unRAID Server Release 6.0-beta3-x86_64 Available

[limetech]

Download

 

Please see

readme.txt

in the release zip file for installation/upgrade instructions.

 

Disclaimer: This is beta software.  While every effort has been made to ensure no data loss, use at your own risk!

 

Also: please disable/remove all add-ons and/or plugins, except for any updated webGui as it becomes available.

 

Highlights:

- added the legacy PATA drivers

- updated the Intel e1000e driver

- added Xen boot option

 

Following is a "mini-guide" on starting an Ubuntu VM, but first, read the Xen Overview.

---

When the syslinux boot menu appears, hit a key and then select the "Xen/unRAID" entry.  You will first see Xen load (this is very fast), and then you'll see unRaid linux kernel (bzimage) load, and finally unRaid root file system (bzroot).  Note: when it's loading bzroot the progress dots don't appear - let it sit - after a few seconds you'll see the linux kernel take off.

 

Once you're booted into unRaid bring up the webGui and open Settings/Network Settings and set up the bridge.  Clicking 'Help' on the menu bar will bring up some info for you; pay attention if you have multiple ethernet ports.  If you name your bridge "xenbr0" you typically won't have to change the 'vif' statement in VM config files, so go ahead and name it that.

 

Now let's open the Shares page and create a cache-only share name "Xen" for our Xen images (you do have a cache disk right? if not pick an array disk and set up the share with only that disk included).  Alternately you can just open a telnet session and type:

 

mkdir /mnt/cache/Xen

 

Next let's create a

stacklet

subdirectory and download an Ubuntu image with xfce desktop from the stacklet website:

 

mkdir /mnt/cache/Xen/stacklet
cd /mnt/cache/Xen/stacklet
wget ftp://ftp.stacklet.com/archive/x86-64/Ubuntu/13.04/ubuntu.13-04.xfce.x86-64.20130424.img.tar.bz2

When this finishes, unpack it:

 

tar -xf ubuntu.13-04.xfce.x86-64.20130424.img.tar.bz2

 

This will unpack two files, the "disk image" file:

ubuntu.13-04.xfce.x86-64.20130424.img

and Xen configuration file:

ubuntu.13-04.xfce.x86-64.20130424.pygrub.cfg

 

The disk image file is a partition-less 10GB disk image (most of it is unused space).  You can look at it by mounting with loopback if you want.  Here is how you would do it (but don't do this right now):

mkdir /x
mount -o loop ubuntu.13-04.xfce.x86-64.20130424.img /x
ls /x
umount /x

 

If you look at the config file you'll see that it's telling Xen to look for the VM disk image file in

/var/stacklet

but that is not where we are storing our image files.  There are two ways to fix this:

a) edit the cfg file and change the path form

/var/stacklet

to

/mnt/cache/Xen/stacklet

, or

b) create a symlink in

/var

like this:

ln -s /mnt/cache/Xen/stacklet /var

Of course you will have to create the symlink again each time you boot unRaid (or maybe put in the "go" file).

 

Now that everything is in place, it's time to create and start the VM.  This is done using the

xl

command:

 

xl create ubuntu.13-04.xfce.x86-64.20130424.pygrub.cfg -c

 

After typing this you should see your telnet window switch to being the console of the new VM (that's what the

 -c

option does).  You should see a "grub" boot menu displayed with a count down.  Just hit Enter to make it gittyup, upon which you'll see the Ubuntu linux booting.  When it's done you'll be left with a login prompt.

 

Now let's connect to the VM using vnc.  First thing to do is login to the Ubuntu console: username "root", password "password".  Now type this command:

 

vncserver :1

 

This starts a vnc server running on the Ubuntu VM.  The first time it starts it will ask you for a password to use on the vnc client.  Also you should look at the IP address assigned (via dhcp) using the 'ifconfig' command.

 

Now fire up your vnc client (I use tightvnc on windows).  Connect to the Ubuntu IP address and specify port 5901.  If all goes well it will prompt you to enter the password and then you should see the Ubuntu xfce desktop!

 

There are a few ways to shut down the VM:

a) via xfce desktop "shutdown"

b) type

poweroff

via VM console

c) via unRaid console: type

xl list

to see list of VM's, then

xl shutdown <ID>

 

Obviously this is just proof of concept but your Ubuntu VM is completely functional.  There are many more things to consider as we move forward such as PCI passthrough, connecting to unRaid storage, etc.

[SchoolBusDriver]

Great Work Tom!

[limetech]

Great Work Tom!

LOL we'll see 

[limetech]

I should add: If you don't care about Xen - then you can just select the first option in the syslinux boot menu and boot the unRaid kernel normally.

 

Also, you might notice the download size is considerably larger.  This is due to the addition of the various Xen tool chains (some of which I might delete before 'final'), and some additional packages, in particular python. Python itself is 85MB, which is larger, by far, than every other component.

 

Question to you python experts out there: what can I "prune" that is unneeded?

[mikefallen]

appreciate the hard work and communication tom, recently purchased another PRO licence to support your dev

 

 

Keep it up 

[WeeboTech]

Also, you might notice the download size is considerably larger.  This is due to the addition of the various Xen tool chains (some of which I might delete before 'final'), and some additional packages, in particular python. Python itself is 85MB, which is larger, by far, than every other component.

