Re: [gentoo-user] installing Gentoo in a xen VM

[J. Roeleveld]

On Thursday, December 04, 2014 11:55:50 PM lee wrote:
> Rich Freeman <rich0@g.o> writes:
> > On Thu, Dec 4, 2014 at 3:39 PM, lee <lee@××××××××.de> wrote:
> >> Rich Freeman <rich0@g.o> writes:
> >>> On Thu, Dec 4, 2014 at 1:11 PM, lee <lee@××××××××.de> wrote:
> >>>> Tomas Mozes <tomas.mozes@××××.sk> writes:
> >>>>> The kernel is not in stage3, you have to compile it yourself (or
> >>>>> download from somewhere). When you have the kernel image binary, the
> >>>>
> >>>>> xen configuration for the host can be simple as:
> >>>> Compile it with what?  Are the sources in stage3, or downloaded so that
> >>>> I can compile a suitable Gentoo kernel within the chroot?
> >>>
> >>> If you've never installed Gentoo anywhere I wouldn't suggest doing it
> >>> for the first time under Xen.
> >>>
> >>> Gentoo stage3s include neither a binary kernel nor the sources.  See:
> >>> https://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-amd64.xml?part=1&chap=7
> >>
> >> That's confusing ...  I would think that I can create the file system on
> >> the LV and extract the stage3 archive, then chroot into it.  From there,
> >> I'd have to 'emerge gentoo-sources' and to compile a kernel.
> >>
> >> Isn't that easier or the same as booting on bare metal into some life
> >> system and doing these things from there?
> >
> > When you boot a CD on bare metal all you're doing is creating the file
> > system, extracting the archive, and chrooting into it.  So the outcome
> > is the same either way.
> >
> > If your xen guest is going to run on a regular LV you certainly can
> > just mount it on the host and chroot into it.  That is exactly how I'd
> > go about it.
>
> Yes, I've already created a LV for it (along with others I'm going to
> need).  Then I got stuck because I wanted to create an xfs file system
> and found that I hadn't installed a package required for that and
> couldn't install it because there was some problem with downloading
> package lists which they only fixed some time later ...
>
> BTW, can I use xfs for the VM, or will it be difficult to get the VM
> booted from xfs?

Using PV, not at all. As long as the kernel for the VM has XFS support built-
in. (This is valid for other filesystems as well)

> > Once you're in the chroot then you should install the kernel/etc per
> > the handbook.
>
> So there isn't really an advantage to use HVM ... it's even easier
> because I can access the LV from dom0.

Not really. For the PV, there isn't even a necessity to have a kernel in the 
VM at all as it is simpler to have the kernel on the filesystem belonging to 
the host and point the config to that.

--
Joost