freebsd on opensolaris dom0

[Adrian Chadd]

2009/6/5 Bruno Damour <llama at ruomad.net>:
> Hello,
> I have tried for some time to get to install freeBSD on an up-to-date (SXCE
> b114) opensolaris xvm box  (xen 3.1.4) which already has had success in
> running in a quite stable xay NetBSD and Gentoo Linux as PV domUs and
> different Windows flavours (Server 2008, Win7 RC, Xp, Server 2003) as HVM
> domUs.

G'day!

I've been meaning to trial FreeBSD under Opensolaris/Xen. Thanks for
trying it out!

> However, freeBSD does not boot as an HVM host and xen-kernel have been
> impossible to find.

It should boot as a HVM host. Please post further details. I admit I
haven't even looked at HVM support yet as I just use PVM exclusively
here.

> So I'm glad eventually Adrian put some kernel/images, which I have tried to
> test.
> My goal is to be able to install and run a current freebsd.
>
> It has been a bit hacky, but it boots allright with adrians kernel and image
> as xbd0. I've even succeeded to install a 7.2-RELEASE via sysinstall/ftp to
> a zvol (under xbd2).

Could you please post what you've done here?

> However, even if ftp install works, network traffic in general (ftp to dom0,
> ssh, csup) panics the domu and in about 1 case of 4 even freezes the dom0.

I'll upload a more recent filesystem image now for you to test. It
should be more stable. I'd like to fix all all of the DomU panics as
soon as possible. I'd also be curious about the DomU messing up the
Dom0 - I've seen it happen before locally using Linux. I think the
various Xen related groups out there would love to hear about any
issues which upset dom0 stability.

> It might be related to my dom0 being an amd64 (intel core2 quad E6600)
> whereas adrian's system  is i386 ?

Later versions of the Xen hypervisor should support 32-bit PVM on
64-bit hypervisor/dom0.

> I cannot even try to build a new kernel because :
> - there is no xen in 7.2-RELEASE which I can isntall
> - updating via csup to current does not work (as mentioned)
> - I cannot find a way to install a current snapshot as I cannot boot from
> the downloaded iso images i have (no cdrom, Adrian's kernel only boots  from
> root image)
> - I have no bare metal freebsd host I can use to build a different kernel
>
> Any ideas ?

I've built a more recent -current image here to do tests with. I'll
upload it as a filesystem image for you to do testing with.

I'd like whatever information you can provide about the domU panic. It
should dump you into the kernel debugger. Please type "bt" at the
(ddb) prompt and then provide me with a copy of the domU console
output. Don't kill the domain either; I may ask for further ddb
commands.

My goal is to try and sort out the majority of stability issues in the
single vcpu DomU case before 8.0-RELEASE. I don't have any plans (ie,
I just can't dedicate any further unpaid time) to work on making 64
bit support function or making the installation process easier.

Thanks,


Adrian