Xen Installation Tips

This page contains tips in installing Xen. Xen uses a modified kernel, which is very sensitive to different configurations. One possible problem is that the Xen kernel's initrd file lacks the appropriate disk controller drivers. Here are the steps to fix this:

• Boot into the distribution kernel.

• (Only for Fedora Core 4) Install updated hwdata and kudzu packages by doing yum upgrade. Apparently the name of the kernel module for some types of SCSI cards changed between early versions of FC4's kernel and later versions.

• Run /usr/sbin/module_upgrade to upgrade the module names.

• Install the Xen kernel.

  $ yum install -y tycoon_aucd_xen3
  

• Make a new initrd image for the Xen kernel. This is necessary to allow the Xen kernel to interface with the SCSI card.

  $ cd /boot
  $ /sbin/mkinitrd initrd-2.6.16-xen3_86.1_fc4.img 2.6.16-xen3_86.1_fc4
  

• Remove the following packages: GFS-kernel, cman-kernel, dlm-kernel, gnbd-kernel. These are incompatible with Xen.

  $ yum remove -y GFS-kernel cman-kernel dlm-kernel gnbd-kernel
  

• Updates all the other packages.

  $ yum update -y