WARNING - OLD ARCHIVES

This is an archived copy of the Xen.org mailing list, which we have preserved to ensure that existing links to archives are not broken. The live archive, which contains the latest emails, can be found at http://lists.xen.org/
   
 
 
Xen 
 
Home Products Support Community News
 
   
 

xen-users

Re: [Xen-users] Re: dual boot windows

To: "Turk, JohnX" <johnx.turk@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Xen-users] Re: dual boot windows
From: Andrew Wafaa <andrew@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2006 21:45:45 +0100
Cc: "Terje J. Hanssen" <nteknikk@xxxxxxxx>, xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Delivery-date: Thu, 10 Aug 2006 13:46:28 -0700
Envelope-to: www-data@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In-reply-to: <F416F92F9390914ABD95C73B3AC53B25082371@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
List-help: <mailto:xen-users-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=help>
List-id: Xen user discussion <xen-users.lists.xensource.com>
List-post: <mailto:xen-users@lists.xensource.com>
List-subscribe: <http://lists.xensource.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xen-users>, <mailto:xen-users-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=subscribe>
List-unsubscribe: <http://lists.xensource.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xen-users>, <mailto:xen-users-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=unsubscribe>
Organization: ForceV
References: <F416F92F9390914ABD95C73B3AC53B25082371@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-to: andrew@xxxxxxxxxx
Sender: xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
User-agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.5 (Windows/20060719)
Turk, JohnX wrote:
I haven't seen any official guides on installing a Windows guest on Xen. But it 
seems that the way to do it is fairly simple:

Make an ISO image of the installation CD and use that as the "CDROM" while 
installing.

When the installer screen comes up and says "Press F6 to load third party drivers...", don't press F6, but press F5. You won't see anything immediately, but shortly you will see a screen that says to manually choose your HAL. Simply choose "Standard PC" and your install should go smoothly. The only downside is that you can't install a 64-bit flavor of Windows, nor can you get multi-processor support.
-------------

I think this is also the same reason that you will not be able to boot an 
already installed copy of Windows in Xen. Typically the HAL is for an ACPI PC, 
or if you have dual core or hyperthreading, the HAL will be Multiprocessor ACPI 
PC, which I don't believe anybody has working in Xen just yet.



-----Original Message-----
From: xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
[mailto:xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Terje J. Hanssen
Sent: Thursday, August 10, 2006 1:13 PM
To: xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [Xen-users] Re: dual boot windows

Turk, JohnX wrote:


While it may be possible to do, I would strongly recommend against it. The 
thing is that the virtualized hardware is completely different from what the 
actual hardware in your system is. Lets say you load Windows on your machine 
baremetal, it sees a nice new Intel chipset, GeForce video card, and a SATA 
hard drive. Then when you try to boot that partition with Xen, it suddenly 
being thrown a completely different set of hardware. It now is seeing a Cirrus 
Logic video card, some older generic chipset, and an IDE hard drive. This will 
most likely cause your system to blue screen, or worst case you will have some 
major data loss.

It seems reasonable to add:
Does there exist any official installation guide for how to install and
setup Linux+Windows on Xen?

Rgds,
Terje J. Hanssen


John / Terje,

For an official guide to installing Windows on Xen check the pdf that's available on the Wiki - http://www.xensource.com/files/xen_install_windows.pdf

The guide does state that it is not intended for production use. I haven't read it in detail or tried it out. I'd be interested in your experience trying it.

Hope it works for you.

Andy
--
Andrew Wafaa, RHCT
Tel: +44 (0)7974 074546
e-Mail: andrew@xxxxxxxxxx
http://www.forcev.net

_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>