[gentoo-user] Success! Xen 3.0.4 on MacBook Pro running Gentoo dom0 and ArchLinux domU

[Posted earlier to xen-users mailing list; cross-posted between  
Gentoo and ArchLinux lists. Be careful about where your replies go if  
you make any.]

In case anyone else is trying to get Xen working on a MacBook Pro, I  
thought I would drop this note out here. The configuration is as  
follows...

Hardware Overview (from System Profiler under OSX):

   Machine Model:	MacBookPro2,2
   Processor Name:       Intel Core 2 Duo
   Process Speed:        2.16 GHz
   Number Of Processors: 1
   Total Number of Cores:2
   L2 Cache (per CPU):	4 MB
   Memory:		3 GB
   Bus Speed:		667 MHz
   Boot ROM Version:	MBP22.00A5.B00
   SMC Version:          1.12f5

Software:
   rEFIt 0.9 boot manager
   GRUB 0.97-r3
   Gentoo 2006.1 x86_64 no-multilib profile (updated to latest  
packages from community portage repository as of 20070420.
   ArchLinux 0.8 Voodoo release

I followed the installation directions posted for the MacBook here  
[1]. It wasn't perfect, so I made a few revisions to that page. For  
example, the biggest stumbling block was creating multiple kernel  
images to boot via GRUB. The MacBook Pro has a bug where the keyboard  
ceases to work on the GRUB page [2]. The workaround is to hot-plug an  
external USB keyboard and use it to choose other boot profiles.

Also, the current Xen release in Gentoo portage is 3.0.2. I could not  
get this to work. I used the marineam-xem overlay which uses Xen  
3.0.4 along with a modified 2.6.16.46 kernel source. There are no  
mactel-linux [3] patches for this kernel release so I haven't tried  
to run X and use the touchpad or other laptop-specific components  
that are patched.

I then followed the directions given here [4] to build a working dom0  
kernel. Again, the directions were hazy/ambiguous in places so I have  
updated them to highlight certain tricky aspects. I may throw my  
kernel .config file up somewhere for others to snatch if anyone is  
interested.

After getting dom0 working, I copied that kernel tree to make a  
separate domU kernel build. The only differences between the two are  
the dom0 contains all the backend drivers (no frontend drivers) and  
the domU config contains all the frontend drivers (and no backend  
drivers).

I then followed the instructions here [5] to install ArchLinux from a  
running host. The tricky part here was first creating the sparse  
loopback file images which I had never done before. The Xen user  
manual gave good directions on how to perform this operation. The  
second tricky part was synchronizing the disk device referenced in  
the domU /etc/fstab to the device created in the dom0 Xen  
configuration file. Yes, this was my first time installing Xen and  
that part tripped me up.

I set the ArchLinux file partition to boot using the domU created  
from Gentoo sources. So far it has worked fine. I imagine I'll have  
some trouble since the linux-headers package is revved for a 2.6.20  
kernel and I'm running a 2.6.16 kernel. Correcting this shouldn't be  
too onerous.

So, those are my notes. It took me 5 days from a standing start to  
get this working. I haven't touched Linux since 1994 and I have never  
touched Xen before. This is a testament to excellent guides,  
tutorials, and a misspent youth hacking SunOS 4.1. :-)

Most of these notes have already been added the appropriate wikis  
(still need to update the ArchLinux wiki).

cr

[1] http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_Apple_MacBook
[2] http://refit.sourceforge.net/doc/c4s3_keyboard.html
[3] http://mactel-linux.org/
[4] http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Xen_and_Gentoo
[5] http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ 
Install_Arch_from_within_another_distro

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