[ILUG] Xen, Debian on DELL PowerEdge 2850[Scanned]

[Ruairi Hickey]

I've been setting up all my xen servers using Debian testing aka etch.  It's 
close enough to stable for setting up test / teaching servers etc...

install ISO's can be downloaded from the debian site and installing xen is as 
easy as...

apt-get install xen-linux-system-2.6.17-2-xen libc6-xen xen-tools

and your off...

Ruairi


On Thursday 05 October 2006 13:56, Cormac McClean wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I teach a course in Linux System Administration. Each year I set up
> multiple virtual servers so that
> students can have root access to their own system to learn essential
> skills.
>
> This year I have been provided with a DELL PowerEdge 2850 server,
> replacing older hardware
> which wasn't up to the job. I'm now trying to setup Xen on Debian (Sarge).
>
> However, I am running into serious problems, which I believe are due to
> the SATA hard drives in the DELL.
> For example, the standard Debian install iso will not work - it doesn't
> recognise the hard drives.
> I have had to use custom built isos (e.g. from
> http://blog.blackdown.de/2005/06/26/debian-installer-with-kernel-2611/)
> to install a basic Debian system.
>
> I have built a xen-patched kernel (as described in
> http://julien.danjou.info/xen.html) configured to include SCSI_SATA and
> SCSI_ATA_PIIX (which Googling has led me to believe might solve the
> problem), and added the appropriate lines to my grub/menu.lst:
> title Xen 3.0 / XenLinux 2.6
> kernel /boot/xen-3.0-i386.gz
> module /boot/xenu-linux-2.6.16.19-xen root=/dev/sda1 ro
>
>
> However, when I reboot into the Xen system (dom0), I get a Kernel Panic
> with a message saying that hd0,0 or /dev/sda1 is not a valid device. The
> machine reboots immediately before I get a chance to investigate further.
>
> I tried the most up to date kernel (2.6.18) but the xen patch won't work
> with this, and it doesn't include support for xen.
> I can't use the xen binaries (http://www.xensource.com/xen/downloads/)
> either.
>
> This is day 3 trying different approaches and googling and trying again.
> Can anyone shed any light, please? Has anyone solved a similar problem?
>
> I'd prefer not to have to go back to UML.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Cormac.
>
> --
> Cormac McClean.
> Lecturer, Athlone IT Software Engineering
> Free/Open Source Software Enthusiast
>
> Please avoid sending me Microsoft Word or PowerPoint attachments.
> See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
>
>
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