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Back on topic; I'm thinking of booting Arch Linux from an external USB3 HD to save a precious internal SATA port for passing through to unRAID. Can I expect difficulties in this configuration given that the unRAID USB key which is also bootable is also present? I know I can test this with my MB but I'd need to purchase the SATA3 drive to do it and would like an opinion before going to the expense. And a supplementary: I would be planning to store VM os/boot disk images on the USB3 drive, will this significantly affect performance in any way? Thanks Peter

I have no use for this right now but may have in the future. Just want to say a big [move]THANKS THANKS THANKS THANKS THANKS THANKS[/move] to Grumpy for posting and for everyone else building on that work. as an aside - does anyone else find it frustrating to follow guides like these in forum format? (not just here but in any forum). Would they be better set up as Wikis so all edits and expansions are captured in one place rather than having to trawl through sometimes hundreds of posts to piece together the actual process? Just a thought. Peter

If unraid becomes an installable package, then surely unraid classic becomes just another distribution with unraid installed? Therefore the problem goes away and there's only one unraid? (UnoRAID)

How about renaming current to unRAID Server OS USB edition new one becomes UnRAID Server OS Distro edition in short, these becomes unRAID UE unRAID DE

I'll do a blog post on installing Arch in an LVM, it's not hard but there are a couple of steps that need to be performed in a certain order for things to work. As for Arch's bareness, it doesn't install ANYTHING you don't need in order to get a functional booting system. In a way this sucks, especially for new users, but in every other way it is awesome and gives you complete control over what is installed. Having just this week decided to make the switch to Arch full time as my desktop OS from Windows I can definitely empathise that it feels VERY bare at first. I installed cinnamon and it didn't even come with a terminal!! I'm really enjoying getting to grips with this stuff though and am by no means an expert but am slowly improving... Going slightly OT but as a result of all these virtualisation an unRAID+ discussions I've been getting back into Linux and have discovered Arch as a result. I found MAnjaroBox on a cover-mount DVD and having installed it, I love it. It's Arch Linux with a custom OpenBox that follows the Arch philosophy of minimal out of the box. I love that it allows me to set everything up just the way I like it. Also pacman made sense straight away so I found it quite straightforward to get up and running. Peter

That's a pretty exciting nugget! Would work perfectly for me.

Of that bunch, I'd likely agree with 'Linux Edition' being the best. However, it would invariably get truncated to unRAID LE which then looks lime a limited or light version. I do like mattkhans suggestion. (unRAID Server / unRAID Applicance) One thing to consider, I presume there would be free, plus and pro versions of each release (distro & appliance) Therefore, the name selected would need to work in that context. eg unRAID Appliance unRAID Appliance Plus unRAID Appliance Pro unRAID Server unRAID Server Plus unRAID Server Pro How about some of these; unRAID Host Edition unRAID 64D (d = distro) unRAID 64S (s = server) unRAID 64L (l = linux) unRAID v6 or maybe named for the Distro. eg unRAID centOS edition unRAID Arch edition Peter

@smakovits Thanks for that, though I like the way the graphical* installer configs locales, networks, grub etc. Still trying to find out whey this archboot network iso has the installer and the one available from ArchLinux doesn't. What am I missing? *it's a stretch to call it graphical

Thanks. It was GPT. My MB us UEFI but I definitely selected BIOS/GRUB in Arch Setup. I'm going to give the whole things another go tonight now that I'm a bit more comfortable with it. Got a link to Archboot Jan iso (or do we wait a while for it to go up on mirrors?). Downloading ISOs from archlinux site itself confused me as they seem to contain only cli install? Peter

