I  wanted to do a fresh install of Chimaera from my Beowulf set up and used the debootstrap method to do it. The installation went very smoothly, apart from errors on my part, which I have edited out!

/etc/xen-tools/xen-tools.conf is well commented. The options, which I have set, look like this :-

# grep -v '^#' xen-tools.conf | grep '.'

Now need to add chimaera to the known suites.

If you have not done this before, then you need to set up devuan.d in /usr/share/xen-tools, see

https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?pid=13368#p13368

but you will now need to add chimaera :-

cd /usr/share/xen-tools
ln -s devuan.d chimaera.d

I think this is a new step for debootstrap :-

cd /usr/share/debootstrap/scripts
ln -s ceres chimaera

The configuration should now be ok, so get on and install it!

cd /etc/xen
xen-create-image --hostname chimaera

This took about 6 minutes to install chimeara.

lvs includes the info :-

lvs
  LV             VG   Attr       LSize   Pool Origin Data%  Meta%  Move Log Cpy%Sync Convert
   ...
  chimaera-disk  HDD0 -wi-a-----  20.00g                                                    
  chimaera-swap  HDD0 -wi-a-----   4.00g                                                    
   ...

And the file /etc/xen/chimaera.cfg has been created. The new VM can now be booted.

cd /etc/xen
xl create chimaera.cfg ; xl console chimaera

Which boots nicely to the login prompt. Log in as root.

apt update
apt full-upgrade

This had nothing to do, although it could not find chimaera-security, un-surprisingly!

When I tried, it was not able to install vnc4server or gksu. The later is to be expected.
vnc4server has been replaced by tigervnc-standalone-server.

apt install task-lxqt-desktop synaptic tigervnc-standalone-server

Need to answer the questions to configure the keyboard.
Then install some of my favourite things.

apt install task-british-desktop rxvt-unicode claws-mail xauth

And set up a user

addgroup --gid 1026 user1
adduser --uid 1026 --gid 1026 user1

su - user1
mkdir .vnc
cd .vnc
cat << 'EOF' >> vnc.conf
# This file, $(HOME)/.vnc/vnc.conf will be sourced after /etc/vnc.conf,
# so values can be
# overwritten on a per-user basis. If you want to reactivate the default
# value here, you have to specify an undef value. For example, $fontPath
# will set to the default value after
#
# $fontPath = "/foo";
# $fontPath = undef;

# set up the screen size which you would like
$geometry = "1900x1200";

# Tell vncserver to accept connections from addresses other than localhost
$localhost = "no";
EOF

In an earlier version, above, I failed to quote the 'EOF' after cat, which does not pass through the variables! Unfortunately I am unable to go back and edit it.

Start up the VNC server as the user.

vncserver

You will have to enter a new VNC password.

back on Dom0 as the user

vncviewer chimaera:1

You will have to enter the VNC password and your new session should display.

Use synaptic to install openbox and select it in the LXQt Session Settings preferences, if that is what you would like.
The file system looks like this :-

df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev            940M     0  940M   0% /dev
tmpfs           198M  112K  198M   1% /run
/dev/xvda2       20G  4.0G   15G  22% /
tmpfs           5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
tmpfs           1.2G     0  1.2G   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs           198M  8.0K  198M   1% /run/user/1026

To use chimeara normally, as user on Dom0

ssh -L 5901:localhost:5901 chimaera

on chimeara

vncserver

as user on Dom0 in another window

vncviewer :1

give the password and there it is!

I have managed to install Beowulf under Xen using the netinstall iso,
devuan_beowulf_3.0.0_netinstall-amd64.iso

After some intial difficulty with partitioning the disk used by Xen
I now have it running.

I had already allocated two chunks of file space using lvm. On
my machine these were :-

As root check the config is set up :-

cd /etc/xen
cat net.cfg

With this file set up and the iso mounted we can boot the netinstaller, as root :-

xl create net.cfg -c

select languages etc.
set up host name etc.
For the disk set up I selected "manual"
The disk had been used and I set up partition 1 on xvda2
as ext4 for /
This worked.

If it doesn't work try this ...
disk set-up choose <Go Back>
we get the main menu, choose "Execute a shell"

fdisk -l
mkfs.ext4 -n -L root /dev/xvda2
mkfs.ext4 -L root /dev/xvda2
mkswap -L swap /dev/xvda1

exit back to the menu.
select partition the disk and select manual.

