[Libvir] Howto: install libvirt on Debian Etch (the ugly way)

[Daniel Veillard]

On Wed, Jul 04, 2007 at 09:55:20PM +0200, Roman Ammann wrote:
> I read on the list that other people tried to install libvirt on Debian
> Etch. I finally succeeded so I'll post a little Howto. Maybe someone
> with a better understanding of automake and C stuff knows a nicer way
> but the ugly folder with the links to the different header files.
> 
> The start point is a Debian Etch with a running Xen (in my case it's the
> xen-hypervisor-3.0.3-1-i386-pae package). If you're not using the PAE
> version of the xen-hypervisor change the "apt-get source" line
> accordingly.
> 
> First you will need to install a bunch of development packages
> 
>   apt-get install build-essential libxml2-dev libncurses5-dev
>   apt-get isntall libreadline5-dev python-dev
> 
> Go to your home directory and install the Xen hypervisor sources
> 
>   cd
>   apt-get source xen-hypervisor-3.0.3-1-i386-pae
> 
> Create a folder with a bunch of symbolic links. We will use this folder
> libvirt to find the header files.
> 
>   mkdir libvirt-include
>   cd libvirt-include/
>   ln -s /root/xen-3.0-3.0.3-0/xen/include/public/xen.h
>   ln -s /root/xen-3.0-3.0.3-0/tools/xenstore/xs.h
>   ln -s /root/xen-3.0-3.0.3-0/tools/xenstore/xs_lib.h
>   ln -s /root/xen-3.0-3.0.3-0/xen/include/public xen
>   ln -s /root/xen-3.0-3.0.3-0/linux-2.6-xen-sparse/include/xen/public/ xen/linux
> 
> Configure the dynamic linker that it will be able to find the libxenstore library
> 
>   echo '/usr/lib/xen-3.0.3-1/lib' > /etc/ld.so.conf.d/i486-linux-gnu.conf
>   ldconfig

  Hum, this really is the installation of Xen, hopefully you should be able
to download prepackaged version, including the development part to avoid this,
but I have no experience with Debian myself.

> Go to your home directory, download an extract the libvirt source package
> 
>   cd
>   wget http://libvirt.org/sources/libvirt-0.2.3.tar.gz
>   tar xvfz libvirt-0.2.3.tar.gz
>   cd libvirt-0.2.3
> 
> Configure, build and install the libvirt

  That is the standard process, but again using prepackaged versions
would be nicer. Also note that theorically libvirt should now be able
to compile and work without Xen support assuming QEmu (and possibly KVM
support in recent kernel versions).

>   CFLAGS="-fno-stack-protector -I/root/libvirt-include -L/usr/lib/xen-3.0.3-1/lib" ./configure --with-xen --without-qemu
>   make 
>   make install
> 
> Enable the Unix socket server for xend. Edit /etc/xen/xend-config.sxp and change the line
> 
>   #(xend-unix-server no)
> 
> to
> 
>   (xend-unix-server yes)

  I would also make sure the http server is desactivated this is a giant
security hole:

   #(xend-http-server no)
> Restart your Xen-Daemon
> 
>   /etc/init.d/xend restart
> 
> If everything work you should see your running virtual machines when you enter
> 
>   virsh list

  Ideally we should find prepackaged version for most common OS, coming with
the OS or from trusted sources. I'm fine pointing to such repositories, and
providing instructions on how to install in the FAQ. And if the problem
is storage, I'm fine hosting packages on libvirt.org itself, I just need
a person willing to maintain the package for one year at least (i.e. providing
updates).
  And as usual if there is portability problems and/or fixes, send them
to the list, I'm eager to get libvirt on new platform, new oses, and new
virtualization engines ! 
  For example I'm wondering about -fno-stack-protector passed before, why
is that needed ?

Daniel

-- 
Red Hat Virtualization group http://redhat.com/virtualization/
Daniel Veillard      | virtualization library  http://libvirt.org/
veillard at redhat.com  | libxml GNOME XML XSLT toolkit  http://xmlsoft.org/
http://veillard.com/ | Rpmfind RPM search engine  http://rpmfind.net/