UML (was: Re: was there an advertised ETA for the next beta?)

[M A Young]

On Tue, 12 Aug 2003, Rik van Riel wrote:

> On Tue, 12 Aug 2003, M A Young wrote:
>
> > Since you ask (and I hope you are taking note of all the replies your
> > question is generating), I would like to see support for user mode linux
> > back in rhl (following a brief appearence in RHL 8.0). However since that
> > might imply changes in the kernel, and possibly better anaconda support, I
> > was viewing this more as a Cambridge++ project.
>
> It would require two things which I can see:
>
> 1) support for anaconda to install into a disk image
>    somewhere inside an already installed system

You can almost do this already (see http://linuxhacker.ru/uml/ ), though
we would need an appropriate kernel, preferably native support in anaconda
for ubd filesystems, and possibly a wrapper script to create an initial
empty disk and generally make the process much more friendly.

> 2) a kernel configured for user mode linux, which
>    should be easy with the 2.6 kernel

and possibly have the skas patch applied to the main kernel, as uml should
run much faster in skas mode rather than tt mode. This is another reason
to wait for cambridge++ (applying either the skas patch or the main uml
patch to RedHat's 2.4 kernels is highly messy).

> In order for UML to be fun to use, it would need some
> additional things:
>
> 3) a smaller default installation, for people who want
>    multiple virtual machines

A smaller minimal installation would make more than just those people
trying UML happier.

> 4) scripts to make it easier to set up networking between
>    the virtual machines and the rest of the world
>
> 5) maybe scripts to clone virtual machines ?
>    install them from scratch ?
>    ... ?
>
> For these it would be very good if people from the community
> volunteered to start development.  If we get support for user
> mode linux somewhere beyond severn, IMHO we should do it right.

One of my reasons for posting was to guage interest. I was hoping that
when the rhl website came back there would be scope for proposing and
co-ordinating projects like this.

	Michael Young