[Xen-users] Issues running WinXP using hvmloader

[Mark Cave-Ayland <mark.cave-ayland@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,

I'm experiencing a couple of issues running WinXP under Xen 3.0.2 with a
dual-core AMD64 with SVM support and wondered if anyone could help me
out. I use Ubuntu Linux as my main OS but often need to use Windows for
development purposes, so installing WinXP under Xen seemed almost too
good to be true - Xen is a great piece of software :)

Here are the issues I have found whilst working on a MingW development
environment under WinXP running as domU:


        1) If I try and start the WinXP dom with vcpus > 1 in my
        /etc/xen/winxp then the dom fails to start (this was an
        attempt to see if I could debug multi-threaded code under Xen)

        2) If I run a compiled C program that causes a crash (such as
        referencing a NULL pointer) then Windows brings up its normal
        crash dialog box offering to send the information to MS. However
        when I try and continue after the crash, the WinXP dom reboots
        again. This occurs even when I have attached MingW's gdb to the
        process to try and catch the exception - is there a way to catch
        this so it doesn't reboot the dom?

        3) Normally I terminate WinXP running in my dom by using the
        Start -> Shutdown option and then closing the hvmloader window
        when the "It is safe to turn off your computer" notice appears.
        Unfortunately this still leaves a Zombie dom which shows up
        under "xm list". Trying "xm destroy" or "xm shutdown" doesn't
        remove the zombie dom. The state flags for these zombies are
        listed as "----cd".

        4) If I have started a WinXP dom during my session and
        shutdown my dom0 PC using "shutdown -h now" then Xen crashes. It
        appears that all applications have shut down, and the Xen
        console output appears back on the screen, but instead of
        completing the shutdown, Xen crashes and emits a
        stack trace on screen before immediately rebooting my PC.
        Unfortunately the reboot happens too quickly to write down
        the offending information, but if someone could talk me through
        how to capture it then I would be happy to help.


If anyone could help me solve these issues, or point me towards any
relevant patches/resources then it would be greatly appreciated.


Many thanks,

Mark.



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