[Xen-users] dom0 linux system consoles; running domU problems

[Permjacov Evgeniy <permeakra@xxxxxxxxx>]

Note: I'm familiar with gentoo distribution, but not with xen.

A time has come, I desided, I need several xen virtual guests on my box
(mostly because I want some personal web-applications installed on
different environment that my desctop machine and desire to have
'playground' for web-development attempts)

What I have done
1) installed recent gentoo-sources (2.6.39), enabled all found
xen-related options in kernel config and installed kernel. This is
paravirt_ops kernel, that should work
2) installed xen (app-emulation/xen-4.1.0  USE="acm flask xsm
-custom-cflags -debug -pae"  ; app-emulation/xen-tools-4.1.0-r1 
USE="acm flask hvm ioemu screen -api -custom-cflags -debug -doc -pygrub" )
3) and edited grub.conf to be like this
=======
default 0
timeout 15
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title=Xen (Gentoo Linux, 2.6.39-gentoo)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /xen.gz  dom0_mem=7G
module /boot/kernel-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.39-gentoo root=dev/ram0
real_root=/dev/sda6
module /boot/initramfs-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.39-gentoo

title=Gentoo Linux (2.6.39-gentoo)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/kernel-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.39-gentoo root=/dev/ram0
real_root=/dev/sda6
initrd /boot/initramfs-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.39-gentoo
=======
BTW, here I had to force some xen-related modules (xen-evtchn,
xen-gntdev) to load, or xend failed to start, so if some modules should
be loaded, note it please.
=======
4) added xend to default runlevel
With this I am able to boot my kernel both as stand-alone kernel or as
dom0. Both does work. And here is the first problem. When booting dom0
under Xen, no system console appears: screen is black until Xserver is
started (btw, I do NOT use any framebuffer console. It conflicted with
nvidia-drivers in past, so I avoid framebuffer consoles at all.) But I
need system console if my X server will become unusable because of major
upgrade or if i wish to boot in interactive! As I understand correctly,
I have to link system and virtual consoles to some devices, created by
xen or even grub. But how and wich ones? Framebuffer console is not an
option.

======
Ok, let assume that we booted. Great! I tried two scenarios: a hand-made
bootable system and xm-debian.cfg  (see here about it
http://wiki.debian.org/Xen). After I corrected obvious misconfiguration
errors, I faced symiliar behavior: when started, guests causes screen to
shut down and reboot is forced. Errgh. I expectected at least error
message to google! How I can find, what have gone wrong, i.e. where are
related logs located and how to enforce detailed logging? And may be
there are some common errors, that leads to described results?

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