Re: KVM usability

Anthony Liguori
2010-03-01T21:59:24Z

On 03/01/2010 03:12 PM, Dustin Kirkland wrote:
> kvm -m 512 -cdrom
> /home/kirkland/.cache/testdrive/iso/lucid-desktop-amd64.iso -drive
> file=/home/kirkland/.cache/testdrive/img/testdrive-disk-0086OD.img,if=virtio,index=0,boot=on
> -usb -usbdevice tablet -net nic,model=virtio -net user -soundhw es1370
>
> Among these:
> * 512MB is a nice step up from the 128MB by default (this one scales
> based on your hosts memory)
>

I'm not opposed to bumping from 128M to something else. I'd like to see
some indication though other than "seems reasonable" as to what the
value should be. For instance, if a Fedora 12 install doesn't work
without 256M, that's a solid argument to bump the allocation. Short
term, I'd like to see this globally configurable.

> * virtio is used for disk and network for nice performance gains
>

The problem with virtio is that very few OSes have the drivers right
now. For networking, we can do better, and I've just written a spec for
a new feature to attempt to address this[1]. For disk, I think we're
stuck with ide as the default for a long time.

> * usb device tablet greatly improves the mouse experience
>

Defaulting usb to on and defaulting to a usb tablet is a reasonable
thing to do IMHO.

> * sound card added
>

This personally would annoy me but if there was wide consensus that this
was right, I'd be okay with it.

> * qcow2 sparse disk image
>

This is independent of qemu.

> * desktop is 1024 x 720
>

1024x768 and this is what the default is today anyway.

[1] http://wiki.qemu.org/Features/NetDeviceFailover

Regards,

Anthony Liguori