[Xen-ia64-devel] A way to create Domain VTI image file.

["You, Yongkang" <yongkang.you@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,

I will introduce a way about how to create a customed VTI disk image file here.
The main idea is to create a file, which has 2 partitions (1 is for holding EFI 
startup contents, the other is for Linux file system.)

Before creating the image file, you should have an IA64 Linux file system, 
include the EFI partition. The target Linux filesystem is at /mnt/guestos. Here 
It is RHEL4u2 IA64 OS. It has a cut filesystem to live in 1G space. How to Get 
it? You can install a RHEl4u2 firstly, then remove the extra packages from it. 
Or if don't want to delete any files, you have to create a larger disk image 
file (>5G).

The following example will create an 1G image file. The 1st partition is 10M 
vfat partition. The 2st partition is ext3 partition. The host OS is RHEL4u2 
IA64 on Montecito.

1. Create an empty 1G image file:
        #dd if=/dev/zero of=/new.img bs=1M count=1 seek=1023
        (Create 2G: bs=1M count=1 seek=2047)

2. Make the partitions on it.
        #fdisk -b 512 -H 16 -S 32 -C 4096 new.img
        In fdisk program, enter each command sequentially with the screen info:
        n; p; 1; 1; +10M; n; p; 2;  ;  ; t; 1; ef; w;
        (';' is for an <ENTER>)
        (n is to create a new partition, t is to mark the partition type.)
        (disk_size =512*heads*sectors*cylinders   1G=512*16*32*4096)

        Use fdisk -l new.img you can see:
    Device Boot Start End    Blocks     Id   System
new1g.img1      1   39     9968      ef    EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
new1g.img2      40  4096  1038592   83    Linux
        
3. Setup loop device
        #losetup -o 16384 /dev/loop0 new.img
        #losetup -o 10223616 /dev/loop1 new.img

        (The 1st offset=sectors*512   16384=32*512)
        (The 2nd offset=heads*sectors*512*The_end_cylinders_of_partition1
        102236=16*32*512*39)

4. Make file system.
        mkfs.vfat /dev/loop0
        mkfs.ext3 /dev/loop1

5. Copy filesystems to partitions.
        #mkdir /mnt/p1 /mnt/p2
        #mount /dev/loop0 /mnt/p1
        #mount /dev/loop1 /mnt/p2

        #cp -a /boot/efi/efi/ /mnt/p1/
        #cp -a /mnt/guestos/* /mnt/p2/
        
        #cat >/mnt/p1/startup.nsh <<EOF
        fs0:
        cd efi\redhat
        elilo linux root=/dev/hda2
        EOF

        (startup.nsh is for auto run elilo.)
        (It need to double check /mnt/p1/efi/redhat/elilo.conf and 
/mnt/p2/etc/fstab to replace LABEL by /dev/hda2, remove the swap partitions and 
other incorrect partition info in VTI, such as /dev/sd*n)

6. Clean up
        #umount /mnt/p1
        #umount /mnt/p2
        #rm -rf /mnt/p1 /mnt/p2
        #losetup -d /dev/loop0
        #losetup -d /dev/loop1

Now your VTI disk image is ready for using. 
Is it difficult? Maybe my description is a little disorder. Need I provide any 
easy script to help creating?

Best Regards,
Yongkang (Kangkang) 永康


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