Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2012 04:01:08 +0100 From: Witold Baryluk <baryluk@smp.if.uj.edu.pl> To: =?iso-8859-1?Q?G=F3t_Andr=E1s?= <got.andras@deployis.eu> Cc: freebsd-xen@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Is there any prebuild 9.0 PV i386 kernel image? Message-ID: <20120201030108.GH12978@smp.if.uj.edu.pl> In-Reply-To: <079aa81f893021a200468e57199401fb@deployis.eu> References: <20120131172232.GE12978@smp.if.uj.edu.pl> <079aa81f893021a200468e57199401fb@deployis.eu>
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On 01-31 20:52, Gót András wrote: > Hi, > > You may install a "provisioning" HVM instance where you can mount a > disk/filesystem. After you compiled the source you can make > installworld/installkernel DESTDIR=mynewsystempath and there you go. > Also don't forget a make distribution. :) After this you can easily > do an image with dd if you're also using LVM for XEN "disks". > > The provisioning HVM instance might come handy any you have a > problem with a PV instance. I know I can do this. This is not the point of my post. I can do many akward things, including having separate FreeBSD machine just for building 2MB kernel with Xen enabled. But why not just provide prebuild XEN-enabled kernel image on FTP server? Clearly it is possible, because I just installed fully functional system using kfreebsd-9 kernel from Debian [1]. After building freebsd release, recompile it again with Xen enabled, and extract new kernel. Then just put such kernel on .iso in separate directory or on ftp mirrors as separate image like as in netbsd or debian, and no compilation by user will be needed. It is about 2-4MB, will not harm even -bootonly.iso image. By telling me to compile kernel by own you are just like telling potential user: "To install FreeBSD you need to have FreeBSD installed". It is not the best answer (as clearly I was able to install FreeBSD on Xen without having FreeBSD or any compilation!, just using Debian's kernel, but would like to use or have possibility to use upstream/original kernel). Also not everybody have access to HVM instance (due lack of hardware support). Compilation also takes time, and can be complex task, especially considering there is no mention of Xen or Xen specific kernel compilation in the FreeBSD handbook. It unacassarly makes 10 minut task, a 20+ hours task. For solving some minor problems, I can always just mount ufs under linux or have separate 'administrative' domain, to which I can attach additional disks to check what is wrong. No need to HVM instance. I can also do many other things, including accessing block device using iSCSI, which make it easy to use on another freebsd (virtualized or not) host. Again no need to HVM even when doing serious disaster recovery. So how about providing prebuild binary kernel image with Xen enabled, just like netbsd is doing with own kernel, or like Debian is doing with kfreebsd? Who I need to contact from release / build team to make it happen in 9.1 or 10.0 ? Regards, Witek [1] (only missing thing is that getty is trying to open /dev/vt* but, should actually open xen-specific tty/console, easly fixable by editing /etc/inittab, something which should be actually done by bsdinstaller after detecting it is running on Xen). -- Witold Baryluk
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