VMware disk image type

VMware disk image type

[Mickael Chazaux]

Hi,

I see there is a vmware.conf in conf/machine, but it does not generate
vmdk (vmware virtual disk files) files. Here are the steps I take to
do that:

- create an empty file the size wanted (with dd),
- format it to ext3 (mkfs.ext3 myfile)
- mount it loopback (mount -o loop myfile /mnt)
- untar the OE-generated rootfs in /mnt
- create a /boot/extlinux.conf [1],
- install extlinux in /boot (extlinux -i /mnt/boot)
- umount,
- convert to vmdk (using qemu-img -O vmdk myfile myfile.vmdk)
- boot it in vmware.

Is it possible to add a "vmdk" image to openembedded to do this automatically?

Regards,

Mickael

[1]
/boot/extlinux.conf contents :

label a
kernel /boot/bzImage
append root=/dev/sda rw

Re: VMware disk image type

[Tom Rini]

On 02/23/2011 05:48 AM, Mickael Chazaux wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I see there is a vmware.conf in conf/machine, but it does not generate
> vmdk (vmware virtual disk files) files. Here are the steps I take to
> do that:
>
> - create an empty file the size wanted (with dd),
> - format it to ext3 (mkfs.ext3 myfile)
> - mount it loopback (mount -o loop myfile /mnt)
> - untar the OE-generated rootfs in /mnt
> - create a /boot/extlinux.conf [1],
> - install extlinux in /boot (extlinux -i /mnt/boot)
> - umount,
> - convert to vmdk (using qemu-img -O vmdk myfile myfile.vmdk)
> - boot it in vmware.
>
> Is it possible to add a "vmdk" image to openembedded to do this automatically?

Yes, patches would be welcome.  This would reside in conf/bitbake.conf. 
  See the ubi/ubifs image examples for how to generate slightly complex 
images like this.  And I would recommend adding vmdk.ext[234] as the 
image names (and supply at least one of them, someone else might step up 
and do the regex for the others if you don't).  Thanks!

-- 
Tom Rini
Mentor Graphics Corporation

Re: VMware disk image type

[Mickael Chazaux]

Hi,

2011/2/23 Tom Rini <tom_rini@mentor.com>:
> On 02/23/2011 05:48 AM, Mickael Chazaux wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I see there is a vmware.conf in conf/machine, but it does not generate
>> vmdk (vmware virtual disk files) files. Here are the steps I take to
>> do that:
>>
>> - create an empty file the size wanted (with dd),
>> - format it to ext3 (mkfs.ext3 myfile)
>> - mount it loopback (mount -o loop myfile /mnt)
>> - untar the OE-generated rootfs in /mnt
>> - create a /boot/extlinux.conf [1],
>> - install extlinux in /boot (extlinux -i /mnt/boot)
>> - umount,
>> - convert to vmdk (using qemu-img -O vmdk myfile myfile.vmdk)
>> - boot it in vmware.
>>
>> Is it possible to add a "vmdk" image to openembedded to do this
>> automatically?
>
> Yes, patches would be welcome.  This would reside in conf/bitbake.conf.  See
> the ubi/ubifs image examples for how to generate slightly complex images
> like this.  And I would recommend adding vmdk.ext[234] as the image names
> (and supply at least one of them, someone else might step up and do the
> regex for the others if you don't).  Thanks!
>

The problem is the loopback mount, which requires root privileges, and
is required by extlinux for its installation. Is there another method?

Regards,

Mickael Chazaux

Re: VMware disk image type

[Koen Kooi]

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Hash: SHA1

On 04-04-11 13:21, Mickael Chazaux wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> 2011/2/23 Tom Rini <tom_rini@mentor.com>:
>> On 02/23/2011 05:48 AM, Mickael Chazaux wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I see there is a vmware.conf in conf/machine, but it does not generate
>>> vmdk (vmware virtual disk files) files. Here are the steps I take to
>>> do that:
>>>
>>> - create an empty file the size wanted (with dd),
>>> - format it to ext3 (mkfs.ext3 myfile)
>>> - mount it loopback (mount -o loop myfile /mnt)
>>> - untar the OE-generated rootfs in /mnt
>>> - create a /boot/extlinux.conf [1],
>>> - install extlinux in /boot (extlinux -i /mnt/boot)
>>> - umount,
>>> - convert to vmdk (using qemu-img -O vmdk myfile myfile.vmdk)
>>> - boot it in vmware.
>>>
>>> Is it possible to add a "vmdk" image to openembedded to do this
>>> automatically?
>>
>> Yes, patches would be welcome.  This would reside in conf/bitbake.conf.  See
>> the ubi/ubifs image examples for how to generate slightly complex images
>> like this.  And I would recommend adding vmdk.ext[234] as the image names
>> (and supply at least one of them, someone else might step up and do the
>> regex for the others if you don't).  Thanks!
>>
> 
> The problem is the loopback mount, which requires root privileges, and
> is required by extlinux for its installation. Is there another method?

