SchoolBusDriver

If you have seen any of my previous guides, I will make it noob friendly.

I will create an image with XBMC that uses the Radeon drivers and HD Audio.

Every guide on the planet a user would see is either vi or nano (mostly nano these days). I don't think 100k or less is worth having to explain / convert all our guides to use mcedit.

Do you have an ip address? ip add Can you ping "tower"? ping tower Can you ping the ip address of "tower"? ping X.X.X.X <--- Whatever that is If you have an IP and can ping the IP Address of "Tower"... showmount -e <--- Whatever that is Post back with what you find.

I already explain how to do it in shitbuntu... http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=31570.msg286363#msg286363 You want a VM, PV drivers and no desktop and without out all the other crap that XBMCbuntu has installed in it.

Time to take you to school... Your ride is here.

There is no difference in the WebGUI aside from giving you the option to install a Network Bridge in the Network Settings. By default, it uses the NIC as it always has. I believe what people are talking about is a plugin where users set the various settings for VMs. If you do not want to use Xen / KVM, you wouldn't load the plugin. By design, unRAID users who do not use Xen or KVM will not see any changes aside from the following: 1. Boot Menu - unRAID is still the default option but there will be 2 new options for KVM or Xen. 2. Size of the bzroot / bzimage - Increased by 10MB (this might grow a little more when the KVM packages are done). 3. WebGUI - Within Network settings, the default it will use a standard NIC as it always has. However, their is now an option to create a network bridge for either Xen or KVM.

Xen and KVM are either on or off in the unRAID kernel. If you want Xen / KVM you have to boot them through the boot menu. If you do no not want VMs boot unRAID like normal (the default). The Xen / KVM packages being installed in unRAID 6 makes has no effect to users who do not want VMs aside from the space it takes it up (which isn't much). Works just like the other packages that Tom has installed that many users do not use.

Pastebin is your friend and mine. You can put of all that stuff on there and paste links.

QEMU is the machine emulator that KVM and Xen both use. NOTE: qemu-system-i386 can run either 32-Bit or 64-Bit OSes. Tom, we might want to chat about this. In beta 4 you will probably need to recompile Xen with some different flags. Depending on the package build, you may want to change the default QEMU emulator from i386 to x86-64. Xen includes it's own version of QEMU for stability reasons and also includes an upstream version of QEMU. Each Distro handles all of that differently and I am not familiar how Slackware (or your package build) handles it. Any way you could PM me your package build? I want see where it's getting QEMU from and which version(s) it installs. I also want to check if / where / what version of Seabios it is installing too. I don't have 6.0 Beta3 loaded... Does /usr/lib/xen/bin/qemu-system-x86-64 exist?

No so sure of that. I did get an image from Orion to load in a VM and it's uses hvmloader. It works. You would want to load the GPLPV drivers and make it a PVHVM. Running PVHVM with a Video Card passed through... You can get real close to "bare metal" speeds (depending on how you configure the VM). Using unRAID 6.0, you can run the following OSes in VMs Linux BSD Windows OSX Solaris ARM Andriod Etc.

I am burned out on writing guides due to the 2 or 3 people on here who love to attack contributors. However... If a Linux Pro, have a development machine, can translate "Linux Speak" into a guide that novices can use, PM me. I will tell you how to do PCI Passthrough in unRAID 6.0. If you are not going to write a guide don't bother contacting me asking me how. Some reasons to use PCI Passthrough 1. Running unRAID (VM) on unRAID (Host) is a trip. As a "back up Server" or transferring files from an old unRAID machine to a new one with new drives. 2. Installing Video Cards passing them through to VMs running XBMC to locations throughout your house is cool too. 3. Passing through network cards to pfSense. 4. Passing through Video Card, USB Controller (keyboard and mouse) to a Windows machine. Depending on your hardware, you can get real close to bare metal speeds.

No can do on this. Eventually perhaps but that isn't going to be a while. The only way around it is for Tom to jump through a million hoops and go back to Xen 4.1 and provide a very unstable platform that Xen / Citrix (they created the toolstack / software) does not support / back.

