Xen – KVM – Linux – and the Community

KVM is a type-2 hypervisor built into the Linux kernel as a module and will ship with any Linux distribution moving forward as no work is required for the Linux distributions to add KVM. Having a virtualization platform built-in to the Linux kernel will be valuable to many customers looking for virtualization within a Linux based infrastructure; however these customers will lose the flexibility to run a bare-metal hypervisor, configure the hypervisor independent of the host operating system, and provide machine level security as a guest can bring down the operating system on KVM. Xen, on the other hand is a type-1 hypervisor built independent of any operating system and is a complete separate layer from the operating system and hardware and is seen by the community and customers as an Infrastructure Virtualization Platform to build their solutions upon.

via Xen – KVM – Linux – and the Community – blog.xen.org.

Configure the GRUB boot loader

Adding a single user mode option to the GRUB menu

password –md5 $1$U$JK7xFegdxWH6VuppCUSIb.

default 0

title Red Hat Linux (2.4.9-21)

root (hd0,0)

kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.9-21 ro root=/dev/hda6

initrd /initrd-2.4.9-21.img

title Red Hat Linux (2.4.9-21) single user mode

lock

root (hd0,0)

kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.9-21 ro root=/dev/hda6 s

initrd /initrd-2.4.9-21.img

via Configure the GRUB boot loader.

The Perfect Xen 3.0.1 Setup For Debian

This tutorial provides step-by-step instructions on how to install Xen (version 3.0.1) on a Debian Sarge (3.1) system.

Xen lets you create guest operating systems (*nix operating systems like Linux and FreeBSD), so called “virtual machines” or domUs, under a host operating system (dom0). Using Xen you can separate your applications into different virtual machines that are totally independent from each other (e.g. a virtual machine for a mail server, a virtual machine for a high-traffic web site, another virtual machine that serves your customers’ web sites, a virtual machine for DNS, etc.), but still use the same hardware. This saves money, and what is even more important, it’s more secure. If the virtual machine of your DNS server gets hacked, it has no effect on your other virtual machines. Plus, you can move virtual machines from one Xen server to the next one.

Via The Perfect Xen 3.0.1 Setup For Debian | HowtoForge – Linux Howtos and Tutorials.

This howto works for other distros as well.

I’ve gone this far without ever having to compile a kernel … until now.  🙂  Though the howto is a bit dated, I downloaded the latest xen distro here. (xen 4.1.1)

burning ISO files with Gnomebaker

Once you have GnomeBaker open, go to the Tools menu at the top and select “Burn CD Image” (or “Burn DVD Image” as appropriate). It will then prompt you for the ISO file and recorder device to use, as well as at what speed, etc.

via burning ISO files with Gnomebaker – FedoraForum.org.

Duh.  It was right in front of me all along.  For some reason Brasero keeps returning errors on burning a simple .iso file.  It is consistent between reboots.  This might be due to some weirdness with the motherboard on medusa and how the kernel deals with the SATA interface.  I already noticed a problem with acpi messing with an ethernet PCI card on the only PCI slot on the motherboard.  Something is not right with this hardware setup.   The DVD player has also “gone offline” after trying to read error ridden Netflix DVDs.  Something is causing it to go offline and it is either the linux kernel or the hardware accepting commands from low level windows drivers.   This could also be a vm problem.

The bottom line: gnomebaker works and seems to work better.  Gnomebaker deserves a link in the Tools category.