Continue here ...
select the partition under /dev/xvda2
set up the one partition on /dev/xvda2 as ext4 to use as /
Finish partitioning and write changes to disk
continues to install base system
it couldn't read the CD, tell it to continue
it then goes on to select a repository
and continues
Software selection, I chose
LXQt, SSH and Console productivity
check it has got going
go and make a cup of tea
I then selected openrc as the init system, because I have been playing with it.

Install grub fails
continue with no grub
finishes up and shutsdown

Back on Dom0

xl list
xl destroy net
xl list

Comment out the boot info for the iso and
set up the kernel and ramdisk info in the config file

and comment out the CD/iso.

Now we can boot the installed OS

xl create net.cfg
xl console net

and it boots. So, it doesn't need grub to boot, as you have
pointed Xen at the kernel and initrd.

As yourself run :-

vncviewer :0 &

You should have the Lightdm login screen.
There is a problem with the vnc cursor getting its units
wrong and moving faster than the real cursor, depending
on how large you have made your VNC screen!

Could try :-

grub-install /dev/xvda2

except that grub-install isn't there!

Running Synaptic :-
Only grub-common has been installed.
install grub-pc

but the three packages are installed.

grub-install /dev/xvda2

this fails

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

This works.

Shutdown and edit the Xen config file to enable PyGrub.

then :-

xl create net.cfg -c

This then boots as expected. It does set the screen to 24x80 but you
can choose your kernel etc. If all is well and you just want to
boot the standard kernel use this and avoid the 24x80 screen :-

xl create net.cfg
xl console net

To get VNC working properly (i.e. with the cursor behaving) :-

On the new VM (net)

apt install vnc4server

Then from Dom0 as yourself :-

ssh -L 5901:localhost:5901 net

and on "net" (DomU)

vncserver -geometry 1600x1000

leave this window running to keep the ssh tunnel open.

and back on the host OS (Dom0)

vncviewer :1

You should have a nice big screen where the cursor works
properly and where you can copy and paste with Dom0 windows.
It does not test the lightdm login screen, as you are already
logged in when you run vncserver.

Having got a memory stick working I tried a portable DVD drive

usbip port
Imported USB devices
====================
Port 00: <Port in Use> at High Speed(480Mbps)
       LaCie, Ltd : unknown product (059f:0643)
       1-1 -> usbip://192.168.42.9:3240/1-2
           -> remote bus/dev 001/005

This worked and I was able to play an audio CD through VLC, once I had added myself to the group "cdrom". "eject" also worked.

Later I tried to put a video DVD in... Unfortunately this hung Dom0!

The DVD was mounted in Dom0 and then an info request came from DomU and then an attach request. This attachment seemed to complete and then there was a "general protection fault: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI" followed by a traceback from usbip-host on Dom0 and then the kernel went into a loop of tracebacks. Time to hit the power switch...

I spotted a USB bluetooth dongle for £1 in a charity shop, so I bought it. My Dom0 machine hasn't got bluetooth installed, but I attached it through to the Beowulf DomU and bluetoothctl show returns some plauseable looking data. I have yet to work out how to get it to actually do anything useful, despite having read man bluetoothctl!

bluetoothctl
Agent registered
[bluetooth]# help

is more informative, but bluetoothctl seems to have to be run as root to actually report anything.

[bluetooth]# discoverable on
Failed to set discoverable on: org.bluez.Error.Failed

The Bluetooth dongle could be seen, but I was not sure what to do with it. Connman was also able to see the dongle.

The next thing I tried was an external USB disk drive, a Samsung M3 Portable, which is USB 3 and, I recall 2TB. Unfortunately this did not work. I seemed that it was possible to connect it through to DomU but then it disconnects with the error :-

[ 5286.237272] usb usb2-port1: Cannot enable. Maybe the USB cable is bad?

USBIP seems to work in the general case, but some more extreme uses cause it problems. I think that it was problems with USBIP rather than Xen.

Geoff

The next thing I wanted to try was using USB devices in DomU.

The Xen's documentation on USB PassThrough
https://wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/Xen_USB_Passthrough
seems to hint that it doesn't work and if you are not able to use PCI PassThrough to give an entire USB hub to DomU then you could use client/server software to pass the USB control over the network connection, mentioning USBIP. I was unable to get the Xen USB PassThrough to work.

