Feedback on the Ubuntu kernel for server and cloud

[Scott Moser]

On Tue, 29 Mar 2011, Loïc Minier wrote:

> On Tue, Mar 29, 2011, Scott Moser wrote:
> >    I also would prefer the '-extra' modules for -virtual,
>
>  Ok
>
> > >  * would be nice if we weren't using GRUB 1 anymore; it's a bit
> > >    confusing to end up with both in instances
> >    We really dont' have a choice here. 'pv-grub' is what runs in EC2 and
> > reads /boot/grub/menu.lst, that is really the only option for a sane
> > boot loader in xen guests running without HVM.  Someone could dedicate
> > resources to getting grub2 running inside paravirt xen, and I'm sure the
> > world would be happy for it, but at this point grub-0.97 like behavior is
> > all we have.
>
>  I was actually suggesting porting whatever bits need porting to GRUB2;
>  I have no idea how much work it is, but it's on my wishlist  :-)

   The work is basically to get grub running in the paravirt environment
of xen.
http://lists.xensource.com/archives/html/xen-devel/2009-05/msg00655.html
and then on grub-devel at
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/grub-devel/2009-06/msg00035.html
has some information, but I don't see much after that via quick googling.

   The way pv-grub works on amazon is that you specify the pv-grub aki as
a kernel just as you would a linux kernel.  I'm not certain if it would
"just work" if I uploaded one of the pv-grub kernels from the Canonical
account, or if it requires some other special hacks on the EC2 side.

   There is some amount of work to be done there for sure.

> >    Basically, theres not a lot we can do about needing menu.lst on EC2.
>
>  Taking a step back: I was advised to install the -server kernel, which
>  I did, and that wasn't picked up in the GRUB1-alike setup which is used
>  in maverick EC2 vms.  I only had to do so because the -virtual kernel
>  wasn't suitable, so one way of solving it is to fix the -virtual use
>  cases.  But basically my wishlist here is: if I apt-get install another
>  EC2-compatible kernel, I want it to appear in the list of kernels that
>  pv-grub might load.

   Agreed.