RE: [Xen-users] Where are Xen kernel patches?

["Petersson, Mats" <Mats.Petersson@xxxxxxx>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
> [mailto:xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of 
> John McMonagle
> Sent: 15 December 2006 22:29
> To: Petersson, Mats
> Cc: xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [Xen-users] Where are Xen kernel patches?
> 
> Petersson, Mats wrote:
> 
> > 
> >
> >  
> >
> >>-----Original Message-----
> >>From: xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
> >>[mailto:xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of 
> >>John McMonagle
> >>Sent: 15 December 2006 16:06
> >>To: xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >>Subject: [Xen-users] Where are Xen kernel patches?
> >>
> >>Want to see if I can get a couple old servers running under Xen.
> >>
> >>They both need custom kernels.
> >>
> >>One needs to run sco executables and need the abi patches.
> >>The other is for win4lin and needs win4lin patches.
> >>
> >>Where are the xen kernel patches?
> >>Are there patches for older kernels that work with the current xen?
> >>It's improbably I will find  abi or win4lin patches for a 
> >>recent kernel.
> >>For win4lin see one for 2.6.14.3 for abi see mention of one 
> >>for 2.6.16.
> >>    
> >>
> >
> >Note: I haven't tried this, I'm just writing down what I have figured
> >out by looking at the different makefiles and doing other 
> things in Xen.
> >
> >
> >You can generate your own patches with "make mkpatches" in 
> the Xen tree.
> >
> >
> >You'll need to set the "LINUX_VER" to 2.6.14.3 in
> >.../buildconfigs/mk.linux-2.6-xen
> >
> >And there's absolutely no guarantee that your patches will 
> apply to this
> >kernel version, as it's quite ancient... It may be a BETTER option to
> >try to forward port the win4lin/sco abi changes to the current Xen
> >kernel version - as the patches for the Linux kernel in my
> >.../patches/linux-2.6.16.29/ is around 7500 lines of patches. I doubt
> >the size of the sco/win4lin patches are that big (although I guess
> >win4lin may be quite big), so it's possibly easier to make 
> those work on
> >a later kernel version than taking Xen back several releases... 
> >
> >--
> >Mats
> >  
> >
> I installed from debian etch and do not seen anything like that.
> Will I need the source from here?
> http://xensource.com/download/dl_303tarballs.html
> 
> Looks there are some current abi patches but not win4lin.
> 
> Is there any commitment to maintain kernel compatibility at 
> least over a
> major version?

Well, that's unfortunately one of the things that XenSource is being
nagged about by the major distributors of Linux: Keep up with the latest
kernel rev. Every new release of Xen can realisticly be expected to
upgrade to one of the newer kernel releases - it may not be THE LATEST,
but something near the latest that is stable will be the new kernel
after a release - then that kernel is usually kept stable within that
"unstable" time between (say) 3.0.4 and 3.0.5. 


> New version of xen have been coming out pretty often and it could get
> challenging if I have custom kernels.

Yes, unfortunately, I don't think you will win against Novell, RedHat &
Co... :-(

> 
> This brings me back to HVM. Does linux have good disk and network
> performance using HVM?

Define "good" ... ;-)

For Linux, there's para-virtual drivers, so you should get similar
performance to a para-virtual kernel build. 
For Windows, you'll have to pay to get a commercial version of Xen with
Windows PV drivers, as no one has yet published any "free" version of
para-vritual drivers for Windows. 

--
Mats
> 
> Thanks
> 
> John
> 
> >>I suppose HVM could be used, but do not have anything that 
> supports it
> >>at the moment.
> >>If one did use HVM would one still have the disk and lan performance
> >>issues windows has?
> >>
> >>Thanks
> >>
> >>John
> >>
> >>    
> >>
> 
> 
> -- 
> John McMonagle
> IT Manager
> Advocap Inc.
> 
> 
> 
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> 
> 



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