-current snapshots and xen kernels

[Adrian Chadd]

2009/5/15 Robert Watson <rwatson at freebsd.org>:

> The goal would be to make it trivial to install FreeBSD Xen domU boxes by
> providing an active selection in the installer for such a kernel, entirely
> avoiding the ned for people to know anything about the installation process.
> Perhaps not as obtrusive as "Are you installing a Xen domU domain" but an
> easy way to get to it (or just an alternative first ISO that does the Xen
> kernel by default).  Our kernel configuration chapters in the handbook also
> need updating to reflect this...

Right, but how do you get all of the installer stuff to run in the
paravirtualised environment? :)

I'm not talking about a hardware-xen-vm-with-pvm-extensions, I'm
talking about paravirtualisation only. I'm sure one could -make- a
bootable single domu kernel image and sysinstall md with the
sysinstall being "xen aware" enough where needed.

In any case the initial step is still to get the xen DomU kernel
included in the current snapshot somehow; this can happen without
needing to look into the sysinstall stuff just yet.

One thing I really disliked with the CentOS Xen DomU installer is that
it really is only prepared for a -DOS- disk image, rather than being
given a set of partitions to initialise. I'd really like to avoid
being cornered into needing to do the same for FreeBSD DomU VMs
installed via sysinstall.


Adrian