[Pkg-xen-devel] Of historical interest only [u]

[Yvette Chanco]

This is quick and from memory, but it covers the basics. Sorry about the
duplicates. My hope is this will be a friendly list, so people will be as
open on it as they are with me. However, I have sorted them by frequency, so
if you want an idea of what "users" seem to be interested in, this is what
I've seen.

1) Kernel Images

This is the big fun. I know why these may never end up in pure debian. It
also seems that from the feedback I've gotten, the kernels are what most
help people get going quickly.

For now, I've discussed maintaining three versions (and do) but have told
everybody not to ever expect this in stable. Basically, people seem to
want...

 * The debian-standard kernel, modular, which supports almost everything
 * A clean kernel, which boots on base hardware, and is close enough to the
base xen config that you can post to the xen lists and get feedback
 * A mid-way kernel. Most demands are for support of all file systems, and
networking modules.

(FULL DISCLOSURE: I spend a lot of time doing custom xen/debian kernels now,
so my perspective is probably skewed)

2) /lib/tls
We all know about this.

2) Grub menu entries
People used to debian are used to update-grub just working. My workaround is
kind of awkward, but xen boot stanzas are complex. I'd love to discuss.

3) Init scripts
For example, hang on shutdowns (in xen 2) are not normal behavior; if the
domU won't die, the system won't shut down.

4) Network scripts

More transparency in the routing vs. bridging setups

5) xen-system

My packages have a "xen-system" meta-package. I've seen feedback both ways.
Some people are far enough that they know how to make the parts work. Some
people just want to do a quick benchmark. If the meta-package doesn't end up
in debian, I'll probably have to maintain the "meta fiddly bits" for those
who want them.

6) Installer

Did this on a lark. Spent way to much time learning about the details. Got
used more than I would ever have thought. Currently on source-forge.
Probably not directly part of this, but it seems to be of interest to those
who would like to see greater acceptance of Xen in mainstream.

7) Upgrade

This is just me, but I spent many a sleepless night between 2.0.6 and
2.0.7once I realized that people were actually using our stuff. Xen
upgrades will
never work like other upgrades. At least in 2, I could never get a way to
get the new version to work without a reboot, and it's obvious that
regardless, the domU needs to be shut down. Most people thought I was a
nutcase for worrying about this so much, but I can think of few (to no)
other situations that when you do an "apt-get dist-upgrade" you have to
reboot, so I'm not sure the best way to deal with this.

8) Life without xend

This is also partially me, but I've been in contact with the vmtools people,
and we use them in some cases, so it's good to keep in mind the various
dependencies (what you need to boot, vs. what you need to start a domu).

That's it off the top of my head. I'll post a few more if I find something
I've forgotten, or if people ask for proof ;)

-yentlsoup

On 2/15/06, Jeremy T. Bouse [c] <jbouse at debian.org> wrote:
>
>     Actually I think this information could be handy as we do want to
> make the package to serve the users needs not necessarially just what we
> want.
>
>     Regards,
>     Jeremy
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-xen-devel/attachments/20060215/643fa0c1/attachment-0001.html