It's your party as they say. Tom didn't create the image, he is not associated with Stacklet nor did he provide it. It was a recommendation that he made for users who want to download premade VM Appliances that will work in Xen. There are other sites / companies that also provide the same service. I haven't loaded it. Is it just a command console or does it include a Linux Desktop (and all the apps that go with it)? Slacket's Ubuntu VM Appliance has the PV Drivers loaded. From TightVNC's own website How secure is TightVNC? Although TightVNC encrypts VNC passwords sent over the net, the rest of the traffic is sent as is, unencrypted (for password encryption, VNC uses a DES-encrypted challenge-response scheme, where the password is limited by 8 characters, and the effective DES key length is 56 bits). So using TightVNC over the Internet can be a security risk. To solve this problem, we have plans to implement built-in encryption in future versions of TightVNC. In the mean time, if you need real security, we recommend installing an SSH server, and using SSH tunneling for all TightVNC connections from untrusted networks.

Hold on... Let me put on my tinfoil hat. Okay... ready. The same could be said for the Xen, KVM, ESXi Virtual Images that I and others have posted here. As well as the plugins. If someone new pops up on here and posts a link to a VM Appliance... I would be very hesitant to use it. However, if some of the "trusted" people, who have been around forever and have the experience / expertise were to post a VM Appliance. I would feel comfortable running it. I don't think Weebotech is going to go through the trouble of creating a VM Appliance, write some malware so he can discover that I watch Vampire Diaries, Gilmore Girls and Chick Flicks.

You are trying to herd cats now and I trying to dictate what OS people should run in a VM isn't going to work either. If I was hanging a Mail server, Webserver, Forum, etc. off on the web, I am not going to use Ubuntu. It would probably be something like CentOS / Debian. However, if I was hanging CouchPotato or PlexServer... that is a different story and a different Linux Distro (which I would isolate / hardenwith the best available tools / practices). What I would do IMMEDIATELY... Create a VM Appliance Section in the forum with Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Arch, etc. subforums. That way noobs who stumble upon a Arch Linux VM Appliance don't copy and paste those commands into the Ubuntu VM Appliance they created. There will be mass confusion unless this happens quickly. Something to consider with Distros that are not rolling releases... Set up the non-rolling release Distros with the version number in the subforum. (Example :Ubuntu 13.10 and Fedora 20) That way, when the next release comes out the new / old versions don't screw people up. For example, Ubuntu is going to systemd in a few version so most everything someone would read / do in the Ubuntu 13.10 subforum would not work in Ubuntu 14.10 (which has systemd).

Why? Xen is a proven and reliable Type 1 Hypervisor and been around for over a decade. It has a robust community, tons of backing from many Fortune 500 companies and has a rigorous development / testing / life-cycle management process. All Tom did was enable it in the Linux Kernel and compile / install the latest stable version of Xen. We are not reinventing the wheel or blazing new trails or running a beta / unstable version of Xen. The fact that it runs on Slackware 14.1 is immaterial. Users could create VMs in unRAID, Ubuntu, Arch, Debian, XenServer, etc. and they are independent of anything Tom could / would do within unRAID. If you want to put your whole VM or the various services like http, https, ssh, vnc, ftp, http / https, etc. out on the web... You will want to isolate / harden the Linux Distro (VM) / Network / Firewall / SSL Encryption / Etc. within the VM and your router. If you do not know how to do this, I agree with NAS.

1. Most of your Apps will be WebGUIs... So you should just access those instead of VNCing into your VM. 2. Enabled SSH in your VMs and set the security appropriately. Google "Securing SSH Server" to learn how to do this. 3. Consider loading a "minimal" install of whatever Linux Distro you are using for your VM. That way you are not loading GBs of "bloat" and a Linux Desktop which you will never use. 4. You will want to load Xen Paravirtualized Drivers whatever Linux Distro you are using for VMs. Most Linux Distros have a guide (many have separate installers) on how exactly to do this. This will make your VMs CPU, memory, network, video, virtual disk drive, etc. run FASTER. The host (unRAID) does not have to emulate a FULL PC to VMs with PV Drivers. This also decreases the amount of "work" that the Host (unRAID) has to do. 5. If you want to use VNC, you decide if it has a password or not and you decide what it is / how long it is. If you use TightVNC the maximum length is 8 characters. There are other VNC clients if you want a longer one.

