[xen-tools-discuss] Some annoyances of a first-time Xen-tools user

[Bas Verhoeven]

Hi,

I downloaded the latest Xen-tools yesterday evening, and have been 
fighting with it since. Here are a few of the annoyances I experienced 
while using Xen-tools for the first time.

* Annoyance #1: Using --image-dev and --swap-dev

I already made LVM volumes, so I specified the --image-dev and 
--swap-dev options:

xen-create-image --hostname=p-file --ip=10.0.1.10 
--image-dev=/dev/mapper/p--dom0-File--Root  
--swap-dev=/dev/mapper/p--dom0-File--Swap --size 320Gb --verbose

As I don't want xen-tools to create files in some directory nor want it 
to talk to LVM itself, I didn't set any of those options. Xen-tools 
would then run, but at the end tell me that I need to specify one of 
those options, although I cannot seem to reproduce it at the moment.

After adding a 'dir=' option, it does not complain, but does not seem to 
actually use the option. Makes me wonder why it really needs me to set 
those options, if it's not using them anyways.

* Annoyance #2: Empty disk devices in config

After fighting with debootstrap for several hours (it kept saying that 
all mirrors had corrupt archives, mkay), I found out that it was only 
comfortable with me installing 'etch' (lenny/sid didn't go through):

    W: 
ftp://download.xs4all.nl/debian/dists/lenny/main/binary-i386/Packages.gz 
was corrupt
    W: 
http://ftp.nl.debian.org/debian/dists/sid/main/binary-i386/Packages.gz 
was corrupt

Although this itself, probably has nothing to do with Xen-tools.

So, it *finally* built the images, and created a config for me. The 
config itself is pretty broken however:

    #
    #  Disk device(s).
    #
    disk        = [
                      ',sda1,w',
                  ]

The config has no disks, no root and no swap. This is probably caused by 
me specifying the --image-dev and --swap-dev options, but nevertheless 
it's rather annoying, and something that should be fixed, or at least 
warned about.

* Annoyance #3: Config file already exists, Xen-tools aborts, and the 
config is wiped.

After doing reinstall #50, I forgot to remove the config file. So, after 
Xen-tools was *almost* done, it aborted the whole procedure:

    The Xen configuration file /etc/xen/p-file.cfg exists
    Specify --force to force overwriting it.
    Aborting
    Removing failed install: p-file

Ok, can happen, a little annoyed by this error, I went to look up the 
file to remove the little offender, but I couldn't find it, it's not 
there anymore. So it seems like Xen-tools aborted because I already had 
the config and then removed my config. The irony.

I find it annoying that it doesn't check beforehand if the config is 
available, writable, etc. Sure it can check at the end too, just before 
writing it, but this way it's very annoying.



Guess that about sums it up for now.

Cheers,
Bas Verhoeven