[Posted earlier to xen-users mailing list; cross-posted between
Gentoo and ArchLinux lists. Be careful about where your replies go if
you make any.]
In case anyone else is trying to get Xen working on a MacBook Pro, I
thought I would drop this note out here. The configuration is as
follows...
Hardware Overview (from System Profiler under OSX):
Machine Model: MacBookPro2,2
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Process Speed: 2.16 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores:2
L2 Cache (per CPU): 4 MB
Memory: 3 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP22.00A5.B00
SMC Version: 1.12f5
Software:
rEFIt 0.9 boot manager
GRUB 0.97-r3
Gentoo 2006.1 x86_64 no-multilib profile (updated to latest
packages from community portage repository as of 20070420.
ArchLinux 0.8 Voodoo release
I followed the installation directions posted for the MacBook here
[1]. It wasn't perfect, so I made a few revisions to that page. For
example, the biggest stumbling block was creating multiple kernel
images to boot via GRUB. The MacBook Pro has a bug where the keyboard
ceases to work on the GRUB page [2]. The workaround is to hot-plug an
external USB keyboard and use it to choose other boot profiles.
Also, the current Xen release in Gentoo portage is 3.0.2. I could not
get this to work. I used the marineam-xem overlay which uses Xen
3.0.4 along with a modified 2.6.16.46 kernel source. There are no
mactel-linux [3] patches for this kernel release so I haven't tried
to run X and use the touchpad or other laptop-specific components
that are patched.
I then followed the directions given here [4] to build a working dom0
kernel. Again, the directions were hazy/ambiguous in places so I have
updated them to highlight certain tricky aspects. I may throw my
kernel .config file up somewhere for others to snatch if anyone is
interested.
After getting dom0 working, I copied that kernel tree to make a
separate domU kernel build. The only differences between the two are
the dom0 contains all the backend drivers (no frontend drivers) and
the domU config contains all the frontend drivers (and no backend
drivers).
I then followed the instructions here [5] to install ArchLinux from a
running host. The tricky part here was first creating the sparse
loopback file images which I had never done before. The Xen user
manual gave good directions on how to perform this operation. The
second tricky part was synchronizing the disk device referenced in
the domU /etc/fstab to the device created in the dom0 Xen
configuration file. Yes, this was my first time installing Xen and
that part tripped me up.
I set the ArchLinux file partition to boot using the domU created
from Gentoo sources. So far it has worked fine. I imagine I'll have
some trouble since the linux-headers package is revved for a 2.6.20
kernel and I'm running a 2.6.16 kernel. Correcting this shouldn't be
too onerous.
So, those are my notes. It took me 5 days from a standing start to
get this working. I haven't touched Linux since 1994 and I have never
touched Xen before. This is a testament to excellent guides,
tutorials, and a misspent youth hacking SunOS 4.1. :-)
Most of these notes have already been added the appropriate wikis
(still need to update the ArchLinux wiki).
cr
[1] http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_Apple_MacBook
[2] http://refit.sourceforge.net/doc/c4s3_keyboard.html
[3] http://mactel-linux.org/
[4] http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Xen_and_Gentoo
[5] http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/
Install_Arch_from_within_another_distro
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