Testing KLV-vmHost, Designed for Hosting VM's

[JusGellin]

The problem is Grub2config and Grub4Dos used in KLV's where designed with Puppy Linux in mind so the boot stanza's the programs will construct use kernel command line parameters and options for Puppy Linux. This is still a work in progress getting these two programs modified to generate Kennel Linux boot stanza syntax.

@JusGellin you did the right thing by running the included script wd_grubconfig to generate the correct boot stanza's.

A possible solution would be to have Grub2config call wd_grubconfig as a function so it can generate both Puppy Linux and Kennel Linux boot stanza's.

That's good to know.
Having grub2config call wd_grubconfig as a function would complete it to make it work directly.

The first item you mentioned above isn't quite what I meant for the clipboard copy using spice-vdagent.
This has to be installed on a vm that was built to make this work. The host doesn't need it.
But the install, which goes to /var/usr/spice-vdagentd has to be symlinked to /run/spice-vdagentd to make this work.

Would it be a good idea to remove it from the KLV-vmHost rootfs or has it a use when it remains included?

Just remove it. Only the vms need it.

I really like all of this!!
Thanks

[Clarity]

Hello @rockedge

Booted this to a desktop without issue from the RAM2 Ventoy option provided in the distro boot menu.

No issues to desktop.

For me, I could use this HOST distro to have SAMBA (really the SSM Menu facility and findsmb command) as much of the storage for VM testing is not on the VM PC. Further when using QEMU via the terminal, HOST samba is needed to provide a 'target' that the KVMs will/can use for data transfers.

I did check for the usual admin tools of BTOP, TLDR, findsmb, Fast/Neofetch that use to find and report this HOST's status. If this is upgraded in the future, would certainly love to have. Oh, and hardinfo? Added fastfetch via OctoXBPS

fastfetch installed.jpg (69.85 KiB) Viewed 1434 times

Am choosing QEMU via the terminal for now. Will report use of Virt-Manager later in the future. Initial KVM test succeeds as expected. Example

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bash-5.2# qemu-system-x86_64 --version
QEMU emulator version 9.1.0
Copyright (c) 2003-2024 Fabrice Bellard and the QEMU Project developers
bash-5.2# qemu-system-x86_64 -name "Boot the Ventoy USB port" -enable-kvm -smp 2 -m 2048 -vga std -device AC97 -net nic -net user -rtc base=localtime -hda /dev/sdg

BTW: Its nice 'great' to see that KVM is built-in to the base system without the need to add the 'QEMU_Ready' facility from @norgo. GREAT that you bring it in via the kernel!!!

[Sofiya]

Detailed information about the system

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xbps-install -Su hwinfo

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sudo hwinfo 2>&1 | tee build.log

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hardinfo2 is based on hardinfo, which has not been released >10 years. Hardinfo2 is the reboot that was needed.

hardinfo2-2.2.0_1.x86_64.xbps -- Dependencies will be installed along with the package.

https://gitlab.com/sofija.p2018/kla-ot2 ... 86_64.xbps

[JusGellin]

Detailed information about the system
Hardinfo2 is based on hardinfo, which has not been released >10 years. Hardinfo2 is the reboot that was needed.

hardinfo2-2.2.0_1.x86_64.xbps

https://gitlab.com/sofija.p2018/kla-ot2 ... 86_64.xbps

That looks very useful - I saw how the other version gave a great amount of information.
How can I use this download?

Thanks

[Sofiya]

Detailed information about the system
Hardinfo2 is based on hardinfo, which has not been released >10 years. Hardinfo2 is the reboot that was needed.

hardinfo2-2.2.0_1.x86_64.xbps

https://gitlab.com/sofija.p2018/kla-ot2 ... 86_64.xbps

That looks very useful - I saw how the other version gave a great amount of information.
How can I use this download?

Thanks

How can I use this download?

Download and install. How else can it be used. Or I don't quite understand your question - express your thoughts more precisely

[JusGellin]

@Sofiya

Download and install. How else can it be used. Or I don't quite understand your question - express your thoughts more precisely

Sorry.
I'm just not familiar with xbps to know how to use it to install this hardinfo2-2.2.0_1.x86_64.xbps file. I've never done this directly to a file before.
I just need some direction for how to do this to install it.
I hope that is clearer.

Thanks

[rockedge]

@JusGellin

One way is open the OctoXBPS package manager GUI and update the package list. Then search for hardinfo2 and select to install it. Then apply.

Opterway is open a terminal:

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xbps-install -Sy hardinfo2

Then there should be a menu item under (perhaps) System.

[Sofiya]

@Sofiya

Download and install. How else can it be used. Or I don't quite understand your question - express your thoughts more precisely

Sorry.
I'm just not familiar with xbps to know how to use it to install this hardinfo2-2.2.0_1.x86_64.xbps file. I've never done this directly to a file before.
I just need some direction for how to do this to install it.
I hope that is clearer.

