Xen project Mailing List

I have been running Ubuntu 12.04LTS Desktop as dom0 for some time without any issues.

It's quite seamless experience! This is only possible if you know how to compile kernel with
xen dom0/domU options. Plenty of links/docs exists on Xen wiki, so do go through those
first before venturing. It took me a few trials to get it right, so back up the things and be
prepared for some rough time :-)

In a nutshell -

1. during kernel compile start with 'make localmodconfig' to have all the currently used modules in.

2. do 'make menuconfig' and carefully go through all options and select appropriate to your system

3. if in doubt (especially with block/file system drivers), include the modules as built into kernel

4. after that ensure .config file has correct xen config directives for dom0

If your intention is only to virtualize desktop and you do not necessarily care about the virualization

technology per se - i.e. Xen vs KVM etc, then my suggestion would be to use KVM virtualization, especially

if your processor supports VT-x extensions. KVM is very straightforward to install and configure through

GUI tools and you will save yourself quite a bit of pain. Also KVM supports unmodified guest OS installation

just like you would do by popping a downloaded iso CD in the CD drive (virtual cd drive in case of KVM)

But if your intention is to learn and experiment with Xen then by all means! Welcome aboard ;-)

- Vijay

On Mon, Apr 1, 2013 at 10:25 AM, Gordon Cooke <gordon.cooke3@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I'm planning to use Xen to virtualize my new desktop at home- a bit of an experiment for me. Should I a) use my primary working linux distro that I use day-to-day as dom0 so I have easy access to peripherals and control over things, or b) use a minimal headless install for dom0 and make my day-to-day desktop a domU so I minimze risk of breaking the entire Xen environment and just passthrough the peripherals? Anyone have any experience or advice?

Thanks
---------------------
Detailed background for anyone interested:
Have a new 8 core machine I'm setting up.
Consider the following VMs to isolate some tasks so services are somewhat isolated and dont break each other:

- Linux Desktop
- Win7 Desktop
- Media server to stream music and video collection (considering Plex)
- File and print server (Samba, CUPS, NFS, etc)
- Backup server to pull/sync data with other machines in house (considering Backup PC)

and probably a handful of distros Im trying out to test things, probably a LAMP stack for some development

This would be the central computer in the house thats always on. Home network consists of this machine, ipad, Asus tablet, iphone, android phone, a smart BlueRay, a windows laptop and a few linux laptops. If the media streaming works out then will probably add a Roku or something similar.

_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.xen.org/xen-users

Re: [Xen-users] Virtualizing primary desktop