Kevitivity

Cute doggie + family Christmas gathering = great photos…

Some of the scientists I support at work rely on software that requires an old, defunct version of Ubuntu (6, Edgy). And because it’s starting to get hard to find hardware that will still run that old version of Linux I’m now using visualization technology (KVM and CentOS 5.7). These instructions should work with Redhat and it’s derivatives.

The tricky part of all this (for me at least) was setting up the network. I need the virtual Ubuntu machine to appear on the network as if it were a separate host with a public IP, rather then behind a NAT router. Thus I used a bridged network setup. The method bellow worked for me, but it’s not necessarily the only or best way to accomplish this… Before we get started, you need to add two CentOS packages via the yum command: bridge-utils and tunctl.

Step One: Create a virtual network bridge (br0)
This particular server has one physical interface (eth0). What you have to do is create a virtual network bridge (br0), give it your public IP/GATEWAY/etc, and then add the physical interface to the bridge…

First, backup /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 to another directory. My original ifcfg-eth0 looked like this
# Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5722 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express
DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=static
BROADCAST=192.168.0.255
HWADDR=B8:AC:6F:99:36:95
IPADDR=192.168.0.60
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
NETWORK=192.168.0.0
ONBOOT=yes

Now copy /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 to /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-br0. Edit the two files so that they look like so… notice that the IP and GATEWAY are now in ifcfg-br0 and not ifcfg-eth0.

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-br0 (I had do add my GATEWAY as well as copy over IPADDR)
DEVICE="br0"
ONBOOT=yes
TYPE=Bridge
BOOTPROTO=static
IPADDR=192.168.0.60
GATEWAY=192.168.10.1
DELAY=0

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
DEVICE="eth0"
ONBOOT=yes
TYPE=Ethernet
HWADDR=B8:AC:6F:99:36:95
BRIDGE=br0

Now reboot, or simply restart the network via the /etc/init.d/network script. If all is working properly, your host will still have a functioning network connection. You’re half way done…

Step two: Create a virtual, TUN/TAP interface (tap0) for your first VM.

To create the tap0 interface:
/usr/sbin/tunctl -b

Bring up the new interface:
/sbin/ifconfig tap0 up

Now add tap0 to the bridge so it has access to your physical network:
/usr/sbin/brctl addif br0 tap0

Thats it!
Now, when you install or start your qemu vm, just make sure your “-net” option looks like the one bellow so that your vm has access to the tap0 interface. Most examples I’ve found on the net do these last steps in a script that then launches qemu…
#!/bin/sh
/usr/sbin/tunctl -b
/sbin/ifconfig tap0 up
/usr/sbin/brctl addif br0 tap0
qemu-system-x86_64 -hda disk.img -boot d -m 1024 -net nic -net tap,ifname=tap0,script=no -no-acpi


My younger brother was married today. It was a wonderful wedding and I wish them both many years of happiness. Congratulation guys!

Today, via her Google Plus stream, Xeni Jardin of Boing Boing fame gave us some insight into Boing Boing’s comment moderation “policy”… specifically when is it OK to call someone a Nazi?

ACTUAL BB COMMENT, nuked by one of our moderators: “Nice that BB got a plug, but a plug from Rachel Maddow? That’s the current day equivalent of a thumbs up from Joseph Goebbels”

Now, equating Rachel Maddow to Goebbels is childish and moronic. But why would BB’s comment mods delete that post while at the same time have no problem with this one – See the first comment on this post re: Glen Beck. A quick search on their site reveals many more such examples.

As soon as I pointed out her hypocrisy, Xeni closed comments on her post. :( You can read the entire thread here. And for the record, I’m no fan of Glen Beck! I just like the idea of an open and free internet – something the Boing Boing editors champion every chance they get. For example, have a look at their Intro to TOR.

This was my Dad’s, who used it in the 60 while in Peru working for the Peace Corps . A camera like this was also used as a prop in Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets. This thing is heavy and built like a tank.

The Argus C3 was made from 1939 to 1966 by Argus Cameras, Inc. of Ann Arbor, MI. “The camera was the best-selling 35mm camera in the world for nearly three decades, and helped popularize the 35mm format. Due to its shape, size, and weight, it is commonly referred to as “The Brick” by photographers (in Japan its nickname translates as “The Lunchbox”). The most famous 20th century photographer who used it was Tony Vaccaro, who employed this model during World War II (see under Famous Patrons in this article).” – wikipedia