Workaround while installing xen kernels

[Thomas Neumann]

Henning Sprang wrote:
 > Michael Tautschnig rote:
 >>> I'm installing XenSource VMs

 > BTW: XenServer commercial stuff or just GPL Xen VM's? (XenSource
 > is dead/swallowed, in any case and not operating by that name anymore)

It's the commercial version. (Citrix XenServer)
 >>> Does someone have an explanation what is happening?

 > Hmm, maybe something along these lines: your going to install
 > a kernel, which pulls in a bootloader. But the bootloader has
 > some hard time when "looking at the disk", as you're only
 > handing over a single partition to the xen guest (it sees
 > something like /dev/sda1 without /devsda), if you're doing it
 > like most people do it on debian.

See above. There's a real disk (well as far as "real" is valid in this
context) which is exposed to the VM as an IDE disk. I create a
partition table with 2 "real" partitions. (root and swap, obviously.)
While installing these are called /dev/hda1 and /hda2. (After
rebooting with a xen optimized kernel they turn into /dev/xvda1
and /dev/xvda2 respectively.)

 > Some of the helper tools involved around this process have
 > some trouble with the  type of setup...

It just seems to happen when installing a xen-optimized kernel.
I never noticed problems when installing "simple" kernels.

Before using the "and"-patch I detected the classes "DEBIAN32",
"DEBIAN64", "UBUNTU32" and "UBUNTU64" and installed
linux-image-686 / linux-image-amd64 or linux-image-server regard-
less if it was a virtualized server or not. Later on I removed the freshly
installed "normal" kernels and downloaded/installed a xen-optimized
kernel instead. This worked without the workaround/hack, but I wasn't
satisfied with this solution and rewrote the procedure to never download
a kernel that won't be used anyway later on. (A fully configured systems
installs in about 150 seconds now. I like the look in my colleagues eyes
when they realize I'm talking about a complete installation including our
own modifications. Just log in and start working.)

tschüß
thomas