[Fedora-xen] latest kernel.org kernel

[M A Young]

On Sat, 2 Apr 2011, Jon wrote:

> Is it possible to use the latest kernel.org kernel, 2.6.38-2, for
> xen-4.0.1 or xen-4.1 or should I compile the kernel from git? If it is
> the latter, what is the preferred method and is there a doc explaining
> the steps? I am running Scientific Linux 6 and would like to use the
> latest stable xen and kernel if possible.

2.6.38 is missing xen net and block backends
pre-2.6.39 adds the net backend
2.6.40 is expected to add the block backend.
In addition xen 4.1 supports a user level block backend though this is 
slow and can bring the guest to a halt in some cases.

Thus out-of-the-box xen 4.1 and pre-2.6.39 should be usable for xen 
provided slow disk access isn't a problem.
However for practical use you might be better using one a xen patched 
kernel, such as the 2.6.32 one I built recently based on the Fedora 12 
kernel code (plus updates and xen patches) at
http://repos.fedorapeople.org/repos/myoung/dom0-kernel/
or build your own from git, eg. from 
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/jeremy/xen.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/xen/stable-2.6.32.x

The xen.org site mentions plans to produce dom0 kernel and xen packages 
for RHEL6 (see http://wiki.xen.org/xenwiki/XenDom0Kernels ) though I 
imagine it will be a few weeks before that happens.

 	Michael Young