nrb1d ago
At @bawuenet we're in the process of upgrading our #Xen #xcpng hypervisors to #uefi boot. Of course, we automate things and want to be able to reinstall our hypervisors from network boot. Our EFI netboot system is based on #ipxe which means it can only load EFI binaries. But xcp-ng ships the Xen kernel as a multiboot2 based image.
As probably one of the most weird ways to solve this problem, I've decided to chainload #grub2 from iPXE and learned a bit! 🧵
Echo Nar3d ago

I wish this post by the Xen Project existed years ago when I was trying to understand the differences between Xen and KVM. Would have been a great jumping point to dig deeper.

#xen #xenproject

https://xenproject.org/blog/xen-at-fosdem-real-world-conversations-about-xen-and-kvm/

Xen at FOSDEM: Real-World Conversations About Xen and KVM

We just wrapped up a weekend at FOSDEM 2026 where Xen and XCP-ng both had dedicated booths. This was my first time at FOSDEM and the legend lived up to the hype. It was an insightful weekend full of interesting folks who were genuinely interested in the Xen Project. Everything

Blog - Xen Project
Show threadhttps://purl.org/rzr#Jan 31
https://vates.tech/blog/fosdem-2026/# #vates staff ask us for demos featuring #xen #xcpng #xenorchestra #waydroid #linageos #netbootxyz and more and follow @vates
xyhhx 🔻Jan 30

til alpine has setup-xen-dom0

#alpineLinux #xen

Show threadKlaus FrankJan 25

So back on #QubesOS / #Xen. There is definitely something wrong with how it forwards the A380 into the #windows VM.

Now that I've remote desktop enabled (and can conenct with the A380 disconnected just fine) I now can also see a black screen via RDP when the A380 is passed into it.

(Note: passing the two end devices, aka the one for the video and the one for the audio of the A380 worked just fine in KVM on #NixOS. So it is something Xen/QubesOS does that breaks it...

Show threadKlaus FrankJan 25

So rebooted into NixOS and after having compiled some food I've tried passing through the end devices using KVM. And well it works with KVM. So what is wrong with my #QubesOS aka. #Xen config then?

Also because I thought it was funny I also tried attaching the Intel A380 to a windows XP VM.
The generic driver for the video card doesn't work.
It has a generic audio driver that almost works. It matches the device but fails to start :p

Klaus FrankJan 25

Oh, Xen cannot pcie passthrough "non endpoint devices" like KVM can. That makes things unnecessarily difficult...

Why can't I just passthrough the entire PCI-PCI bridge device?

#Xen #QubesOS #KVM

Klaus FrankJan 24

Sooo are we just going to ignore the vulnerability qsb-091-2023 "Xen Security Notice 1: winpvdrvbuild.xenproject.org potentially compromised"?

I do not see any more recent build of the XEN Windows PV Drivers.

Even the ones linked on the website https://xenproject.org/resources/downloads/ right now are only from 2023-07-13. Which is 11 days before that vulnerability was published.

Also the part that they replaced the executables with a warning text doesn't seem to apply to that website either...

#infosec #Xen

Downloads

Find all the relevant resources to download on this page.

txt.fileJan 22
Each time I read stuff about Xen I want to prefer it. But then I see the benefit of running VMs and containers in parallel which is kind of not possible with Xen. Then I use bhyve/vmd/vmm/… again.
#Xen
Klaus FrankJan 21

Is there any technical reason why one would consider using Xen (or XCP-ng) over KVM at this point?

#Xen #XCP_ng #KVM #HomeLab