Re: Unmodified Windows etc on XEN 3.0 with Intel/VT or AMD/Pacifica

Re: Unmodified Windows etc on XEN 3.0 with Intel/VT or AMD/Pacifica

[Adam Wendt]

On Sun, 29 Jan 2006 21:04 , Thorolf Godawa <nospam@godawa.de> sent:

>Hi all,
>
>since I need an answer for my problem pretty fast and I think that in 
>this group I can find more experienced people I post my questions again.
>
>XEN 3.0 supports starting unmodified xenU-domains with the upcomming 
>Intel and AMD-processors and I have some questions according to this.
>
>- How can I install an OS like Windows in such an environement?

You write an xen configuration file that has a 'cdrom' entry which points to your
cd device, or an iso image. Then you tell xen to boot from the cdrom. Would look
something like this:

cdrom = "/path/to/isofile" (or /dev/hdc if that is your cdrom device)
boot  = "d"

also you'd want:
vnc = 1

All of this is in the example xmexample.vmx file.

You'll need to do other configuration for disks and such, which is mostly
documented here:

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/Research/SRG/netos/xen/readmes/user/user.html#SECTION04300000000000000000

Once you xm create you then run
vncviewer <host ip>:<domid#>

Which will let you control the installation just as if you were booting on the
hardware with a monitor/keyboard attached (just like vmware or virtual pc)

>If I have an W2k-image that I can start with XEN and "xm list" tells me 
>that it is running, how can I access it?

You would either use the vnc connection, but I wouldn't suggest that as its very
slow and for me has mouse problems.

Most likely you would enable windows terminal service and use remote desktop
client to connect which has worked quite well for me. The gotcha is you'd have to
use vnc to enable it with a fresh install or get networking working, or turn off
firewall etc.

>
>- How works the network-configuration in Windows or OS/2?
>
>Linux gives me my ethN that I can configure even without physical 
>interface and its working, but for Windows or OS/2 I probably need an 
>"dummy"-network-interface-card which I can install and configure.

For my windows guest I have in my config file:

vif = [ 'type=ioemu, bridge=xenbr0' ]

Windows automatically installed the driver, the only thing I needed to do via vnc
was enable wts, turn off firewall (or allow wts through) and then connect.

>
>- If I use a Processor with x86-64-support, should I install the 
>x86-64-version of Linux or just the i386 if most xenU-domains just will 
>be x86? The advantage with x86-64 is that it uses memory above 4GB 
>better but is there a disadvantage with x86-only-guests?

I don't really have enough knowledge to comment on this.

Adam Wendt
IPCoast, Inc.

Re: Unmodified Windows etc on XEN 3.0 with Intel/VT or AMD/Pacifica

[Mark Williamson]

> You write an xen configuration file that has a 'cdrom' entry which points
> to your cd device, or an iso image. Then you tell xen to boot from the
> cdrom. Would look something like this:
>
> cdrom = "/path/to/isofile" (or /dev/hdc if that is your cdrom device)
> boot  = "d"
>
> also you'd want:
> vnc = 1

Or you can enable a local X Window, if that suits your setup.

> You would either use the vnc connection, but I wouldn't suggest that as its
> very slow and for me has mouse problems.

I'm not sure to what extent VNC is to blame, and to what extent it's the 
display device model.  Using the normal X Window might improve this a bit, 
but the current display emulator will never win any speed awards.

> >- If I use a Processor with x86-64-support, should I install the
> >x86-64-version of Linux or just the i386 if most xenU-domains just will
> >be x86? The advantage with x86-64 is that it uses memory above 4GB
> >better but is there a disadvantage with x86-only-guests?
>
> I don't really have enough knowledge to comment on this.

I'm not entirely sure I understand the question...

If you're running on a host with > 4Gig memory, you *either* need to run a PAE 
dom0 on PAE Xen (not sure if you can use VT on PAE Xen at the moment...) or 
run a 64-bit dom0 on 64-bit Xen.  Dom0 and Xen have to be matched.

Therefore, if you want to use > 4Gig memory in the whole system *or* you want 
to run *any* 64-bit guests, you need a 64-bit dom0 on a 64-bit Xen.  Does 
that answer your question?

HTH,
Mark

Re: Unmodified Windows etc on XEN 3.0 with Intel/VT or AMD/Pacifica

[Anthony Liguori]

Mark Williamson wrote:

>>You would either use the vnc connection, but I wouldn't suggest that as its
>>very slow and for me has mouse problems.
>>    
>>
>
>I'm not sure to what extent VNC is to blame, and to what extent it's the 
>display device model.  Using the normal X Window might improve this a bit, 
>but the current display emulator will never win any speed awards.
>  
>
Xvnc makes use of high-level operations (which is why it's a full-blown 
X server).  QEmu doesn't pass any of that info via it's DisplayState API 
(even though it does emulate those high level operations).  If 
libvncserver was provided that info, it would make a noticable impact on 
VNC performance.

The mouse is going to be a problem.  As long as we emulate the CL, 
there's not much hope here (if you sacrifice some chickens, I'm told you 
can convince X to use the monochromatic hardware cursor but I've not 
been successful myself).  An enterprising chap could implement touch 
screen emulation.  This would make the mouse a bit more sane under VNC 
but it will still appear choppy.

If you use SDL, set the resolution to 1024x768, set the depth to 24 bit, 
and enable full hardware acceleration in Windows performance should be 
pretty good.

Regards,

Anthony Liguori

Re: Unmodified Windows etc on XEN 3.0 with Intel/VT or AMD/Pacifica

[Thorolf Godawa]

Hi,

first thanks a lot for your answers!


