Fedora Core 5 Xen Virtualization Guide
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Installing the Xen Software

When doing a fresh install of Fedora Core 5, you can specify that Xen should be installed by adding 'xen0' to your kernel command line. This will ensure that the Xen kernel and userspace support packages are installed.

If you already have a Fedora Core 5 system installed, you can install the Xen kernel by running the following command:

• # yum install kernel-xen0
  

This installs the required packages and their dependencies. 'kernel-xen0' contains the Xen-enabled host system kernel (domain 0) as well as the hypervisor. Also, the 'xen' package will be installed, which contains the user-space tools for interacting with the hypervisor.

Once this is done, you should have an entry set up in the file /boot/grub/grub.conf for booting the xen0 kernel. The xen0 kernel is not set as the default boot option.

To set GRUB to boot with xen0 by default, edit /boot/grub/grub.conf and set the default to the xen0 kernel:²

• default=0
  

  • If the graphical boot screen or X-Windows fails on the next bootup, you may need to disable the graphical boot (rhgb) and switch to using runlevel 3 (command-line only mode).

This is an example /boot/grub/grub.conf, with the 3 option to start the host system on runlevel 3:

• default=0
  timeout=5
  splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
  hiddenmenu
  title Fedora Core (2.6.15-1.29_FC5hypervisor)
          root (hd0,0)
          kernel /xen.gz-2.6.15-1.29_FC5
          module /vmlinuz-2.6.15-1.29_FC5xen0 ro root=/dev/VolGroup01/LogVol00 3
          module /initrd-2.6.15-1.29_FC5xen0.img
  

The Xen facilities in Fedora Core uses VNC to provide a graphical interface that may be accessed from remote systems, as well as the host. Install the vnc package on those systems that will be used to manage Xen:

• # yum install vnc
  

This provides the vncviewer client.

Fedora Core 5 Xen Virtualization Guide
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