Installing¶

Prerequisites¶

As a first step, check the uberXMHF (pc-legacy-x86_32) Hardware Requirements, and be sure to enable the corresponding BIOS options. Also make sure your BIOS is up to date; you could ruin your motherboard if your BIOS is buggy. Secondly, ensure that you are running one of the supported guest operating systems (see uberXMHF (pc-legacy-x86_32) Supported Guest Operating Systems). Lastly, configure your system to boot uberXMHF (pc-legacy-x86_32) as described below.

Configure target system to boot uberXMHF¶

You will need to install Grub 1, if you haven’t already. On most modern Linux distributions, you will need to downgrade from Grub 2. On Windows machines without a Linux installation, you will need to install Grub. This can be done by installing a minimal Linux installation, which will typically take care of non-destructively repartitioning for you.

Downgrade from Grub 2 to Grub 1¶

Booting uberXMHF (pc-legacy-x86_32) is currently only supported using Grub 1. If Grub 2 is already installed (as it typically is on recent Linux distributions), you will need to downgrade to Grub 1.

The following commands accomplish the above task on Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get purge grub* os-prober
sudo apt-get purge grub-gfxpayload-lists
sudo apt-get install grub
sudo update-grub
grub-install /dev/sda

And remove lines (if any) from /boot/grub/menu.lst:

title          Chainload into GRUB 2
root           b5912383-7f9e-4911-b51d-b14ce8cea70b
kernel         /boot/grub/core.img

For further details refer to the following posts on downgrading GRUB for Ubuntu and downgrading GRUB for Debian respectively.

Get the correct SINIT module (Intel only)¶

uberXMHF (pc-legacy-x86_32) launches itself with a dynamic root of trust. On Intel platforms, this requires a signed SINIT module provided by Intel, that matches your platform CPU and chipset.

SINIT modules can be found here: http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-trusted-execution-technology/

Building and Installing uberXMHF (pc-legacy-x86_32) binaries¶

If you haven’t already built and installed uberXMHF (pc-legacy-x86_32), see Building uberXMHF (pc-legacy-x86_32)

Adding a Grub entry¶

You will need to add a Grub entry to /boot/grub/menu.lst. To ensure that it doesn’t get clobbered, put it outside the AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST.

Grub entry to boot Linux¶

To boot a Linux guest, we create a grub entry that loads the hypervisor, and then re-loads grub. When booting the machine, first choose the uberXMHF (pc-legacy-x86_32) entry, and then choose a normal Linux entry.

A grub entry for uberXMHF (pc-legacy-x86_32) should look something like this:

title uberXMHF (pc-legacy-x86_32)
    rootnoverify (hd0,1)                         # should point to /boot
    kernel /init-x86.bin serial=115200,8n1,0x3f8 # substitute in the correct serial address
    module /hypervisor-x86.bin.gz
    modulenounzip (hd0)+1                        # should point to where grub is installed

On Intel it is necessary to append one more line to provide the SINIT Authenticated Code module, or “ACmod”. This should be the last line. E.g.,

module /i5_i7_DUAL_SINIT_18.BIN

This will boot uberXMHF (pc-legacy-x86_32) with debug output going to the specified serial port, and then reload grub.

Grub entry to boot Windows¶

To boot Windows, configure uberXMHF (pc-legacy-x86_32) to load the Windows boot sector instead of recursively loading grub. Do this by modifying the modulenounzip line to point to the partition where Windows is installed instead of pointing to the MBR. For example, if Windows is installed on /dev/sda3:

title Windows on uberXMHF (pc-legacy-x86_32)
    rootnoverify (hd0,1)                         # should point to /boot
    kernel /init-x86.bin serial=115200,8n1,0x3f8 # substitute in the correct serial address
    module /hypervisor-x86.bin.gz
    modulenounzip (hd0,2)+1                        # point to Windows partition

The rest of the settings are the same as for Linux, above. Again, you will need to add a line for the SINIT module on Intel platforms.

savedefault for unattended boot¶

Booting linux involves loading the grub menu twice. The first time you must select the uberXMHF (pc-legacy-x86_32) entry, and the second time you must select an OS entry. You can automate this by using savedefault.

Set grub to boot the saved default:

default         saved

Have your uberXMHF (pc-legacy-x86_32) entry and what you want as your default OS entry save each-other as the new default:

title uberXMHF (pc-legacy-x86_32)
    savedefault 1

title Default OS
    savedefault 0

The parameter to savedefault is the menu entry that you would like as the new default.