[mythtv-users] Back-end Virtualization

[Raymond Wagner]

On 5/11/2012 16:48, Simon Hobson wrote:
> Raymond Wagner wrote:
>
>> Gentoo packages their base install as a "stage 3" tarball.  It's a
>> fully functioning system minus a few config files for startup.  Make a
>> folder, download the tarball, unpack the tarball into the folder, and
>> chroot into it running bash.  This is actually the standard install
>> procedure.
>>
>> Build MythTV and dependencies using portage inside the chroot. Mount
>> your storage disks inside the chroot.  Mount instances of procfs and
>> sysfs inside the chroot.  Mount your /dev folder inside the chroot.
>> All you have to do after that is instead of running `mythbackend`, you
>> run `chroot /base/path mythbackend`.  All the convenience of a
>> separate Gentoo installation, dedicated to MythTV, for ease of
>> management, but none of the hardware access difficulties that come
>> from a full virtual machine.
>>
>> Replace Gentoo with your distro of choice in the above.
>
> And for those things that don't come packaged like that ? Do an install
> onto <something else> then copy the whole filesystem into the chroot
> jail, and then faff about to make it work with a "foreign" kernel - or
> just install it into a VM with no faffing ?

Do installers for other distros offer no way to configure what path they 
install do?  Do they not offer an "advanced" mode that lets you skip 
partitioning and formatting?

Who cares about a "foreign" kernel.  You're not using the kernel. 
You're just using the applications, and all you need is the necessary 
shared libraries.  I can take a Gentoo install and chroot into it from 
an Ubuntu machine.  I can take an Ubuntu install and chroot in from 
SuSE.  I can take a SuSE install and chroot in from FreeBSD, and that's 
not even Linux.

> Will you please accept that for some things a full VM is simply "less
> hassle" than the other techniques ? Your religious crusades are irksome
> to people who "just want to get on with it" rather than have the most
> perfect system possible if you are prepared to put (potentially) lots of
> time into it.

If a full VM was "less hassle" than other techniques, and you could 
"just get on with it", we wouldn't have these threads every month or two 
about people wanting to do hardware passthrough.  There wouldn't need to 
be threads, as it would "just work".