[xen-tools-discuss] Re: Updating kernel image on DomU

[Girish Venkatasubramanian]

Steve,
Thanks for the reply. A couple of follow-ups inlined.
Girish

On Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 10:20 AM, Steve Kemp <steve at steve.org.uk> wrote:
> On Fri Jan 23, 2009 at 10:18:18 -0500, Girish Venkatasubramanian wrote:
>
>> 1) Updating kernel images
>> To understand Xen better, I would like to add printk's in the Xen code
>> and recompile the unified kernel. To carry out these changes in the
>> domU image, is there anything I need to do, apart from copying the new
>> lib/modules/2.6.18.8-xen from the dom0 to the domU?
>
>  Thats all you need to do - and rebuild the initrd located in /boot
>  on the host (assuming you use one.)
Got it.
>
>> /usr/share/doc/xen-tools/examples/ - but I don't seem to have the
>> examples directory at all. Is this something which was added in
>> xen-tools releases later than 2.8?
>
>  Yes.
I guess I can upgrade by manually downloading the 4.1 tarball and
doing a make and make install (I think there is nothing to make - is
there?). Also, I think this manual upgrade shouldnt break any
dom0/domU functionality.
>
>> 2) Compiling new programs:
>> Can I loopback mount the domU disk image on some mount point in dom0,
>> chroot to it and compile new programs on the guest - instead of
>> booting up the domain and then compiling the programs?
>
>  Yes, but you'll be on the host and not in a virtual environment.
>  (Probably no real difference, but you might have a 64-bit dom0 and
>  32-bit domU so that could cause issues.)
Both my host and guest are 32 bit, same kernel (I am using xen unified
kernel). Plus chroot will ensure that (if there are any differences in
libraries etc) the code is compiled agains the libraries on the domU
disk and not host libraries- won't it?

>
> Steve
> --
> Debian GNU/Linux System Administration
> http://www.debian-administration.org/
>
>
>
>