Category: Linux

I’ve recently upgraded another computer from Fedora 9 to Fedora 11, and I’ve decided to try the built-in [KVM](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernel-based_Virtual_Machine) (i.e. Applications -> System Tools -> [Virtual Machine Manager](http://virt-manager.et.redhat.com/)). I wanted a virtual machine that had bridged mode networking, but it wasn’t available by default. To get it as an option, I disabled SELinux (not sure if it was necessary), followed [some special instructions](http://wiki.libvirt.org/page/Networking#Fedora.2FRHEL_Bridging) to setup a bridged interface, and restarted my network and libvirtd.

Now I’ve got a working guest OS inside of KVM, and I like it. The guest OS feels snappy and responsive.

Update: KVM and the accompanying tools aren’t as mature as VirtualBox or VMWare. E.g. I didn’t see how to get my USB flash drive to be recognized by a KVM guest OS. At one point, I tried to use VirtualBox at the same time as KVM. VirtualBox told me I needed to disable the KVM kernel module before using VirtualBox.

Here’s my take on installing Fedora 11, which was released June 9, 2009. I chose not to do an upgrade as I often do. Instead, I did backup, followed by a fresh install, preserving my /home partition, but wiping out the other partitions. Then I used [`meld`](http://meld.sourceforge.net/) to restore my configuration files in /etc — such as ssh server keys, printer settings and file system mounts. I found that I had to use the kernel boot option `nomodeset` in order to avoid system lockups. Overall, I’ve been pleased with my Fedora 11 experience, despite the bumps.

Fedora 11 useful resources:

– [Release Notes](http://docs.fedoraproject.org/release-notes/f11/en-US/)
– [Common Bugs](http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Common_F11_bugs), with workarounds.
– [Fedora Guide](http://www.fedoraguide.info/), explaining how to configure a Fedora system.

Pre-install:

– `cp -a /etc /home/backup/etc`
– `cp -a /root /home/backup/etc`
– backup /home
– booted the LiveCD to make sure it would detect my hardware and run

Install

– I decided to preserve my partition layout, which isn’t the default option upon fresh install
– Didn’t delete my `/home` partition.
– Reformatted all other partitions, with “/” as ext4

Post-install:

– Had to enable eth0 in NetworkManager, and make “enabled” the default.
– `yum install -y meld nautilus-actions nautilus-open-terminal vim-X11 zsh screen mc rdesktop`
– `meld /home/backup/etc /etc`
– Restored /etc/ssh settings
– Restored /etc/cups printer settings
– Checked /etc/fstab differences
– Installed [NX Server](http://www.nomachine.com/)

Pleasurable:

– Bootup is very pleasant, and seems faster. 30 seconds boot. 17 seconds login. 14 second shutdown. This is on an AMD Athlon 2400 Mhz Sempron with an ATI video card.
– Artwork is top notch (backgrounds on login screen and default wallpaper)

Pain points:

– Unavailable extensions for Thunderbird 3.0
— Enigmail
– Unavailable extensions for Firefox 3.5
— Aardvark
— QuickProxy
– Computer locked up every few hours until I added `nomodeset` to my kernel settings in /etc/grub.conf.

Last year, I wrote about how to achieve [Gnome Slideshow Screensaver Sanity](http://jaredrobinson.com/blog/?p=106). I’ve recently upgraded to Fedora 11, and I noticed that GLSlideshow isn’t installed by default (maybe it never was), and I wondered if I could alter the settings for gnome slideshow. By default, it uses pictures out of the $HOME/Pictures folder, and there’s no way in the user interface to change that location, which can be frustrating. Here’s how I worked around it. Note the use of the `–location` option, and that I changed my `Name=` setting.

– `cp /usr/share/applications/screensavers/personal-slideshow.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/my-slideshow.desktop`
– `gedit ~/.local/share/applications/my-slideshow.desktop`


[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Custom Photos
Exec=/usr/libexec/gnome-screensaver/slideshow --location=/home/images/Photos
TryExec=/usr/libexec/gnome-screensaver/slideshow
StartupNotify=false
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=GNOME;Screensaver;
OnlyShowIn=GNOME;


Go into the screensaver preferences (System -> Preferences -> Screensaver), and select “Custom Photos”. There’s no way to customize the duration to display each photo, but at least I don’t have to settle for Gnome’s default location.

How to enable Intel hardware virtualization on an HP xw4600:

* Boot into the hardware BIOS setup
* Got to Security -> System Security
* Enable both types of virtualization (VTx and VTd)
* Save settings, and power-cycle the machine.

I’m running Linux, Fedora 9, and using KVM, so I run the following:

modprobe kvm-intel

Loading that module will fail if hardware virtualization isn’t enabled.

For over a year, I’ve endured a development machine that would lock up under heavy disk I/O. Yesterday, I apparently complained loudly enough that I was given a new machine to replace it. I didn’t want to reinstall Fedora 9, so I transferred my old hard drive to the new machine, as the primary drive. To get it to boot and function properly, here’s what I did:

* Booted with the Fedora 9 install CD into “rescue mode”
* Ran the following commands once I had a shell:

mount –bind /dev /mnt/sysimage/dev
mount –bind /sys /mnt/sysimage/sys
chroot /mnt/sysimage
mv /boot/initrd-2.6.25…i686.img /boot/initrd-2.6.25…i686.img.orig
mkinitrd /boot/initrd-2.6.25…i686.img 2.6.25…i686

* Then I ran ‘grub’, and typed the following:

root (hd0,0)
setup (hd0)
quit

* Ejected the install CD, and rebooted. Once booted, I noticed that my network cards weren’t set up quite right. My new network card was listed as “eth2” in system-config-network, and I didn’t actually have cards for the listed “eth0” and “eth1” interfaces anymore. I didn’t know what file to change to get my new card listed as “eth0”, so I ran the following command to find out what files I might need to edit:

find /etc -type f -print0 | xargs -0 grep “eth[01]”

That command listed the following files, among others:

* /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules
* /etc/vmware/locations

I edited /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules and ripped out the assignments for my old NIC interfaces, and set the new one to be “eth0”, then rebooted and used `system-config-network` to set up my network.

When I ran my VMware guest, VMware Server gave me an error message about not being able to use bridged mode for the selected interface. With my old computer, VMware had used eth1 for bridged networking, and I didn’t have an “eth1” interface anymore. I edited /etc/vmware/locations and changed “eth1” to “eth0”, and restarted vmware. This time, bridged mode worked correctly.