Some of the USBIP documentation seems to be a bit out of date.
https://sourceforge.net/p/usbip/git-win … ace/README

man usbip
usbip help

but with a bit of trial and error it works quite well. It is not restricted to Xen or VMs and should work between real machines as well.

On Dom0 (the host) install usbip:-

apt-get install usbip

modprobe usbip-core
modprobe usbip-host
usbipd -D
usbip list -l
 - busid 2-1 (046d:c52b)
   Logitech, Inc. : Unifying Receiver (046d:c52b)

 - busid 2-2 (0781:5151)
   SanDisk Corp. : Cruzer Micro Flash Drive (0781:5151)

usbip bind --busid 2-2
usbip: info: bind device on busid 2-2: complete

then on beowulf (DomU - the client) install usbip

apt-get install usbip

modprobe usbip-core
modprobe vhci_hcd

this only seems to work with the numeric address of the server

usbip list -r 192.168.42.9
Exportable USB devices
======================
 - 192.168.42.9
        2-2: SanDisk Corp. : Cruzer Micro Flash Drive (0781:5151)
           : /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb2/2-2
           : (Defined at Interface level) (00/00/00)

usbip attach -r 192.168.42.9 -b 2-2

I was then asked for authentication as Spacefm popped up. There was some confusion with one window complaining about another authentication in progress. I think this is a conflict between gvfs and Spacefm both trying to mount the device, with gvfs winning. I dismissed that one and authenticated as me and Spacefm had the usb memory stick mounted via gvfsd-fuse plus the 2 partitions displayed. I could unmount the gvfs in Spacefm and then unmount sda1 and sda2 (my 'real' disk is xvda2)

usbip port
Imported USB devices
====================
Port 00: <Port in Use> at High Speed(480Mbps)
       SanDisk Corp. : Cruzer Micro Flash Drive (0781:5151)
       1-1 -> usbip://192.168.42.9:3240/2-2
           -> remote bus/dev 002/005

usbip detach -p 0
usbip: info: Port 0 is now detached!

I have now removed gvfs and installed udevil. There is now no conflict over authentication. I can now mount and unmount the partitions at will in Spacefm.

Using usbip attach and detach seems to be like plugging and unplugging the memory stick.

usbip attach -r 192.168.42.9 -b 2-2
lsusb
Bus 016 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 015 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 014 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 013 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 012 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 011 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 009 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 010 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0781:5151 SanDisk Corp. Cruzer Micro Flash Drive
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

usbip detach -p 0
usbip: info: Port 0 is now detached!

Back on Dom0 (the server) :-

usbip unbind -b 2-2
usbip: info: unbind device on busid 2-2: complete

and the device is again available on Dom0.

I have only tested this with a memory stick so far, but will try some other devices.

Geoff

Having got Beowulf running as a Xen guest VM (DomU), I wanted to check that things were working properly. I therefore needed to get the audio working. I added myself to the group 'audio' on DomU with something like

addgroup user1 audio

This does not take effect until re-logging in but it may even be necessary to reboot DomU.

I tried the emulated sound using qemu, so on Dom0 :-

$ qemu-system-i386 -soundhw help
Valid sound card names (comma separated):
sb16        Creative Sound Blaster 16
es1370      ENSONIQ AudioPCI ES1370
ac97        Intel 82801AA AC97 Audio
adlib       Yamaha YM3812 (OPL2)
gus         Gravis Ultrasound GF1
cs4231a     CS4231A
hda         Intel HD Audio
pcspk       PC speaker

I actually have an Intel card, so went for 'hda' and later tried 'all'.
I Tried adding this to the beowulf.cfg

soundhw     = 'hda'

which should use qemu to emulate a card, but this did not work. I then tried

vsnd        = [
                 [ 'CARD, short-name=Main',
                   'PCM, name=Main',
                       'STREAM, id=0, type=p',
                       'STREAM, id=1, type=c',
                 ]
              ]   

this still produces :-

aplay -l
aplay: device_list:272: no soundcards found...

The next thing to try was passing the hardware sound card through to DomU.

https://wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/Xen_PCI_Passthrough

On Dom0

lspci|grep -i audio

notice which is the sound card you want to use. Mine was 00:1b.0

modprobe xen-pciback
xl pci-assignable-add 00:1b.0
xl list
xl pci-attach beowulf '00:1b.0'

The DomU kernel does pick up the newly attached pci stuff without a reboot.

aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/*

This now works and both vlc and Firefox play stuff nicely on DomU,
but, of course, Dom0 can no longer access the sound card...

aplay -l
aplay: device_list:270: no soundcards found...

