Installing Gentoo

Warning:

This guide is currently a work in progress. You should not expect it to work or be correct. Please see the discussion page for some areas where it might be improved.

Warning:

This guide assumes that you’re already comfortable with Linux in general and Gentoo in particular.

Installation

First thing is to boot in rescue mode from the Xen shell and to create /mnt/gentoo/.

Then, you can follow the official handbook with those modifications:

• /dev/sda is /dev/xvda
• The IP to configure on eth0 is ${prefix}::2/64 and the gateway is ${prefix}::1. For example, this is my configuration:

  config_eth0="85.119.83.7/21 2001:ba8:1f1:f0af::2/64"
  routes_eth0="default via 85.119.80.1
  default via 2001:ba8:1f1:f0af::1"

• For IPv4, pick the configuration from the live system
• For the kernel configuration, you have to enable the Xen support. Those options worked for me:

  rr2 ~ # grep -i xen /usr/src/linux-4.19.97-gentoo/.config
  CONFIG_XEN=y
  CONFIG_XEN_PV=y
  CONFIG_XEN_PV_SMP=y
  CONFIG_XEN_512GB=y
  CONFIG_XEN_SAVE_RESTORE=y
  # CONFIG_XEN_DEBUG_FS is not set
  CONFIG_XEN_BLKDEV_FRONTEND=y
  # CONFIG_XEN_SCSI_FRONTEND is not set
  CONFIG_XEN_NETDEV_FRONTEND=y
  CONFIG_INPUT_XEN_KBDDEV_FRONTEND=y
  CONFIG_HVC_XEN=y
  CONFIG_HVC_XEN_FRONTEND=y
  # CONFIG_XEN_WDT is not set
  CONFIG_DRM_XEN=y
  CONFIG_DRM_XEN_FRONTEND=m
  CONFIG_XEN_FBDEV_FRONTEND=y
  # Xen driver support
  CONFIG_XEN_BALLOON=y
  CONFIG_XEN_SCRUB_PAGES_DEFAULT=y
  CONFIG_XEN_DEV_EVTCHN=y
  CONFIG_XENFS=y
  CONFIG_XEN_COMPAT_XENFS=y
  CONFIG_XEN_SYS_HYPERVISOR=y
  CONFIG_XEN_XENBUS_FRONTEND=y
  CONFIG_XEN_GNTDEV=m
  CONFIG_XEN_GRANT_DEV_ALLOC=m
  # CONFIG_XEN_GRANT_DMA_ALLOC is not set
  CONFIG_SWIOTLB_XEN=y
  # CONFIG_XEN_PVCALLS_FRONTEND is not set
  CONFIG_XEN_PRIVCMD=y
  CONFIG_XEN_HAVE_PVMMU=y
  CONFIG_XEN_HAVE_VPMU=y

• Add co:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty hvc0 115200 linux to /etc/inittab for the Xen console

Misc

If you have questions, I’m on the IRC channel as alarig.

I used https://www.mad-hacking.net/documentation/linux/deployment/xen/pv-guest-basics.xml to know what the Xen options are for.