I've been having a whale of a time over the past 4-5 weeks learning as much as I can about virtualisation with the objective of configuring a unified server to run; unRAID mediaportal server (windows VM) with DVB-S2 tuner cards passed through at least one mediaportal client (windows VM) with GPU & USB passed through I've bought and built a new machine for this (see blog link in my sig) and I've been playing variously with OpenSuSe, Manjarobox (love it) and now vanilla ArchLinux. With all of the above I've tried both Xen and KVM. I've been enjoying the discussion here around unRAID ACE but am hedging my bets and want to become very familiar with setting up a system like this where unRAID can run either on the host system or in a VM. Rather than try to do everything at once, I've decided it's best to take baby steps. My objective right now now is to build an ArchLinux system with Xen. Once established, I'll play with that, get familiar with making VMs etc. and then later move on to configuring passthrough. From my tests so far, I've settled on Xen as gpu passthrough seems to be a bit more straightforward than on KVM (or I just haven't found a good KVM guide yet) Anyway, the work of IronicBadger and GrumpyButFun here has been inspirational and I've been following their threads, posts and guides with deep interest. However, while all the steps for building such a system are there in their output (and is very basic for those guys), what I've found is that the required info is fragmented. Some guides are incomplete, others assume a certain level of knowledge or take shortcuts or refer to other (unlinked) documents. What I'm attempting to do is build a consolidated meta-guide that lists all the steps in an efficient order and includes any clarifications or gotchas I've found, investigated and resolved in following the instructions from the guys. Essentially, the response of a user with basic linux skills drawing together all the bits and pieces,(and a reference for myself for when I want to re-do this at some point in the future). So, below I reproduce yagxup v0.1 (yet another guide for xen and unraid with passthrough). I'm posting this here for two reasons; 1. A sanity check. I'd appreciate if people could have a read and let me know if I've missed anything or are there any ways this could be shortened? 2. I have a few of questions arising from implementing this for which I'm hoping for answers. These are; Question 1 I ran through this in a VirtualBox VM on my Mac and it worked great. The only surprise was that when I rebooted (selecting the Xen kernel), logging in as non-root user and issuing xl info, I got; xc: error: could not obtain handle on privileged command interface (13 = Permission Denied): Internal error libxl: error: libxl.c:94:libxl_ctx_alloc: cannot open libxc handle: Permission denied cannot init xl context Doing this under su or logging in as root produces the correct/anticipated output. Would this be the expected behaviour and will it cause any problems as I progress (conducting business under user account)? Question 2 I also implemented this process on my physical hardware yesterday and had a problem with the grub mkconfig step. It turned out that there was no /boot/grub/ folder. When I added that directory manually, makeconfig worked but the boot loader did not pick it up. I'm going to try the process again tonight but wondered if anyone could offer any pointers as to why /boot/grub might be missing (depute my having installed grub as part of the Arch setup process) Question 3 In what circumstances is the repair grub step required (step 4.2, below)? So, here we go... pre-install notes This is a work in progress. While I've run through it and it (mostly) works, I would not recommend using it right now. Let's wait until it's had some feedback and validation. I'll post the final version here and to my blog. UPDATE: This guide has been updated following comments in this thread. The updated version can be found on my blog: http://mediaserver8.blogspot.ie/2014/01/standing-on-shoulders-of-giants.html prerequisites be familiar with issuing linux command in CLI be familiar with editing files in nano STEP 1 - Install ArchLinux Follow IronicBadger's ArchLinux install guide which utilises ArchBoot with a visual installer (as opposed to cli espoused on ArchWiki beginners guide) http://blog.ktz.me/?p=131 This gets to the stage of booting ArchLinux and allowing root login. Gotchas: The ISO image link in the guide is broken. This appears to be the current ISO link; http://mirror.cinosure.com/archlinux/iso/archboot/latest/archlinux-2013.10-1-archboot-network.iso STEP 2 - Post Install Setup 2.1 Grub Update Bug Fix nano /etc/default/grub Add to it; (From http://blog.ktz.me/?p=308) (is this still required?) 2.2 Edit /etc/pacman.conf uncomment [multilib] block and add; 2.3 Update and install yaourt pacman -Syyu pacman -S yaourt (is yaourt required if installing precompiled xen?) 2.4 Install SSH pacman -S openssh systemctl enable sshd.service systemctl start sshd.service 2.5 Create a user useradd -m -g users -s /bin/bash <username> usermod -a -G wheel <username> passwd <username> 2.6 Configure nano as default in /etc/bash.bashrc add; 2.7 Configure sudo pacman -S sudo EDITOR=nano visudo uncomment this line; 2.8 Install utilities pacman -S unzip pacman -S wget STEP 3 - Install Xen 3.1 Download precompiled Xen navigate to a suitable directory and download IronicBadgers Xen package; wget http://blog.ktz.me/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/xen-4.3.1-2-x86_64.pkg_.tar.xz_.zip OR download as linked by GrumpyButFun; https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B396mkxPBhWrZU9ySThQZzZFYnc/edit?usp=sharing (are these the same thing?) 3.2 Install unzip *.zip su pacman -U xen-4.3.1-2-x86_64.pkg_.tar.xz 3.3 Update grub grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg 3.4 Set Up services systemctl enable xenstored.service systemctl enable xenconsoled.service systemctl enable xendomains.service 3.5 Reboot selecting Xen kernel reboot STEP 4 - Post-Xen install 4.1 Set up network bridge Follow grumpybutfun's guide at the start of this post; http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=30980.msg279094#msg279094 4.2 Repair grub (is this necessary???) Follow grumpybutfun's guide at the end of this post; http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=30980.msg279094#msg279094 STEP 5 - Set up libvirt (optional) Follow grumpybutfun's guides to enabling libvirt and configuring ssh/tcp; http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=30980.msg279083#msg279083 http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=30980.msg279084#msg279084 REFERENCES & SOURCES ArchLinux Installation guide; https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installation_Guide ArchLinux Beginners guide; https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners%27_Guide ArchLinux Network Bridge setup guide; https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/xen#Creation_of_a_network_bridge IronicBadger's ''How to install ArchLinux' http://blog.ktz.me/?p=131 IronicBadger's 'perfect media server setup with Arch Linux, Xen and XBMC' http://blog.ktz.me/?p=120 GrumpyButFun's '[GUIDE] Virtualizing unRaid in Xen / KVM on Arch Linux' http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=30980.0

