> Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2016 09:26:52 -0400
> From: "Austin S. Hemmelgarn" <ahferroin7@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [Xen-users] Dom0 Selection, Options
> Message-ID: <570CF79C.7070800@xxxxxxxxx>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
>
> On 2016-04-12 09:07, Ray wrote:
> > I would like to build Xen workstation on a new Toshiba laptop. I would
> > like it to efficiently run the latest Debian and Windows, at least.
> Unless you've got a workstation laptop, or a high-end gaming one (a real
> gaming laptop like an ASUS ROG system, not one that just claims amazing
> graphics), you are likely to get pretty poor performance from Windows
> (at least, if you're using Windows 7, I have no experience with 8, 8.1
> or 10 running under Xen, but I doubt that they'll do much better).
> >
> > I have installed Jessie and Xen. I am finding that my Jessie
> > installation may not be a simple as it should be - I loaded a variety of
> > items as I have been learning along the way. I have reloaded all the OS
> > more than a dozen times trying to get a complete functional system. Now
> > I wonder if 'complete' is appropriate in consideration that dom0 should
> > be simple. My concern that if there is a function that dom0 did not
> > support, the VMs may not be able to support it either. But this no
> > longer sounds correct. I chose Jessie because I wanted to use Debian
> > for my 'important' VMs.
> Debian is not a bad choice, as long as you stick to the base system and
> do an install without GNOME, KDE, or any other desktop environment.
> >
> > I am ready to reinstall everything (a few more times) to get to a
> > simple, functioning system that I can run and domu efficiently. I see
> > that Debian only support up to Xen 4.4 which does not support UEFI.
> For what it's worth, building Xen from source is not difficult, the
> build tools themselves do most of the hard work of figuring out where
> everything they need is on the system.
Austin,
Thank you for your response. One of the reasons I selected Debian was the ability to update/upgrade simply. My concern with a compiled Xen would be whether I can easily maintain security and functional updates. My understanding is that if it is not installed via package management, I will need to manually update - somehow.
This brings up another question. It looks like Jessie only has a package for Xen 4.4. What does it take to install the latest Xen with a package manager; what distro will do this?
> >
> > I would like to hear what are some other choices that may get back to
> > the initial simple dom0 requirement, what are some of the choices for
> > distributions to use for dom0 and what constitutes minimal and still
> > support fully functional VMs?
> My personal recommendation would be either a clean install of NetBSD
> (which will fit in less than 4G including space for log files and all
> the packages required by Xen, assuming you don't pull in a GUI), or if
> you absolutely want Linux, a baseline install of Gentoo fine-tuned to
> your particular hardware. Most any distribution will work though, as
> long as you don't pull in a full desktop environment (which in turn
> pulls in multiple gigabytes of other packages on almost everything
> except Gentoo) during the initial install. Get the system working
> reliably without a GUI, then worry about the GUI.
One goal is to efficiently run Debian VMs via PV. If dom0 is NetBSD, will PV be fully functional with Debian VM? Does PV require the same distro or does it only rely on the kernel?
> >
> > One of my fundamental challenges is this new laptop has a 4k display.
> > When it boots with no display configuration, the text is too small to
> > read. I added a lot of complexity to try and get readable text in both
> > the boot process, console and GUI.
> Avoid running a GUI in Domain-0, it will hurt your VM performance, may
> negatively impact system stability, and becomes another variable when
> debugging the system. If you absolutely have to, don't use GNOME or
> KDE, they both eat up huge amounts of resources (I use XFCE myself on
> the rare occasion I need a GUI in Domain-0, but LXDE or even something
> like FVWM will work well without hurting performance much).
Yes, I have a GUI in dom0. It has been problematic. I chose to use LXDE and then XFCE as I am not a 'regular' user of Linux. The GUI has helped as a crutch even though there were GUI problems. Since this is a workstation, I am guessing that I might be able to implement a CLI dom0 and then use a domU GUI to interface with dom0 to manage Xen - would this be functional?
>
> As far as the 4k display issues, there are ways in Linux at least that
> you can make the kernel think it's a lower resolution display than it
> really is, which will in turn make the text bigger (because the kernel
> will not run the GPU output above what the display can handle). I'm not
> certain there's much that can be done for the boot process though...
Yes, it took a couple months for me to get this partially functional. I started with defining a lower resolution but that negates the 4K display. I found a couple methods to change the font in specific applications so the 4K display would be legible. I also found a method to change the font in half the boot sequence so I am guessing there will be a way to get it done throughout the boot. I hope I can find those.
Ray
