Supported disk formats?

[slcoleman]

I am wanting to install ReactOS in a Xen HVM environment under an OS called QubesOS, but the ReactOS installer fails to recognize the system disk being provided by this environment. I realize this is not your intended target environment, but if it did work it would be a very powerful testing environment which could help with ReactOS development going forward, therefore I think it would be a good environment to think about supporting going forward if this could be made to work. I did have an older version running previously and thought to give it another try with the latest ReactOS.

During the install process when it comes to the disk selection the installer does not see the disk at all. I am hoping that it might just need to be formatted in something other than the Linux ext4 format, and if so it might prove to be a low enough barrier to get over that hurdle. So, my question is what disk formats are supported by the installer? Or do you think this failure is more on the windows driver level? Any idea how Xen differs from a true hardware perspective?

Thanks for what you guys are doing!

Steve.

[karlexceed]

ROS can only be installed on and booted from FAT32 or (recently) BTRFS. It sounds to me, though, that your issue is with the virtual disk controller. Otherwise, the ROS installer should see the disk and offer to format it for you.

Could you post your VM's configuration?

[slcoleman]

Yes, it makes sense that it should have seen something, and attempted to reformat it. I know that people have been using Qubes with Windows HVM's but only up to Win7 as far as I know. The Qubes/Xen environment appears to be a qemu emulation using a logical volume management but presenting the drive space as a device. I'm not sure what Qubes/Xen specific configuration information would be useful to you, so I pasted the pertinent section from the log file having to do with device generation and qemu domain execution below. Let me know if anything there gives you an idea fo what I should look deeper into.

Do you know if any developers use Xen for their setup?

thanks.


xenstore-read /local/domain/31/vm
+ vm_path=/vm/0240eed9-c86e-4b5e-a457-14e138bb08f2
+ xenstore-read -R /vm/0240eed9-c86e-4b5e-a457-14e138bb08f2/image/dmargs
+ dm_args=-xen-domid.31.-nodefaults.-no-user-config.-name.ReactOS.-display.none.-device.VGA,vgamem_mb=16.-boot.order=dc.-usb.-usbdevice.tablet.-smp.2,maxcpus=2.-device.rtl8139,id=nic0,netdev=net0,mac=00:16:3e:5e:6c:00.-netdev.type=tap,id=net0,ifname=vif31.0-emu,script=/etc/qemu-ifup,downscript=/etc/qemu-ifdown.-display.qubes-gui.-machine.xenfv.-m.3984.-device.mptsas1068,id=scsi0.-drive.file=/dev/xvda,if=none,id=disk0,format=host_device,cache=writeback,readonly=off.-device.scsi-hd,bus=scsi0.0,drive=disk0,wwn=0x3525400051756265.-drive.file=/dev/xvdb,if=none,id=disk1,format=host_device,cache=writeback,readonly=off.-device.scsi-hd,bus=scsi0.0,drive=disk1,wwn=0x3525400051756266.-drive.file=/dev/xvdc,if=none,id=disk2,format=host_device,cache=writeback,readonly=off.-device.scsi-hd,bus=scsi0.0,drive=disk2,wwn=0x3525400051756267.-drive.if=ide,readonly=on,media=cdrom,id=ide-51840,file=/dev/xvdi,format=host_device
+ mkdir /tmp/qmp
+ mkdir /tmp/qmp/req
+ mkdir /tmp/qmp/res
+ kernel=
+ [ -b /dev/xvdd ]
+ mkfifo /tmp/qmp/qemu.in /tmp/qmp/qemu.out
+ IFS=.
+ set -f
+ set +f
+ unset IFS
+ qemu_pid=40
+ true
+ printf ==== Press enter for shell ====\n
==== Press enter for shell ====
+ read
+ qemu -sandbox on,obsolete=deny,elevateprivileges=deny,spawn=allow,resourcecontrol=deny -chardev pipe,path=/tmp/qmp/qemu,id=m -mon chardev=m,mode=control+ set +x
Clearing kmsg buffer...
+ xenstore-read target
+ target=31
+ device_model=device-model/31
+ true
+ xenstore-watch -n 2 device-model/31/command
device-model/31/command
-xen-domid 31 -nodefaults -no-user-config -name ReactOS -display none -device VGA,vgamem_mb=16 -boot order=dc -usb -usbdevice tablet -smp 2,maxcpus=2 -device rtl8139,id=nic0,netdev=net0,mac=00:16:3e:5e:6c:00 -netdev type=tap,id=net0,ifname=vif31.0-emu,script=/etc/qemu-ifup,downscript=/etc/qemu-ifdown -display qubes-gui -machine xenfv -m 3984 -device mptsas1068,id=scsi0 -drive file=/dev/xvda,if=none,id=disk0,format=host_device,cache=writeback,readonly=off -device scsi-hd,bus=scsi0.0,drive=disk0,wwn=0x3525400051756265 -drive file=/dev/xvdb,if=none,id=disk1,format=host_device,cache=writeback,readonly=off -device scsi-hd,bus=scsi0.0,drive=disk1,wwn=0x3525400051756266 -drive file=/dev/xvdc,if=none,id=disk2,format=host_device,cache=writeback,readonly=off -device scsi-hd,bus=scsi0.0,drive=disk2,wwn=0x3525400051756267 -drive if=ide,readonly=on,media=cdrom,id=ide-51840,file=/dev/xvdi,format=host_device

[karlexceed]

This is the juicy bit:

-device mptsas1068,id=scsi0 -drive file=/dev/xvda,if=none,id=disk0,format=host_device,cache=writeback,readonly=off -device scsi-hd,bus=scsi0.0,drive=disk0,wwn=0x3525400051756265 -drive file=/dev/xvdb,if=none,id=disk1,format=host_device,cache=writeback,readonly=off -device scsi-hd,bus=scsi0.0,drive=disk1,wwn=0x3525400051756266 -drive file=/dev/xvdc,if=none,id=disk2,format=host_device,cache=writeback,readonly=off -device scsi-hd,bus=scsi0.0,drive=disk2,wwn=0x3525400051756267 -drive if=ide,readonly=on,media=cdrom,id=ide-51840,file=/dev/xvdi,format=host_device

-device mptsas1068
-id=scsi0
-drive file=/dev/xvda,if=none,id=disk0,format=host_device,cache=writeback,readonly=off
-device scsi-hd,bus=scsi0.0,drive=disk0,wwn=0x3525400051756265
-drive file=/dev/xvdb,if=none,id=disk1,format=host_device,cache=writeback,readonly=off
-device scsi-hd,bus=scsi0.0,drive=disk1,wwn=0x3525400051756266
-drive file=/dev/xvdc,if=none,id=disk2,format=host_device,cache=writeback,readonly=off
-device scsi-hd,bus=scsi0.0,drive=disk2,wwn=0x3525400051756267
-drive if=ide,readonly=on,media=cdrom,id=ide-51840,file=/dev/xvdi,format=host_device

So I would suspect that the culprit is "device mptsas1068" which appears to be a virtual LSI SAS controller.

From VirtualBox docs:

Warning
As with SATA, the SAS controller will only be seen by operating systems with device support for it. In particular, there is no support for SAS in Windows before Windows Vista, so Windows XP (even SP3) will not see such disks unless you install additional drivers.

And there's a very similar issue on Qubes' GitHub here: https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues/issues/3494
Also (not quite the same): https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues/issues/3651

So if you can change that controller to SCSI, you might be good to go. I'm just not familiar enough with Qubes to tell you much more.

Do you know if any developers use Xen for their setup?

I don't think so, but can't say for sure. VirtualBox is probably the most common.