4.4. Disabling the drivers
To disable the para-virtualized disk and network drivers without uninstalling the driver package you can use the provided batch files in the
C:\Program Files\RedHat\XenPV directory. The para-virtualized drivers files are in the directory chosen during the installation process.
Double click the
disableRedHatSCSIDriver.bat file or execute
disableRedHatSCSIDriver.bat from a Windows command prompt.
Batch files in Windows Vista, Server 2008 or later
To run executable batch files in Windows Vista you must right click the file and select from the menu that appears. Double clicking on the file runs the batch file without the appropriate privileges to run successfully.
To re-enable the para-virtualized drivers the enableRedHatSCSIDriver.bat batch file must be executed before the installation program. The batch file can also be used after installation, if you did not select the Start drivers on reboot option.
The para-virtualized drivers can also be disabled on a per-boot basis. To this end, the drivers provide an additional boot options /NOPV and /NOPVBOOT. The former will instruct the driver to not activate the para-virtualized devices and let Windows operate the fully-virtualized ones. The latter will leave para-virtualized network cards and additional para-virtualized block devices enabled, but will boot from an emulated (fully-virtualized) IDE controller.
The mechanisms to use this option are different between Windows versions. In Windows 2003 and XP boot options are found in the boot.ini file in the root directory of the boot disks; newer versions of Windows instead manage boot options with the bcdedit program.
If you wish to set up the /NOPV or /NOPVBOOT boot option, please refer to Microsoft® documentation on the subject.
Warning
Para-virtualized disk entries (i.e. entries using specified as <driver name='tap' type='aio'> in the XML configuration file for the guest) will not be available unless the para-virtualized drivers are enabled. This applies for either procedure in this section.
