Please document the process to create bootable install of Linux distro

[olberger]

Could you document the way one may achieve a bootable install of a Linux distro, like what you did for arch ?

Thanks in advance.

[olberger]

Trying to document my efforts, here's what I've tested. I've reused the basic.html config to start the emulator with:

var emulator = window.emulator = new V86Starter({
        memory_size: 128 * 1024 * 1024,
        vga_memory_size: 8 * 1024 * 1024,
        screen_container: document.getElementById("screen_container"),
        bios: {
            url: "../bios/seabios.bin",
        },
        vga_bios: {
            url: "../bios/vgabios.bin",
        },
        cdrom: {
            url: "../images/debian.iso",
        },
        network_relay_url: "wss://relay.widgetry.org/",
        autostart: true,
    });

where the debian.iso points to the Debian installer for i386's iso.

The installer runs.

Now, I'm stuck at configuring a target filesystem. But I guess running the installer inside the emulator isn't the only way, and I could try and deboostrap somehow. Still, it isn't clear to me how one creates the needed files and what to configure so as to load image that can be used for booting.

[copy]

Now, I'm stuck at configuring a target filesystem. But I guess running the installer inside the emulator isn't the only way, and I could try and deboostrap somehow. Still, it isn't clear to me how one creates the needed files and what to configure so as to load image that can be used for booting.

While it can be theoretically be done this way, I wouldn't recommend it. It is too slow, and JavaScript needs to keep the hard drive image in memory in order to save it.

Instead, install debian in another emulator and then load the installed image in v86. For example in qemu:

qemu-img create hd.img 4G
qemu-system-x86_64 -hda hd.img -cdrom debian-installer.iso -boot d

Make sure to create a raw disk image. The resulting hard disk image, hd.img, should be bootable in v86 with the code you've pasted (substituting cdrom for hda).

The Arch Linux image employs two optimisations (restoring from a state image and loading files via 9p), do you need more documentation for these?

[olberger]

These last 2 elements would be quite helpful too. Thanks alot for the qemu hint. I'll try that and will report. Thx

[olberger]

@copy The issue with that approach is that a 4G image won't load in my browser, I'm afraid. I guess the image could be shrunk, but I think there may be other options (that I'll investigate). In any case, any hints are much welcome.

[copy]

@copy The issue with that approach is that a 4G image won't load in my browser, I'm afraid. I guess the image could be shrunk, but I think there may be other options (that I'll investigate). In any case, any hints are much welcome.

If you specify a size and set async sectors will be loaded as needed:

        hda: {
            url: "http://localhost/v86-images/arch3.img",
            async: true,
            size: 8 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024,
        },

[copy]

These last 2 elements would be quite helpful too. Thanks alot for the qemu hint. I'll try that and will report. Thx

Saving/Restoring state is documented here and an example is here.

Using the 9p file system is documented here. This allows you to mount the file system in Linux. In order to boot from it, you need to remount the root file system to the 9p file system during boot. For Arch Linux, this is documented here. It might need some adoptions for Debian.

[copy]

Feel free to reopen if you have more questions.

[oakes]

Hello @copy , when creating an img file, does it need to contain a particular kind of file system? I can't tell what file system is used inside the examples.

[oakes]

Nevermind, I made a disk image with Qemu and it seems to load.