[Fedora-xen] xen to kvm migration question

[Avi Kivity]

Paul Wouters wrote:
> On Sat, 28 Jun 2008, Avi Kivity wrote:
>
>   
>> qemu provides -kernel and -initrd flags for this; however I don't know if
>> virt-manager supports this.
>>     
>
> So with kvm i am still using qemu?
>
>   

Yes; qemu provides emulation for the disk, network, and display devices, 
etc.

>> I find that a kernel+initrd inside the guest disk image is much more
>> maintainable; for example 'yum update kernel' will update your guest kernel
>> rather than having to copy files around.
>>     
>
> I find it much easier to mount fs images, then to go hunt for offset's for
> mount in disk images. 

Linux 2.6.26 supports partitionable loops devices, so you can loopback 
mount your disk image and then mount filesystems off /dev/loop0p1, 
/dev/loop0p2, etc.

> Also, during the xen2->xen3 and the non-PAE to PAE
> migrations, I liked my kernel and initrd separately :)
>   

kvm supports pae and nonpae regardless of how the host kernel was 
compiled, so you can happily run an pae guest on top of a nonpae host.

-- 
Do not meddle in the internals of kernels, for they are subtle and quick to panic.