If your user is in the 'disk' group it should also work. Narcissus runs
as 'www-data' and generated OMAP SD images with loopmounts, adding
'www-data' to 'disks' fixed the weird problems we were seeing (vfat loop
mounts worked, ext3 didn't0.

regards,

Koen
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Re: VMware disk image type

[Mike Westerhof]

On 4/4/2011 6:21 AM, Mickael Chazaux wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> 2011/2/23 Tom Rini <tom_rini@mentor.com>:
>> On 02/23/2011 05:48 AM, Mickael Chazaux wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I see there is a vmware.conf in conf/machine, but it does not generate
>>> vmdk (vmware virtual disk files) files. Here are the steps I take to
>>> do that:
>>>
>>> - create an empty file the size wanted (with dd),
>>> - format it to ext3 (mkfs.ext3 myfile)
>>> - mount it loopback (mount -o loop myfile /mnt)
>>> - untar the OE-generated rootfs in /mnt
>>> - create a /boot/extlinux.conf [1],
>>> - install extlinux in /boot (extlinux -i /mnt/boot)
>>> - umount,
>>> - convert to vmdk (using qemu-img -O vmdk myfile myfile.vmdk)
>>> - boot it in vmware.
>>>
>>> Is it possible to add a "vmdk" image to openembedded to do this
>>> automatically?
>>
>> Yes, patches would be welcome.  This would reside in conf/bitbake.conf.  See
>> the ubi/ubifs image examples for how to generate slightly complex images
>> like this.  And I would recommend adding vmdk.ext[234] as the image names
>> (and supply at least one of them, someone else might step up and do the
>> regex for the others if you don't).  Thanks!
>>
> 
> The problem is the loopback mount, which requires root privileges, and
> is required by extlinux for its installation. Is there another method?

Can't you just copy or otherwise re-use the existing code for creating
ext3 images?   (I think that uses fakeroot to do the job, which avoids
loopback mounts and all the potential problems that involves.)

-Mike (mwester)

Re: VMware disk image type

[Phil Blundell]

On Mon, 2011-04-04 at 13:21 +0200, Mickael Chazaux wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> 2011/2/23 Tom Rini <tom_rini@mentor.com>:
> > On 02/23/2011 05:48 AM, Mickael Chazaux wrote:
> >>
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> I see there is a vmware.conf in conf/machine, but it does not generate
> >> vmdk (vmware virtual disk files) files. Here are the steps I take to
> >> do that:
> >>
> >> - create an empty file the size wanted (with dd),
> >> - format it to ext3 (mkfs.ext3 myfile)
> >> - mount it loopback (mount -o loop myfile /mnt)
> >> - untar the OE-generated rootfs in /mnt
> >> - create a /boot/extlinux.conf [1],
> >> - install extlinux in /boot (extlinux -i /mnt/boot)
> >> - umount,
> >> - convert to vmdk (using qemu-img -O vmdk myfile myfile.vmdk)
> >> - boot it in vmware.
> >>
> >> Is it possible to add a "vmdk" image to openembedded to do this
> >> automatically?
> >
> > Yes, patches would be welcome.  This would reside in conf/bitbake.conf.  See
> > the ubi/ubifs image examples for how to generate slightly complex images
> > like this.  And I would recommend adding vmdk.ext[234] as the image names
> > (and supply at least one of them, someone else might step up and do the
> > regex for the others if you don't).  Thanks!
> >
> 
> The problem is the loopback mount, which requires root privileges, and
> is required by extlinux for its installation. Is there another method?

You could avoid the loopback mount for the first steps by using
genext2fs to create the image and then tune2fs to add a journal inode.
But I can't think of any way to avoid the need for loopback when
installing extlinux (apart, obviously, from patching either extlinux
itself or fakeroot).

p.

Re: VMware disk image type

[Tom Rini]

On 04/04/2011 04:21 AM, Mickael Chazaux wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> 2011/2/23 Tom Rini <tom_rini@mentor.com>:
>> On 02/23/2011 05:48 AM, Mickael Chazaux wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I see there is a vmware.conf in conf/machine, but it does not generate
>>> vmdk (vmware virtual disk files) files. Here are the steps I take to
>>> do that:
>>>
>>> - create an empty file the size wanted (with dd),
>>> - format it to ext3 (mkfs.ext3 myfile)
>>> - mount it loopback (mount -o loop myfile /mnt)
>>> - untar the OE-generated rootfs in /mnt
>>> - create a /boot/extlinux.conf [1],
>>> - install extlinux in /boot (extlinux -i /mnt/boot)
>>> - umount,
>>> - convert to vmdk (using qemu-img -O vmdk myfile myfile.vmdk)
>>> - boot it in vmware.
>>>
>>> Is it possible to add a "vmdk" image to openembedded to do this
>>> automatically?
>>
>> Yes, patches would be welcome.  This would reside in conf/bitbake.conf.  See
>> the ubi/ubifs image examples for how to generate slightly complex images
>> like this.  And I would recommend adding vmdk.ext[234] as the image names
>> (and supply at least one of them, someone else might step up and do the
>> regex for the others if you don't).  Thanks!
>>
> 
> The problem is the loopback mount, which requires root privileges, and
> is required by extlinux for its installation. Is there another method?

See classes/syslinux.bbclass for how we handle doing syslinux today.
Something similar should be doable for extlinux if you can't use syslinux.

-- 
Tom Rini
Mentor Graphics Corporation