Ubuntu 9.10 X64 Template for Xenserver 5.x

By | November 7, 2009

The Template for Ubuntu 9.10 64Bit is avaliable for download.

Image Is an Ubuntu 9.10 Installation excluding Grub2 and The fs is ext3 instead of Ext4 due to xenserver and pygrub incompatabilities, Make sure that if you use the apt-get update or aptitude update and Upgrade and the kernel is updated, double check the grub config before rebooting, to ensure that the ec2 or a xen kernel has been installed, otherwise you will have to use the xenserver tool xe-edit-bootloader to fix your grub conf.

You can download at one of the following Sources
Vm Details.
Username root
password password
Network set to dhcp

Source 1 or Source 2

36 thoughts on “Ubuntu 9.10 X64 Template for Xenserver 5.x

  1. Randy

    The ec2 kernel did not include ext4 support. 🙁
    I will probably just have to use ext3. Can you point me the ec2 kernel sources? At some point I am going to want ext4. Thanks, Randy

  2. StanD

    Isaac,

    Leaving a comment here to say THANKS! for the XVA file for Ubuntu.

    I was going to leave a comment in the Templates section but couldn’t seem to do so. My other question is that could you make one for CentOS 5.4 x64 or is there one readily available on the net?

    Thanks.

  3. Randy

    Sorry last night I was really tired. I am aware that the Xensource Xen host kernel (2.6.18) is really old and does not support ext4. I assume the reason that the guest vm’s also have this incompatibility is because ext4 is not supported by the Xensource paravirtualized drivers ??? However, in my Google research I found this, http://groups.google.com/group/linux.gentoo.user/browse_thread/thread/ffee0eeb295d481a?fwc=1&pli=1

    At the bottom Albert says: “Of course you can use ext4 in your DomU (the guest machines), since they can
    use newer kernels. I have 2.6.30 in one of my DomUs.”

    This was the conclusion of a discussion about how the ext4 is not supported by kernel 2.6.18.

    Any thoughts?
    Maybe, Albert is running the VM in HVM mode or using different paravirtualized drivers ???? Or maybe my assumptions are wrong!

  4. Isaac Zarb Post author

    Hi Randy,

    Im not sure if i understood your question well, however there lies another problem with pygrub, as pygrub doesn’t mount ext4 volumes, but it could also be related to the domu kernel, however im not so sure how good of an idea it is to upgrade, the domu kernel on the citrix xenserver, since this is probably tested to work best with the current config of the current release, i will experiment with this, and see what can be done, maybe citrix themselves support this, I will test this and let you know,
    If you run the vm in hvm mode, then you can definitely run ext4, What i think is the Albert, is using the opensource version on xen on some other os, as part of the citrix stability success is due to the testing of all items together and everyone using the same config,
    so i can not tell what will happen if the kernel is updated, but it sounds challenging so i will definitely test it hehe
    Cheers

  5. pete

    A simple question: what do I do with this. I’ve read through the Xenserver VM installation guide and it makes no mention of how to install this image. I’ve decompressed the file into a 6.8GB file – but what now? What commands do I run to turn it into a Ubuntu 9.10 instance running on Xenserver? I’ve tried “xe vm-install …” but it croaks. Where should I look for the documentation to use this file?
    With thanks

  6. Isaac Zarb Post author

    Hi Pete
    You can import the vm using the import function from xencenter, or else using the xe vm-import command

    Cheers

    Zak

  7. Nick Gorbikoff

    Isaac,
    very nice indeed.

    Is there a chance you will have time to post step-by-step process of how you did this? I’m trying to get Debian to run on Citrix Xen 5.5 in a full PV mode, but as you probably know – there is support lacking from Citrix for Debian & Ubuntu.

