Mammoth VPS supports the use of PV-Grub, a component of Xen that allows customers to run the linux kernel of their choice. The majority of our installations now use this by default, but some customers with VPS from 2012 or earlier may not be set up for PV-Grub.
This is an advanced procedure and should generally only be attempted by users with a good knowledge of linux. What follows is an example of how you would set up a new Ubuntu 10.04 LTS VPS so that it uses PV-Grub to run a kernel that is not provided by Mammoth VPS.
VPS Setup
After logging in with SSH execute the following commands. First, make sure your APT repositories are up to date:
sudo apt-get update
Next, install the current Ubuntu kernel:
sudo apt-get install linux-image-virtual
When prompted, leave the command line blank and answer 'yes' to continue without installing grub2. We need the 'legacy' Grub v1, instead of the now default version 2 of Grub:
sudo apt-get install grub
Next, we create the initial /boot/grub/menu.lst (answer 'yes' when prompted):
sudo update-grub
Now edit menu.lst and change the value of groot to suit Mammoth VPS. Find the line # groot=<some GUID> and change it to # groot=(hd1)
sudo apt-get install nano sudo nano /boot/grub/menu.lst
You do not need to uncomment it; the groot line is used as a template. Now, apply our change to groot:
Selecting the PV-Grub Kernel
Now that your Ubuntu VPS has a custom kernel set up, you need to select PV-GRUB within mPanel:
Testing the Configuration
After the VPS is restarted, you should be able to log in to it and if you type "uname -r" you should see something similar to "2.6.31-24-generic-pae" instead of "2.6.32.12-mammoth1". This means that the VPS is successfully using the kernel that was just installed.
Debian 5.0 Differences
