[Fedora-xen] How To Test Dom0 Xen Support In Fedora 10

[Robert L Cochran]

Mark McLoughlin wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Thu, 2008-12-11 at 18:29 -0500, Robert L Cochran wrote:
>   
>> Hello,
>>
>> I'm an experienced IBM mainframe programmer with just a little C and
>> Java coding experience. I have no experience in the programming part of
>> virtualization. I currently do have CentOS 5.2 running as a guest under
>> VMWare workstation (an older version which is about a year old, running
>> on a Fedora 7 host. And yes, I know Fedora 7 is long out of date.)
>>
>> I would like to jump in the water and get my feet wet, though. Can
>> someone like me test Dom0 Xen support in Fedora 10? If so, is there a
>> web resource somewhere spelling out how to get started with testing? I
>> will need the steps involved in patching and building a test kernel
>> pointed out to me.
>>
>> I just bought a new laptop, the Dell Latitude E6400 with the Intel P9500
>> processor. I think this processor has virtualization technology (vmx
>> extensions?) so the hardware for testing is there.
>>     
>
> It sounds like your interest is in virtualization generally and not Xen
> specifically?
>
> If that's the case - and your machine has VMX - then perhaps it would be
> more realistic for you to jump in (slightly shallower water :-) and try
> using Fedora 10 KVM? I only say that because you might find it difficult
> to make any headway building a Dom0 kernel.
>
> This is a good starting point:
>
>    http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Virtualization_Quick_Start
>
> Feel free to ask KVM questions on this list too ... it's about time we
> renamed it to fedora-virt at redhat.com :-)
>
> Cheers,
> Mark.
>
>
>   
Thanks for the suggestions! I've compiled Linux kernels several times
before but still can't call myself any sort of a kernel hacker.

I'm going to install Fedora 10 x86_64 on my new laptop with the
virtualization packages. My goal is to install Fedora 10, CentOS 5.2,
Windows XP Professional, and Windows Vista as separate virtual machines
and ensure each one has access to the hardware. Video, networking, USB
access, firewire access, serial port access (through my shiny new Dell
E-Port Plus dock) will all be mandatory. I want to do things like bring
up a Fedora 10 guest, work with the Arduino development interface (see
http://www.greenbeltcomputer.biz/sanguino1.html and be patient as the
numerous photos download...my web server sits right behind me and only
has 128K upload), and then flash my target Arduino board over USB from
the virtual machine.

I do have a thousand questions to ask, such as why is a dom0 guest
important? I have a hard time visualizing the practical differences
between a dom0 and a domU guest.

Thanks

Bob