However, the passing through, by this method, is not persistant, so after a re-boot should revert to normal. But you can also revert manually :-

# xl pci-list beowulf
Vdev Device
00.0 0000:00:1b.0

# xl pci-assignable-remove -r '00:1b.0'
libxl: info: libxl_pci.c:844:libxl__device_pci_assignable_remove: Rebinding to driver at /sys/bus/pci/drivers/snd_hda_intel

and Dom0 can now see the card again

$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC892 Analog [ALC892 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: ALC892 Digital [ALC892 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

The sound works well in DomU and the set up is ok for testing purposes. It is possible to make the set-up persistant as described at the URL above.

I did spot a "Howto" using Jack between Dom0 and DomU to get sound working in both, although I have not tried it.
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic. … 2&t=160527

Geoff

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

(selecting "no") and then

apt-get dist-upgrade

(again selecting "no")

apt-get upgrade wanted to do what I wanted

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
  libpolkit-agent-1-0 libpolkit-backend-1-0 libpolkit-gobject-1-0 policykit-1
The following packages will be upgraded:
...

while dist-upgrade reported the following

The following packages will be REMOVED:
  libpolkit-backend-elogind-1-0 task-lxqt-desktop

as well as offering all the stuff I wanted for autoremove.

I let apt-get upgrade run and all seems well. I assume that this is because it corresponds to aptitude safe-upgrade rather than any special magic in aptitude! I think that aptitude was useful for sorting out the main install.

Geoff

What I really wanted to do was to try out Beowulf, installing it from scratch. The easiest way to install it under Xen is with xen-tools using debootstrap. I am assuming the modifications to the set up listed at the start of this rambling thread, including having set-up xen-tools.conf to install ASCII.

cd /etc/xen-tools

edit xen-tools.conf and change the distribution name to beowulf

xen-create-image --hostname beowulf

Use of uninitialized value within %DIST in pattern match (m//) at /usr/bin/xen-create-image line 1803.

But seems to run ok.
Give it the new root password and it's all done.

xl create beowulf.cfg -c

boots ok but for a pause for random, then login prompt appears.

root@beowulf:~# df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev            953M     0  953M   0% /dev
tmpfs           199M   60K  199M   1% /run
/dev/xvda2       20G  653M   18G   4% /
tmpfs           5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
tmpfs           808M     0  808M   0% /run/shm
root@beowulf:~# swapon -s
Filename				Type		Size	Used	Priority
/dev/xvda1                             	partition	2097148	0	-2
root@beowulf:~# uname -a
Linux beowulf 4.19.0-1-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.19.12-1 (2018-12-22) x86_64 GNU/Linux

This is a fairly minimal installation, it uses 653M of dik. I now want to install LXQt

apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade

root@beowulf:~# apt-cache policy policykit-1
policykit-1:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 0.105-23
  Version table:
     0.105-23 500
        500 http://deb.devuan.org/merged beowulf/main amd64 Packages

Following the advice from Fred43 in the Beowulf thread :-

https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?id=2301

cd /etc/apt/preferences.d

edit avoid_some_beo

  Package: policykit-1
  Pin: release a=beowulf
  Pin-Priority: -1

  Package: libpolkit-agent-1-0
  Pin: release a=beowulf
  Pin-Priority: -1 

  Package: libpolkit-backend-1-0
  Pin: release a=beowulf
  Pin-Priority: -1

  Package: libpolkit-gobject-1-0
  Pin: release a=beowulf
  Pin-Priority: -1

cd ..

edit sources.list and add in :-

#
# ASCII for policykit-1 etc
#
deb     http://deb.devuan.org/merged     ascii main  

This on its own did not seem to be good enough

apt-get update
apt-get install policykit-1

pulls in the other ones listed above and someother stuff, but they are the wrong versions, from Beowulf.

root@beowulf:/etc/apt# apt-cache policy policykit-1
policykit-1:
  Installed: 0.105-23
  Candidate: 0.105-23
  Version table:
 *** 0.105-23 500
        500 http://deb.devuan.org/merged beowulf/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     0.105-18+devuan2.11 500
        500 http://deb.devuan.org/merged ascii/main amd64 Packages

apt-get purge policykit-1
apt-get autoremove

As I didn't trust myself to type in the version numbers correctly, I used the "/ascii" method to get the right versions

apt-get install policykit-1/ascii libpolkit-agent-1-0/ascii libpolkit-backend-1-0/ascii libpolkit-gobject-1-0/ascii

