XenCD on track (was Xen0 crash dump)

[Jared Rhine <jared@wordzoo.com>]

> Mark: thanks, anytime for that CD.
> 
> I'm actually having trouble finding an original ISO image...

No problem, my mail client did a weird thing and sent out old messages,
rather embarassing.  Didn't mean to actually ping you about it :)

In any case, lack of the CD hasn't hindered development of a functional
CD.  I have a working CD with this architecture:

- GRUB boot + menu
- xen.gz + xen0 + debian dm0 default boot option
- memdisk + memtest86, tomsrtbt, ttylinux boot options
- debian dom0 is straight debootstrap unstable, with various bits rm
-rf'ed, plus xen-required packages (python-twisted, etc).
- pure text-mode apps installed.  can apt-get other packages into the
ramdisk as needed.
- currently implemented as a 25 Mb initrd.  Should be able to be
netbooted, etc eventually.  having problems getting post-pivot_root
freeramdisk to release initrd's memory, so currently just running out of
the rw initrd
- custom /linuxrc+rcS, autostart xend, xensv
- xen.gz + xen0 built from xeno-unstable.bk
- 30Mb ISO thus far

Planned improvements:
- networking (just dhcpc on dom0 now)
- media discovery, so it can find and autostart ttylinux + other
rootfs's (/dev/cdrom isn't mounted currently)
- xen-stable/xen-testing builds
- more bootprompt configuration of dom0
- use of debian packages for install of xen into dom0 (uses cp -a now)

It'd be easier for me to put on contributed rootfs'es rather than me
working on finely tuned fedora/gentoo/whatever examples xenU instances.
I'm intending to use the same codebase for my server installs, but no
reason not to combine both efforts.

So if there are rootfs maintainers who'd think it'd be neat to have
their xenU rootfs on a demo cd, let me know (here or offline).

Sorry for announcing all this without releasing any URLs yet.  I'm about
to go on a week-long away-from-keyboard vacation, so it'll be a few
weeks yet before I'll be able to provide a URL for people to download
the first release.



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