[xen-tools] Re: Using Xen-Tools to install a Debian domU on a Centos5 dom0

[Dave Crossland]

On 18/06/07, Henning Sprang <henning_sprang at gmx.de> wrote:
> On 6/18/07, Dave Crossland <dave at lab6.com> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I have tried to install a Debian domU on a Centos5 dom0 by using alien
> > to convert xen-tools and its dependency .deb packages for Etch and
> > installing them with rpm. Is this a good approach?
>
> Alien is always a bit of a "dirty" approach - it works for some
> packages, and not for others.
> But AFAIK, theres no nice packages alien for fedora/redhat, just for suse.

Yes, I had to build alien from source, so I suppose I might just as
well have built xen-tools and debootstrap from source also.

> Or help building proper rpm's (I don't know how this is done, but if
> you use centOs a lot, and want xen-tools, this is the way to go -
> knowing to package for your dist of choice is a good thing anyway.
> And Steve will probably be glad to put necessary patches in to build rpm's...

Yes, I'll certainly consider this if I get the job I'm currently on a
short term contract for.

> And then, debootstrap needs the argument --arch - AFAIk(as debootstrap
> detects this with dpkg, which you don't have on centos)

Ah, classic RTFM goof: somehow I missed the --arch arg, and it means I
don't need dpkg. Perfect!

I built my Debian domU with the following command:

xen-create-image --verbose --boot --cache --fs ext3 --image full
--memory 512 --passwd --size 5G --swap 1G --dist etch --mirror
http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ --hostname myfull.domain.net --ip
1.2.3.4 --netmask 255.255.255.0 --gateway 1.2.3.1 --dir /srv/xen
--kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-4-xen-686 --initrd
/boot/initrd-2.6.18-4-xen-686.img --debootstrap --arch=i386

I then folded these args into xen-tools.conf for future use :-)

On 18/06/07, Steve Kemp <steve at steve.org.uk> wrote:
>
> The only part I'm unsure about is installing debootstrap on non-Debian
> systems.

The alien'd .deb from Etch installed perfectly, so I guess it will
install from original sources just fine too :-)

My next problem is that when the domU is created, the final boot messages are:

- - - 8< - - -
Starting kernel log daemon: klogd.
* Not starting internet superserver: no services enabled.
Starting OpenBSD Secure Shell server: sshdPRNG is not seeded
Starting periodic command scheduler: crond.

Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 myfull.domain.net tty1

myfull.domain.net login:
- - - 8< - - -

Searching for "PRNG is not seeded" I see from
http://lists.cvsrepository.org/xen-tools/Jun06/0047.html that this is
a rare problem with xen-tools, where the /dev/urandom device isn't
created for some reason. Here's what I did:

dell:~# /usr/sbin/sshd -t
PRNG is not seeded
dell:~# ls -1 /dev
MAKEDEV
console
initctl
log
mapper
md1
null
ptmx
pts
ram0
ram1
ram10
ram11
ram12
ram13
ram14
ram15
ram2
ram3
ram4
ram5
ram6
ram7
ram8
ram9
root
rtc
sda1
sda2
shm
systty
tty
tty0
tty1
tty10
tty11
tty12
tty2
tty3
tty4
tty5
tty6
tty7
tty8
tty9
ttyS0
ttyS1
ttyS2
ttyS3
xconsole
zero
dell:~# cd /dev/
dell:/dev# ./MAKEDEV generic
dell:/dev# ls -la | grep urandom
crw-rw-rw-  1 root root     1,   9 Jun 25 00:57 urandom
dell:/dev# /usr/sbin/sshd -t
NET: Registered protocol family 10
lo: Disabled Privacy Extensions
IPv6 over IPv4 tunneling driver
dell:/dev# /etc/init.d/ssh start
Starting OpenBSD Secure Shell server: sshd.
dell:/dev#

Steve, I was hoping to make it to Edinburgh for Debconf but sadly
couldn't make it - but next time I'm in town I'll surely buy you a
beer :-)

-- 
Regards,
Dave