Booting Overview

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This document describes the different mechanisms and config file options that are available for Xen.

The following diagram shows the first steps of the Linux boot and startup sequence to provide a baseline to allow explaining the differences

  • LinuxBoot.png

HVM Guest Boot Process

From a user's perspective the HVM Boot and install process is identical to the process on a native PC or server.

  • HVMBoot.png

However, behind the scenes

  • The hvmloader is copied into guest memory by Xen (under the control of the Toolstack). The hvmloader sets up all necessary information for the Device Emulator which emulates a HW environment that appears exactly like a physical machine. 
  • The correct firmware is automatically loaded as a binary blob (usually located in /usr/lib64/xen/boot) and copied into guest memory based on config settings, but can be overridden via the firmware config file option.

Direct Kernel Boot

PVGrub

PyGrub

PV Guest Install Basic Workflow

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