From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.33) id 1ChJ5o-000334-Jk for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Wed, 22 Dec 2004 21:52:44 -0500 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.33) id 1ChJ5n-00032V-CF for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Wed, 22 Dec 2004 21:52:43 -0500 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.33) id 1ChJ5m-00032K-B2 for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Wed, 22 Dec 2004 21:52:43 -0500 Received: from [80.91.229.2] (helo=main.gmane.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1ChIvB-0001Qy-1p for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Wed, 22 Dec 2004 21:41:45 -0500 Received: from list by main.gmane.org with local (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1ChIv8-0003iW-00 for ; Thu, 23 Dec 2004 03:41:42 +0100 Received: from amarseille-206-1-25-196.w81-51.abo.wanadoo.fr ([81.51.214.196]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Thu, 23 Dec 2004 03:41:42 +0100 Received: from daimon55 by amarseille-206-1-25-196.w81-51.abo.wanadoo.fr with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Thu, 23 Dec 2004 03:41:42 +0100 From: Ronald Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 03:41:26 +0100 Message-ID: References: <41C9A386.8050200@hermes.cam.ac.uk> <003201c4e865$3fd98f20$964aa50c@computername> <41C9FEB8.1050803@hermes.cam.ac.uk> <001201c4e881$0e9a1260$964aa50c@computername> <41CA2229.9060706@hermes.cam.ac.uk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: news Subject: [Qemu-devel] Re: What is the minimal linux setup for running Qemu ? Reply-To: daimon55@free.fr, qemu-devel@nongnu.org List-Id: qemu-devel.nongnu.org List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , To: qemu-devel@nongnu.org Le Thu, 23 Dec 2004 01:40:57 +0000, Richard Neill a écrit : > Exactly. And as you say, the problem is that writing to files in a virtual > disk means that any slight corruption to the real physical file may > completely destroy the filesystem on the virtual disk. A crash of the host > would also be less damaging. > > What *would* be cute would be to use the virtual vfat driver. Thus files > on the guest map to real files on the memory key. If you do this, the > number of writes will be exactly the same as if you used the memory key > for transport of files in the usual way. > > > My ideal set up would be the following: > > > USB-memory-key/ > /qemu/mac <- mac binaries for qemu and bios /qemu/linux <- linux > binaries for qemu and bios /qemu/win <- windows binaries for qemu and > bios > > /dsl/iso <- dsl iso itself > /dsl/extras <- extra apps for dsl if desired. > > /myfiles <- an ordinary directory, not a disk image. > appearing to the guest as a drive using > virtual vfat > > /putty <- ssh binaries for win,linux,mac /vnc <- vnc viewer > binaries for win,linux,mac > > win-startup.bat <- start up scripts for qemu/dsl mac-startup.sh > linux-startup.sh > > > The only problems that remain are: > - vfat doesn't support Linux file attributes. > (there is a solution, but I forget what). > > - you need a script to manually save those files within /home > that you want to keep. Most can vanish with the ramdisk on > reboot, but things like ~/.ssh and ~/.mozilla are useful! > [DSL and Knoppix both solve this problem somehow ] > > > In addition, with the falling prices of memory keys, an entire knoppix iso > could be used, if desired. Furthermore, since we know exactly what the > emulated hardware will be, knoppix could be compiled with the appropriate > optimisations. > I find this set up a bit complicated (or I have not understood the goal maybe), I think you can do something simpler by using qemu's features like snapshot and compressed qcow image, this way you only write to the usb stick if you have done some real changes by commiting to the image.