BlaisorBlade wrote:
> NEED:
> I have the need to loop mount files containing not plain filesystems, but
> whole disk images.
>
> This is especially needed when using User-mode-linux, since to run any distro
> installer you must partition the virtual disks(and on the host, the backing
> file of the disk contains a partition table).
>
> Currently this could be done by specifying a positive offset, but letting the
> kernel partition code handle this is better, isn't it? Would you ever accept
> this feature into stock kernel?
UML is on my list of things to learn (as opposed to "try casually and
ignore") but have you considered using NBD?
--
bill davidsen <[email protected]>
CTO TMR Associates, Inc
Doing interesting things with small computers since 1979
> > NEED:
> > I have the need to loop mount files containing not plain filesystems, but
> > whole disk images.
If I'm not mistaken this was asked for some time ago (a few months) on the
list and an 'enhanced loop-back device' patch was mentioned (with link)
which provides this and more - search the archives for it.
Cheers,
MaZe.
Alle 22:04, venerd? 2 gennaio 2004, Bill Davidsen ha scritto:
> BlaisorBlade wrote:
> > NEED:
> > I have the need to loop mount files containing not plain filesystems, but
> > whole disk images.
> >
> > This is especially needed when using User-mode-linux, since to run any
> > distro installer you must partition the virtual disks(and on the host,
> > the backing file of the disk contains a partition table).
> >
> > Currently this could be done by specifying a positive offset, but letting
> > the kernel partition code handle this is better, isn't it? Would you ever
> > accept this feature into stock kernel?
>
> UML is on my list of things to learn (as opposed to "try casually and
> ignore")
It is something a bit like VMWare. But instead of emulating hardware and
running an OS inside that, you run a patched Linux kernel that runs as an
userspace process on the host and provides a virtual machine, which must
access a virtual disk, which is stored on a file.
See http://user-mode-linux.sourceforge.net/ for more info.
> but have you considered using NBD?
I didn't really know what it was, nor it seems useful for this "as is" (I've
not really checked). Maybe that sentence means that the server program could
do the partition parsing?
--
cat <<EOSIGN
Paolo Giarrusso, aka Blaisorblade
Linux Kernel 2.4.23/2.6.0 on an i686; Linux registered user n. 292729
EOSIGN