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

[Leo Famulari <leo@famulari.name>]

On Fri, Jan 15, 2016 at 05:12:24AM -0500, Leo Famulari wrote:
> * doc/guix.texi (Invoking guix system): Explain how to boot the QEMU
> images created by vm-image.
> ---
>  doc/guix.texi | 41 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---
>  1 file changed, 38 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

Does anyone have feedback on this addition to the manual?

I'd like to have _something_ like it in the manual so that totally new
users can try GuixSD.

> 
> diff --git a/doc/guix.texi b/doc/guix.texi
> index e583e8c..51165b4 100644
> --- a/doc/guix.texi
> +++ b/doc/guix.texi
> @@ -9058,9 +9058,6 @@ Return a virtual machine or disk image of the operating system declared
>  in @var{file} that stands alone.  Use the @option{--image-size} option
>  to specify the size of the image.
>  
> -When using @code{vm-image}, the returned image is in qcow2 format, which
> -the QEMU emulator can efficiently use.
> -
>  When using @code{disk-image}, a raw disk image is produced; it can be
>  copied as is to a USB stick, for instance.  Assuming @code{/dev/sdc} is
>  the device corresponding to a USB stick, one can copy the image on it
> @@ -9070,6 +9067,44 @@ using the following command:
>  # dd if=$(guix system disk-image my-os.scm) of=/dev/sdc
>  @end example
>  
> +When using @code{vm-image}, the returned image is in qcow2 format, which
> +the QEMU emulator can efficiently use.
> +
> +To run the image in QEMU, copy it out of the store and give yourself
> +permission to write to the copy. When invoking QEMU, you must choose a
> +system emulator that is suitable for your hardware platform.  Here is a
> +minimal QEMU invocation that will boot GuixSD on x86_64 hardware:
> +
> +@example
> +$ qemu-system-x86_64 \
> +-net user \
> +-net nic,model=virtio \
> +-enable-kvm \
> +-m 256 \
> +/tmp/qemu-image
> +@end example
> +
> +And the annotated version:
> +
> +@example
> +# Hardware platform to emulate. This should match the host.
> +$ qemu-system-x86_64 \
> +# Unpriviliged user mode networking. Guest can access host but not vice
> +# versa. If you don't choose a network stack, the boot will fail.
> +-net user \
> +# You must create a network interface of a given model. If you don't
> +# create a NIC, the boot will fail. You can get a list of available NIC
> +# models by running `qemu-system-x86_64 -net nic,model=help`.
> +-net nic,model=virtio \
> +# If your system is x86 with hardware virtualization extensions,
> +# enabling the kernel virtual machine will make things run faster.
> +-enable-kvm \
> +# RAM available to the guest OS. Defaults to 128 megabytes, which is not
> +# enough for the Guix daemon.
> +-m 256 \
> +/tmp/qemu-image
> +@end example
> +
>  @item container
>  Return a script to run the operating system declared in @var{file}
>  within a container.  Containers are a set of lightweight isolation
> -- 
> 2.6.4
> 
>