Red Hat

I'm running redhat linux: 2.6.18-128.1.6.el5xen #1 SMP Tue Mar 24 12:28:27 EDT 2009 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux as my Dom0.

I have several other DomU's running on this system, but for this test I've shut them down.

I'm attempting to boot winXP from an image.

Here is my config file:
[root@RDSRV02 xen]# cat TheNewElvis
name = "TheNewElvis"
uuid = "36e06183-59c7-d020-0e84-01e2cefa951b"
maxmem = 1024
memory = 1024
vcpus = 2
builder = "hvm"
kernel = "/usr/lib/xen/boot/hvmloader"
boot = "dc"
pae = 1
acpi = 0
apic = 0
localtime = 1
on_poweroff = "destroy"
on_reboot = "restart"
on_crash = "restart"
device_model = "/usr/lib64/xen/bin/qemu-dm"
usbdevice = "tablet"
sdl = 0
vnc = 1
vncunused = 0
keymap = "en-us"
vncdisplay = "12"
disk = [ "file:/data/xen/TheNewElvis.img,hda,w", "file:/data/xen/winXP_SP.iso:hdc:cdrom,r" ]
vif = [ "mac=00:16:3e:57:b1:37,bridge=xenbr0,script=vif-bridge" ]
serial = "pty"

I see when I attempt to run this:

Booting from CD-Rom...
CDROM boot failure code : 0002
Boot from CD-ROM failed: could not read the boot disk

I have tried other disk lines as well:
disk = [ "file:/data/xen/TheNewElvis.img,hda,w", "phy:/data/xen/winXP_SP.iso:hdc:cdrom,r" ]
disk = [ "file:/data/xen/TheNewElvis.img,hda,w", "tap:aio:/data/xen/winXP_SP.iso:hdc:cdrom,r" ]

also tried using losetup to do this:
disk = [ "file:/data/xen/TheNewElvis.img,hda,w", "phy:/dev/loop2:hdc:cdrom,r" ]

The failure code changes with some of these 0003 and 0004 have been seen, but I have not got my WINXP pro system to boot yet.

The command:
egrep -e 'vmx|svm' /proc/cpuinfo
returns:
flags : fpu tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm syscall nx lm constant_tsc pni monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 cx16 xtpr lahf_lm

the command:
rpm -qa |grep xen
returns:
xen-3.0.3-80.el5_3.2
kernel-xen-2.6.18-128.1.1.el5
xen-libs-3.0.3-80.el5_3.2
kernel-xen-2.6.18-128.el5
kernel-xen-2.6.18-128.1.6.el5
kernel-xen-devel-2.6.18-128.1.1.el5
xen-libs-3.0.3-80.el5_3.2
kernel-xen-devel-2.6.18-128.1.6.el5
kernel-xen-devel-2.6.18-128.el5

I'm willing to try just about anything here that makes sense, if you can provide suggestions and reasoning that would be great. I have to schedule maintenance windows to attempt anything though.

I suspect the problem is with your XP image. Is this actually a bootable image?

I think so. I thought I'd give this idea a try so far I've created the image this way:

mkisofs -o winXP_SP2.iso -J -r -v -V winXP_SP2 /cdrom/vx2poem_en/

after you posted I thought about it and also tried:

dd if=/vol/dev/dsk/c0t0d0/vx2poem_en of=/backups/seconddrive/winXP_SP2.iso

neither have booted.

got it to work.

The difference is:
don't do:
disk = [ "file:/data/xen/TheNewElvis.img,hda,w", "file:/data/xen/winXP_SP.iso:hdc:cdrom,r" ]
do this:
disk = [ "file:/data/xen/TheNewElvis.img,hda,w", "file:/data/xen/winXP_SP.iso,hdc:cdrom,r" ]