Should any Puppy Linux version run as a Virtual Machine?

[JusGellin]

I'm sure this is way beyond my experience, but I was curious if there is anyone that may have some experience and advise using the Linux kvm virtual machines for Puppy Linux. I've only used virt-manager and not qemu for setting up my virtual machines.

I've tried running some different Puppy Linux versions to do this:
BookwormPup64_10.0.4
F96-CE_2
S15Pup64-22.12

I first tried installing these on two different bare metal computers:
One was an old Toshiba Satellite that just uses legacy bios for booting. I was able to make all three work on it.

Then I tried these on a Dell Inspiron 15 which uses UEFI for booting and was successful doing them on it.

But when I tried to use these on Linux KVM I had a hard time making them work. For example using BookwormPup64 first as a UEFI KVM virtual machine, it kept failing to boot. But in the grub.cfg file I could make it work if I removed the kernel parameters pdrv and psubdir for the line:
linux /SAV/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd pdrv=linux psubdir=/SAV pfix=fsck,fsckp TZ=GMT0

I've had no success in making any of them work as a virtual machine using legacy bios.

I'm using the Dell computer as the kvm manager with Alpine Linux to run the kvm machines. So these should be using the Dell hardware.

This is more for just helping me understand the capabilities for Puppy Linux as well as the Linux virtual machines. It would be a great way for quickly trying different Puppy Linux versions.
Any help and advice would be appreciated.
Thanks,
JusGellin

[rockedge]

I have had success booting almost every Puppy Linux in both QEMU, VirtualBox and VMPlayer. I don't use UEFI with the virtual machines.

I have a 32 bit DELL INSPIRON 15 that boots all the 32 bit Puppy's but uses legacy BIOS.

[JusGellin]

That's good to know. Especially since you have done it on QEMU.
I wonder if it could be because I'm running 64 bit. It gives me hope to continue trying.
Thanks.

[Clarity]

If you have QEMU installed, AND you tell me which forum distro you want to run, I will send you a stanza that will boot that PUP for you.

You can use it as a starting point for running all of the forum distros. I have tested all in the forum over the past 5 years.

[JusGellin]

I have virt-manager. I think qemu is installed to make it work. I haven't used qemu directly yet but am interested in doing that also.
I would like to use BookwormPup64_10.0.4 on it to begin with.
Thanks for helping me.

[JusGellin]

I just saw another post about this same thing using kvm virt-manager. This made it work for me.
Thanks @at1981
Re: KVM/QEMU startup problem
Post by at1981 » Thu Aug 03, 2023 8:07 am

1. By default, when you set up a new virtual machine using Virt-Manager (which is what I'm using), the storage type is set to using a bus type of "virtIO". This is the problem.
2. In your virtual machine settings, right click and delete the virtIO disk (you can keep the underlying .qcow2 storage container).
3. Now right click to "Add Hardware", and add a new storage device, but this time select SATA as the bus type.
4. Your new drive will now appear/be available for formatting within Puppy as (typically) /dev/sda.
5. So ensure that your virtual storage appears under Puppy as type/device /dev/sda and NOT /dev/vda.
6. When you format the drive within Puppy (under QEMU), unless you have some specific advanced configuration you wish to do, it is simplest and works fine just formatting the entire partition as ext4. You don't need to create a separate /boot partition or worry about any UEFI stuff. Then just follow the prompts and accept the default Grub4dos or Grub2 bootloader (depending on which installer you use). "MBR" type is fine and it boots up in seconds under QEMU/KVM.

[JusGellin]

This works beautifully with virtual machines that either use legacy bios or UEFI to boot up.
I must say that I really like the Puppy site for getting answers. Either the answer is already here or someone is willing to help.

[wiak]

this year will be the year of multi-instanced (KL terminology) virtual machines and remote login network config work for me. I have server with tons of RAM so I might as well use it and get my cherrytree notebook memory expanded and better organised. Either that or I'll just drink more coffee in some nicely situated cafe, which is what I am doing right now.

[JusGellin]

Cool!!