VirtualBox/Preparing a disk image

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LiveOS image

Below are instructions for preparing a VirtualBox disk image from a SoaS iso image file. The process parallels the compressed LiveOS image used on Live CD and Live USB installations.


(Note: The SoaS .iso distribution also contains an installer for full, uncompressed, hard disc images of Fedora with the Sugar graphical interface. See Uncompressed, hard disc image below for instructions.)

Installing SoaS .iso image

  1. Create a new VM, choose a name, such as Mirabelle
  2. Choose Linux for the Operating System and Version Fedora (use 64 bit, if available)
  3. Choose Base Memory Size: 256 MB to match an XO-1, 512 or 1024 MB to match an XO-1.5
  4. Create a new virtual hard disk image with dynamically expanding storage of 2 GB
  5. Finish.
  6. Download the lastest SoaS, http://spins.fedoraproject.org/soas/#downloads, for Fedora 13.
  7. Mount the SoaS .iso image file as a CD-ROM in the newly created VM.
  8. Change the Network Attached to: Bridged Adapter (This allows for networking with the host computer.)
  9. Start the VM
  10. Enter an account name and startup Sugar.
  11. Open Terminal.
  12. su -
  13. parted
  14. mklabel msdos
    This makes a partition table.
  15. mkpart primary ext2 0 2048
    You will receive this message:
    Warning: The resulting partition is not properly aligned for best performance.
    Ignore/Cancel?
    Enter (I)gnore
  16. toggle 1 boot
  17. quit
  18. mke2fs /dev/sda1
  19. /LiveOS/livecd-iso-to-disk --overlay-size-mb 1024 --home-size-mb 200 --delete-home --unencrypted-home /dev/sr0 /dev/sda1
    (for earlier versions of SoaS
    Blueberry - use /media/soas-2-blueberry/LiveOS/livecd-iso-to-disk
    Strawberry - use /mnt/live/LiveOS/livecd-iso-to-disk)
    <Terminal log>
    • the --overlay-size-mb NNN and --home-size-mb NNN options creates space for persistence of changes on the disk; otherwise, a liveOS disk is read-only. See LiveOS image.

    The following optional parameters seem to be incompatible with soas-1-strawberry and soas-2-blueberry released versions. (The script completes successfully, but the virtual machine startup process has trouble finding the home directory and fails to complete.)
    • the --home-size-mb NNN option creates space for file storage in the /home/liveuser folder. (In the case where you you want to update the LiveOS image while keeping the user files, skip the new disk creation and parted steps, leave out the --home-size-mb NNN option at this step, and continue on.)
    • the --unencrypted-home option prevents password protection and encryption on the /home/liveuser folder. This releaves the overhead on the compressed SquashFS, and should be more robust to file system failures (outside of security).
    • the --delete-home option is used to avoid an error message while requesting both a new home (with --home-size-mb) and a persistent home (with --unencrypted-home). (You wouldn't use this option for the LiveOS upgrade case.)
  1. shutdown -h now

Installing VirtualBox Guest Additions

The VirtualBox Guest Additions requires installing DKMS and compiling virtual device drivers for the Linux kernel.

  1. Unmount CD/DVD in VirtualBox settings, select 'Empty' for the CD/DVD device under 'Attributes'
  2. Start the virtual machine
  3. Open Terminal
  4. su -
  1. Determine the kernel version,
    uname -a
    Linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.33.3-85.fc13.i686 #1 SMP Thu May 6 18:44:12 UTC 2010 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
  2. For SoaS-Mirabelle, the kernel is Linux-2.6.33.3-85.fc13, so specific kernel-headers and kernel-devel are needed:

    yum install kernel-headers-2.6.33.3-85.fc13 kernel-devel-2.6.33.3-85.fc13 dkms gcc
    (Other dependencies will be called into the installation.)
    <Successful Terminal log from 16 Aug 2010 with Fedora 32 bit>

  3. In the VirtualBox Guest 'Devices Menu', select 'Install Guest Additions...'
  4. mkdir /mnt/cdrom
  5. mount /dev/sr0 /mnt/cdrom/
  6. cd /mnt/cdrom/
  7. ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run

