Debian Squeeze Kernel for Ubuntu 9.04 XenServer DomU

Squeeze, the testing version of Debian ships with a more recent kernel which works well on a XenServer 5.5 guest. The version is 2.6.30-2-686-bigmem.

I am evaluating whether this is a stable kernel for use under Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04. Up till now the best kernel has been 2.6.26-2-xen-686 from Debian Lenny. However, this older kernel has known issues which I am keen to avoid.

The newer Squeeze kernel down be downloaded from a Debian mirror, in my case the NZ mirror:

http://ftp.nz.debian.org/debian/pool/main/l/linux-2.6/linux-image-2.6.30-2-686-bigmem_2.6.30-8squeeze1_i386.deb

Installing was as simple as:

dpkg -i linux-image-2.6.30-2-686-bigmem_2.6.30-8squeeze1_i386.deb

A couple more changes were required. In XenCenter, the guest’s Properties => Startup Options => OS Boot Parameters need to be changed to use the correct console device:

console=hvc0

In addition, the guest VM needs to have a new file created to run a getty on hvc0, so that the Console tab works in XenCenter. As root, create the file /etc/event.d/hvc0:

# hvc0 - getty
#
# This service maintains a getty on hvc0 from the point the system is
# started until it is shut down again.

start on stopped rc2
start on stopped rc3
start on stopped rc4
start on stopped rc5

stop on runlevel 0
stop on runlevel 1
stop on runlevel 6

respawn
exec /sbin/getty 38400 hvc0

Then reboot.