Count from Jan/20/2004

UserModeLinux for KNOPPIX
[CAUTION] The home pages related to KNOPPIX Japanese Edition, VMKnoppix, etc moved to http://www.rcis.aist.go.jp/project/knoppix/index-en.html
Please visit the new home page for latest information.

Japanese

Customizable KNOPPIX on UserModeLinux

[Special Feature]

1. Customizable
   We make Customizable KNOPPIX on UserModeLinux. It make possible to use Debian package.
   
2. Sharable updated difference
   A updated difference of File System is sharable. We offer a sample updated difference for your trial.
3. Secure environment for Application Install
   We can install application software on UML-KNOPPIX which is isolated from native KNOPPIX.
4. Visual Control Panel
   We can select KNOPPIX distribution, language, window size, desktop manager and memory size with radio button and scale bar. The UML-KNOPPIX control panel is also selectable from KDE menu.
   
5. Share a home directory between CD-KNOPPIX and UML-KNOPPIX with SHFS persistenthome
   SHFS persistent home is effective between CD-KNOPPIX and UML-KNOPPIX. We can continue to keep our home directory.

[Technical Detail]

We offer customizable KNOPPIX on UserModeLinux(UML). Customaizable function is achieved by CopyOnWrite(COW)^(*) mechanism of UML. It allows us to use pure Debian package with apt-get command on KNOPPIX. The difference file produced by COW is reusable. We can send and share the difference file.

Using SHFS persistenthome, we also share home directory between UML-KNOPPIX and CD-KNOPPIX.


^(*)CopyOnWrite(COW) is a function to support overlay on a File System. COW keeps the difference of updated files.
To enable COW function we have to change the inside file system of cloop. Normal cloop file keeps a iso9660 file system. COW does not support iso9660 file system. We translate the file system to ext2.

etc:
We want to contribute this function to original KNOPPIX.
We are looking for a suitable conference to publish a paper.
We will port UML-KNOPPIX to other Linux distributions.

Download

You can use customizable KNOPPIX with KNOPPIX-UML-COW-SHFS-20040518 version.

• KNOPPIX-UML-COW-SHFS-20040518.iso (based on KNOPPIX 3.3 "20040216" version. It can be used as a normal KNOPPIX.)
  • FTP sites:�@AIST, RING Project

How to use

This usage is based on our KNOPPIX-UML-COW-SHFS-20040518.iso.
Caution: The default language is Japanese. Please use language option "boot: knoppix lang=us".

• "UML-KNOPPIX" can launch from KDE menu. The command is "/opt/umlknoppix/bin/uml-knoppix"
  
  
  
  

• Control panel for UML-KNOPPIX
  

• Setup network environment for UserModeLinux. Press "Start-HUB" button. A console will open and show the setup procedure.
  
  
  
  
  • You can confirm the network environment with "ifconfig" command.
    

• Select a cloop file.
  • Select a directory from CD, SFS, and root with radio button.
    • From CD: Select "From CD" radio button and push "Select" button.�@ Pop-up menu shows the files at /cdrom. Please select File of type "All files" and move to /cdrom/KNOPPIX/ directory. Pickup the suitable cloop file "KNOPPIX".
      
      
      
      
    • From SFS: Select "From SFS" radio button and push "Select" button. Pop-up menu shows the cloop files at AIST SFS server. Pickup a cloop file.
      ATTENTION: Do NOT copy any files from SFS to avoid network traffice jam. The files are downloadable from from FTP server.
      ftp://unit.aist.go.jp/it/knoppix/ecl/
      Reference URL for AIST SFS: http://unit.aist.go.jp/it/knoppix/uml/sfs/index-en.html
      
      
      
      
    • From root: Select "From root" radio button and push "Select" button.�@ Pop-up menu shows the files at /. Please find a suitable cloop file.
    • CAUTION: Normal cloop file in a KNOPPIX-CD can not use cow function, because cow function assumes the file system read and WRITE. We translate the cloop file to be suitable.

• Select a cow file to save update. Push "Select" at cow menu. The cow file have to be on a writable directory.
  
  
  
  
  • CAUTION: A cow file requires the same size of original File System on cloop. The size of Normal KNOPPIX File System is 2GB. Fortunately the produced file by cow is sparse and it does not use same size of actual disk space. Please check the file size and actual disk space by "ls -ls" command.
    Reference URL http://user-mode-linux.sourceforge.net/UserModeLinux-HOWTO.txt

• After select a cloop and a cow file, UML-KNOPPIX can be launch with "RUM-UML" button.
  
  
  
  
  • You can designate "language", "resolution", "desktop", and "memory", if you like. "SHFS home" is effective if the cloop file supports SHFS persistenthome.
    Reference URL for SHFS persistenthome http://unit.aist.go.jp/it/knoppix/shfs/index-en.html

• After pushing "RUN-UML" button a console window will open and execute uml.
  
  
  

• A Graphical desktop environment will be opened.
  
  

• On the UML, the file system is writable. In the KNOPPIX-UML-COW-SHFS-20040518.iso includes a sample Debian package "kseg_0.4-1_i386.deb" at /cdrom/Demos/. We can confirm the package management. The under figure shows the package management can NOT be effective on CD-boot KNOPPIX. It is effective on UML-KNOPPIX. (The figure will be enlarge with a click.)
  
  

• Shutdown: Select "Logout KNOPPIX" at KDE Menu. The update files are kept in cow file.
  

• Sample COW file for UML-COW-SHFS-20040518.ecl
  • Please try cow function with "UML-COW-SHFS-20040518.cow".It is effective with UML-COW-SHFS-20040518.ecl.
  • It includes "kseg" package. Please try "kseg" command.
  • Take care the size of cow file is 2GB. The gzipped file is 3.5MB.
  • ftp://unit.aist.go.jp/it/knoppix/cow/UML-COW-SHFS-20040518.cow.gz
• CAUTION:
  • The created cow file is re-usable but it requires the same cloop file with same time stamp.