    Thank you

  8. Torsten Rehn

    Just FYI, we ran into two issues when using the linux-ec2 kernel:

    * inserting a .iso into the virtual CD/DVD drive causes a kernel panic
    * live migration is not possible (“Xen suspend failed”)

    Using linux-image-2.6-xen-amd64 from debian seems to be the best option right now :/

  9. Peep

    Hi Isaac,

    Thanks for sharing your Ubuntu 9.10 PV. But as Nick Gorbikoff requested, can you instead show us a step-by-step process to do this as It would be more reliable if we do on our own, plus I get this error when using your template:

    “couldn’t get a file descriptor referring to the console”

    Thank you very much!

    Peep

  10. nuclear216

    Isaac, great site!
    I just stumble on Xenserver and I love it, I’d like to create my own template (especially for fedora, because of amahi server), you seems to have a lot of documentation and material about that, do you might sharing that?

    cheers for those holidays!

  11. DK

    Thanks for the template, is there any chance you could post a guide on how you got it working? I keep running into errors when loading the kernel or not being able to find the file system. Thanks!

  12. Bill

    I am new to both ZenServer and Ubuntu. I tried installing importing the 64 bit and 42 bit versions on the system I have set up. I do not have a DHCP server setup. Do you need the DHCP Server running to import the VM file? I would love to be in on the discussion also. it will help me alot.

  13. Chris

    Hey Bill, Things are looking better than earlier today. Didn’t have the files you gave me at home. But did do a new download of the templates. As of now the 32 bit is about imported into my XenServer at home. Will let you know the results in a bit.

  14. Chris

    I got the 2 xva’s installed. Still have to figure out how to get the OS working.

  15. Andrey

    Hi Isac,
    first off – thanks for the templates, they worked like a charm in XenServer 5.5.

    However, after I’ve upgraded to XenServer 5.5 Update 1 – there is a problem – the tools are listed as “out of date”, bu i can’t update them since the VM crashes with kernel panic once I attempt to insert the tools iso into the Vcdrom.

    I’m trying to work around the CD issue and attempt to update the tools in hope to fix the kernel panics. If I’m successful – ill post a link to template here.

  16. Isaac Zarb Post author

    Hi Andry,

    What you could do is mount the tools on another vm, and copy the Linux folder, to the vm which crashes with the kernel panic once you attached the cd-rom, and try and update the kernel from there, i will be creating a new template with the latest kernel soon hopefully,

    Regards

    Isaac

  17. Zachery

    is there any chance you could write instructions on how exactly you did this. im trying to create my own with a smaller harddrive, and having issues with xe-linux-distribution not starting up on boot. (and fd for console not found, and crash on cd insert :x)

  18. Isaac Zarb Post author

    Hi Zachery,

    The easiest way is to follow the instructions to install the Ubuntu 9.04 template, and then do a dist upgrade, as this way, you will skip the grub2 and keep your existing ext3 fs.
    Also then replace the kernel with the latest updated kernels from citrix for debian, and that should work like a charm, i am sorry i havent had chance to post a document on how to do it, but i have been swamped
    recently, i will do as so soon as i can, and i also have a few new templates to add.

    Regards

    Isaac

  19. Art Rout

    Hi,

    I follow your instructions to 9.04 to install 9.10 alternate version but was failed on reboot stage.


    22.01.2010 21:29:38 Error: Starting VM ‘Ubuntu 9.10 Server’ – The bootloader for this VM returned an error — did the VM installation succeed? Error from bootloader: Return code: 1; Log = WARNING:root:Unknown image directive uuid
    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File “/usr/bin/pygrub”, line 719, in ?
    raise RuntimeError, “Unable to find partition containing kernel”
    RuntimeError: Unable to find partition containing kernel
    “.

    Can you update you steps for 9.10 installation process?

    Thank a lot.

