ArchLinux 2010 05 - vm installation guide

Preliminary

you need the script vm-create in your path and its system config file /etc/vm-create.conf.

To perform a net install of ArchLinux in a virtual machine called "archibald" - with 8 GB disk, bridge, sound support and virtio - to a remote host called "bareil", use the following syntax:

# vm-create -c bareil -s 8 -S -b br0 -V -u archlinux archibald

Pool install refreshed

Starting install...
Allocating 'archibald.img'                          | 8.0 GB     00:00     
Creating domain...                                  |   0  B     00:00

You can use the option -t to print the whole command to be passed to virt-install to standard output before executing it:

# vm-create -t -c bareil -s 8 -S -b br0 -V -u archlinux archibald

virt-install 
--connect=qemu+ssh://bareil/system 
--ram=512 
--arch=i386 
--vcpus=1 
--video=vga 
--soundhw=default 
--description="archibald (archlinux) - vm guest on host bareil" 
--os-variant=virtio26 
--disk vol=install/archlinux-2010.05-netinstall-i686.iso,device=cdrom 
--boot=cdrom,hd,network 
--disk pool=default,size=8 
--network bridge=br0 
--vnc 
--vnclisten=0.0.0.0 
--name=archibald

iso URL: ftp://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/archlinux/iso/latest/archlinux-2010.05-
netinstall-i686.iso

A detailled description of the vm-create script has been posted in the openSUSE forum: vm-create : create kvm virtual machines.

* Notice that the option --boot=cdrom,hd,network is not available on virt-install version prior to 5003.

Booting Arch Linux

You can press TAB at the boot menu and specify a higher resolution by appending the option vga to the kernel line. The numbers 771 and 773 respectively provide 800x600 and 1024x768 framebuffer. We'll use 771 in this tutorial.

You can use the mousewheel to navigate in the slideshow

There are two ways of installing Arch Linux:

interactively - by running /arch/setup
automatically - by running aif -p automatic -c configfile

We show the interactive method first

Interactive installation: /arch/setup

Do you want to have this filesystem (re)created?

Package selection is split ino two stages...

Do you want to use the network settings from the installer ...

Before installing Grub you must review the configuration file

You can use the mousewheel to navigate in the slideshow

Using the virtio driver

To use the virtio driver - as you might have seen in the slideshow - we had to add the following modules to /etc/mkinitcio.conf:

MODULES="virtio_blk virtio_pci virtio_net" ( for i686 systems)
MODULES="virtio virtio_blk virtio_pci virtio_net" (for x86_64 systems)

To allow Grub to detect the virtio device (vda), you should switch to another console with <ALT + arrow right> BEFORE saving your changes in GRUB configuration file, log in as root and type the following commands:

# echo "(hd0) /dev/vda" > /tmp/aif/aif-dev.map

Then switch back to the console where the setup is running with <ALT + arrow right> and save the GRUB configuration file. You'll be asked where you want to install the bootloader. Select the first /dev/vda entry (don't know why it appears twice) to intall GRUB in MBR.

Automatic installation: aif -p automatic -c

When installing ArchLinux over the network in a virtual machine using the virtio driver, grub can not detect the virtual disk (vda) and fails to install. Writing the device.map before running aif -p automatic doesn't seem to help. Neither does commenting out get_grub_map in /usr/lib/aif/core/procedures. One solution I found was to overwrite worker_install_bootloader in the config file passed to aif -p automatic. IMO it's a dirty hack and should be used only on virtual machines involving the virtio driver.

The steps needed to successfully install Grub in the automatic installation procedure include:

set host name
configure the network:
aif -p partial-configure-network
download the config file:
wget http://www.unixversal.com/linux/archlinux/generic-install-on-vda
edit this file to match your system (the text you may want to type/change is highligted in orange/red in the pictures below.)
run the automatic installation procedure:
aif -p automatic -c /tmp/generic-install-on-vda
rebuild the inital ramdisk to use the virtio modules:
mkinitcpio -p kernel26
set root device and (optionally) a vga mode - 771 (800x600) or 773 (1024x768) - in GRUB menu
sed -i 's|ro$|& vga=773|;s|^root *$|root (hd0,0)|' /mnt/boot/grub/menu.lst
If you don't like the idea of using sed or want to apply other changes to the GRUB menu, you can edit /mnt/boot/grub/menu.lst

These steps are described in the slideshow below.

You can use the mousewheel to navigate in the slideshow

After install

You can now shutdown (rather than reboot) the virtual machine with halt , switch the boot devices order in virt-manager and disconnect the netinstall iso image from the CDROM. When you restart the virtual machine you will see the Grub menu and be able to start ArchLinux.