Infohit

Compiling a Xen Dom0 Kernel for Ubuntu Jaunty

Distribution: Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04

• Note: You do not need to compile your own Dom0 kernel, read this article here to see how you can get Xen working on Juanty without compiling a kernel: www.infohit.net/blog/post/running-xen-on-ubuntu-intrepid-and-jaunty.html

Configure the environment for Compiling

From the menus choose to System -> Administration -> Software Sources you will see several check boxes.

• Canonical-supported Open Source software (main)
• Community-maintained Open Source software (universe)
• Proprietary drivers for devices (restricted)
• Software restricted by copyright or legal issues (multiverse)
• Source code

you should checked all these 5 boxes then click 'Close'. You should see a box that says "The information about available software is out of date". Click on the reload button. When these boxes have gone:

/etc/apt/sources.list should contain at least these two lines:

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jaunty main universe multiverse restricted
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jaunty main universe multiverse restricted

Now you should be able to use:

apt-get install fakeroot build-essential 
apt-get install crash kexec-tools makedumpfile 
apt-get build-dep linux 
apt-get install git-core libncurses5 libncurses5-dev

Download and Patch the Kernel

• Download Kernel from www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.29.2.tar.bz2
• Download Patches from gentoo-xen-kernel.googlecode.com/files/xen-patches-2.6.29-6.tar.bz2
• Unpack into /usr/src/ and /usr/src/xen-patch
• Apply patches with <dl><dd> cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.29.2 </dd><dd> cat ../xen-patch/* | patch -p1 </dd></dl>
• cd /usr/src
• mv linux-2.6.29.2 linux-2.6.29.2-xen

Copy in a suitable configuration

In order to create a configuration that created a bootable kernel I actually used the configuration file found in this package: linux-image-2.6.26-2-xen-686_2.6.26-15_i386.deb

You can download it from from here:

Kernel: http://packages.debian.org/lenny/i386/linux-image-2.6.26-2-xen-686/download Modules: http://packages.debian.org/lenny/i386/linux-modules-2.6.26-2-xen-686/download

and then install using

sudo dpkg -i linux-image-2.6.26-2-xen-686_2.6.26-15lenny2_i386.deb linux-modules-2.6.26-2-xen-686_2.6.26-15lenny2_i386.deb

Its actually possible to run Xen with this debian kernel, and thats the subject of another post

You can now copy in the configuration from that kernel using:

cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.29.2-xen/
cp /boot/config-2.6.26-2-xen-686 .config

Configure and Build the Kernel

cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.29.2-xen/
make menuconfig
make
make vmlinuz
make modules_install

Copy the Kernel Image and Initial Ramdisk to /boot

cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.29.2-xen/
cp arch/x86/boot/vmlinuz  /boot/xen-test-vmlinuz
mkinitramfs -o /boot/initrd-test-2.6.29.2.img 2.6.29.2

Create a Suitable Entry in /boot/grub/menu.lst

title           TEST Xen 3.3.0 / Ubuntu 9.04
uuid            32ce16fb-1400-4d71-bb37-c98ef140e501
kernel          /xen-3.3.0.gz
module          /xen-test-vmlinuz root=/dev/vga/dom0 ro console=tty0
module          /initrd-test-2.6.29.2.img

Other related Ubuntu Xenarticles.