Hi Justin I've just build a new system for this purpose and while I haven't gotten passthrough etc. up and running yet, all the checks indicate that the system is capable. It's centered on a Gigabyte SKT-AM3+ 990FXA-UD5 Motherboard and AMD FX8320 Black Edition 8 Core CPU. Full details at my blog, link in sig. Peter

I cannot do that. Tom hasn't given his approval for using emhttp or decided if he wanted to create a subforum with it's own section where it can be properly supported. Grumpy I think what hernandito was asking there was a guide for setting up VMs with GPU passthrough for running multiple HTPCs as you describe. This is completely separate from anything to do with unRAID. I'd be interested in this as well. I'm currently fighting with Manjaro & Xen, aiming to do the same thing. Cheers Peter

And for some light relief.... if/when we get access to Nirvana, it's going to need a name. Some thought starters; unRaid-ACE* unPaid <--not a typo forkOFF nuRAID (some of these may have been suggested already, please feel free to add more suggestions - or we can take it to a new thread if it's considered OT here) *antichrist edition (my fav.)

Any chance a mod could set up or set ground rules on a thread to discuss implementation issues with bans handed out for going off topic? A second thread could be set up to discuss the merits of the idea itself and to discuss plans and ideologies ( a bit like the 'is payment justified' thread). It would be great to have just a technical discussion that doesn't run aground with personalised attacks. Peter

Pity that didn't work out as planned. Some people can be quite rude (and I even had sympathy for the contra point of view before everything derailed so spectacularly). Chin up though, this is a good idea and I'm looking forward to some/any outcomes. Peter

THanks guys.Figured as much but I have a new 8-core system in the pipeline and am itching to consolidate a few machines but don't want to virtualise unRAID if this becomes an option. Hopefully we'll see progress on this in 2014. Happy new year! Peter

So this might be a little premature but... If I wanted to go ahead and set up some windows VMs on XEN pending the release of this unRAID special edition, what should I be using as my base install? Arch? CentOS? I'd like to get playing now but be ready / not have much reconfiguration do do if/when this eventually gets released. Peter

I voted No. I recently moved to MediaPortal which much better suits my needs so it's a moot point for me. I'd prefer see unRAID do it's basic function well and not see distractions introduced. Peter

Having read this lengthy thread with interest, I'm excited by the possibilities here. For my use case, I'm interested in consolidation but current virtualization implementations seem complex. An unRAID release that provides base unRAID functionality with the ability to run VMs with hardware passthrough on top seems ideal for me. I see the case for having the base install live in a full distro allowing access to onboard graphics hardware and the ability to install additional applications. However, I've been reluctant to install 'other things' on my unRAID as it does one thing extremely well and I buy the KISS approach. I'd be happy to run everything else in VMs offering a good balance of unRAID performance and stability with almost limitless flexibility. Looking forward to developments. Peter

