I'm trying to install Arch Linux under Xen as domU (Guest) from Arch Linux official 2011.08 x64 Core iso image. My web hosting offers a SolusVM control panel with ability to install custom ISOs, so I have full control over guest, but not over host.
I can install from 2011.08 i686 Core iso image - it's x64 flavor that fails.
The installer fails to find both network adapter and disk drives.
The hosting support says they have x64 guests working fine, but Ubuntu 11 minimal x64 fails to detect network adapter there (under the same Xen dom0) too.
When I compare lsmod | awk '{print $1} | sort from 32-bit and from 64-bit setup shell, I see that 32-bit setup loads i2c_piix4 instead of i2c_piix and also loads 8139cp, 8139too and ata_generic modules. But xen_platform_pci kernel module is only loaded by the failing 64-bit setup.
I cannot finish installation because it is impossible to create partitions without available disk devices.
If I pass xen_emul_unplug=unnecessary option to the kernel from syslinux, installation works fine. It seems that the kernel sees that paravirtualized devices are available, unplugs the emulated devices but fails to plug the paravirtualized devices.
- Is this a bug, a misconfiguration, or by design?
- If it's not by design, what causes it and how to implement a proper fix?
It looks like there may be additional steps need as detailed in the following:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xen#Arch_as_Xen_guest_.28PV_mode.29
The key may be in the PV mode with Xen.
Have you tried asking this question on the xen-users mailing list?
http://lists.xensource.com/mailman/listinfo/xen-users