Selected version '0.105-18+devuan2.11' (Devuan:2.0/stable [amd64]) for 'policykit-1'
Selected version '0.105-18+devuan2.11' (Devuan:2.0/stable [amd64]) for 'libpolkit-agent-1-0'
Selected version '0.105-18+devuan2.11' (Devuan:2.0/stable [all]) for 'libpolkit-backend-1-0'
Selected version '0.105-18+devuan2.11' (Devuan:2.0/stable [all]) for 'libpolkit-gobject-1-0'
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  elogind libelogind0
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  libpam-elogind

It does install a range of other stuff but looked ok.

edit sources.list and comment out the ascii line

apt-get update
apt-get install task-lxqt-desktop task-british-desktop

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 task-lxqt-desktop : Depends: libpolkit-backend-elogind-1-0 but it is not installable

put back the ascii repositary and try again but specify /ascii

apt-get aptitude
apt-get install libpolkit-backend-elogind-1-0/ascii libpolkit-gobject-elogind-1-0/ascii

This was ok, but then the following fails.

apt-get install task-lxqt-desktop task-british-desktop

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 task-lxqt-desktop : Depends: policykit-1 but it is not going to be installed
                     Depends: libpolkit-backend-elogind-1-0 but it is not going to be installed

They are on the ascii versions. I read that aptitude is better at conflict resolution, so tried

aptitude install task-lxqt-desktop task-british-desktop
 :
 :
 The following packages will be upgraded:
  libpolkit-agent-1-0 libpolkit-gobject-1-0 
2 packages upgraded, 1257 newly installed, 2 to remove and 2 not upgraded.
Need to get 861 MB/861 MB of archives. After unpacking 3212 MB will be used.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 libx11-6 : Depends: libx11-data but it is not going to be installed
 libpolkit-backend-elogind-1-0 : Depends: libpolkit-gobject-1-0 (= 0.105-18+devuan2.11) but 0.105-23 is to be installed
 policykit-1 : Depends: libpolkit-agent-1-0 (= 0.105-18+devuan2.11) but 0.105-23 is to be installed
               Depends: libpolkit-gobject-1-0 (= 0.105-18+devuan2.11) but 0.105-23 is to be installed
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

     Keep the following packages at their current version:
1)     gir1.2-polkit-1.0 [Not Installed]                  
2)     libpolkit-agent-1-0 [0.105-18+devuan2.11 (now)]    
3)     libpolkit-gobject-1-0 [0.105-18+devuan2.11 (now)]  
4)     libx11-data [2:1.6.7-1 (now, testing)]             
5)     system-config-printer [Not Installed]              

     Leave the following dependencies unresolved:         
6)     lxqt-config recommends system-config-printer       
7)     task-lxqt-desktop recommends system-config-printer 

Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?] y

This then proceeds and needs the keyboard setting up. I think that everything looks ok.

apt-get install vnc4server rxvt-unicode-256color

from the host machine :-

ssh -L 5901:localhost:5901 beowulf
vncserver -geometry 1260x960

then back on the host machine :-

vncviewer :1

and it is running LXQt ;-)

cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0
devpts          /dev/pts        devpts  rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=620 0  0
/dev/xvda1 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/xvda2 / ext4 noatime,nodiratime,errors=remount-ro 0 1

synaptic runs and I can install openbox and spacefm

Alternatively try this without running the vnc stream over ssh :-

ssh beowulf
vncserver -geometry 1260x960 -localhost no

then back on the host machine

vncviewer beowulf:1

You can try ssh -f which closes the link after running the command :-

ssh -f beowulf vncserver -geometry 1260x960 -localhost no

you may be asked for a password

vncviewer beowulf:1 &

you may be asked for the vnc connection password

This runs but seems to bugger up authentication!!! I can't run synaptic while leaving open the ssh link allows it to ask for a password in a separate X window via vnc.
I think that using ssh -f ends up closing the session on beowulf, which then interfers with the authentication process.

apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade

produces a very long list of packages which can be removed by autoremove as well as :-

The following packages will be REMOVED:
  libpolkit-backend-elogind-1-0 task-lxqt-desktop

I therefore tried using aptitude instead.

aptitude update
aptitude safe-upgrade

this looks ok and ends :-

Current status: 4 (-71) upgradable.

