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My VPS host uses Xen, and instead of using its custom kernels I could use my own (with pv-grub), the sample kernel of which I had installed to test this was is the following, I am running Debian 6 (Squeeze): http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/linux-image-2.6.32-5-xen-amd64

Would I be right to assume, that if I download the sources for 2.6.32-5 I can set up the appropriate Xen options to build a Xen compatible kernel just like the binary one listed?

Would I be able to apply say kernel patches (such as grsecurity as I've wanted), and apply the Xen configuration, to use for my VPS once compiled just like that?

Thank you, Ken.

Alexander
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Yes, you can. You have the option of building a Debian kernel from the same sources, or building a kernel from vanilla sources. Mainline has support for Xen4 built into recent versions and no longer requires patches for Xen to work; the options for building a DomU are here.

Patching the Debian sources should be possible using the Debian make-kpkg command and friends.

Starfish
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Michael Lowman
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  • Full support for Xen dom0 and domU was merged into Linux Kernel 3.0 which has not yet been released. – Ophidian Jul 13 '11 at 14:16
  • @Ophidian I believed domU works with current vanilla sources, and the OP doesn't need dom0. I am a little fuzzy, since I haven't worked with this for about 6 months and my kernel compilation was earlier than that. do you have sources? – Michael Lowman Jul 13 '11 at 14:37
  • you are correct, I need to read closer. Full pv_ops domU support has been in for quite some time. The dom0 support announcement is here: http://blog.xen.org/index.php/2011/06/02/xen-celebrates-full-dom0-and-domu-support-in-linux-3-0/ – Ophidian Jul 13 '11 at 19:47
  • @Michael, I apologize for the long delay however this works fine. It turns out the standard kernel will work (2.6.32.43), just need to grep and enable all the CONFIG_XEN_* entries that are appropriate. – Alexander Jul 29 '11 at 06:20