[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index] Re: Xen bootloader (was: Re: [Xen-devel] Xen Roadmap proposal)
So if I understand you right (i am not so firm in Xen terminology yet) you currently have to load your guest kernel + ramdisk from a bootloader that is running in the 'master' environment. This would mean you have to keep kernel and ramdisk on a filesystem that is readable for the 'master' environment. With a kexec based bootloader you would always load a standardized kernel and ramdisk first. This mini-linux already runs in the guest environment and acts as a boot loader. Because it is a complete linux you can easily integrate support for all kinds of strange filesystems or network protocols. Depending on a config file or controlled by user interaction this boot loader linux will load the final guest system. With our kboot_sl stuff we provide a prototype for such a type of boot loader. Werner Almesberger did already something similar with his kboot project which we used as our basis. To clarify the difference between these two flavours of kexec based boot loaders a little bit: - kboot is script based, designed to have a small footprint (uses uClibc, busybox, dropbear) and it is expected that kernel and ramdisks are customized for the target system. - kboot_sl is built around a C program that interprets a configuration file and can start various user interfaces. We decided to give up the size restrictions, switched to glibc, integrated additional tools into the ramdisk and will probably replace busybox and dropbear by the 'real thing' sometime. We try to provide a more generic system loader ramdisk that can be used without much customization to the target system. So if you want to try the latter don't hesitate to ask me if anything is unclear! best regards Michael --- Michael Loehr Dept. A177, Bldg. 55131-12 / UG / 6C Linux for zSeries Development Hechtsheimer Str. 2 55131 Mainz, Germany Phone +(49)-6131-84-3396, Fax -6592, Mobile +(49)-171-860-5354 _______________________________________________ Xen-devel mailing list Xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://lists.xensource.com/xen-devel
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