KVM (QEMU) in FATDOG

[Clarity]

Found an old document, here, which is tailored specific to FATDOG. Although reasonably accurate, it needs updating and some polish.

One section I find burdensome can be better addressed with a simple script.

In another KVM document, it specifically mentions @jamesbond, @kirk, and @tazoc as community developers instrumental in contributing to the document's accuracy.

I ask for help for a single script in this forum post, here. Help if you can as I have plans to produce a doc that is more current for FATDOG and that script will cut user steps to get a VM running as it will have current screens and information.

I appreciate any contribution to assistance as I try to modernize this document for ease of understanding and ease of use.

[fatdoguser]

qcow2 is nice for size (sparse file that only grows as needed) and for the likes of snapshots, however raw, even though it takes up the full amount of size allocated, has the benefit that you can more easily move/copy/replace that file ('disk'), and you can also mount/edit it. You can even directly create a raw file using the likes of dd of a usb stick. Perhaps a 1GB first partition on a USB stick containing grub4dos, menu.lst and a installed fatdog, and
dd if=/dev/sdb of=vHDD.raw bs=512 count=2100000 ... produces a image file that can then be booted using qemu. Like anything, choices and good/bad elements for each choice, but overall for me I generally prefer raw over qcow2.

[jamesbond]

qcow2 is nice for size (sparce file that only grows as needed) and for the likes of snapshots, however raw, even though it takes up the full amount of size allocated ...

If you create a raw image on any Unix filesystem (including ext2/3/4), you can create a sparse file as a raw image and it would behave just like the qcow2 in terms of the disk space allocation - it will only take up space as it is filled in: dd if=/dev/sdb of=vHDD.raw bs=512 count=0 seek=2100000 (or the more modern version truncate -s 1G vHDD.raw) and you get the best of both worlds.