 KNOPPIX 3.3Japanese Edition includes Linux Emulator "UserModeLinux (UML)" which is customized to boot KNOPPIX on it. We can try multiple KNOPPIX without reboot.

UserModeLinux(UML) is well engineered software but it just a kernel emulator. We have to customize UML for KNOPPIX. The main customization is the following point.

1. UML does not allow to install normal Linux distributions in a usual manner, because UML offers original kernel. We customize the UML kernel which is suitable for KNOPPIX.
2. We make a special boot loader for KNOPPIX on UML.
3. UML is not a virtual machine. There are not full virtual devices, especially video device. We used "Xnest" as a virtual video device.

We call the customized UML "UML-KNOPPIX". It can be used as a virtual machine which specialized for KNOPPIX.

Click the right figure to zoom.

UML-KNOPPIX enable us to use network. The upper figure shows the Web Browser is used on UML-KNOPPIX.

Topic

• Start Experience: UML-KNOPPIX on SFS (Self-certifying File System)
  • http://unit.aist.go.jp/it/knoppix/uml/sfs/index-en.html
• Developing Fedora Core and Gentoo version!
  • �@ (Clock the right figure to zoom.)
• TurboLinux UML-KNOPPIX. The rpm files are includes in knoppix_20031119-20040202.
  • /cdrom/Aist/umllnoppix/Turbolinux/umlknoppix-0.0.20040109-2TL.i586.rpm
  • /cdrom/Aist/umllnoppix/Turbolinux/dhcp-3.0pl2-6.16aist0.1.i586.rpm
  • /cdrom/Aist/umllnoppix/Turbolinux/sfs-0.7.2-1aist0.1.i586.rpm
    • (Clock the right figure to zoom.)
• From knoppix_20031103-20031119 UserModeLinux(UML) can boot several KNOPPIX.
  • �@3 instances of UML on CD.(Click the right figure to zoom.)
  • 3 derivations of KNOPPIX "GIS-KNOPPIX", "KNOPPIX for kids", "KNOPPIX-Edu" are running on UML.
    

How to use UML-KNOPPIX on CD

KNOPPIX Japanese Edition has UML-KNOPPIX from 20031015. UML-KNOPPIX is growing and the usage is changed. Please check the usage and options in each version.
CAUTION: Original language of our KNOPPIX is Japanese. Please add "lang=us" option when CD boots.
Original language of UML-KNOPPIX is also Japanese. Please use runuml with "-l us" option.

• after knoppix_20031103-20031119

  • Please execute the following three commands to boot UML-KNOPPIX.
    • /opt/umlknoppix/bin/umld
      • Setup a private virtual network for UML-KNOPPIX.
    • /opt/umlknoppix/bin/runuml
      • Boot KNOPPIX on UML using cloop file in the CD. If you have another cloop file, you can designate with "-c" option.
      • You can shutdown the KNOPPIX in the usual way. You also shutdown the UML-KNOPPIX with closing the "Xnest" window.
    • /opt/umlknoppix/bin/killumld
      • Shutdown the private network.

• KNOPPIX_20030924-20031015 (First version which includes UML-KNOPPIX )

  • /opt/uml/runuml
    • Boot KNOPPIX on UML using cloop file in the CD. If you have another cloop file, you can designate with "-c" option.
    • You can shutdown the KNOPPIX in the usual way. You also shutdown the UML-KNOPPIX with closing the "Xnest" window.

runuml option
runuml command has several options.

• -h|--help ; Show the option list and it's usage.
• -c|--cloopfile CLOOPFILE ; Designate cloop file. Default is the cloop file in the CD "/cdrom/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX". Please use absolute file to boot. (e.g., runuml -c /mnt/hda1/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX).
• -d|--desktop (icewm,fluxbox,kde,wmaker,twm,xfce) ; Designate Desktop manager. The default desktop is "kde". When you feel kde desktop slow, please use "xfce"(e.g., runuml -d xfce)
• -m|--memsize MEMSIZE ; Designate memory size for UML. The default size is 128M. We recommend to use more than 256M memory for KNOPPIX-UML.
• -g|--geometry WIDTHxHEIGHT ; Designate root window size. The default size is 800x600.
• -l (ja,us,da,de,es,fr,ns,it,pl,ru,sk) ; Designate language. The default language is Japanese. (e.g,. runuml -l us ).

Applications

• To customize KNOPPIX
  • UML-KNOPPIX enables us to check the new cloop file.

Download

• Japanese KNOPPIX iso file (Please boot with "lang=us" option.)
  • FTP
    • RING Project
    • AIST
  • HTTP
    • RING Project
  • Bittorrent
• Debian package
• RPM package
• Gentto package

Reference

• Linux Conference 2003 (Japan), "KNOPPIX migration with UserModeLinux"�APaper(PDF)�ASlide(PDF) written in Japanese
• IPSJ Computer System Symposium 2003 PosterSection�A"Specialized Virtual Machine for KNOPPIX with UserModeLinux"�APaper(PDF) written in Japanese

Related Development & Research

• Emulator
  • coLinux (Next Target!)
    • .(Click the right figure to zoom.)
  • SBUML(ScrapBookUML)
  • QEMU
  • TwoOStwo
  • Xen
  • bochs
  • LilyVM
  • Wine

Acknowledgment

• A part of this work is supported by IPA (Information-technology Promotion Agency, Japan) Mito Program.
  • "KNOPPIX Hosting Environment" Project Leader Kuniyasu Suzaki, Project Manager Fumitoshi Ukai.