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On Tue, Feb 01, 2005 at 08:19:47PM +0100, Tom Ivar Helbekkmo wrote:
> I'm about to set up a new laptop with NetBSD, and I'd really like to
> be able to run Xen on it, in order to experiment with a couple of
> Linux distributions without resorting to rebooting back and forth
> between operating systems.  What I don't fully understand, is what
> limitations NetBSD/xen will have.
>=20
> As far as I can tell from what I read here, and on the Xen pages, I
> should be able to install NetBSD/i386 2.0, and then add Xen 1.2 to
> that, using the existing NetBSD installation (with a new kernel) in
> domain 0.

Yes, though the chipset your laptop has will be somewhat important
(pciide controller, network card, etc).

> What I don't understand is whether I'll still be able to use the
> various hardware in the laptop: will NetBSD/xen in domain 0 support
> all the same devices that NetBSD/i386 does?  Can I expect to run X?

Yes (for the OS running in dom0).

> Use the Atheros wireless device?

No (this may potentially get better with full support for xen2?)

>  Power management?=20

No.

Also missing, and relevant to laptops: cardbus/pcmcia and usb Xen, at
least as it currently stands, is so far mostly geared towards a server
environment. It will work just as well on a laptop, as long as you
treat your laptop mostly like a server :)

If your purposes are for experimentation with other OS's, test images
and so forth, you may wish to also consider qemu. (No reason you can't
use a bit of both).

--
Dan.
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