Re: [Xen-devel] Virtual block devices (vbd) still not working... :-(

[Keir F. <Kei...@cl...>]

> Then I tried fdisk /dev/xvda  and it complained about not having
> any partition label on it and that I have to set the number of
> cylinders.
> Entering the 'p' option in fdisk showed an empty partition table
> and 255 heads, 63 sectors, 0 cylinders ??

Sounds like we're not handling a geometry ioctl properly. I can
reproduce this problem so I'll look into it. I don't know how it could
have worked for Ian!
 
> Trying the same on /dev/xvdb showed the same result with mkfs
> but fdisk now reported "unable to read /dev/xvdb".
> (I added the local ide partition /dev/hda7 with xenctl partition add, 
> and #0 as the number of the vbd).

The vbd must be created with '-v1' to appear as xvdb.

> I also recognized another strange thing:
> Everybody is showing examples with vbd create and using the -w flag in order
> to enable write access to the vbd. 
> But I have to use "-rw" with xenctl vbd create, otherwise I end up only with
> read access.

I don't see this. '-w' works for me.

> Also, with a lot of xenctl commands there is a x<subst> option. What's the
> meaning of that ?

There's no need to use this unless you specify a partition name as a
domain-id-specific pattern (e.g. sda7+). I wouldn't worry about it :-)

> Are you using a newer version of xen than me ? ;-)
> Mine was copied from the xen-1.0 demo disk.
> I also used the source tree from this disk and compiled xeno and xenolinux
> from this tree.

We are more up to date now. There is a xeno-unstable.bk repository on
xen.bkbits.net that includes various fixes and improvements. You'll
probably want to clone that repository when I fix teh geometry ioctl.

 -- Keir