[Pkg-xen-devel] Release notes addition for Xen support in Debian

[Pasi Kärkkäinen]

On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 10:47:56PM +0800, Thomas Goirand wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Thanks Martin, for your comments.
> 
> On 12/28/2010 04:23 PM, Martin Zobel-Helas wrote:
> > In general I support this. Those are changes worth mentioning. On the
> > other hand your text reads more like a howto, which IMHO should be
> > content for wiki.debian.org. Maybe have the release notes linking a wiki
> > document instead?
> 
> I did accordingly.
> 
> I also added few things to the wiki (like what packages to apt-get
> install if you run on 32 bits, plus few words on dtc-xen, a bit about
> the antispoof=yes thing, and other stuff).
> 
> >> Could others please give me comments on this? Also, some correction for
> >> my (poor) English would be welcome when/if you spot issues.
> > 
> > You are aware that we have debian-l10n-english at l.d.o for exactly that
> > reason?
> 
> Yes, but maybe we shall make sure that we agree with the *content*
> before we send it to them for correction, right? Your comments on the
> tone (which should be neutral) and the fact that it shouldn't be a howto
> was helpful.
> 
> > Also i spotted that some of your wording is quite negative
> > ("Unfortunaly", "As a consequence", "Another thing that you have to take
> > care about", ...). I would like to suggest we come up with at least a
> > neutral wording here.
> 
> Right. Changed. Attached is the new text, please re-read and let me know
> what you think.
> 
> Thomas

> 4.7.4. Upgrading with Xen installed, and Kernel enumeration order issue with Xen
> 
> In Lenny, using grub legacy, the default kernel that would start after installing Xen packages was the Xen hypervisor and the dom0 capable Linux kernel. But in Squeeze (and SID), when running with Grub2, this isn't what is happening. By default, the non-Xen kernel will boot. If you have Xen installed and expect to boot with it by default, you have to tweak grub2 configuration as explained at: http://wiki.debian.org/Xen#Installationandconfiguration
> 
> Also, when upgrading from Lenny, Xen isn't upgraded to the 4.0 version of Squeeze. So, after you finished the dist-upgrade, it is advised to check that Xen 4.0 and the corresponding dom0 kernel are installed with dpkg -l, and eventually, install them with aptitude install. See the same address (eg: http://wiki.debian.org/Xen#Installationandconfiguration) to see how to install the Xen hypervisor and the Xen dom0 kernel under Squeeze.
> 
> It is also important to notice that your domU wont be able to use HDD devices of the type sda1 (for example). This naming scheme has been removed from Xen because of a request from the mainline kernel maintainers. Instead, you should use xvda1 (as a corresponding example) instead.
> 

Actually if you need to change to xvda1 naming doesn't depend on Xen version! 
Xen 4.0 supports using sda1 naming, it's the domU kernel version that matters!

If you're using pvops (upstream kernel.org) kernel in the domU (squeeze 2.6.32), 
then you can *only* use xvd* naming. If you're using "old" kernel with 
Xenlinux patches (for example lenny 2.6.26-2-xen), then you can use both xvd* and sd* naming.

It's recommended to use the xvd* naming to make life easier! (it works with both types of kernels).

-- Pasi