Virtualization

[R. G. Newbury]

 > From: Patrick O'Callaghan<pocallaghan at gmail.com>

> On Fri, 2010-04-02 at 21:49 -0400, R. G. Newbury wrote:
>> >  Javier Perez wrote:
>>>>> >  >>  >    do I have to reformat my HD, reinstall FC12, and then
>>>>> >  >>  >    install win2k, or can I just install yum install the
>>>>> >  >>  >    virtual parts for kvm and have it start as a guest
>>>>> >  >>  >    the already isntalled win2k ?
>> >
>> >     From what I have read, you cannot port an existing win instance into a
>> >  virtual.
>> >  But if you have the kvm modules in your setup (and they should be there
>> >  in anything F10 up), then VirtualBox is easy. It installs 2 service
>> >  drivers (vboxdrvr and libvirtd). Using the manager you create a disk
>> >  space into which you install your Win instance.
>> >  Works nicely and easy to handle.
> AFAIK VBox doesn't use the KVM module. In fact you have to unload it to
> run VBox.

Hmm. That I did not know. I'll try rmmod'ing the kvm modules and 
checking what happens. Virtualbox does not load any modules AFAICT. It 
just runs as a service against internal kernel structures...which I had 
always assumed were accessed through the kvm modules.
To the original OP.
No need to reinstall at this point. If you have say 20G-30G of drive 
space in your F12 space, you can install VirtualBox, make a 20G virtual 
hard drive image space (basically anywhere in the file structure, 
although a non-critical partition is always good.. /opt or /video for 
instance) and install Win into that space. VirtualBox handles that space 
as a virtual hard drive. The Win instance thinks that that space is 
'C:'. When everything is up and running for a while, you can consider 
re-formatting the drive to delete your present Win structure. As far as 
the machine is concerned (pre re-formatting), you will still have a dual 
boot 'first' setup. Only your F12 VirtualBox manager 'knows' that you 
have a Win instance which you will 'virtually' boot into.
It's actually kinda weird to have a Win desktop, sitting on top of your 
Fedora desktop, but that's how it works!
And it's NOT difficult...picky maybe.
Most difficult part I ran across was getting printing working from the 
Win guest.
Geoff


          Tux says: "Be regular. Eat cron flakes."