Hi, Sorry to overquote here, but I'm confused by your message. I do understand what virtualization is, but I wasn't 100% sure that Xen is in fact a virtualization product. It looked like it requires special kernels with Xen patches, but the manual says it runs Windows XP. I know what loop files are, but what is LVM or LVM2? I know it stands for logical volume management, but how does that have to do with this? Other than knowing what LVM stands for, I have no clue what it does or why one would want it. I noticed the Lenny installer offered it when I was setting up partitions but again with no explanation. I would think that a CD image would be a .iso file which in turn would be a loop filesystem, so again how does LVM enter into it? I did read a bit of the manual and it said nothing about any of this. It said that one must use grub as a boot loader. Does that mean that lilo won't work or are they suggesting grub because it's more flexible? A step by step guide of exactly what to do to set up a basic VM would be helpful. I see that there are special xen kernel images and modules, but I'm not sure how I would set up a primary and secondary linux VM setup. For example, I would want to run a virtual Linux server inside a host server. How? Once I get that working, I would like to play with NetBSD again since the manual says it has a Xen installer. This still doesn't address how accessible all of this is. With VMWare for example, I have no speech once I start even a text OS like FreeDOS unless I load a screen reader. Would this still apply in Xen? If so, would that mean I would need sighted help? The point for me would be to do this on my own, at least with BSD. Sorry for so many questions, but Xen seems different than other VM solutions I've seen and I think I'm not grasping important things here. luke wrote: > Tony Baechler apparently wrote: > > >> Does anyone know about xen? It can apparently run both BSD and Linux >> and has console tools for administration, >> > > Both are true. I use it heavily for running multiple Linuxes inside > Linux. Beautiful system, Xen. > > >> Will it support multiple VMs such as a Linux host with BSD guest >> > > Such is the theory behind virtualization.:) Yes. > > >> How would one install BSD on a xen VM? >> > > One method which _might_ work, is to setup a guest image which simply > contains the installation CD. Boot it with what you need to get it into > text mode, and start a xen console on it, and you just might be able to > use the installer to install on to a virtually exported hard drive > partition, which you could later boot as its own guest. > > I think that some such scheme is described in the Xen user's Manual, > although it's been a couple years since I read that thing. > > A tip for using Xen and Linux virtualization in general: LVM2 is a near > must, if you're doing anything speculative. Yes, you can use loop file > systems, and probably want to for the installer that we're talking about > here, but they are said to be slow for routine use, and I have no reason > to doubt that. >
