High Tech Sorcery

I’ve done this enough times to know it by heart but I remember when I tried to find documentation on this step I ran into countless inaccurate and outdated examples.  So here’s what I do to get the Windows GPL PV drivers installed under Xen.

1. Download the drivers from meadowcourt.org.  As of 1/18/2012 the latest version is 0.11.0.308.  You’ll need to get the appropriate drivers for your OS.
2. turn testsigning off on Windows
1. bcedit
• I like to check out the config first
2. bcdedit /set {current} testsigning on
• this turns testsigning on
3. bcdedit
• I usually run this again to make sure “testsigning Yes” appears
3. restart windows. upon restart the system should indicate it is in “Test Mode”
4. install the drivers msi file that was downloaded. I always choose “Typical” installation. I choose not to restart at this point.
5. create new default boot option
1. bcdedit /copy {current} /d “GPLPV
• this will copy the current boot setup into a new one called GPLPV
• pay attention to the id returned here
2. bcdedit /default ID
• replace ID with the id from the copy command
• this sets the new menu to be the default
3. bcdedit /set {default} loadoptions GPLPV
• this makaes this option use GPLPV drivers
4. bcdedit
• double check everything
6. restart windows

I have been looking to various GNU/Linux distributions to determine their level of support for Xen.  Here’s what I found:

• Debian Etch – Xen Hypervisor 3.2.1 (via backports), Linux kernel 2.6.26 (via backports)
• Debian Lenny – Xen Hypervisor 3.2.1, Linux dom0 kernel 2.6.26
• Debian Squeeze (testing) – Xen Hypervisor 3.4.2, Linux dom0 kernel ???
• Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy) – Xen Hypervisor 3.3.0 (via backports), Linux dom0 kernel 2.6.24
• Ubuntu 8.10-10.04 (Intrepid-Lucid) – Xen Hypervisor 3.3.0, no Linux dom0 kernel
• OpenSuse 11.2 – Xen Hypervisor 3.4.1, Linux dom0 kernel 2.6.31

As much as I like Debian and Debian based distros I think OpenSuse is probably the best platform for hosting Xen at the moment.

I think Ubuntu 9.04 is the only version of Ubuntu suffering from this bug but it appears as though no fix for this serious regression will be forthcoming.  To get pygrub to work you actually have to fix a bug in the python 2.5 curses library.  Open “/usr/lib/python2.5/curses/__init__.py” and add the following lines starting at line 17:

import os as _os
import sys as _sys

After that pygrub should work correctly.  More information about this bug can be found in launchpad bug #395321.