Virtual grilling - Cook a BBQ into VirtualBox

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Snap
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Virtual grilling - Cook a BBQ into VirtualBox

Unread post by Snap » Fri Nov 13, 2015 12:21 pm

I know, I know...
We don't support installations in VirtualBox, VMWare, qemu or others.
Anyway, I use BBQ spins in VBox daily and it's not that hard. They work nicely just having a few things into account.

Here some tips for the adventurous:

1) Make it work:
The kernel 4.0 doesn't play good with VBox. So Cardboard and some of the recent spins still having that kernel will stall when tyrying to launch the X server. So at first boot after install:

- login as root
- install a newer kernel
- reboot
- then do the usual procedure; login as root, adduser, etc...

You may need to disable the respawning login too.
machinebacon: Please check from a live system that the installed system's /etc/profile.d/ folder only contains bash_completion and no file starting with "zzz" (this is an autostarter script from Debian's live-config which unfortunately gets dropped into the live system via bootscripts -- in the meanwhile I fixed this on newer BBQ versions, don't quite remember which edition you are running)
That's all it takes. I typically use a towo kernel, but it's up to you as long as it's a 4.1 or newer. You won't have all the VBox bells and whistles, it will be a barebones thing but fully functional without the need of any of the virtualbox guest packages. You won't have the guest-host clipboard, etc... but you can always use ssh and scp as I do. ssh is already enabled by default in many spins.

You can keep the kernel static. In that case a kernel 4.1.x LTS might be a good chice. The headers are not needed unless you decide to go with the guest packages bloat. This will pull a damned lot of packages and dependencies to make it happen.

2) Resolution:
If you are ok with the tiny default framebuffer resolution then skip this. If you want it nice and bigger you need to hack a little bit.

2a) Check the available modes:
You can use vbeinfo in the GRUB prompt or install hwinfo and run

Code: Select all

hwinfo --framebuffer
Any of these two methods will list all the available resolutions you can use. I typically go with 1280x1024 for my 24" display.

2b) Set the modes:
Do something like this as su

Code: Select all

nano /etc/default/grub

GRUB_GFXMODE=1280x1024,1024x768,auto
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=keep

update-grub

reboot
This will try to use the three specified modes in that order with auto as a fallback/last resource.

2c) VGA mode:
If using GRUB2 the gfxmode method above is the recommended one since the old VGA way is currently deprecated, though still works, If the method above doesn't work for your machine or simply you prefer the old way, then do something like this:

Code: Select all

nano /etc/default/grub

"GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash vga=795"

update-grub

reboot
It will give you a 1280x1024 resolution. Or for the typical and rather small 1024x768 go:

Code: Select all

"GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash vga=792"
VGA modes

Enjoy if you can ;)

PS, If running a spin with the X don't forget to apply the Fix.

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rhowaldt
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Re: Virtual grilling - Cook a BBQ into VirtualBox

Unread post by rhowaldt » Fri Nov 13, 2015 12:50 pm

thanks for this snap. even though Virtual shit isn't supported, that doesn't mean you aren't completely free to tinker with it yourself. In fact, that is exactly the kind of thing we encourage. support, after all, is simply "this is the shit we are opening ourselves to freely for answering questions about" (damn that was a bad sentence but fuck it). all the other shit is "unsupported", in other words, "maybe you'll get help, maybe you won't, but just don't expect any".

i suspect one fine day we will move to no fucking support at all, because i think we are under no obligation to help anybody out. but if you're willing to fuck around with it and figure it out, as you did, AND write a damn how-to on it, then you deserve applause.

*applause*
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Re: Virtual grilling - Cook a BBQ into VirtualBox

Unread post by dkeg » Fri Nov 13, 2015 12:59 pm

Good on you for putting together the How To. Generally we are partition or spare machine guys, rather than virtual. I believe there were some instructions around here somewhere, but I couldn't find them. Maybe they're just dropped in different threads.

Now we have a Virtual Box master for support. Anyone comes with questions, we know where to send them!

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Re: Virtual grilling - Cook a BBQ into VirtualBox

Unread post by franksinistra » Fri Nov 13, 2015 1:18 pm

VMWare installation is also similar to the VBox, except you'll get all the bells and whistle like shared clipboard, accelerated graphics, and so on and so forth.
You don't even need newer kernel... :)

Sadly, you couldn't run something like wmutils as it'll interfere with the host's native window manager (or as rust put it, you'll get a better window management for both)
rice no more.

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Re: Virtual grilling - Cook a BBQ into VirtualBox

Unread post by ivanovnegro » Fri Nov 13, 2015 2:50 pm

*Applause*. Yep, we encourage exactly what you did here Snap.

Now we will always redirect the Vbox whiners to you. ;)

Let me sticky this post.

