Libguestfs - Aug 2015 - Re: FC22: virt-p2v-make-kickstart/livecd-creator doesn't build

On 8/10/2015 4:20 PM, Richard W.M. Jones wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 10, 2015 at 04:01:40PM -0400, Martin Breault wrote:
> Yup, livecd-tools is broken junk. I'm building ISOs you can download 
> here: http://oirase.annexia.org/virt-p2v The RHEL-7.2-preview/ 
> directory contains the latest version, and should work fine with 
> virt-v2v from Fedora. These are built in a RHEL 7 VM, using the EPEL 7 
> version of livecd-tools which seems to work more reliably. I would 
> caution you that you should always run livecd-tools in a disposable 
> VM, since it requires root and does all sorts of weird stuff with host 
> devices. Rich. 
Hum.  Yes I am using a disposable VM for this.

My issue with the .isos I have been able to find available for download 
is that they seem to assume that hardware is 64-bit compatible, and a 
few of my servers sadly are still using 32-bit hardware.  I am trying to 
boot them and thus why I need to make my own livecd.

Are there 32-bit compatible images available?

Thanks,

Marty

On Mon, Aug 10, 2015 at 04:23:24PM -0400, Martin Breault
wrote:
> 
> 
> On 8/10/2015 4:20 PM, Richard W.M. Jones wrote:
> >On Mon, Aug 10, 2015 at 04:01:40PM -0400, Martin Breault wrote:
> >Yup, livecd-tools is broken junk. I'm building ISOs you can
> >download here: http://oirase.annexia.org/virt-p2v The
> >RHEL-7.2-preview/ directory contains the latest version, and
> >should work fine with virt-v2v from Fedora. These are built in a
> >RHEL 7 VM, using the EPEL 7 version of livecd-tools which seems to
> >work more reliably. I would caution you that you should always run
> >livecd-tools in a disposable VM, since it requires root and does
> >all sorts of weird stuff with host devices. Rich.
> 
> Hum.  Yes I am using a disposable VM for this.
> 
> My issue with the .isos I have been able to find available for
> download is that they seem to assume that hardware is 64-bit
> compatible, and a few of my servers sadly are still using 32-bit
> hardware.  I am trying to boot them and thus why I need to make my
> own livecd.
> 
> Are there 32-bit compatible images available?
I'm not distributing any, although I see no reason why it wouldn't
be possible to build them.

I was trying to use 'livemedia-creator' to build a live CD to see if
that would work.  It's still running (for about the last 2 hours in
fact).  If it works by tomorrow morning I'll give this list an update.

Rich.

-- 
Richard Jones, Virtualization Group, Red Hat http://people.redhat.com/~rjones
Read my programming and virtualization blog: http://rwmj.wordpress.com
libguestfs lets you edit virtual machines.  Supports shell scripting,
bindings from many languages.  http://libguestfs.org

On Mon, Aug 10, 2015 at 10:47:22PM +0100, Richard W.M. Jones
wrote:
> I was trying to use 'livemedia-creator' to build a live CD to see
if
> that would work.  It's still running (for about the last 2 hours in
> fact).  If it works by tomorrow morning I'll give this list an update.
The upshot is it seemed to just get stuck in the virt-install phase
overnight (so at least, say, 10 hours).  Since livemedia-creator hides
the output from virt-install it's hard to know what's going on.

I conclude that livemedia-creator is junk like livecd-creator.

Rich.

-- 
Richard Jones, Virtualization Group, Red Hat http://people.redhat.com/~rjones
Read my programming and virtualization blog: http://rwmj.wordpress.com
Fedora Windows cross-compiler. Compile Windows programs, test, and
build Windows installers. Over 100 libraries supported.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/MinGW

On Mon, Aug 10, 2015 at 04:23:24PM -0400, Martin Breault
wrote:
> Are there 32-bit compatible images available?
I meant to ask you about this.  Do you need this because the hardware
is 32 bit only?  If the hardware is x86-64 then you can use the 64 bit
virt-p2v ISO fine, even though the OS is 32 bit.

The reason we don't build 32 bit virt-p2v ISOs any more is because
since RHEL 7 we dropped support for x86:

  https://access.redhat.com/articles/rhel-limits

Building a RHEL 6-based modern virt-p2v is possible, but would require
some non-trivial effort, particularly around testing and certification.

It should be possible to build a Fedora-based 32 bit ISO, modulo the
other bugs in livecd-creator etc.

Rich.

-- 
Richard Jones, Virtualization Group, Red Hat http://people.redhat.com/~rjones
Read my programming and virtualization blog: http://rwmj.wordpress.com
Fedora Windows cross-compiler. Compile Windows programs, test, and
build Windows installers. Over 100 libraries supported.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/MinGW

On 8/11/2015 5:43 AM, Richard W.M. Jones wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 10, 2015 at 04:23:24PM -0400, Martin Breault wrote:
>> Are there 32-bit compatible images available?
> I meant to ask you about this.  Do you need this because the hardware
> is 32 bit only?  If the hardware is x86-64 then you can use the 64 bit
> virt-p2v ISO fine, even though the OS is 32 bit.
>
> The reason we don't build 32 bit virt-p2v ISOs any more is because
> since RHEL 7 we dropped support for x86:
>
>    https://access.redhat.com/articles/rhel-limits
>
> Building a RHEL 6-based modern virt-p2v is possible, but would require
> some non-trivial effort, particularly around testing and certification.
>
> It should be possible to build a Fedora-based 32 bit ISO, modulo the
> other bugs in livecd-creator etc.
>
> Rich.
Hello,

Yes sadly the hardware is 32-bit only, and running Win2003 to boot.

I tried doing a P2V using Centos6 ISO + Centos6 P2V server and although 
all things seemed to export correctly without errors to the export 
domain of my oVirt, the resulting VM (that has virtio as the disk 
driver) gives doesn't boot either with VirtIO or IDE as a disk driver, 
throwing an error about the boot device.  This is why I was hoping with 
a newer FC-22 iso and conversion server I would have better luck.

I know Windows2003 is supposed to be supported.  I guess I will 
re-install with Centos6 and figure out if I can run a plain exported 
.raw image on a standalone KVM before I re-attempt at oVirt.

What commandline were you using with livemedia-creator?  I think there 
is a way to send --vnc as a parameter to watch via a vnc viewer what is 
going on.

Your help is appreciated!

Martin