Thanks

right-click on the file and select "Install xbps package"

[Sofiya]

@JusGellin

One way is open the OctoXBPS package manager GUI and update the package list. Then search for hardinfo2 and select to install it. Then apply.

Opterway is open a terminal:

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xbps-install -Sy hardinfo2

Then there should be a menu item under (perhaps) System.

hardinfo2 is not in official packages

[rockedge]

@JusGellin

One way is open the OctoXBPS package manager GUI and update the package list. Then search for hardinfo2 and select to install it. Then apply.

Opterway is open a terminal:

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xbps-install -Sy hardinfo2

Then there should be a menu item under (perhaps) System.

hardinfo2 is not in official packages

Ahhh yes now I see........even easier then. Download and use the inst-xbps script which should be a right-click menu option or use Thunar and click on the downloaded package.

[JusGellin]

@Sofiya
Ok, I was using the default Thunar file manager, which doesn't have a right-click install.
So, from how you said to do it, I decided to try Rox which does - that worked.

I'm still learning.

Thanks for helping me.

[JusGellin]

@rockedge
I didn't see your comments during this. I was in and out a bit. I need to look closer when I'm making a comment to check as well.
As you saw, to me at least it seems that the Rox turned out to be the right thing to use to install this, this time.
I didn't see an install from Thunar. Am I just missing where it is at?
Also I missed your post about the software manager to even try it. - Now I know it's OctoXBPS package manager.

It worked out because I now have the install using Rox.

Thanks

[rockedge]

Now available for download is KLV-vmHost-rc4 with the link in the first post of this topic.

@JusGellin, @Clarity Samba Simple Management GUI and SAMBA are now installed and working.

Removed spice-vdagentd

Any other suggestions or found bugs pleas make a report.

[rockedge]

I had an extracted initrd.gz in a directory left over in the original ISO so I fixed that, repackaged the ISO, then uploaded it.

Link is the first post of this topic.

[JusGellin]

@rockedge
This is how I upgraded to the new version on the laptop:

I booted up using BookwormPup to do the upgrade
Laptop is using sda1 for the uefi and sda2/KLV-vmHost-rc3 for the system. Plus there is a folder called /sda2/vms where virtual machines are stored.
Rename /sda2/KLV-vmHost-rc3 to /sda2/KLV-vmHost-rc4
Delete everything from the new folder /sda2/KLV-vmHost-rc4
Extract the new iso - KLV-vmHost-rc4.iso into /sda2/KLV-vmHost-rc4 folder
Run the script wd_grubconfig found in this folder to get the new grub2 menu items.
Copy these to the grub.cfg on partition 1

I then rebooted into the revised system and verified it would ask for the save and selected yes to save to a new upper_changes folder.

Rebooted one more time using BookwormPup.
Deleted the newly created upper-changes folder in /sda2/KLV-vmHost-rc4 folder and copied the one saved on the other thumb drive to here.

Rebooted back to the laptop drive.
Ran virt-manager and verified the vm from the last version would now come up - it did.

So this was how I did the upgrade that made sense and was straight forward to me. It seemed to work fine.
Is this how you would have done it?

Thanks for your work on this.

[rockedge]

In this case you can simply extract the ISO and take the KLV-vmhost_rootfs-xz.sfs and overwrite the existing one in your installation. That's it, should be updated and then sync your package manager at some point.

[JusGellin]

In this case you can simply extract the ISO and take the KLV-vmhost_rootfs-xz.sfs and overwrite the existing one in your installation. That's it, should be updated and then sync your package manager at some point.

Wow! That is much simpler

[Clarity]

My testing within VM environments all boot to desktop without any issues. Shutdowns, the same. Bare-metal will follow.

vmHost.jpg (74.12 KiB) Viewed 1074 times

[Clarity]

Bare-metal boots to desktop via launch from SG2D as well as Ventoy USB.

Environment:

• Intel x86_64 CPU

• 6GB RAM

• nvidia Video adapter

• 57" TV for monitor-speaker

• Ventoy USB with BOOTISOS folder containing KL ISOs

• System drive containing a partiton labeled "Persistence" and having folder within "Sessions"

But 2 issues: 1st

• On KLV-vmHost boot Menu, I select the 2nd stanza "without" modification.

• Upon Shutdown, NO session is available on the Persistence drive in its Session folder upon reboot. IN fact its nowhere to be found on the system???

2nd
Apps and subsystem issues

Screenshot_2024-10-27_2.png (339.86 KiB) Viewed 1051 times

[JusGellin]

@Clarity

57" TV for monitor-speaker

Wow!

Looks like you have a nice setup for testing.

