Re: Xen on Dedibox

[Gerard Lally <gerard.lally%gmail.com@localhost>]

On Wed, 1 Mar 2017, at 13:42, Manuel Bouyer wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 01, 2017 at 01:34:34PM +0000, Gerard Lally wrote:
> > On Wed, 1 Mar 2017, at 12:29, Manuel Bouyer wrote:
> > > On Wed, Mar 01, 2017 at 12:16:18PM +0000, Gerard Lally wrote:
> > > > Should Xen work on a GPT partitioning layout? I installed Xen on a
> > > > Dedibox from Online.net but the system would not boot into Xen. After a
> > > > delay it would boot back into a normal netbsd kernel.
> > > 
> > > I don't understand how it would go back to the normal kernel if the
> > > default is the Xen entry. AFAIK there is no fall-back mechanism in the
> > > boot loader if the default entry doesn't work.
> > > 
> > > Make sure that both disks of the raid1 are properly synchronised.
> > 
> > I don't understand why it boots to the default kernel either.
> 
> My guess is that, for some reason, it doesn't use the Xen entry at all
> 
> > 
> > I use David Brownlee's method[1] to set up raidframe on GPT. I always
> > allow parity to complete, if that's what you mean.
> > 
> > In principle, raid+wedges+GPT shouldn't cause a problem for Xen, I take
> > it? The dom0 kernel has the necessary options included?
> 
> I'm not sure, this would need to be checked.
> Also, you may need a root= option for the Xen entry.
> Xen kernels can't detect the boot device and use the first probed drive
> by default (or the raid volume marked as root)

I'm embarrassed to say I think I know the problem, and it's not the
first time I've been bitten by this.

I created two small boot partitions, along with the raid array, but I
don't mount them from fstab. So the kernels in /boot are not the booting
kernels at all; what I should have done was mount both boot partitions
(at /boot0 and /boot1, for example) and then copy dom0.gz and xen.gz to
these mounted partitions.

I now have no way of checking whether or not this is the solution but
I'm pretty sure it is. I will try it as soon as my new server is
provisioned.

Thank you for your help.