Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: Michael Mair-Keimberger <m.mairkeimberger@×××××.com>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] gentoo on a kvm - can't install kernel sources
Date: Sun, 25 Aug 2013 21:32:14
Message-Id: 2774396.Lfju1neXaL@asterix
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-user] gentoo on a kvm - can't install kernel sources by Yohan Pereira
1 On Monday 26 August 2013 01:49:17 Yohan Pereira wrote:
2 > On 25/08/13 at 09:50pm, Alan McKinnon wrote:
3 > > I'd recommend cross-building just a kernel and modules locally and
4 > > copying that to the vm, it will only be about 6 to 8M
5 > >
6 > >
7 > > Some food for thought:
8 > >
9 > > I do question the wisdom though of running Gentoo on a VM like that.
10 > > I've always found that Gentoo (despite all it's fantastic awesomeness
11 > > elsewhere) is really not fitted for that specific task very well - it
12 > > tends to be a lot of pain and not much gain.
13 > >
14 > > Why do you want Gentoo on the vm? Is there a very good reason, or is
15 it
16 > > because you are familiar with it?
17 > >
18 > > If the second reason, you might want to have a look at FreeBSD or one
19 of
20 > > the binary distros based of Gentoo like Sabayon. You might find the
21 best
22 > > of both worlds in that space.
23 >
24 > Well I have a couple VM's running on 256 mb of RAM. While I'll admit I
25 > initially chose gentoo because of familiarity. It seemed to work out fine
26 > although I'll admit I've I haven't updated the kernel, just using the
27 > kernel provided by the host. AFAIR the heaviest(memory wise) thing I did
28 > on such a VM was running a java stock trading application in a virtual
29 > screen that was accessed via VNC.
30 >
31 > I've never had problems(yet) compiling gcc etc. I remeber being able to
32 > compile faster than my laptop's aging core 2 due processor.
33 >
34 > Currently I use one for my personal a mail server, quassel (irc client),
35 > tt-rss, git/mecurial collaboration, development web hosting and other
36 > random stuff. It hasn't borked on me yet but YMMV. Heres the output of
37 free
38 > from the VM.
39 >
40 > $ free -m
41 > total used free shared buffers
42 > cached
43 > Mem: 246 231 15 0
44 > 14 157
45 > -/+ buffers/cache: 59 187
46 > Swap: 494 57 437
47
48 Well, familiarity was my main reason but actually i though gentoo fits
49 anyway quite good on such weak systems? (well besides compiling on it)
50 You get a small system which needs not much space and performs quite
51 good. (thats why 5GB is actually enough for me - i don't store anything
52 there).
53 FreeBSD might be a good alternative and in case gentoo is to much pain i'll
54 give it a try. :)
55
56 BTW, i have an alix device at home which also has just 256MB Ram and
57 while the CF-Card (where the gentoo system is stored) has 8GB now, i've
58 started with an 4GB CF-Card and i did compile on this device - even
59 (hardened)kernels :)
60 That was ~3 years ago, now i cross-compile for this device. However,
61 gentoo on such devices runs perfectly well and rock stable. :)
62
63 mmike

Replies

Subject Author
Re: [gentoo-user] gentoo on a kvm - can't install kernel sources Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@×××××.com>