From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with archive (Exim 4.43) id 1H3zgM-0006Wu-Qm for mharc-grub-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 08 Jan 2007 13:57:18 -0500 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1H3zgK-0006SV-Bh for grub-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 08 Jan 2007 13:57:16 -0500 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1H3zgJ-0006QU-Bw for grub-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 08 Jan 2007 13:57:15 -0500 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1H3zgG-0006MP-JA; Mon, 08 Jan 2007 13:57:12 -0500 Received: from [216.134.200.84] (helo=icb-mail-01.fw.nks.net) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA:32) (Exim 4.52) id 1H3zgF-0007A6-U8; Mon, 08 Jan 2007 13:57:12 -0500 Received: from [172.20.150.20] (icb-ws-02.nks.net [209.34.226.20]) by icb-mail-01.fw.nks.net (8.13.3/8.13.3/Debian-9icb) with ESMTP id l08IuWpT017263 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT); Mon, 8 Jan 2007 13:56:33 -0500 Message-ID: <45A293E0.1060306@blenke.com> Date: Mon, 08 Jan 2007 13:56:32 -0500 From: "Ian C. Blenke" User-Agent: Debian Thunderbird 1.0.6 (X11/20050914) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: The development of GRUB 2 References: <20070103145533.GA7508@bouh.residence.ens-lyon.fr> In-Reply-To: <20070103145533.GA7508@bouh.residence.ens-lyon.fr> X-Enigmail-Version: 0.90.0.0 X-Enigmail-Supports: pgp-inline, pgp-mime Face: iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAADAAAAAwBAMAAAClLOS0AAAAJFBMVEUDAgIgFRBmRi6aclS9 j2rqtI7epoCLXUBILSC3fV3Sl3SpZ0sI6/mLAAACaUlEQVQ4y2WUv2/TQBTHQxkoYkmZGGk6GNSl rS05FRNwCvXN2ENXnDfcVNWDVXmBMCSlYyxVd7eBOeTXjQwl8T/Hs+tL3fRJdqL3ue/7cXfPvZ61 V5PB+ZvZTr+3YTtbaeK6/u4jMHMSlzHmftvwbw9S8hdQ+BuSaXLMRwYAiuED/1Z6zACiMAzh19cu cDJWLx+TxYcPBN5IkBvC8Tj61MniJHkjoFBhFL/uZuCFuMsRhvHRGjxLvKYiaADcx5q6XhwTakKF IVvH2ktycptWMY7P1sDP4xiMGLdgXbDje6PRCFtFBGswoVBo0Ob4fNBJzgs0xiqG9zvoYW2m6Q9g 2Nbbn2RezJHrhfcbmJszC3qTVCGWUupFjnPJ2VF/fXoMuSSrcnO90HK4axUDybm8HaSZguuZc/Fv dicZTJx6tXM+fxeUOpPLYXvwzvk+56irBWFFb3Zowd+MauVKotQ8oL8nLbjUF5yqIo9cGupT/Gmr +nErqVxUKOQKhUH80oKrrF6tSomVMlGJULTgMms2pMTygp6bFYgWvLiRaAQhPa20RiUINOh5vZ6A 0lVVKaB8VtGAspR6KRVAyS3YWgkUAqk72kmEErndxLdNJCz3K13J5QoDCy6bqhQulVJoTsE22Lui A6dWDBCG6BR+WjBF3mgAhBlDZE7smb/krKibN6K+QRAfWsX2quCK1Qq6QZEo7kfnO+MllW/qmx2J 7oAkDIOS1X0CsPcdMPA4Y5IR5Cw46w7hHmN5QAdfHcv5g4He9liQy7mb+u6HjUGnUB/nvu+6Bxvf hqc5XRI3eeQnc8nSx/4nNmfz2/8PU65IALpwV2IAAAAASUVORK5CYII= Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-MIME-Autoconverted: from 8bit to quoted-printable by icb-mail-01.fw.nks.net id l08IuWpT017263 Cc: bug-hurd@gnu.org, Ognyan Kulev , Eldon Koyle , Arun Prasannan , "Ľ ubom??r Kundr??k" , Andrew Yates Subject: Re: Xen vs. GRUB X-BeenThere: grub-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: The development of GRUB 2 List-Id: The development of GRUB 2 List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 08 Jan 2007 18:57:16 -0000 Samuel Thibault wrote: >Thomas Schwinge, le Wed 03 Jan 2007 13:09:25 +0100, a =E9crit : > =20 > >>Is there a consensus that GRUB (or rather GRUB2) should be ported to >>allow them to run in a Xen environment? >> =20 >> > >I'm not sure grub on Xen would be so useful, since people usually choose >their operating system and parameters directly from Xen configuration >files. And I actually already contacted Xen people, and they agree that >adding a multiboot-like module abstraction to Xen won't be hard and >would be useful. > =20 > Xen PV domUs can boot from "pygrub". This is the method used by JailTime=20 and rPath to encapsulate kernels and initrd inside the disk images. So there is already such a "port". Just specify a bootloader in your xen=20 config: bootloader=3D"/usr/lib/xen/bin/pygrub" and it's easy enough to override the config file with your own boot entry= : bootentry=3D"hda1:/boot/vmlinuz-xen,/boot/initrd-xen" Which does seem a bit silly when you can specify the same thing with=20 root=3D, ramdisk=3D, and anything else with extra=3D. Alternatively, ther= e are=20 libvirt and xen-tools and other xen config abstrations outside of xm. Xen HVM domUs, on the other hand, bootstrap whatever MBR is installed on=20 the virtual disk. No changes needed here at all. The next step is HVM with paravirt_ops/VMI, which might actually show up=20 some day for Xen (not there yet). Guests would still run in an HVM jail=20 but are aware of the hypervisor and don't need to interact with the QEMU=20 provided virtual hardware (think PV drivers). Also, kvm has paravirt_ops now, as of a couple of days ago (thanks to=20 Ingo). With l-hype and kvm, xen is quickly becoming moot anyway. How does this affect grub and other bootstrapping? We very well might be=20 talking about paravirt_ops/VMI and/or PV drivers at some point in=20 addition to vanilla int13 real mode devices (though the virtual BIOSes=20 will likely take care of this anyway). - Ian C. Blenke