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Setting up convirt on Ubuntu Hardy with Xen running on a remote server

on in Linux

Don’t!

I first wondered why Ubuntu chose KVM instead of Xen. Well, now I now: because it’s a piece of crap. Well, maybe not Xen, but definitely the products that claim to “support” Xen.

I tried Ubuntu (error in virt-install), Debian Lenny (doesn’t support Dom0 hosts), Fedora (don’t remember what was wrong with that), OpenSuse (yast2 bug) and some others. And they all had some bug in it that prevented me from using virt-install and/or Xen in a nice manner.

I eventually got virt-install working on Ubuntu by installing it from source. The Ubuntu/debian version has been broken for the last couple of months. So finally I was reading to use Xen. Downloaded an iso. Figured out how to use the commandline options and then: an iso can’t be used with a para-virtualized guest. You have to have the VT cpu extension for it.

Well, that did it. I removed xen, shut down the computer and offered it for sale on a couple of marketplaces. My next plan: buy a new one with VT on board so I can use KVM.

Stupid open source!

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