That's what I have in my config now, based on the xmexample.vmx:
-------------------------
kernel = "/usr/lib/xen/boot/vmxloader"
builder='vmx'
memory = 512
name = "win2k.vmx"
vcpus=2
acpi=0
apic=0
vif = [ 'type=ioemu, bridge=xenbr0' ]
disk = [ 'file:/data/xen/images/win2k/win_boot.img,ioemu:hda,w' ]
cdrom='/dev/sr0'
boot='d'
sdl=0
stdvga=0
vnc=1
vncviewer=1
-------------------------

That's what I get if I start the VM:
-------------------------
# xm create win2k.vmx
   -> Using config file "win2k.vmx".
      VNC= 1
      vncviewer -listen: Listening on port 11001 (flash port 10901)
      vncviewer -listen: Command line errors are not reported until a 
connection comes in.
Started domain win2k.vmx
-------------------------

So I'm not able to get a window on my xenU-domain :-(

I also tried it with stdvga=1 and vnc=0, then a black window opens, 
shows me some BIOS-information, s.th. about drives but then it stops 
with a blinking cursor.


Any help would be nice, thanks a lot!


BTW: I'm using SuSE Linux 10.1 Beta2 x86-64 on Xeon/VT with Kernel 
2.6.16_rc1_git3-4 and XEN 3.0_8628-2. Using SLES 10 Beta or SuSE Linux 
10.0 results in not working onboard ethernet-interfaces.
-- 

Chau y hasta luego,

Thorolf

Still problems with VNC and Windows on Intel Xeon/VT

[Thorolf Godawa]

Hi,

OK, it seems that I'm comming closer to my problem!

I start my first VM with vnc=1 and vncviewer=1 in the config but no VNC 
is starting. I get the following message:
# xm create test
   Using config file "test".
   VNC= 1
   vncviewer -listen: Listening on port 11001 (flash port 10901)
   vncviewer -listen: Command line errors are not reported until a 
connection comes in.
   Started domain test

# xm list -l
...
   (domain
     (domid 1)
     (uuid eb5b11e5-8176-3411-08e0-a01a15ef6c39)
     (ssidref 0)
     (vcpus 1)
     (vcpu_avail 1)
     (cpu_weight 1.0)
     (memory 384)
     (maxmem 384)
     (name test)
     (on_poweroff destroy)
     (on_reboot restart)
     (on_crash restart)
     (image
         (vmx
             (kernel /usr/lib/xen/boot/vmxloader)
             (args 'VNC_VIEWER=10.65.0.32:5501 ')
             (device_model /usr/lib64/xen/bin/qemu-dm)
             (vcpus 1)
             (cdrom /dev/hda)
             (boot c)
             (vnc 1)
             (vncviewer 1)
             (display :0.0)
             (xauthority /root/.Xauthority)
         )
     )
     (state -b----)
     (shutdown_reason poweroff)
     (cpu_time 2.8362e-05)
     (online_vcpus 1)
     (up_time 68.7826452255)
     (start_time 1138754868.61)
     (store_mfn 426582)
   )

If I try to connect on the local machine (xen0-host) to the xenU I only get:
# vncviewer 10.65.0.31:5501
   vncviewer: ConnectToTcpAddr: connect: Connection refused
   Unable to connect to VNC server
# vncviewer 10.65.0.31:11001
   vncviewer: ConnectToTcpAddr: connect: Connection refused
   Unable to connect to VNC server

And if I do so from remote with OS/2 or Windows I get with 
10.65.0.32:5501 only "unable to connect" and if I try to connect to 
10.65.0.32:11001 the following error on the host:

   vncviewer -listen: invalid command line argument: -log
   TightVNC viewer version 1.2.9

   Usage: vncviewer [<OPTIONS>] [<HOST>][:<DISPLAY#>]
   ...
   ..

For me that looks like using wrong commandline-parameters, but which one 
are the right ones and where can I change it?

On which ports the XEN-vncserver is listening, normaly VNC uses 5900+, 
in conjunction with XEN I read 5500+ and XEN tells me above that he is 
"Listening on port 11001".

And if I start a second xenU-domain I also get an error:
# xm create test2
   Using config file "test2".
   VNC= 1
   vncviewer: ListenAtTcpPort: bind: Address already in use
   vncviewer: ListenAtTcpPort: bind: Address already in use
   Started domain test2

So here seems to be s.th. quite wrong, but I don't know how to solve it :-(

Thanks a lot for any help!

BTW: I'm using SuSE Linux 10.1 Beta2 x86-64 on Xeon/VT with Kernel 
2.6.16_rc1_git3-4 and XEN 3.0_8628-2. Using SLES 10 Beta or SuSE Linux 
10.0 results in not working onboard ethernet-interfaces.
-- 

Chau y hasta luego,

Thorolf

RE: Still problems with VNC and Windows on Intel Xeon/VT

[Puthiyaparambil, Aravindh]

> I start my first VM with vnc=1 and vncviewer=1 in the config but no
VNC
> is starting. I get the following message:

Start the domain with vnc=1 and vncviewer=0. Then execute "vncviewer
ipaddress:dom_id" or "vncviewer localhost:dom_id" to connect to the
domain.

Hope this helps.

Aravindh

Re: Still problems with VNC and Windows on Intel Xeon/VT

[Charles Duffy]

Thorolf Godawa wrote:
> If I try to connect on the local machine (xen0-host) to the xenU I only 
> get:
> # vncviewer 10.65.0.31:5501

If you want to use the port number (rather than the VNC display number), 
do hostname::portnum; with only one colon, it's attempting to use the 
number as a *display* value (and adds 5500 to it).