    You may check the consumption status of the overlay by executing,
    • dmsetup status
    reveals that 953440/2097152 (512-byte sectors) or 448 MB of the 1024 MB overlay file has been consumed by the installation process
    • If upgrading from one VirtualBox version to another, start with fresh virtual disks and machines built with the new versions to avoid breakage.
  8. reboot
    <Terminal log:>

Configure Screen

If you want to match the 16 bpp XO screen and a particular display size, you may

  1. Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf to match the following section:
    • 832x624 - matches default XO display proportions
    • 1200x900 - XO reflective resolution
# VirtualBox generated configuration file
# based on /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

Section "Monitor"
  Identifier   "Monitor[0]"
  ModelName    "VirtualBox Virtual Output"
  VendorName   "Sun Microsystems Inc"
EndSection

Section "Device"
  BoardName    "VirtualBox Graphics"
  Driver       "vboxvideo"
  Identifier   "Device[0]"
  VendorName   "Sun Microsystems Inc"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
  Identifier   "Screen[0]"
  Device       "Device[0]"
  Monitor      "Monitor[0]"
  DefaultDepth 16
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      16
    Modes      "832x624" "1200x900" "1024x768" "800x600"
  EndSubSection
EndSection

Clear user data

Finally,

  1. Open Terminal
  2. Terminal
  3. rm -rf ~/.sugar (if distributing image)
  4. su -
  5. shutdown -h now
  6. Now you can share the VDI file.

Backup discs

It would be wise to maintain a clone of your virtual disk image to restart if the working copy is damaged:

  1. From host command line (Windows cmd, or Linux terminal) See VirtualBox Help section 8.14.
    • VBoxManage clonehd <uuid>|<filename> <outputfile> [-format VDI|VMDK|VHD|RAW|<other>] [-remember]
  2. Reclone any virtual hard disks you would like to archive.

SSH connections

To enable SSH communications, we need to permit no passwords (to match the default Sugar configuration) in the ssh daemon configuration:

  1. in Terminal,
  2. su -
  3. vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config
    1. [add] PermitEmptyPasswords yes
    2. :wq <Enter>
  4. service sshd restart

One may also supply a password for the root user:

  1. su -
  2. passwd
    Changing password for user root.
    New password:
    Retype new password:
    passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.


Uncompressed, hard disc image

Start VirtualBox (version 3.2.10 used here).
  1. Click NEW "Welcome to New Virtual Machine Wizard"
  2. <Next> fill out: Name (soas-i386-20101025) ; Operating system(Linux); Version (Fedora)
  3. <Next> Base Memory Size
  4. <Next> Create new hard disk
  5. <Next> Storage Type (Dynamically expanding storage)
  6. <Next> Size (8.00 GB)
  7. <Finish>
Back on main Oracle VM VirtualBox screen
  1. Settings/Storage (CD Image0)CD/DVD Device: (Select your CD Host Drive-(sr0) with CD inserted
  2. <OK>
Start
SoaS will boot and run Sugar SoaS
Enter Name color
Enter Password ONE TIME then cancel next 6 times
Start Sugar-Terminal
su
liveinst
(Anaconda starts) Do normal HD install: Basic Storage Devices/ Reinitalize all/Host/TZ/Root Password/Use all Space/ Write Changes to Disk/ Install works to Completion.
"Congratulations, your Fedora Installation is complete" <Close> Quit sugar-terminal; Shutdown.
Back on main Oracle VM VirtualBox screen

Firstboot of new Virtual Machine

Settings/Storage; Host Drive: change to empty (You can also change boot order in Systems, if needed.)
Start HD goes to firstboot (Answer questions); then to gdm login, then to Sugar. Click to Change Color_____ (hit <Back> to change name)

Export your Appliance

File/Export Appliance (select soas-i386-20101025)<next> fill in Settings if you want to; <next> Export settings <Finish>

Congratulations, you have just created an importable/exportable appliance.

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