[Clarity]

Old monitor died several years ago. This TV was crazy-cheap at a Black Friday type sale so it serves a dual purpose for my old eyes.

There are only 3 cables in the setup with PC now that NO cheap external speakers are needed which use to get in the way behind the PCs. LAN cable, power cable and HDMI cable...a dummy-simple setup.

ONLY prolbem, in the PLDF is that ONLY 1 distro on the forum automatically discovers and sets up audio to the TV without any desktop audio searches and setting changes by a user. Hopefully others will follow that distro's approach in routing audio over HDMI, OOTB.

I just saw a 60" flat screen smart TV at a Thrift Shop yesterday for $50 (ca). Tested it to ensure it was working and walked away to the bathroom. When I returned another customer unplugged and purchased it. Smile!!!

[JusGellin]

How can I make a dual boot of this KLV-vmHost with Windows 11?
I would rather just make the full disk accessible to the KLV and have the Windows as a guest instead.
But I want to learn how to do this first.

Thanks

[rockedge]

@JusGellin I have a setup that has Windows 10 and KLV-Airedale dual booting. Also have experimented with KLV running QEMU or VirtualBox and has WIndows 10 only as a virtual machine guest with the KLV as host system.

Easier probably to setup the computer to run Linux, install KLV-vmHost and get that to boot. Then assemble a virtual machine that will run Windows 11 as a full install on a virtual HDD.

Screenshot_2024-11-03_11-08-09.png (63.31 KiB) Viewed 653 times

The boot stanza's for the above scenario:

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# Windows
# this entry searches Windows on the HDD and boot it up
title Windows\nBoot up Windows if installed
  errorcheck off
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd  /bootmgr
  chainloader /bootmgr
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd  /ntldr
  chainloader /ntldr
  find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd   /io.sys
  chainloader /io.sys
  errorcheck on

title KLV-Airedale-RT
  find --set-root uuid () acc8a5ba-3340-43e8-9d4c-b09ef6b299d1
  kernel /KLV-Airedale-RT/vmlinuz w_bootfrom=UUID=acc8a5ba-3340-43e8-9d4c-b09ef6b299d1=/KLV-Airedale-RT net.ifnames=0
  initrd /KLV-Airedale-RT/initrd.gz
  
title KLV-Airedale-RT (RAM2)
  find --set-root uuid () acc8a5ba-3340-43e8-9d4c-b09ef6b299d1
  kernel /KLV-Airedale-RT/vmlinuz w_bootfrom=UUID=acc8a5ba-3340-43e8-9d4c-b09ef6b299d1=/KLV-Airedale-RT w_changes=RAM2 net.ifnames=0
  initrd /KLV-Airedale-RT/initrd.gz  

title KLV-Airedale-sr15
  find --set-root uuid () acc8a5ba-3340-43e8-9d4c-b09ef6b299d1
  kernel /KLV-Airedale-sr15/vmlinuz w_bootfrom=UUID=acc8a5ba-3340-43e8-9d4c-b09ef6b299d1=/KLV-Airedale-sr15
  initrd /KLV-Airedale-sr15/initrd.gz

title KLV-Airedale-sr15 RAM2
  find --set-root uuid () acc8a5ba-3340-43e8-9d4c-b09ef6b299d1
  kernel /KLV-Airedale-sr15/vmlinuz w_bootfrom=UUID=acc8a5ba-3340-43e8-9d4c-b09ef6b299d1=/KLV-Airedale-sr15 w_changes=RAM2
  initrd /KLV-Airedale-sr15/initrd.gz

This results in when the machine is started booting into Windows 10 is default due to the boot stanza being at the top of the menu.lst.

Grub4Dos was used to install the boot loader with the Windows boot loader still in place. In principle the boot stanza chains to the Windows boot loader.

I would recommend though trying out having the computer setup for KLV-vmHost as the main system and create a virtual machine and run the Windows 11 installer in that.

[JusGellin]

@rockedge
This is a new laptop that came with Windows11 where it is already on the drive to install.
So I've used clonezilla to make a back up first so I could do what I want on its drive.
Since I don't have a Win11 installation media I decided to try installing the KLV-vmHost instead, but was unsuccessful.

I booted into Ventoy to the KLV-vmHost iso
I made two partitions with part 1 = efi fat32 with boot and esp flags and part 2 ext4 for the remainder of the drive.
I extracted the iso and copied it to a folder called KLV-vmHost-rc4 on the second partition.

I tried running the bootloader called Grub2Config bootloader config from the live KLV-vmHost, but it kept complaining that the boot flag wasn't set, but it was.

So I did a live boot into BookwormPup and ran the Grub2Config bootlaoder config app. It didn't complain about the boot flag.
Then I ran the wd_grubconfig script from the extracted iso and copied the stanzas with the UUID one as the first menu item.