Where did you hear that? I think it can pass through any and all PCI slots, regardles of what's plugged in them. http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Xen_VGA_Passthrough "Xen 4.0.0 supports VGA passthrough of the primary graphics adapter (the one that gets initialized and is used when you power-on the computer) only. VGA passthrough of secondary graphics adapters currently requires additional extra patches to Xen." Also... " Why is VGA passthrough different from normal PCI passthrough? VGA adapters are not simple PCI devices like NICs or disk controllers. VGA adapters need to support many legacy x86 features like VGA BIOS, text mode, legacy IO ports, legacy memory ranges, VESA video modes, etc for correct and expected operation. This means VGA passthrough requires more code than normal Xen VT-d PCI passthrough."

Hmm, it seems that xen only supports passthrough of the primary video card So the idea of running multiple vms addressing separate cards is a non runner. I'm sure it will come in time. Peter

The first post in this thread states; If your Ubuntu Server sits near / next too your TV... Why not take advantage of it and boot straight into XBMC (with Xen and all your VMs running in the background). Or... Boot straight into a Linux GUI Desktop. Or... Boot into a Windows / OSX / Etc. VM with your USB Keyboard / Mouse / Sound and your Video Card passedthrough straight to your Monitor / TV. I may have misunderstood this but I gathered from this (and comments in the xen server only thread) that the xen on Ubuntu approach was a better solution for tv connectivity and a mysterious collection of other features that work better in xen rather than xen server?

Thanks for the quick response. I did indeed miss one vital piece of info: although the pcs currently service different rooms, I can place one unit in a location in my attic so that each display device is approximately 10 meters away hence the ability to consolidate! I run singles eat mediaportal on one machine so it doubles as a server and client. My question was really around, is it too ambitios to be seeking to run Ubuntu, unraid and 3x win 8 vms , the three of which push out video to displays. Mce sensor on all 3 win 8 as all three act as clients.

So, I've been reading this and the other thread with great interest and am seeking advice before embarking on a project. I currently have the following machines that I'd be interested in consolidating, primarily for power savings; Unraid 5.0 running on dual 32bit Xeon with 10 sata drives incl parity windows 8 living room pc running media portal client and server on i3 Windows 8 family room pc running media portal on celeron based mini-itx Windows 7 home theatre pc running media portal client on quad core q6600 Wondering if the following setup would be practical or advised on 8core and based system with 32gb ram; Machine 1 (1x core, 2gb ram) Headless unraid with pcie sas card (16 drive support) passthrough and USB passthrough for flash drive Machine 2 (2x core, 14 gb ram) Win 8 with mediaportal server and client. Serves tv to all other vs and external clients Hdmi video card with audio support pcie passthrough. Octopus 8x tuner pcie card passthrough. USB passthrough for mce remote sensor. Motherboard sata passthrough for recording drives. Machine 3 (2x core, 6 gb ram) Win 8 with mediaportal client Hdmi video card with audio support pcie passthrough. USB passthrough for mce remote sensor. Machine 4 (2x core, 6 gb ram) Win 8 media portal client Hdmi video card with audio support pcie passthrough. USB passthrough for mce remote sensor. Machine 5 (1x core, 2gb ram) Ubuntu server Is that asking too much? I'd need a MB with at least 4x pcie slots (3x supporting video cards), 4x USB controllers, ideally discretely attributable sata ports for passthrough or an additional pic / pcie sata card. Maybe I'd need to consider dropping one of the win 8 mediaportal clients? I'd be interested in what kind of power consumption figures people are seeing for these kinds of systems. Right now I have two machines on all the time, my unraid server running about 130w on idle and my tv server running about 100w on idle. All advice appreciated. Peter

Yep. I actually like it. It's simple enough to set up and doesn't seem to be significantly slower than unraid on similar hardware. I would trust unraid more with my data. However, the big advantage for me is that I can run lots of other stuff as well as my storage solution on a single box via VMs. (I know, I know and I've been toying with Xen etc.). However, a windows based system has better hardware support for all the stuff I want to do and it just fits my needs well. If you're bored, you can follow my exploits in transitioning from unRAId to Storage Spaces on my blog (mediaserver8.blogspot.com)