Re: NPF on domU - more clarity required

[John Nemeth <jnemeth%cue.bc.ca@localhost>]

On Dec 27,  9:40pm, Greg Troxel wrote:
} John Nemeth <jnemeth%cue.bc.ca@localhost> writes:
} > On Dec 27, 10:56am, Greg Troxel wrote:
} > } > On Dec 26, 11:32pm, Gerard Lally wrote:
} > } 
} > } > } As a sidenote, if there's a way of eliminating the grub cruft and using
} > } > } NetBSD's boot manager instead I'd be glad to hear it.
} > } >
} > } >      No, there isn't a way.  This is something that is controlled
} > } > by the service provider, and not the domU.
} > } 
} > } But if we made /boot be able to use PV ops, then we could ask people to
} > } let it be a kernel choice :-)
} >
} >      Sounds like you would be turning /boot into a mini-kernel.
} 
} I meant to be like pvgrub.

     I understood what you meant, I was just thinking about the
complexity of dealing with everything.  BTW, pvgrub doesn't use PV
ops.  It sits in dom0 and uses regular filesystem ops to extract
stuff from the domU's "disk".

} >      As ext2fs is based on FFS, I'm told that pvgrub (pygrub?) can
} > read from FFS, but that the filesystem setup is highly restricted
} > (i.e. only works with certain block sizes).  I don't seem to have
} > the details at hand.
} 
} It would be good to put those in the VPS section.  A restricted /
} (ffsv1, specific block sizes) may be less annoying for some than a /boot
} partition.

     Unfortunately I don't seem to have the details on hand, so
somebody else will have to supply them.

} >      One option would be to turn /boot into something that works
} > like pvgrub.  This shouldn't actually be that hard.  This is
} > something that I added to the project list a while ago:
} > http://wiki.netbsd.org/projects/project/xenboot/  Of course, this
} > would require convincing the VPS operator to use it.
} 
} True, but convincing someone to write it and use it is far harder...

     Convincing a VPS to use it would probably be the harder part.

}-- End of excerpt from Greg Troxel