Tag Archives: xen

Xen for Ubuntu Intrepid 8.10

I was in the process of figuring out and documenting the process of  compiling and installing an Xen enabled kernel on Ubuntu Intrepid 8.10. This was for a specific project that’s not going to come to fruition. I’m not going to bother as I also don’t feel like having my laptop burn a gaping hole through my lap as I wait for the kernel to compile, and well you know I still have some use for the 2 lads downstairs. And after years of compiling kernels, I really can think of more productive uses of my time.

The quickest way is to grab a Debian Xen enabled kernel, this isn’t recommended by Ubuntu and if your not comfortable hacking your system and having to compile modules (drivers in Windows speak) for hardware or proprietary hardware that Debian doesn’t include support for, then don’t even think of doing this and just use KVM.

Here’s how Chris did it for a system running a AMD64 processor, if you’ve an Intel processor you’ll need to use a different kernel:

http://www.chrisk.de/blog/2008/12/how-to-run-xen-in-ubuntu-intrepid-without-compiling-a-kernel-by-yourself/

If you want a later kernel (2.6.27 or 2.6.28) poke around:

http://kernel-archive.buildserver.net/

That’s the approach I’m going to use, as I know that if I’ve problems or issues I’ll be able to figure it out. Anyways, the start of the orignal draft is below, preceded by a minor rant. When I get around to getting Xen on Ubuntu to work with a Debian kernel I’ll add a new post here. Continue reading Xen for Ubuntu Intrepid 8.10

Hi Lenny

Debian GNU/Linux 5.0, codenamed Lenny, was recently released. Here’s a round of of articles about the release and why you might want to consider Debian for your infrastructure.

Techworld sums up what this means for companies and highlights new features and security enhancements:

http://www.techworld.com/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=110898

Debian 5.0, known as Lenny, will offer users improved security handling. For example, as an added protection measure, Debian Installer will now apply any security updates before the first boot.
In addition, several security-critical packages have been built with GCC hardening features, and the standard system contains fewer setuid root binaries and fewer open ports. Other new features include support for IPv6, NFS 4, PostgreSQL 8.3.5, MySQL 5.1.30 and 5.0.51a, Samba 3.2.5, PHP 5.2.6, Asterisk 1.4.21.2, Nagios 3.06 and the Xen Hypervisor 3.2.1.

Debian was proving to be particularly attractive, claiming that Debian was now the Linux distribution with the lowest total cost of ownership.

And Russell Coker mentions that Debian has full Xen support, which will make Xen users happy!

http://etbe.coker.com.au/2009/02/16/xen-and-lenny/

One of the features that is particularly noteworthy is that Xen has been updated and now works fully and correctly on the 2.6.26 kern

Sami Haatinen suggests that administrators utilize the apt-listchanges command:

http://ressukka.net/blog/posts/20090215_apt-listchanges/

It lists changes made to packages since the currently installed version. Sure that information will be overwhelming on major upgrades, but what is useful even on major upgrades is the capability to parse News files in the same way.

Debian 5.0 release notes are available at:

http://debian.org/releases/stable/i386/release-notes/

Me? I’m being running a mixture of Debian Stable, Testing, Sid, and Experimental on my Desktop and it runs stable 99% of time. A configuration like that isn’t recommended, as serious breakage can occur. But, this rarely happens, and I’ve Debian enough to know when not to let the package manager remove important packages! On my laptop, a Lenovo T400, I run Ubuntu Linux, see here for why.

Why use Lenny as a codename? All versions of Debian have been named after characters from the film Toy Story. The unstable version is codenamed Sid, and Sid will never be released as Sid breaks things. For a list of the previous names used see Section 6.2 here:

http://www.debian.org/doc/FAQ/ch-ftparchives

Lenny is named after a pair of wind-up binoculars.