Virtual machines

If you have any suggestions or ideas about improving Slackel, here's the place to post them.
juliusse
Posts: 89
Joined: 21 Jan 2019 18:26

Virtual machines

Post by juliusse »

Hi,
Do you guys have a recommendation/preference for a virtualization software that runs fine on Slackel?
Ubuntu is an African term for:"Slackware is too difficult for me"
djemos
Site Admin
Posts: 676
Joined: 15 Apr 2016 06:03

Re: Virtual machines

Post by djemos »

I use VMware Workstation. I have also vbox installed but i do not like it. It is not as good as vmware which i use to develop 64 and 32 bit versions for slackel flavors as also for tests.
After a kernel upgrade i run the vmware.build-vmmon.sh script bellow as root to create the kernel modules needed.

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sudo sh vmware.build-vmmon.sh

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#!/bin/bash
VMWARE_VERSION=`vmware-installer -l |grep workstat|awk '{print $2}' |awk 'BEGIN {FS="."}{print "workstation-"$1"."$2"."$3}'`
echo $VMWARE_VERSION
TMP_FOLDER=/tmp/patch-vmware
rm -fdr $TMP_FOLDER
mkdir -p $TMP_FOLDER
cd $TMP_FOLDER
git clone https://github.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules.git
cd $TMP_FOLDER/vmware-host-modules
git checkout $VMWARE_VERSION
git fetch
make
sudo make install
sudo /etc/init.d/vmware restart
To install it type

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sudo sh VMware-Workstation-Full-15.5.6-16341506.x86_64.bundle --ignore-errors
You will find this useful.
juliusse
Posts: 89
Joined: 21 Jan 2019 18:26

Re: Virtual machines

Post by juliusse »

Thank, but I was more thinking about something more qemu/kvm, which can run multiple machines in the same time, and run them in the background(e.g. for server usage for example)
On slackware i've tried virt-manager, but this is a little bit complicated to install and parameter, because it needs a lot of dependencies and config. I was in the end using "aqemu", simple and stupid, qt5 GUI for qemu. two dependencies, qemu and qt5

Do you know if the aqemu slackbuild works well on slackel?
https://slackbuilds.org/repository/14.2 ... arch=aqemu
Do you think it can be packaged for Slackel usage? (as qemu and qt5 already are in the repos)
(Doing a little research, it seems that the slackbuild points to the actual stable version, recommended by the dev because aqemu-current is still on development. https://github.com/tobimensch/aqemu )

What's your opinion?

Edit: I've failed to install qemu because of a missing dependency, slapt-get looks for openldap-client which is not on the repos nor on slackbuilds (according to the spi result)
Ubuntu is an African term for:"Slackware is too difficult for me"
djemos
Site Admin
Posts: 676
Joined: 15 Apr 2016 06:03

Re: Virtual machines

Post by djemos »

I have used qemu in the past and i did not like it. It does not have what i want.
I don't know about the usage in servers etc.
qemu in repos is a salix package and not run in slackel. aqemu 0.9.2 version in slackbuilds compiled but cannot run on slackel, gives segmentation fault. I have compiled aqemu 0.9.4 version which run on slackel but supports only linux 2.6 kernels
qemu 4.1.0 on slackbuilds is compiled.
I don't find these packages productive. It is my opinion of course. This is why i don't use them.
If you like to test them then download both from here and install them by hand. They run on slackel.
I have test qemu and slackellive64-7.3.iso. It start to boot but then break with errors.
juliusse
Posts: 89
Joined: 21 Jan 2019 18:26

Re: Virtual machines

Post by juliusse »

Thanks, I will try this.
I will also try VMware, I think this can be useful in order to try packages, and also as I've got time, I want to learn how to use it extensively.
Just a few questions
Where does the install bundle put VMware? In /bin?
vmware.build-vmmon.sh script bellow as root to create the kernel modules needed.
Thanks for this.

https://gist.github.com/JavierOlmedo/f4 ... c0ca5b6361, what are those keys for?

Thanks again for your time.
Ubuntu is an African term for:"Slackware is too difficult for me"
djemos
Site Admin
Posts: 676
Joined: 15 Apr 2016 06:03

Re: Virtual machines

Post by djemos »

Where does the install bundle put VMware? In /bin?
In /usr/bin /etc/vmware /etc/rc.d/ /etc/vmware-installer /etc/vmware-vix

You can run the installer to uninstall vmware.

You will be asked for a key to install.

vmware is free for personal use.
Also can run a real linux distribution as in real installation in hard disk.
I have 4 GB RAM so i give 2GB RAM in vmware running e.g. slackel 32.
Also do not run firefox when run a distro in vmware. System will be slow.
Can run firefox from within vmware.
If you have 8GB RAM you will have no problem.

I have also created a script in /etc/rc.d/rc.vmware

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/etc/init.d/vmware start
/etc/init.d/vmware-workstation-server start
So can run it a s a service to always run at boot

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sudo service restart rc.vmware
juliusse
Posts: 89
Joined: 21 Jan 2019 18:26

Re: Virtual machines

Post by juliusse »

thanks for all the tricks and scripts about vmware, all are functioning like a charm. vmware pro full install, running as a service, with kernel modules.
Also thanks for the keys. ;)

Image
Ubuntu is an African term for:"Slackware is too difficult for me"
Papasot
Posts: 231
Joined: 13 May 2016 22:32
Location: Patras, Greece

Re: Virtual machines

Post by Papasot »

In the past, I have used VirtualBox on a regular basis, and never had a problem on Slackel. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to support wide screen resolutions in virtual machines. it is supposed to support that via an external plugin, but it didn't work for me - however, that's a Vittualbox issue, not related to Slackel.
Nowadays I still use VirtualBox, but not so much - only when I am not at home. I didn't like quemu, and never tried VMWare, although I probably should.
djemos
Site Admin
Posts: 676
Joined: 15 Apr 2016 06:03

Re: Virtual machines

Post by djemos »

I use virtual machines for years. I had problems with qemu and virtual box. Vmware is an excellent product which can run any OS. I never had problems with it. So i use it for years to develop slackel editions.
juliusse
Posts: 89
Joined: 21 Jan 2019 18:26

Re: Virtual machines

Post by juliusse »

I have 4 GB RAM so i give 2GB RAM in vmware running e.g. slackel 32.
Also do not run firefox when run a distro in vmware. System will be slow.
Can run firefox from within vmware.
If you have 8GB RAM you will have no problem.
My laptop (the one I use for work) has 12GB RAM, so it's not a problem, I can run several VM and firefox ;)
Ubuntu is an African term for:"Slackware is too difficult for me"
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