I rebooted to the main drive in which the grub2 menu came up.
But when I try the first selection it gives the following error:

error: no such device: 2194..(UUID)...6db1b
error: file '/KLV-vmhost-rc4/vmlinuz' not found.
error: you need to load the kernel first.

Going back to a live KLV-vmHost iso, I verified this was the proper UUID and that KLV-vmhost-rc4/vmlinuz exists and it does.

How can I troubleshoot this?
Also, the internal drive is called nvme0n1- could that be the reason the KLV-vmHost Grub2Config bootloader didn't recognize the boot flag set?

Thanks

[rockedge]

@JusGellin Sounds like the UUID is incorrect....The grub2 boot loader is installed and setup and you modified the grub.cfg by adding the results of the grub2 boot stanza's created by the wd_grubconfig script?

Probably something simple is wrong.

[JusGellin]

@JusGellin Sounds like the UUID is incorrect....The grub2 boot loader is installed and setup and you modified the grub.cfg by adding the results of the grub2 boot stanza's created by the wd_grubconfig script?

Probably something simple is wrong.

I did that like I had done before. From the wd_grubconfig script I copied both of the boot stanzas over to the grub.cfg.
Booting from a live KLV, I ran blkid and it shows the same UUID that I have in grub.cfg

I also bet it is something simple.
Is there any command when going to the console from the grub menu that might help find some clues?

Thanks

[rockedge]

@JusGellin just to make sure we're on the same page, you are copying the correct boot stanza set from the grub_config.txt file?

Another thing that could be a major factor is that Grub2config might not be able to deal with ext4 formatting for the boot partition.

Earlier versions needed to see ext3 formatting and the boot flag set.

there is a possibility to get to the grub command line, but it has to be working.

[JusGellin]

@JusGellin just to make sure we're on the same page, you are copying the correct boot stanza set from the grub_config.txt file?

Another thing that could be a major factor is that Grub2config might not be able to deal with ext4 formatting for the boot partition.

Earlier versions needed to see ext3 formatting and the boot flag set.

there is a possibility to get to the grub command line, but it has to be working.

I was just copying the result for the grub.cfg stanza from the terminal result. I just verified that that is the same as what is in grub_config.txt

So the Grub2config must be a different version than BookwormPup Grub2config because BookwormPup completed without error.
Maybe I should try to just reformat to ext3 and try that.

I also went to the grub console from the grub menu.
I ran the command :
grub> ls-l
This gave some Device proc: and Device memdisk:
But also this:

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Device hd0: No known filesystem detected - Sector size 512B - Total size 2400KiB
      Partition hd0,gpt2:   No known filesystem detected - Partition start at 308224KiB - Total size 999896064KiB
     Partition hd0,gpt1: Filesystem type fat - Label 'ESP', UUID 3600-0E55 - Partition start at 1024KiB - Total size 307200KiB

That 999896064KiB is the size of the ext4 partition
The other size is the efi fat32 partition which is 300MB

So it looks like it sees the internal drive partition but doesn't see a file system on it.
But the boot loader is from BookwormPup.

[JusGellin]

@rockedge
I reformated the main drive to ext3 and put the contents int the folder I made called KLV-vmHost-rc4.
Then I tried the Grub2 bootloader config from KLV-vmHost and got the same error that it couldn't find the boot flag
It gave the location of the error log for this.
fdisk: cannot open /dev/nvme0n: No such file or directory

But the name of the disk is nvme0n1 - That must be the reason this loader doesn't work.
Partition 1 is nvme0n1P1
Partition 2 is nvme0n1P2

I'll continue to go to use BookwormPups bootloader and add the stanza to the grub.cfg again

[JusGellin]

@rockedge
I'm finding out that installing other distros have problems with working properly on my new laptop as well.
The laptop seems to be too new for linux for its hardware.
I purchased a Dell Inspiron 14 7440 2-in-1 laptop that I thought would be ideal and be great for years to come.
But it's looking like Linux hasn't caught up to its hardware yet.
That's probably why I'm having problems putting KLV-vmHost on it.
I've found out that the video driver is newer than what is available in Linux as well.

It's kind of funny I came to this puppy linux site originally trying to get a laptop I bought back in 2016 to work with Linux.
It was a Lenovo Ideapad 1002-11IBY, that I also didn't want to use Windows for.
But I just couldn't get it run properly with linux since it had a 32 bit efi and 64 bit operating system.
That is until I came here and was helped to get puppy linux to work on it.
Now it does.

But I had just stored it for 8 years.
I don't think I did that again and hopefully Linux will catch up to my new one before 8 years.
Or I may have to try returning it.

I'll have to go back to my older computers with a lot less power to continue on with my learning.

Thanks for your help.