[Pkg-xen-devel] Re: Bug#390862: -bigmem version of xen kernels is really needed

[Pasi Kärkkäinen]

On Tue, Dec 12, 2006 at 03:59:13PM +0100, Ralph Passgang wrote:
> Am Dienstag, 12. Dezember 2006 10:54 schrieb Nikita V. Youshchenko:
> > What about idea not to *add* pae versions of xen kernels, but to *replace*
> > non-pae versions with pae versions?
> 
> I don't think that debian should ship only pae-enabled kernels, because this 
> has some disadvantages:
> 
> - the slowdown, even if it's minimal, I personaly don't want to get forced to 
> use it.
> 
> - only pae-enabled system can use xen in 32bit mode, cpu's without pae cannot 
> use xen at all! Not every cpu/bios is able to handle pae. 
> (see "cat /proc/cpuinfo" for your cpu and check your bios settings if you are 
> not sure).
> 
> - I had some trouble with pae on standard server hardware (in combination with 
> xen) in the past. I think pae can make your system less stable (in rare 
> cases).
> 
> My personal conclussion: pae is only a dirty hack. use it if you must, 
> otherwise a non pae-enabled kernel/os is better.
> 
> I think debian should normal AND pae-enabled kernels, or maybe have the kernel 
> decice that on boottime automaticly (if that's possible).
> 
> ah, and I don't get the "distribution compatibiltiy" point.
> If your domU system is debian based, then you will use the non-pae kernel from 
> etch and all your domUs also can use the same kernel. It doesn't matter if 
> domU is also debian or fedora or something else, they should work with a 
> debian kernel...
> The same is true for a dom0 based on fedora and debian as domU. Use the same 
> kernel (the one that gets shipped with the dom0 distribution) and use that 
> for your debian domUs, too.
> 
> For compatibility it's more important that every distribution uses udev (for 
> example) and not the depricated hotplug system.
> 
> just my 5 cent ;-P
> 
> --Ralph
> 

I see it differently; I would like to use distribution/vendor provided
kernels as much as possible.. saves from a lot of headaches. Redhat/fedora
kernels for example have a lot of features/patches you don't (yet) have in
vanilla or debian kernels.. 

-- Pasi
       
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