qemu command line for installation

qemu command line for installation

[Gábor Boskovits]

Hello Laura,

I've tried to reproduce the issues you mentioned locally, and to be
honest with success :)

Issue 1: /dev/sda already partitioned:
The order of options on the command line made the installer image
/dev/sda, and it is really
partitioned.

I avoided it using explicit mapping of drives on the bus.
This then led to bad boot order, so I fixed that using bootindex.

Issue2: floppy disk errors:
This is because qemu by default creates a floppy device.

I suspended this using -nodefaults.
This then led to no video device, so I added one.

The final command looks like this:

qemu-system-x86_64 \
    -m 1024 \
    -nodefaults \
    -drive file=hda.img,format=raw,if=none,id=drive-ide0-0-0 \
    -device ide-hd,bus=ide.0,unit=0,drive=drive-ide0-0-0,id=ide0-0-0,bootindex=1
\
    -drive file=guixsd-install-0.15.0.x86_64-linux.iso,format=raw,if=none,id=drive-ide0-0-1,readonly=on
\
    -device ide-cd,bus=ide.0,unit=1,drive=drive-ide0-0-1,id=ide0-0-1,bootindex=2
\
    -device qxl-vga

This makes sure that the floppy is not created, so there are no errors
because of that,
the hdd is on /dev/sda, the installer image is read only, shown as a
cdrom, is on /dev/sr0.
On the first run the cdrom is booted, when the hdd becomes bootable
that is booted instead.
You might need to adjust the format parameters.

There is still a slight annoyance, this shows up in the starting terminal:
qemu-system-x86_64: warning: TCG doesn't support requested feature:
CPUID.01H:ECX.vmx [bit 5]
This is the result of Ubuntu configuration of their qemu package.

I decided to CC the list, so that we can discuss if these chevats are
worthy to be documented somewhere or not.

Best regards,
g_bor

Re: qemu command line for installation

[Laura Lazzati]

Thank you a lot Gabor :)
Yesterday I did not see that time went by and had to go out  and rush
without mentioning it on IRC channel and felt ashamed of that, because
everyone was helping me.
But when I arrived back, I copied the conversation in a text file to
read it in detail today.
I  guess that the only issue I faced  while installing guixSD - I
faced many, but because of being learning it - on my retroPC was the
floppy disk stuff, because it has a drive. But I just opened my
machine and unplugged it.
I will try that now :)
BTW: I don't use vBox because of being lazy or being a fan of it, but
it is the hypervisor I learned, and it is easier for me. I read a
tutorial for qemu but it did not mention all that stuff.
And I am CCing also Björn, Ludo, and Ricardo.
As regards the videos, is it wrong to have Ubuntu as a foreing distro?
I know about the FOSS stuff about it, but please, let me know if you
prefer a specific one. I found this:
https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.en.html and GuixSD appears <3
Maybe I could try Trisquel, WDYT?

Regards :)
Laura

Re: qemu command line for installation

[Laura Lazzati]

Hi!
I am opening this thread again to mention some few things.

I had to add one last line to the qemu command:
(First ran : qemu-img create hda.img 50G)

qemu-system-x86_64 \

    -m 1024 \

    -nodefaults \

    -drive file=hda.img,format=raw,if=none,id=drive-ide0-0-0 \

    -device ide-hd,bus=ide.0,unit=0,drive=drive-ide0-0-0,id=ide0-0-0,bootindex=1
\

    -drive file=guixsd-install-0.15.0.x86_64-linux.iso,format=raw,if=none,id=drive-ide0-0-1,readonly=on
\

    -device ide-cd,bus=ide.0,unit=1,drive=drive-ide0-0-1,id=ide0-0-1,bootindex=2
\

    -device qxl-vga \

    -net user -net nic,model=virtio

Because I had no eth0 interface.

I also got gábor's warning.

Everything worked fine, except the part of being able to switch ttys
(ie open tty2 to see the documentation).
And I could not use the mouse to copy text. I added the -show-cursor
but that did not solve the problem.

Since this machine is not my retroPC, and also wanted to learn more,
instead of using the bare_bone.scm I used the lightweight, one,
replacing the bootloader type, deleting the mapped devices stuff, and
adding just xfce GUI. While doing guix init ... I fell asleep with my
machine unplugged, and today when I opened qemu, however, it showed
the GUI. But weird things happened, like the mouse kind of alive
moving without control over the VM, and I saw when loading everything
before showing the GUI, that it showed something about the wireless
connection (I did not want that).
I started again with the installation - i amost remember all the steps
without having to take a look at the documentation - just adding more
memory and using desktop.scm template, just changing username,
timezone, and bootloader , and see what happens.

Regards,
Laura