Has anyone done any virturalization of Slackware 10
using Xen or UML or any other free virtualiztion
software? I'd like to use a virtual environment to test
some software and just for the fun of it.
I have an AMD Athlon 2500 with a gig of memory so
resources should not be a problem ( I hope ).
Any advice would be most welcome since I have no
experience in virtualizaiton.

It is certainly possible to use Xen on Slackware. You have to:

* Install and configure GRUB (GRUB is needed to start the Xen monitor).
* Compile the Xen tools
* Make a patched kernel for the administrative domain.

The process of doing this is described in the Xen documentation. IIRC they have a fairly easy build script that will automatically create a patched kernel, etc. 1GB is enought to tinker with Xen.

can Slackware 10.2 be used with Xen 3.0 as dom0 the host OS?
I've found some documentation on setting up slack as domU.
any references would be appreciated. thanks...

I just recently got my first domU up on Slackware 10.x and am now [finally] moving forward with server consolidation at my organization.

For the most part, (assuming a "full install"), setting up Slackware as a dom0 host is relatively straightforward, following the Xen installation instructions. For this, I found the README in the source distribution more relevant than the Xen User Guide. To get Xen up and running on Slackware I:

* downloaded the Xen 3.0.2 source distribution and per step '3' of the instructions in the included README ("Quick Start Guide"), executed 'make world' (er, after 'cd [source-dir]' 'natch ). Note that this was necessary since the binary package zonks the console in Slackware and causes miscellaneous other minor issues. :-p

[[ Don't bother trying to build separate 'xen0' and 'xenU' kernels since: a) these are "primarily for developers working on Xen"; b) imaging domUs easier from a single '/lib/modules' source (IMO); and c) didn't work for me, anyway :-p (though, I gave it only a passing try). ]]

At this point, you should have a default, modularized, 2.6.16-xen kernel. If you have special driver needs, have an existing 2.6 kernel you want to reconfigure from (copy over '.config' and "make linux-2.6-xen-config CONFIGMODE=oldconfig"), or want to trim some module fat, proceed with step '5'... I recommend going through this step and ensuring that at least your disk and filesystem support is "compiled in". The recompile was worth it to me (only another 26 minutes on my AthlonXP 2800+ w/1GB).

When done, "make install" your Slackware ready "Xen".

* Installed grub (hint: 'swaret --install grub'; http :// swaret.sf.net). Using 'grubconfig' sets up an initial grub configuration. Then edit /boot/grub/menu.lst per step '2' of the README's "Pre-built..." section.

* Rebooted into Xen...

Set up your domUs per the Xen User Guide. However, note that bridge scripts do not completely set up the bridge in Slackware, since only the domU's virtual interface ('vifX.Y') is added to the bridge (hair puller!). To get this resolved, write a wrapper script to start your domain(s) and execute "brctl addif <bridge> ethX".

Voila, XenSlack!

I use QEMU a lot, not per se because I prefer it over Xen, but rather because it does not alter the host by requiring kernel patches, and on top of that, it allows unpatched guests in the Virtual Machine.

This means, you can run Windows inside QEMU.

I use QEMU to test software; to build all my Slackware packages in a clean environment; and to have access to Windows while running Slackware on my desktop.

Some pointers:

• QEMU website
• My Slackware packages for QEMU
• The QEMU user forum

Eric

To add to that: VMWare Player and VMWare Server are also free (as in beer). I like VMWare, because it has pretty good tools, and Workstation and Server can also make snapshots, suspend virtual machines, etc.

Heya Daniel :-)

I must add (without atarting a pissing contest of sorts) that QEMU is also able to make snapshots, and suspend VM's (and save state into a file) and much much more. QEMU has a console/monitor where you can query the VM's state, and mess with it in all sorts of ways. It also has a built-in VNC server so your virtual machine's console/Xsession is accessible outside your local machine.
Daniel is right though - VMware has a long history and a lot of man-years of programming invested - after all it is a commercial tool. It is stable and has a lot of management tools to support it.

Cheers, Eric

Hey Eric,

It's been a while since I tried qemu, it is nice to hear that it can suspend VMs now . I'll give it another spin!

Thanks,
Daniel

I used to be an VMWare addict but this thread got me interested in qemu. I tried it before but I didn't like it too much. Now I've given it a new try and I must say it has come a long way. I don't know about Windows but FreeBSD 6.1, NetBSD 3.0 and all Linux distros I tried just run fine with the version I tried.

Thanks Eric for both the information and the up-to-date packages.