Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2011 11:11:04 +0100
From: Natanael Copa <ncopa@alpinelinux.org>
To: Cameron Banta <cbanta@gmail.com>
Cc: alpine-devel@lists.alpinelinux.org
Subject: Re: [alpine-devel] advice for virtualization on desktop
Message-ID: <20111215111104.60e25f53@ncopa-desktop.nor.wtbts.net>
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On Thu, 8 Dec 2011 09:53:37 -0600
Cameron Banta <cbanta@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Dec 8, 2011 at 00:55, Natanael Copa <ncopa@alpinelinux.org>
> wrote:
> 
> > So I am asking for advice.
> >
> > I think I have the following alternatives:
> >
> > Switch to Xen.
> >
> > Use libvirtd.
> >
> > Make virtualbox work.
> >

> I highly recommend virtualbox.
> 
> I've used it for some time, and I find it very easy to use and set
> up. I run a window xp guest regularly, several alpine guests, and
> occasionally ubuntu/debian/fedora boxes. It's easy to change MAC
> address, and set up virtualbox only networks. I personally like the
> gui for it, but you can do everything and more from the VBoxManage
> command line.

Thanks for the feedback. I used it some time ago (before i switched to
alpine as desktop) but i found it cumbersome to test alpine iso's with
it. I had to remove old iso and add new iso for every iso rebuild since
virtualbox stores some UUID. symlinking tricks to iso images didnt
work.
 
> I've tried xen, qemu-kvm, and libvirt, and didn't get very far. None
> of them were as easy to use as virtualbox, so I gave up and went back
> to it.
> 
> Virtual box needs some work to get compiled but might be nice to have
> > anyways. Virtualbox also has (had?) some closedsource code for some
> > features. Those will not be available on Alpine.
> >
> > I do have the closed source bits installed on my non-alpine host,
> > however
> I don't really use them. (USB passthrough, RDP video)

I have used disk images over virtual USB bus with qemu to debug boot
from cdrom + configs on usb issues. Unfortunally, I have not find any
virtualization that allows me too boot from usb bus. (i think the
limitation is in qemu bios)
 
> 
> Just my thoughts on it.
> Cameron

Thanks for the feedback!
Yes, I do want have virtualbox in alpine at some point.

-nc


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