I can still run synaptic, so the authentication still works and reports :-

Installed (upgradable)

libpolkit-agent-1-0
libpolkit-backend-1-0
libpolkit-gobject-1-0
policykit-1

which is what I think I want!

Some minor tidying-up includes using Spacefm instead of PCmanfm :-

edit /etc/xdg/autostart/lxqt-desktop.desktop

change pcmanfm-qt into spacefm

Although gksu has been removed in Beowulf, lxqt-sudo works instead.

So far it looks good, although I am using aptitude for updates rather than apt-get.

Geoff

Having tried the Live iso, I then wanted to try the Netinst iso.

I download devuan_ascii_2.0.0_amd64_netinst.iso

mount -t iso9660 /home/user1/src/devuan_ascii_2.0.0_amd64_netinst.iso /mnt/inst_iso/

and then set up the disk space for the VM

lvcreate -n net-disk -L 20g HDD0
lvcreate -n net-swap -L 4g HDD0
mkfs.ext4 -L root /dev/HDD0/net-disk
mkswap -L swap /dev/HDD0/net-swap

cd /etc/xen

and set up the cfg file net.cfg

#
# Configuration file for the Xen instance net for a Devuan iso
#

kernel = "/mnt/inst_iso/install.amd/vmlinuz"
ramdisk = "/mnt/inst_iso/install.amd/initrd.gz"

# bootloader = '/usr/lib/xen-4.8/bin/pygrub'
# root        = '/dev/xvda2 ro'

extra  = "console=hvc0"

#
#  Disk device(s).
#

disk        = [
                  'format=raw, vdev=xvdc, access=r, devtype=cdrom, target=/home/user1/src/devuan_ascii_2.0.0_amd64_netinst.iso',
                  'format=raw, vdev=xvda2, access=w, target=/dev/HDD0/net-disk',
                  'format=raw, vdev=xvda1, access=w, target=/dev/HDD0/net-swap',
              ]

#
#  Local set-up
#
#   Limits

vcpus       = '2'
memory      = '2048'

#
#  Hostname
#
name        = 'net'

#
#  Networking
#

vif         = [ 'mac=00:16:3E:00:00:06, bridge=xenbr0' ]

#
#  Behaviour
#
on_poweroff = 'destroy'
on_reboot   = 'restart'
on_crash    = 'restart'

xl create net.cfg -c

This boots straight into the installation.

This runs nicely until the disk set up.
I would like to be able to tell you what I did to get it working, but I went round so many times that I am not sure what the magic incantation was. I did go back to the main menu and selected the shell. I was then able to run

mkfs.ext4 -L root /dev/xvda2
mkswap -L swap /dev/xvda1

Exiting the shell gets back to the main menu at the disk option and going round several more times it eventually worked. It wanted to chop up the main bit of disk for root and swap and not use the disk I wanted to use for swap. It was probably just a matter of getting the settings just right, but it was quite hard work. If the settings were not correct, then it would fail to set up the partitions.

Once the disk set-up was ok it went on and installed the base system and then went on to let me select what extra software I wanted:-

Devuan DE
LXQt
SSH server
std sys utils

But, what is Console productivity?

It went through the installion, but after installing LibreOffice-common got

                     Installation step failed  
     │ An installation step failed. You can try to run the failing item  │
     │ again from the menu, or skip it and choose something else. The    │
     │ failing step is: Select and install software                      │

After escaping out to the shell and then coming back to the menu, I re-ran "select and install software"

cleaning up...

and it seemed ok, but then

Installation step failed (grub)
no boot installed.