Yes... You can passthrough PCI Devices to your VMs with this release. Of course, someone will have to write a guide for how to do it.

Great Work Tom!

xendomains is a script that handles the autostart, start, stop, save, restore, etc. of the domu (VMs) when the dom0 (Host) shutsdown, starts, reboots, etc.

There isn't one. My guess... There would be a new unRAID 6.X release when either Xen 4.3.2 (in Release Candidate 1) or Xen 4.4 (in Release Candidate 2) is released / tested / approved by Tom. Xen 4.4 has been in feature freeze since November and they have been working on testing / bugs since then. I'd expect it to be released in a few weeks / end of February based on what I read / see in the Xen Developers Mailing list. If you are nerd, have a spare machine and want to help Xen and unRAID out... Sign up for Xen 4.4 RC3 Testing Day on Feb 3 and join us in the IRC freenode channel (#xentest).

There is an auto-delay already programmed in but you can adjust it further if needed. I have never had an issue but if you want to adjust it I believe its in /etc/xen/ in one of the config files or in /etc/default/xendomains file (don't forget to set XENDOMAINS_SAVE="" and XENDOMAINS_RESTORE=false and change XENDOMAINS_AUTO=/etc/xen/auto or symbolic link it on the flashdrive). Correct. There are a lot of commands that users will probably add / tweak to syslinux.cfg for the amount of memory / cpus dom0 takes, PCI passthrough for AMD and Intel CPUs, etc. Example: Xen Kernel = xsave=1 cpufreq=xen:performance dom0_mem=1024M,max:2048M dom0_max_vcpus=4 dom0_vcpus_pin iommu=1 unRAID Kernel = xen-pciback.hide=(00:11.0)(00:12.2) I will write up a detailed guide on PCI Passthrough and how to configure it in SYSLINUX and the other stuff I have above for Xen.

Learning curve. Once you learn how XenServer handles / uses datastores... You will overcome this obstacle. http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=30719.msg275913#msg275913 If you haven't already, patch your XenServer with the latest updates / bug fixes.

If you drop a Xen cfg file in that folder. When the xendomains daemon starts up, it will look there and start whatever VM cfg that are there. You have a method to your madness so I would either change the setting in xendomain or symbolic link that folder to somewhere you feel is appropriate on the flash drive. This looks good. We need xenstored, we will want xenconsole (so we can console into VMs and see them through the boot process to the login screen) and want xendomains for autostart. Speaking of console, we can add this later but if a lot of people continue to run unRAID in a VM on Xen or XenServer... We need to update inittab and securetty with the right hvc0 settings. I would hold off for now or else people are going to get respawn messages if not in a VM. I have never bothered to figure out how to do it without the respawn messages in Slackware but maybe you know. xen_acpi_processor can cause a lot problems. Most Linux Distros, it is disabled by default due to this. For some it will work and work well but many it will not and can even cause a kernel panic. I would let them load it manually for now. In Xen 4.4 a lot of work went into addressing this. I don't have it in front of me but Xen usually drops a file in either /etc/modprobe.d or /etc/modules where it loads all the modules at boot. I would just comment out xen_acpi_processor and xen-pciback (see below). PCI Passthrough is going to be REALLY, REALLY difficult and flaky if this isn't in the kernel. If we do not passthrough the PCI Devices in the Linux Boot command line... when Linux boots, it is going to grab / load the various Kernel modules for SATA Cards, Video Cards, Network Cards (which people will passthrough for pfSense), etc. and getting them back from the Kernel isn't a walk in the park and flaky at best. I will write a guide for PCI Passthrough for those people who need it for Video Cards, Network Cards, SATA Controllers (for unRAID within an unRAID to transfer data or back up) but it's a VERY complicated process and messy if xen-pciback isn't in the kernel and we cannot grab the PCI Devices through syslinux (boot). PS - It's the exact same for the PCISTUB driver in KVM. As a module, hell. Kernel, heaven. If it's not too much trouble in the WebGUI, this is a good idea as to keep confusion to a minimum. What people will see / find on the internet will all be xenbr0. Having them remember to use 00:16:3e:xx:xx:xx when they set up their MAC Addresses is going to be hard enough.