', ]
> 
> stdvga=0
> vnc=1
> vncunused=1
> apic=1
> acpi=1
> pae=1
> 
> usb=1
> usbdevice='tablet'
> 
> serial="pty"
> 
> When I attempt to run the windows xp vm the console shows "booting from
> hard disk...", the cpu usage goes to 100%, and that's as far as it gets.
> (I've tried multiple different "disk=..." combinations, this is just the
> latest, but I get the same results from all of them.)
> 
> Any ideas on how I might fix this? (it would seem that however xen tries
> to boot windows xp, it's not as effective as grub's chainloader.)



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