xen-users
Re: [Xen-users] vanilla kernel and xen (in general), ?vanilla 2.6.24 and
On Sun, Feb 03, 2008 at 03:59:10AM +0000, Mark Williamson wrote:
> > >> There shall be nothing special. Take a config for 2.6.18 kernel and just
> > >> change the kernel and initrd lines. as long as the build is matching the
> > >> Xen capability, PAE nonPAE etc.
> > >
> > > The Xen code that's in 2.6.24 from kernel.org is rather different to that
> > > in 2.6.18 XenLinux from XenSource. So just reusing the same config file
> > > will probably not work on its own, sorry :-(
> >
> > Can you comment on that a bit more? Are there now like 2 different
> > branches of kernel Xen for a domain user?
>
> Essentially, yes.
>
> The XenLinux kernel which XenSource hosts and develops and that is the basis
> of the existing distro kernels is based on a source tree whose history dates
> back to the really early days of Xen. This has full support for all the cool
> bits of functionality Xen supports and can run as dom0 or domU; however it
> can't be booted as a "native" kernel on bare-metal and it's based on the
> 2.6.18 kernel, which is getting old.
>
> kernel.org Linux has support for running as a Xen domU since Linux 2.6.23 was
> released. The Xen-aware code in that is derived from that in the XenSource
> XenLinux kernel - in many places it's a port of the same code, not a
> different implementation. However, quite a lot of changes were required to
> make the addition of Xen support acceptable to the mainline kernel developers
> (using paravirt-ops) to the XenLinux 2.6.18 (which uses a separate Xen
> subarchitecture). Jeremy Fitzhardinge at XenSource took on the difficult
> task of getting Xen support in mainline Linux and managed to get a basic set
> of functionality merged into 2.6.23.
>
> The current situation is still not ideal, since the XenLinux kernel is still
> based on 2.6.18 and it's hard work for distros to forward-port Xen support to
> whatever kernel they're running. Meanwhile the kernel.org port doesn't
> support all the juicy features that XenLinux 2.6.18 supports.
>
> A number of people - Red Hat are helping spearhead this - are working on
> turning all the juicy features of XenLinux 2.6.18 into patches on top of
> mainline Linux's existing Xen support. This includes support for running as
> dom0.
>
> The end goal, I believe, is to get as much Xen support upstream as possible
> (e.g. paravirt framebuffer, live migration support, maybe dom0 support).
> Anything that's left can be maintained by the Xen developers as a patch on
> top of mainline linux, rather than maintaining their own separate kernel.
>
> This involves some short term pain but the end result should be that Xen
> support is available for newer kernels quicker, kernel.org Linux will come
> with more Xen functionality by default, and it may even be possible for
> distros to ship the same kernel for use as the native kernel, as dom0 and as
> domU (and for lguest, and for VMI). Which would be awesome :-)
>
> Does that clear things up a bit?
>
Upcoming Fedora 9 (from RedHat) should have "full" Xen support in 2.6.24+
kernel,
in a form that it can be sent/submitted upstream for inclusion in kernel.org
vanilla
kernel.
RedHat people are working on this. There have been some mails about the
progress on xen-devel list.
-- Pasi
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- Re: [Xen-users] vanilla kernel and xen (in general), vanilla 2.6.24 and xen, Mark Williamson
- Re: [Xen-users] vanilla kernel and xen (in general), vanilla 2.6.24 and xen, Joel Becker
- Re: [Xen-users] vanilla kernel and xen (in general), vanilla 2.6.24 and xen, Mark Williamson
- Re: [Xen-users] vanilla kernel and xen (in general), vanilla 2.6.24 and xen, Joel Becker
- Re: [Xen-users] vanilla kernel and xen (in general), vanilla 2.6.24 and xen, Mark Williamson
- Re: [Xen-users] vanilla kernel and xen (in general), vanilla 2.6.24 and xen, Andy Smith
- Re: [Xen-users] vanilla kernel and xen (in general), vanilla 2.6.24 and xen, Joel Becker
- Re: [Xen-users] vanilla kernel and xen (in general), vanilla 2.6.24 and xen, Mark Williamson
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