best vm options for a netbook?
 

Hi all, I have Kororaa (a modified Fedora 16) running on my toshiba nb305 netbook. I know this atom processor is pretty low powered and does not support kvm. What would my best option be for virtualization on this netbook? I know many people use virtualbox but I am wondering is that is too heavy. I looked at openvz but it seems it only works with older kernels and I don't even know if they would work on Fedora/Kororaa.

I only want to run linux as a vm here btw and just to have a server or two to play with so I don't completely lose my little linux skills (which unfortunately I never use at work).

I also see something called linux containers but I keep reading it is buggy. Basically I would like a little feedback before I embark down one of these paths.

BTW I would consider knocking down Kororaa and using centos on the netbook if openvz is the best option but would only work with an older linux. I do however want to keep the host as rpm/yum distro.

Thank you very much I look forward to some feedback.

You might be better off with a dual boot. Run different versions from usb flash drives if you have no more space or don't want to re-partition. You should be able to get qemu to work. Maybe a few other VM's can use an atom but it may prove too slow for your needs.

+1 to what jefro said.
On my Atom N270 based netbook, I tried setting up a Slackware 13.37 Linux virtual machine in VirtualBox, but the installer kernel failed to boot. I suspect the Atom's lack of virtualisation support is the reason.
I have also used qemu to run a Windows virtual machine and it works, but getting things done is like wading through treacle.

Thanks I really don't want to do that since I plan on accessing this from work on my lunch hour (ssh to my home) so dual boot would not work. Since openvz takes less resources should I try that (I just want to run a command line instance anyway.)?

In this case would I be correct that this would not work with Fedora/Kororaa? Should I reinstall Centos if I want to give this a try?

May I ask again what exactly is your plan? Which should be your host OS, which should be your guest OS?

I was hoping to use kororaa which is fedora with some stuff added as the host and then run centos just as a server in the vm...but I am willing to put another linux os as the host, as long as I can run centos as a server as the guest. I was hoping to have the best of both worlds, a more modern distro with "extras" enabled by default (thus kororaa) as the host and then a more hard core serverish guest such as centos. Reading about openvz today it appears due to the netbook this would be the type of lightweight virtualization I would need, but I just am unclear as to what host I could run it on at this point....

I don't see the logic in what you are doing. Why on earth would you want to run a virtual host on a netbook. The things can barely open photos at a decent speed, running two operating systems... Not great. The other reason is that if it is running an intel processor, it is most likely not going to support vt-x since very few laptops even support this function. So just run a single OS don't try anything fancy. Even if you get it working at some point, it will be so slow that your old 486 would probably seem like a super computer.

Disagree; I sometimes run a CentOS server in Virtualbox on my Atom 270 netbook.
Speed is not the goal.

That is the truth. Speed won't be the goal. :)

I use qemu on a not too bad desktop and it is painfully pokey. Unless you have vm support, my opinion is still to dual boot. But, if you are getting paid by the hour.....

Making a live usb or a real install to a usb is a trivial task.

I have centos running on centos using openvz now (just a command line vm) with no issues on my netbook...

on my acer eee, it wouldn work... made it dual boot it worked fine.. vm and net books are a no no.!




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