Re: Trying to install Guix with Qemu

[ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès)]

Nate Bargmann <n0nb@n0nb.us> skribis:

> * On 2014 20 Sep 15:36 -0500, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
>> FWIW a recipe to install the system in a VM was posted at
>> <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2014-09/msg00149.html>
>> (also read subsequent messages for troubleshooting.)
>
> Trying the method shown in the referenced thread, except for having a
> separate swap image, left me with a very slow system to boot.  It took
> about two minutes for the Grub menu to appear and then I gave up after
> several minutes of no indication that the kernel would ever start.  I
> suspect the VM had device contention between competing /dev/sda devices.

This is weird, there’s no reason why it would be slower than whatever
else you did before.  Are you running QEMU with ‘-enable-kvm’?

> I went back to the way I had originally had success booting the USB
> image file and now my target hard disk is /dev/sdb1.  Looking at the SCM
> template in section 6.1.4 of the installation manual, I see the function
> template:
>
>          (bootloader (grub-configuration (device "/dev/sdX")))
>
> Is it possible to specify a UUID for the device here?

This device name is passed directly to ‘grub-install’.  If that command
supports UUIDs, that would work.  I suspect it really needs a /dev name,
though (info "(grub) Invoking grub-install"):

       grub-install INSTALL_DEVICE

     The device name INSTALL_DEVICE is an OS device name or a GRUB device
  name.

Now, this device name just needs to be correct at the time GRUB is
installed; it doesn’t matter afterwards.

Ludo’.