Re: [Xen-users] boot MS Windows installed natively in its own partition

[Aggelos <marmango@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

on 04/21/2010 12:21 AM Nick Couchman wrote the following:
>>>> On 2010/04/20 at 11:31, Aggelos <marmango@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: 
>> I am new to xen and maybe this question has been asked and been answered
>> before, but searching with google I didn't find any adequate info:
>>
>> I have installed (on gentoo linux)
>>
>> app-emulation/xen
>> app-emulation/xen-tools
>> sys-kernel/xen-sources (kernel)
>>
>> on a laptop with a turion cpu (supports svm), and which has MS Windows
>> installed as dual boot in its own partition (/dev/sda1).
>> Is it possible to boot that Windows installation using xen?
>
> It is *possible* but not necessarily easy.  First of all, the hardware layer 
> that a Xen HVM domU presents is different than your physical hardware layer.  
> The main chipset, along with disk controllers, network controllers, display, 
> etc., is different from your physical hardware.  This means that 1) there is 
> a process you have to go through to convert the Windows installation so that 
> it is capable of booting correctly on Xen, and 2) it may or may not boot 
> natively (outside of Xen) after you do this conversion.  The primary 
> challenge for converting the Windows installation is that you need to add IDE 
> chipset support at boot time.  There are a couple of scripts and instructions 
> out there (one of them is called MergeIDE, I think) that tell you how to 
> modify the registry such that the IDE drivers will load at boot time.  After 
> you get the storage taken care of, you will have another half dozen or so 
> drivers that need to be installed (most of them for the Xen platform are 
> already included with Windows) so that all of the devices will work correctly.
>
> -Nick
I think I am beginning to get the idea...
Suppose, before changing any drivers in the native Windows (7)
installation, I want to give it a trial, how do I start it? I mean, the
xen configuration, what it should look like, for a Windows native
installation in /dev/sda[X]?


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