Xen 4.1 on Ubuntu 10.04 64bit

1. Install the following package dependencies if not already installed

   apt-get install bcc bin86 gawk bridge-utils iproute libcurl3 libcurl4-openssl-dev bzip2 module-init-tools transfig tgif texinfo texlive-latex-base texlive-latex-recommended texlive-fonts-extra texlive-fonts-recommended pciutils-dev mercurial build-essential make gcc libc6-dev zlib1g-dev python python-dev python-twisted libncurses5-dev patch libvncserver-dev libsdl-dev libjpeg62-dev iasl libbz2-dev e2fslibs-dev git-core uuid-dev ocaml ocaml-findlib libx11-dev bison flex  xz-utils  gcc-multilib liblzma-dev lzma lzma-dev python-lzma -Vy
   

2. Get the Xen

   wget 
   tar -zxvf xen-4.1.0.tar.gz
   cd xen-4.1.0
   

3. Compile and Install Xen

   make xen
   make tools
   make stubdom
   

   After the compilation is done, you will have the Xen hypervisor/tools binaries located at “dist” folder.

   make install-xen
   make install-tools PYTHON_PREFIX_ARG=
   make install-stubdom
   

   Now you are done with the Xen compilation and installation steps. The next thing you need is to build a Xen kernel. In my case I built one with Dom0 and DomU support.

4. Setting up the Xen kernel:
   At the time of the writing of this document, the current/stable branch of the xen kernel is xen/stable-2.6.32.x .
   • Getting the Xen kernel from git repo:

     git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jeremy/xen.git linux-2.6-xen
     cd linux-2.6-xen
     git reset --hard
     git checkout -b xen/stable-2.6.32.x origin/xen/stable-2.6.32.x
     git pull
     git log | less
     

   
   

   • Configuring & Installing the kernel
     Once you run “make ARCH=x86_64 oldconfig”, you will have a .config file created on the directory where your kernel source is. Now you can either modify this .config file by editing it or by using the “make menuconfig”. Either way, make sure that all the kernel option below are properly enabled.

   CONFIG_PARAVIRT_GUEST=y
   CONFIG_XEN=y
   CONFIG_HVC_DRIVER=y
   CONFIG_HVC_XEN=y
   CONFIG_X86_IO_APIC=y
   CONFIG_ACPI=y
   CONFIG_PCI_XEN=y
   CONFIG_XEN_DEV_EVTCHN=y
   CONFIG_XENFS=y
   CONFIG_XEN_SYS_HYPERVISOR=y
   CONFIG_XEN_GNTDEV=y
   CONFIG_XEN_BACKEND=y
   CONFIG_XEN_NETDEV_BACKEND=y
   CONFIG_XEN_BLKDEV_BACKEND=y
   CONFIG_XEN_PCIDEV_BACKEND=y
   CONFIG_XEN_PCIDEV_BACKEND_VPCI=y
   CONFIG_ACPI_PROCFS=y
   CONFIG_XEN_MAX_DOMAIN_MEMORY=32
   CONFIG_XEN_SAVE_RESTORE=y
   CONFIG_XEN_DOM0=y
   CONFIG_XEN_PRIVILEGED_GUEST=y
   CONFIG_XEN_PCI=y
   CONFIG_XEN_BLKDEV_FRONTEND=m
   CONFIG_NETXEN_NIC=m
   CONFIG_XEN_NETDEV_FRONTEND=m
   CONFIG_XEN_KBDDEV_FRONTEND=m
   CONFIG_XEN_FBDEV_FRONTEND=m
   CONFIG_XEN_BALLOON=y
   CONFIG_XEN_SCRUB_PAGES=y
   CONFIG_XEN_COMPAT_XENFS=y
   CONFIG_XEN_XENBUS_FRONTEND=m
   CONFIG_XEN_PCIDEV_FRONTEND=y
   

   Also, make sure you don’t have any debugging options turned on in the “Hacking” section otherwise the kernel compilation may take longer then necessary.

   make ARCH=x86_64 oldconfig
   make menuconfig (if you need to change something)
   make -j2
   make modules_install install
   

   Now, let’s build a kernel .deb package and install the package. Then update the modules and initram.

   chmod g-s /usr/src -R
   make deb-pkg
   dpkg -i ../linux-image*.deb
   depmod 2.6.32.36
   update-initramfs -c -k 2.6.32.36
   

   :~# cat /etc/grub.d/40_custom
   #!/bin/sh
   exec tail -n +3 $0
   # This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries.  Simply type the
   # menu entries you want to add after this comment.  Be careful not to change
   # the 'exec tail' line above.
   menuentry "Xen 4.1 / Ubuntu 10.04 kernel 2.6.32.36" {
   insmod ext2
   set root='(hd0,1)'
   search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 29be7760-1e5c-4236-adcb-057aef390aad
   multiboot (hd0,1)/boot/xen.gz dummy=dummy dom0_mem=4096M
   module (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32.36 dummy=dummy nopat root=UUID=29be7760-1e5c-4236-adcb-057aef390aad ro console=tty0
   module (hd0,1)/boot/initrd.img-2.6.32.36
   }