Re: [PATCH 1/1] doc: Show how to boot result of 'vm-image'.

[Leo Famulari <leo@famulari.name>]

On Sun, Jan 24, 2016 at 06:32:57PM +0100, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> Leo Famulari <leo@famulari.name> skribis:
> 
> > * doc/guix.texi (Invoking guix system): Explain how to boot the QEMU
> > images created by vm-image.
> 

[...]

> I’m thinking there are often questions about using GuixSD in a VM etc.,
> so it may well deserve one or two sections of its own.
> 
> What about leaving the above sentence here, and appending:
> 
>   @xref{Running GuixSD in a VM}, for more information on how to run the
>   image in a virtual machine.
> 
> ?
> 
> The rest of the material you added would then go to the new “Running
> GuixSD in a VM” section, which could go maybe right after “Invoking guix
> system”.  WDYT?

That sounds good, done!

> 
> > +When using @code{vm-image}, the returned image is in qcow2 format, which
> > +the QEMU emulator can efficiently use.
> 
> In the new section, this would need to be slightly adjusted to give more
> context, like:
> 
>   One way to run GuixSD in a virtual machine is to build a GuixSD
>   virtual machine image using @command{guix system vm-image}
>   (@pxref{Invoking guix system}).  The returned image is in qcow2
>   format, which the @uref{http://qemu.org/, QEMU emulator} can
>   efficiently use.

Thanks for this :)

[...]

> > +@example
> > +$ qemu-system-x86_64 \
> > +-net user \
> > +-net nic,model=virtio \
> > +-enable-kvm \
> > +-m 256 \
> > +/tmp/qemu-image
> > +@end example
> 
> I think it would be nicer to put it on 3 lines.

Done.

[...]

> I would typeset it as:
> 
>   @table @code
>   @item qemu-system-x86_64
>   This specifies the hardware platform to…
> 
>   @item -net user
>   Enable unpriviliged user-mode networking…
>   …
> 
>   @end @table
> 
> With all this, it’s going to look perfect!  :-)

Thank you for this example. I really need to study what Texinfo can do.

> 
> Another question that people often ask is how to install GuixSD from the
> installation image in a VM.  Maybe that could be added eventually in a
> subsection of this new node?

I agree, that would be useful. If anybody knows how to do that, they
should chime in.

> 
> Thank you!

Thanks for your helpful feedback!

> 
> Ludo’.