 

 

Can we run pkgremove on the python module to keep the size down?

Is there some list that can be provided so we can run removepkg on the list to lighten the footprint?

 

 

 

 

 

[jumperalex]

Epic!

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

 

[jphipps]

In the readme.txt it has copying:

 

syslinux/syslinux.cfg

syslinux/mboot.c32

 

Should that be copy the syslinux.cfg into the /boot/ and mboot.c32 into /boot/syslinux/?

 

I copied them both into the syslinux/, but I don't get the menu for Xen and then noticed the exisitng syslinux.cfg is in /boot.

[limetech]

In the readme.txt it has copying:

 

syslinux/syslinux.cfg

syslinux/mboot.c32

 

Should that be copy the syslinux.cfg into the /boot/ and mboot.c32 into /boot/syslinux/?

 

I copied them both into the syslinux/, but I don't get the menu for Xen and then noticed the exisitng syslinux.cfg is in /boot.

You're best off preserving your 'config' directory & doing a fresh install.

[limetech]

appreciate the hard work and communication tom, recently purchased another PRO licence to support your dev

 

 

Keep it up 

Thank you!

[limetech]

Epic!

 

That's a good way to put it 

[limetech]

Also, you might notice the download size is considerably larger.  This is due to the addition of the various Xen tool chains (some of which I might delete before 'final'), and some additional packages, in particular python. Python itself is 85MB, which is larger, by far, than every other component.

 

 

Can we run pkgremove on the python module to keep the size down?

Is there some list that can be provided so we can run removepkg on the list to lighten the footprint?

 

See attached.  This is a list generated on the 'bzroot' using:

du -h | sort -hr

list.txt

[dirtysanchez]

Awesome!  Loving the progress!

 

Considering the Seahawks were robbed in Super Bowl XL, I cool with them being gifted another chance!  Go Seahawks!

[tallnerd1985]

For us weirdos that run our unRaid headless with no monitor, mouse or keyboard hooked up, what can we edit to default to the Xen/unRaid OS during boot?

 

Is it as easy as opening the syslinux.cfg file and cutting and pasting the labels in different order?

[peter_sm]

You can move  menu default  so it looks like this

 

label Xen/unRAID OS
  menu default
  kernel /syslinux/mboot.c32
  append /xen dom0_mem=2097152 --- /bzimage --- /bzroot

 

//Peter

[bmfrosty]

See attached.  This is a list generated on the 'bzroot' using:

du -h | sort -hr

 

sort -hr works?  Why doesn't anyone ever tell me these things?

 

So used to du -b | sort -nr.....damn.

 

Oh.  Loading up Beta3 tomorrow.

[WeeboTech]

Looks like you installed perl too. I can't complain too much. I was thinking of asking for that.

[NAS]

Looks like you installed perl too. I can't complain too much. I was thinking of asking for that.

 

For a couple of reasons but the final straw was it allows unRAID to have ca-certificates installed and working.

 

I have not tested this yet but you will probably find that wget will work without --no-cert-check now. If it does all plugin devs should remove that switch from their scripts for extra security.

 

If it doesnt report back to the SSL thread

 

...... and beside all that Perl FTW its awesome

 

Upate: Looks like I spoke too soon SSL still broken for me and we dont have "/usr/sbin/update-ca-certificates: No such file or directory" to fix it

 

[Harpz]

Great work tom really tempted to have a play now.

 

With regard to installing an OS on a vm will it always been done like this, Was under the impression that with xen we could point it  at a live CD image boot from that and in at all our OS.

 

Will xen always be set up via the command line or are you working on a gui for it also, like the vitrtualbox php interface?

 

I'm probably jumping the gun a bit and expecting to much at this early stage. Once again keep up the great work

[coppit]

I just finished upgrading my server yesterday, and didn't sleep well last night. Now I know why. Subconsciously I knew beta3 was out!

[jevans04]

I followed Tom's instructions and it worked PERFECTLY!

 

[jowi]

Can someone explain WHAT this is exactly?

 

Is this unraid running/hosting a vm where a linux distri is running in?

 

Or is this a server booting in Xen (?) and Xen is running/hosting 2 vm's, one with unraid and the other with a linux distri?

[peter_sm]

Now we need some guideline to set up a VM from scratch

 

1: Create an image

2: install for example Arch(ISO) to the image.

4:Create a config file for xen to start VM

3: Connect to the VM

 

 

[meep]

Does this release have support for pci-back, pci-stub or another means of implementing pci passthrough?

 

From tom's notes, it appears maybe not?

 

Thanks

[johnodon]

Can someone explain WHAT this is exactly?

 

Is this unraid running/hosting a vm where a linux distri is running in?

 

Or is this a server booting in Xen (?) and Xen is running/hosting 2 vm's, one with unraid and the other with a linux distri?

 

unRAID is the host OS and has Xen enabled.  In Tom's example, Xen is hosting an Ubuntu guest VM (which is shown in jevans04 post above).

 

John