Re: New release candidate for Xen 4.0.0 (RC9)

[Keir Fraser <keir.fraser@eu.citrix.com>]

On 31/03/2010 15:20, "Dan Magenheimer" <dan.magenheimer@oracle.com> wrote:

>>> Can you shed some light on this issue -- why is this kernel repo
>> there,
>>> and what kernel will *really* be the official and stable option for
>> Xen 4?
>>> What will be part of the next week release?
> 
> Keir already answered this tersely, but let me explain further
> (and others can correct me if I am wrong).  There IS NO official
> dom0 for Xen 4.0 from xen.org.  Xen 4.0 is a hypervisor not
> a virtualization distro.  Similarly, Linux 2.6.33 is a kernel release,
> not an OS distro.  Distros of both are free to choose whatever other
> components work best for their customers.

Yes, that's pretty much the situation. Basically, when moving to 4.0 there
is no need to change any dom0 or domU kernel (unless you want to use certain
new features like Remus or blktap2, and your current dom0 doesn't have the
required bits). Of course that doesn't mean we abdicate responsibility for
producing high-quality kernels for running on Xen -- or at least HQ
Xen-specific bits that can then be pulled into HQ kernel releases by
distros. I think trying to publish "kernel releases" for end users would
actually be a dangerous thing for us to do, unless we were also prepared to
deal with things like security updates in a timely fashion, and we haven't
got a channel for distributing that kind of thing in the same effective way
that distros have.

 -- Keir