Re: [Qemu-devel] Attitute and Predisposition of the List & newbie documets

["Jim C. Brown" <jbrown106@phreaker.net>]

On Wed, Sep 01, 2004 at 03:11:30PM -0400, Thomas Munn wrote:
> While I am not among those who are enlightened enought to talk about
> opcodes and their proper optimization, I do have a few observations to
> make, having watched this list for 2 months.
>  
> 1.  People really don't like newcomers on this list.  

Some of us do.

> 2.  QEMU-USERS would be great, if it actually worked.  I have asked on
> the list TWICE now, with absolutely no comment (or way to get
> qemu-users) working.  The interface fails, and messages never get
> anywhere.  Unless this is a tricky INTENT, in that users will just go to
> /dev/null.  Which is fine, if the project just wants to be for gear
> heads.

>From what I've heard, no one has. Apparently Bellard doesn't have enough time
to fix the problems .... I wouldn't know. This is a must. Perhaps a user-sponsored
list can be setup in the meantime, and those who ask about QEMU-USERS on this
list will be pointed to there.

> 3.  QEMU is rather DIFFICULT to use.  I have been a UNIX admin for 10
> years, am fairly conversant in iptables etc.  Yet my firewalling
> questions were ignored THREE times.  Firewalling a host is a cool
> concept, I can have "trusted boxes" and make sure they only talk to whom
> they are supposed to.  I figured out MYSELF that you have to filter on
> the FORWARD chain.  No one was even kind enough to respond "RTFM" or
> "You need to filter on the forward chain."  Its Not in the docs etc.
> Most people wouldn't be able to do this( e.g figure out how to firewall
> guest os).  Again, if you want gearheads only, then fine.  

Well, this (firewall) has been asked so many times that it gets annoying.

If you had searched the mail archive, you would have found your answer.

To be fair, a question this common should have been in the FAQ.
So should have the example scripts that others have posted. Etc.

> 4.  I am compiling a list of my difficulties, and will be writing
> documentation to help people setting qemu for the first time.  The
> existing documentation simply does not cover in high detail how to get
> qemu working.  For example, I found it very confusing on what qemu-fast
> is for.  A simple "QEMU-FAST ONLY works with linux at this time.  You
> must install a working GUEST image, apply the appropriate patch to the
> GUEST kernel, and then run qemu-fast.  DO NOT TRY to use QEMU-FAST
> otherwise.  It will simply segfault!  

This has been asked even more often. It is even more annoying. And this actually
is in the docs (last I checked anyways). Even if its gone, it is still in the
mail archive. One should check this first, before posting to the list.

>  
> I will be posting the document to this list.  If anyone else has any
> suggestions, I will incorporate them into a professional, and complete
> document designed for the newcomer.

This is good news. There are several HOWTOs out there for some specific stuff
w/ qemu (how to use win98 as a guest or how to use VDE for networking) but a
newbie manual would be an invaluable resource.

>  
> My perspective of this document, will, alas, only be from the linux
> corner, as I do not use QEMU in windows......(as a host os)

Odds are good that if you start, others will help.

>  
> Something akin to the GENTOO install handbook would be the caliber I
> would be shooting for.
>  
> Sincerely,
>  
> Thomas J. Munn

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