  20. Art Rout

    Im rollback to HVM mode and find that this command was failed:
    sudo dpkg -i xe-guest-utilities_5.5.0-464_amd64.deb
    (Reading database … 38894 files and directories currently installed.)
    Preparing to replace xe-guest-utilities 5.5.0-464 (using xe-guest-utilities_5.5.0-464_amd64.deb) …
    [: 5: upgrade: unexpected operator
    Unpacking replacement xe-guest-utilities …
    Setting up xe-guest-utilities (5.5.0-464) …
    update-rc.d: warning: xe-linux-distribution start runlevel arguments (S) do not match LSB Default-Start values (2 3 4 5)
    [: 31: configure: unexpected operator

    where is the problem?

  21. Isaac Zarb Post author

    Hi Art,

    What you should do is install a 9.04 and then use the dist-upgrade to upgrade to 9.10 this way u will keep the current grub and ext3 partition,
    Also then you can either use the same kernel for the 9.04 or use the ec2 kernel.

    Regards

    Isaac

  22. Old_Salt

    Would have been nice if you picked something other than Rapidshare to host your files. Been trying to download the 32bit template all day now and Rapidshare only allows you to download 1 file. What a waste!

  23. Frank

    This template isn’t using the xen-kernel. It’s using the default ubuntu-ec2 kernel.

  24. Matt

    Everything seems to be working fine, thanks a lot for the template! However, I can’t seem to upgrade the tools, I get some goofy error:

    # dpkg -i xe-guest-utilities_5.5.0-466_amd64.deb
    (Reading database … 32285 files and directories currently installed.)
    Preparing to replace xe-guest-utilities 5.5.0-458 (using xe-guest-utilities_5.5.0-466_amd64.deb) …
    [: 5: upgrade: unexpected operator
    Stopping xe daemon: OK
    Unpacking replacement xe-guest-utilities …
    Setting up xe-guest-utilities (5.5.0-466) …
    update-rc.d: warning: xe-linux-distribution start runlevel arguments (S) do not match LSB Default-Start values (2 3 4 5)
    Detecting Linux distribution version: OK
    Starting xe daemon: OK
    [: 31: configure: unexpected operator

  25. stiV

    use the following command to get ubuntu to use “bash” instead of dash, then the installation of the guest utils will succeed 😉

    sudo aptitude -y install dash && sudo dpkg-reconfigure dash
    if asked, tell it NOT to use dash as default shell

  26. stiV

    btw.: If you’d like I could host all the images (using wuala) and get you maximum http download speed 🙂 just say the word and I’ll up them and get you the links

  27. Malcolm

    FYI, this image contains an account “zak” which has unrestricted access to sudo — i.e. Zak will have root access to your VM even if you change its root password. Be very careful to close off this and any other backdoors if you use this image…

  28. Jim DeArras

    I can load this on Citrix Xenserver, but I get a kernal panic when i attach the virtual CD. Any ideas?

    Thanks,
    Jim

  29. Dunand

    Thanks for the 9.10 x64 VM.
    – I installed the VM in xenserver with xencenter.
    – I started the VM.
    – I can log into the root account.

    How to start the x server ?

  30. Andy B.

    Thanks for the templates!

    For all those wanting instructions on how to do this. The /root/.bash_history is fairly instructive.

    As noted elsewhere, you probably want to remove the user “zack”.

    Andy

  31. Eliud Zarate

    Does someone knows how to have a smaller install ? the size is 24 gb.
    where does everything go ?

  32. mike

    Hey guys,

    I’m also trying to install guest utils on a 9.10 install, and am also getting this error:

    update-rc.d: warning: xe-linux-distribution start runlevel arguments (S) do not match LSB Default-Start values (2 3 4 5)

    I’ve tried using ‘aptitude -y install dash && dpkg-reconfigure dash’ but I still get this error.

    any advice from others? maybe 10.04 will bring new promise?? 😀

  33. Isaac Zarb Post author

    Hi Mike, the ubuntu 10.04 template is ready to be used, it seems to be more stable then the 9.10, check it out and let me know what you think

    Zak

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