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Re: Virtual grilling - Cook a BBQ into VirtualBox

Unread post by wuxmedia » Fri Nov 13, 2015 4:52 pm

Nice, good work.
Haven't got a decent enough machine to put any virtualization on yet.
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Re: Virtual grilling - Cook a BBQ into VirtualBox

Unread post by Snap » Sat Nov 14, 2015 11:38 am

Well, it seems i'm finally understanding the BBQ philosophy somewhat. It took me a whole year! LOL.

Thanks, guys.

I used to install everything on metal or at least making live fash dives like most around here do. But what virtualization gives is running all those other systems without leaving your main one. A parallel thing. Without it probably I would have never tested the grill and other distros or never discovering the framebuffer, which I'm fully enjoying lately. All in all it's a powerful tool to learn and explore the system.

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Re: Virtual grilling - Cook a BBQ into VirtualBox

Unread post by rhowaldt » Sat Nov 14, 2015 1:12 pm

man, the BBQ Philosophy isn't that hard: do whatever the fuck you want, don't bother anybody with complaints if you fuck it up, and figure shit out yourself as best you can before asking anyone to spend their own time on your problems. if you want to really do something proper, you do whatever the fuck you want, succeed, then write a how-to on it.
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Re: Virtual grilling - Cook a BBQ into VirtualBox

Unread post by vic » Sun Nov 22, 2015 10:34 am

*applause* Snap. @Rhowaldt, great sum up of the BBQ philosophy, thanks. It is good to have a reminder spread out around. :)
Sorry guys, no signature for a while, too busy with life. :|

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Re: Virtual grilling - Cook a BBQ into VirtualBox

Unread post by Snap » Wed Nov 25, 2015 7:06 pm

Freeze. Do not upg. Something is borking the X again. I think it's something related to the new gcc packages fucking the VMs up.

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Re: Virtual grilling - Cook a BBQ into VirtualBox

Unread post by Snap » Fri Dec 25, 2015 12:00 pm

All 3 new Christmas spins (Anorexia, Adipositas & Violator) installed and tested in VirtualBox. All good and smooth. No issues so far.

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Re: Virtual grilling - Cook a BBQ into VirtualBox

Unread post by rhowaldt » Sat Dec 26, 2015 6:13 am

thanks snap :)
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Re: Virtual grilling - Cook a BBQ into VirtualBox

Unread post by Snap » Tue Jan 05, 2016 1:51 pm

The two new years's spins (Monkeys & Break) tested both live and installed in VB. All good and smooth.

BTW, if like me don't want the X for root's account don't forget to mv or rm /etc/profile.d/zz-live-config_xinit.sh to stop respawning the X.

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Re: Virtual grilling - Cook a BBQ into VirtualBox

Unread post by machinebacon » Tue Jan 05, 2016 2:07 pm

^ yeah, that shit is rewritten after every update of live-config -- best is to get rid of the package if user doesn't plan on remastering
..gnutella..

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Re: Virtual grilling - Cook a BBQ into VirtualBox

Unread post by Snap » Wed Jan 06, 2016 9:28 am

Good tip. Thanks, bacon.

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Re: Virtual grilling - Cook a BBQ into VirtualBox

Unread post by Snap » Sat Jan 16, 2016 9:22 am

This.

PS, scroll three posts up and see pidsley's notes.

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Re: Virtual grilling - Cook a BBQ into VirtualBox

Unread post by Snap » Wed Nov 09, 2016 8:28 am

Got this unattended since I've switched to QEMU. Anyway, if anyone interested, all new spins run good and smooth on QEMU (the adipositas and anorexia betas plus swikee tested) both live and installed. Also including the freshly released Lunchtime.

Haven't checked violator. Sorry. But I bet it works good.

scrot or it didn't happened:

Image

Here lunchtime running live like this:

Code: Select all

qemu-system-i386 -enable-kvm -cpu host -smp 2 -m 1G,slots=3,maxmem=4G -soundhw all -boot d -cdrom '/home/paco/VMs/linuxbbq-lunchtime-20161107.iso' -name lunchtime
Don't forget to run ceni before going surfing and maybe setting you keyboard layout and resolution too.

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Re: Virtual grilling - Cook a BBQ into VirtualBox

Unread post by machinebacon » Wed Nov 09, 2016 1:16 pm

^ thanks for reporting! looks healthy.
..gnutella..

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Re: Virtual grilling - Cook a BBQ into VirtualBox

Unread post by franksinistra » Wed Nov 09, 2016 6:16 pm

lunchtime worked as well on qemu-kvm... just need to install some packages like xserver-xorg-video-qxl (if i want to enter X11).
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Re: Virtual grilling - Cook a BBQ into VirtualBox

Unread post by machinebacon » Wed Nov 09, 2016 6:27 pm

^ oh, good to know. I can add them to X releases. Which packages are needed apart from the xorg one?
..gnutella..

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