Submitted by This tutorial contains step-by-step instructions for installing Xen 3.0 from precompiled binaries in Ubuntu Dapper Drake. Xen lets you create guest operating systems (UNIX-like operating systems like Linux and FreeBSD), so called ‘virtual machines’ or domUs, under a host operating system (dom0). Using Xen you can separate your applications into different virtual machines that are totally independent from each other.
Really it is much easier to setup new Xen domains using the Xen-tools software available in the universe.
Also the suggested route to increase the number of loopback devices seems very strange. It should just be a matter of creating a file in /etc/modprobe.d/ as described here:
http://www.steve.org.uk/Software/xen-tools/loopback.html
I could talk days about what rocks about Xen (and be it in Ubuntu, Fedora or anywhere else), but there is too much talk about it already.
Lets say what really sucks about Xen (it is not Xen fault). NVIDIA or ATI DRIVERS THAT DON’T SUPPORT XEN0. So far this is the only set back for me, but it is a cutthroat feature on my development machines.
What an ugly choice:
Xen and no 3D, or 3D and no Xen. Well, this plain sucks. At least servers don’t need graphic and Xen rocks there. But Xen is very usable for development too, maybe even more.
Great news! I waited for such a tutorial for quite some time.
Why not just use VMWare?
Not everyone want’s to emulate a whole computer:unlike VMWare XEN does not emulate hardware, it provides the host system a small overhead where it can run. The only drawback is, that the host system has to be adjusted to XEN. I’d recommend you to read the arcticle on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xen
But is it possible to run Windows as a guest system with Xen? Currently I use VMWare to run a Windows guest system, but I don’t like the additional overhead. My understanding was that Xen only supports *nix guest systems?
Not with a “normal” CPU, since you’d have to modify the Windows Kernel to run on top of XEN. At the moment, XEN is only supported by NetBSD and Linux (Solaris, FreeBSD are on the way)
With the next generation CPUs supporting virtualisation in hardware (aka Vanderpool and Pacifia), things will change: according to some news I read ( http://www.golem.de/0508/40027.html in German, sorry), XEN will be able to run a unmodified guest system (Windows too)
Edited 2006-06-19 18:30