Dropping back to the shell again I could see :-

# df -h
Filesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
none                    199.6M     36.0K    199.6M   0% /run
devtmpfs                972.1M         0    972.1M   0% /dev
/dev/xvda2               19.6G      4.0G     14.6G  21% /target
/dev/xvda2               19.6G      4.0G     14.6G  21% /dev/.static/dev
devtmpfs                972.1M         0    972.1M   0% /target/dev
/dev/xvdc               298.0M    298.0M         0 100% /target/media/cdrom0
/dev/xvdc               298.0M    298.0M         0 100% /cdrom

While I was there I quickly edited inittab to set up the virtual console :-

cd /target/etc
cat << EOF >> inittab
vc:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 hvc0
EOF

and then to sort out the grub situation I copied over /boot/grub from my earlier effort "inst" to "net" and
edited the uuid to be /dev/xvda2 and checked the kernel version number v. carefully!!!

coming back to the menu, it then wanted to reboot. I let it do this, but then from the host I killed it off :-

xl destroy net

After editing /etc/xen/net.cfg to boot off the disk rather than the iso, by commenting out the kernel and ramdisk lines along with the iso disk entry and uncommenting the bootloader and root line.

xl create net.cfg -c

booted correctly and I can login on the console as and run apt-get :-

apt-get install vnc4server
apt-get install grub-pc

I had to tell grub-pc to set up /dev/xvda2 which seems to have sorted the boot set-up

One way to access the new VM (called "net") is :-

ssh -L 5901:localhost:5901 net

and then on "net"

vncserver -geometry 1260x960

adjusting the size to suit, but possibly a little smaller than the clear area on your screen, to avoid getting scroll bars, etc.

Back on the host you connect over the ssh link with

vncviewer :1

This seems to work nicely and the keyboard is set up correctly and vnc works smoothly.

Geoff

Geoff

mkswap -c /dev/xvda1

which provided the UUID. This could then be edited into /etc/fstab to replace /swapfile. This was activated with

swapon -a
swapoff /swapfile
swapon -s
rm /swapfile

On later runs through the install, it picked up on the swap space.

One other problem I have encountered was the keyboard localisation. I told it to use en-GB with a 105 key KB, but after the installation it does not work as expected, including the absence of "#" and "|" which can make life a bit tricky. On the host machine, where it works, I find :-

$ setxkbmap -query
rules:      evdev
model:      pc105
layout:     gb

while on the guest which doesn't work correctly I find :-

$ setxkbmap -query
rules:      evdev
model:      pc105
layout:     gb

I wonder whether this is related to the vncserver being run under qemu, which was unable to find en-gb.

Geoff

Geoff

The installation process did not seem to follow the new (?) guide :-

https://devuan.org/os/documentation/ins … stall.html

Maybe that guide was not from the live iso. Now I know how to do it, I may have a few more goes at installation, including the ncurses interface.

Geoff

That guide is for the classic Debian installer which most of our isos use.   Only the -live isos use the refracta installer.  We are currently working on a similar guide for the refractainstaller.

Geoff

https://devuan.org/os/documentation/ins … stall.html

Maybe that guide was not from the live iso. Now I know how to do it, I may have a few more goes at installation, including the ncurses interface.

Geoff

The next thing to do is to reconfigure the configuration file, /etc/xen/inst.cfg, to boot off the disk. Instead of booting from a copy of the kernel in the hosts address space, we use pygrub to look through the guest's installed grub set-up. It is also necessary to specify where root is found. I have also removed any vnc options as vnc doesn't seem to take any notice of them :-

#
# Configuration file for the Xen instance inst for a Devuan iso
#

bootloader = '/usr/lib/xen-4.8/bin/pygrub'

# kernel = "/mnt/inst_iso/live/vmlinuz"
# ramdisk = "/mnt/inst_iso/live/initrd.img"
# extra  = "boot=live username=devuan console=hvc0"
extra  = "console=hvc0"

#
#  Disk device(s).
#
root        = '/dev/xvda2 ro'

disk        = [
#                  'format=raw, vdev=xvdc, access=r, devtype=cdrom, target=/archive/isos/Live/my-ascii-live.iso',
                  'format=raw, vdev=xvda2, access=w, target=/dev/HDD0/inst-disk',
                  'format=raw, vdev=xvda1, access=w, target=/dev/HDD0/inst-swap',
              ]

#
#  Local set-up
#
#   Limits

vcpus       = '2'
memory      = '2048'

#
#  Hostname
#
name        = 'inst'

#
#  Networking
#

vif         = [ 'mac=00:16:3E:00:00:04, bridge=xenbr0' ]

# Graphic display

vfb         = [ 'vnc = 1' ]

#
#  Behaviour
#
on_poweroff = 'destroy'
on_reboot   = 'restart'
on_crash    = 'restart'

This works reasonably well. There is no login prompt on the console, but I can connect as myself using vnc from the host

vncviewer :0

The vnc window opens with slim and I can log in as expected.

Geoff