Workaround while installing xen kernels

[Thomas Neumann]

hiya

I'm installing XenSource VMs via FAI with Debian and Ubuntu. Since grub
doesn't recognize paravirtualized kernels (when being run from a regular
kernel such as 2.6.18-6-486) I scripted some actions to manually provide a
correct configuration. (among other stuff)

There's a small hack I had to introduce in order to install the
xen-kernels correctly.

-- hooks/instsoft.DEFAULT

#! /bin/bash

# fake a grub config
# we rewrite it later on anyway
(ifclass GRUB && ifclass VIRTXEN) && mkdir ${target}/boot/grub && touch
${target}/boot/grub/menu.lst

--

I don't like it and I want to get rid of it. But I'm not quite sure why I
need it. The thing is without using this hook, the install scripts
complains that the linux-image-2.6.xx-xen is to be installed, but grub is
not configured. It does this several times (everytime apt-get install is
called). Later on I rewrite /target/boot/grub/menu.lst to contain suitable
xen kernels, but the final "apt-get install -f" in scripts/LAST/50-misc
implicitely calls grub_update and overwrites it again. With this hook, the
kernel-image installs fine the first time around and everything is peachy.

When installing "normal" kernels this hook isn't needed. FAI installs the
requested kernels correctly.


Does someone have an explanation what is happening? Some better way to do
it? "Better" as in "more robust" or "less surprising". I really don't like
faking a config file.

tschüß
thomas

P.S.: I attached my package_config/DEFAULT and scripts/VIRTXEN/90-xentools
scripts, so you may get a better idea what I'm actually doing. These
scripts "work for me". I didn't clean them up, I didn't review them yet.
There may be some fundamental flaws inherent.
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