Re: amd64 4Gb RAM, NetBSD (HEAD) XEN3_DOM0

[Jan Knepper <jan%digitaldaemon.com@localhost>]

Manuel Bouyer wrote:

On Sun, Jan 20, 2008 at 02:14:37PM -0500, Jan Knepper wrote:
  

Over the weekend I tried to follow the instructions at:
http://www.netbsd.org/ports/xen/howto.html
To install NetBSD, install Xen 3 and get a NetBSD DOM0 up and going.

The process for some reason was not as straight forward as the link 
above lets on the believe.
As I went to the whole process several times I made notes of the steps:

Download:
ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/HEAD/200801140002Z/amd64/installation/cdrom/boot.iso
and perform NetBSD 5.x install.
Base path for binary down load is: pub/NetBSD-daily/HEAD/200801140002Z
Make sure to create a / (root) file system <= 512Mb as grub does not 
seem to understand anything larger.
    

It looks like this is not documented in the howto. I'll add it.
  

Cool!

/ 512Mb
/swap: 1024Mb?
/tmp: -> MFS
/var: 2028Mb?
/usr: rest
To do this, hard-set the size of the / root file system in disklabel!

(I only created a 32 Gb partition for NetBSD on a 400 GB drive)

After install, reboot:

login as root
# Get pkgsrc:
cd /usr
cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs%anoncvs.netbsd.org@localhost:/cvsroot login
passwd: anoncvs
cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs%anoncvs.netbsd.org@localhost:/cvsroot checkout 
-rpkgsrc-2007Q4 pkgsrc

# Install Xen Tools 3
cd /usr/pkgsrc/sysutils/xentools3
make install

# Install Xen Kernel 3
cd /usr/pkgsrc/sysutils/xenkernel3
make install
cp /usr/pkg/xen3-kernel/xen.gz /

# Install Xen Tools 3 HVM
cd /usr/pkgsrc/sysutils/xentools3-hvm
make install

# Install NetBSD 3.0 32 bits compatibility for Grub as that according to 
the link does NOT build on amd64!
cd /usr/pkgsrc/emulators/netbsd32_compat30
make install

# Install DOM0 NetBSD (HEAD) kernel!
Make sure to grab the XEN3_DOM0 kernel from ftp.netbsd.org:
ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/HEAD/200801140002Z/amd64/binary/kernel/netbsd-XEN3_DOM0.gz
Unzip it and place it in the root (/).

# Install Grub
pkg_add -f 
http://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/i386/3.1_2007Q4/All/grub-0.97nb8.tgz

# grub-install /dev/wd0d

Create /grub/menu.lst as: http://www.netbsd.org/ports/xen/howto.html
Make sure to update menu.lst so it refers to the proper XEN3_DOM0 kernel!!!

Run grub as: http://www.netbsd.org/ports/xen/howto.html
exit

Reboot and startup with Xen...

The system indeed seem to start up, however...
During boot the system gives this:
Searching for RAID components...
boot device: <unknown>
root device: [Here I enter: wd0a]
dump device (default wd0k): [Here I just enter]
file system (default generic): [Here I enter: ffs]
init path (default /sbin/init): [Here I just enter]

Than the system continues to boot and shows a Login prompt.
    

You can fix this by adding root=wd0a in menu.lst on the NetBSD kernel line
  

OK, will try that.

However, after login the terminal settings seems to be bogus:
<Backspace> and other keys that make life easy for command line editing 
do not seem to work well.
    

What shell do you have ?
  

/bin/sh

I do not seem to be able to launch X... (startx)
    

Did you configure X ? I think I did test X in NetBSD/xenamd64 once, but I
usually don't use it (all my Xen systems have serial console).
  

Well, it works fine with the Chain Boot into the non XEN setup. (even without setup).
I tried to set it up using xf86config, but could not get it to work that easily.

My servers are console only too, but they run FreeBSD jails... no reason to run Xen on those.

after xend and xenbackendd have been started I see one LISTEN on 8002 I 
thought there would have been a VNC Server started?
    

At this point I don't think do. A VNC Server could eventually be started
when a HVM guest, or a PV guest with a virtual framebuffer, is started.
With a HVM guest I'm sure it works, but you need the xentools3-hvm package.
I never tried a PV guest with a virtual framebuffer (I'm totally happy with
text consoles :)
  

On servers, I agree, I would not want any X on those.
However, I am looking at Xen as a possible VMware replacement for Workstations. Although it now seems to (almost) properly do amd64 I have not been able to get it to work to an acceptable configuration. What I would like to so is have NetBSD DOM0 and have FreeBSD OpenBSD and an operating system from the Redmond Washington area run as DOMU. All of which would have to decently support some form of GUI...

Thanks!
Jan