Re: [Xen-users] Is it possible to do a dual-boot?

["Simon Hobson" <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Alexandre Kouznetsov wrote:
>In my opinion, it's not very comfortable to perform tests while the 
>regular desktop is unavailable (together with your reference notes, 
>bookmarks and mail client). If you are limited to a single computer, two 
>things may be done:
>- Use nested visualization. As example, Xen hypervisor works great under 
>VirtualBox, as far as you don't try to run HVM guests.
>- Use the Dom0 itself as desktop. Not a good idea for production 
>environment, but this is a test, after all.

I'd agree with that, but there is a third option.

If the OP already has a working Linux install, then it should be possible to 
just add Xen and dual-boot between native Linux and Linux as Dom0. All this 
should need is to install a Xen Dom0 capable kernel (if not already capable)* 
and install Xen. A bridged network setup with the bridge managed by the naive 
distro tools will work with or without Xen loaded.
Selecting environment should be just a matter of picking the Xen or no-Xen 
option in GrUB at boot time.

* IIRC, 2.6 kernels and earlier weren't Dom0 capable, so pick a "...-xen' 
kernel image to install. Kernel 3 onwards has Dom0 baked in. This will also 
depend on the options your distro used when building kernels.

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