No virtue in virtualization: VMWare, Qemu, VirtualBox

When I moved my laptop to another domain, and then back again, I found that none of the emulators, VirtualBox, VMWare, and Qemu, were talking to the laptop, and only VirtualBox was talking to the outside world. My immediate conclusion is that there was no virtue in virtualization, at least the way things stand right now.

I was working with two "JEOSs," (yet another stupid computer acronym pronounced "juice"), Ubuntu and rPath. A JEOS is just a stripped-down Linux installation for appliance and other small server use, and to it's credit, rPath predates this acronym. All small Linux operating system distributions do as well, such as "Damn Small Linux" which has been around a long time and has its own complaints about Linux (you get the tone, I suppose).

Seeing that VirtualBox was still talking to the outside world, I went with it, and since it has the Ubuntu in it, I searched using the words "jeos ubuntu virutalbox resolve.conf" to get some clues--I found a blog, kefakya7obi, supporting Wordpress in an emulator. For the /etc/networks/interfaces file , the author (thanks!) suggests the following configuration:

iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.5
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.254

You might notice the "auto" line in the file which refers to the boot-up process. Without it you have to use the "if-up eth0" command.

And reminded not to forget resolve.conf. The network information for the Vista laptop connection is in the icon in the interfaces section of the Vista networking windows, and I figured I would have to adjust things, but I didn't. I also ran the Vista text window commands ipconfig for IP information and nslookup, for DNS information which produced similar information, but much more quickly.

Update: Things stopped working again, so I went back to the default configuration in /etc/networks/interfaces, and it worked. It should be noted that with all this fiddling, I have not actually gotten to where I can actually work "wget" the digitalus and Zend software! (We do indeed live in a hell--technology--within a heaven--Nature.)

Final Update (I hope): This is a funny way to write a how-to page. I started to familiarize myself with the different virtual network concepts through Qemu docs, and then looked into the VirtualBox PDF. The paper explained how nothing works for everything and how NAT was the best for Internet access, but "local host only" was best for communication between guest and host.

Then I realized that Virtualbox allows for a few interfaces as emulated NIC cards, and reasoned that I might try running both modes on different interfaces. I tested eth0 and eth1 for both NAT and host-only configurations on VirtualBox, and then tried them together. Trying them together failed initially, but when I started host-only first (on eth1), and then added NAT (on eth2) I got an open Internet connection with domain name service, and also a good performance for a complex X11 client, Xemacs.

The host-only interface (eth0) in the JeOS /etc/networks config file is this:

iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.5
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.254

Still... it may not work in practice, and I will be testing it. But for the moment (at nearly 2am) this looks like a good solution. I checked to see if this was an orgininal suggestion by google searching using the words"virtualbox two interfaces nat host only" and found only trouble tickets and purely hypothetical examples. Seems I am the first offering this as a way to create a WWW development environment, which really seems odd to me knowing that Linux stands purely as a server, and that the only practical desktop solution (for me and most people) is still Windozer.

With time... it is working pretty well. There was one instance that it did not come up right, but the Windows components are still probably a work in progress, and things have to be just right for it to configure properly, and hence a possible need for a couple of reboots.



Virtualization Performance
VMWare is reputed to be the best of the best, but a table of benchmarks by a Linux gamer shows that these three emulation systems are the same within a single factor in every category.

                     VirtualBox   Qemu   VMware-player
CPU:
DhryStone ALU (MDIPS) 5,716       5,988   5,711
WhetStone FPU (MWIPS) 4,189       4,649   4,401
(thx2 http://www.linux-gamers.net/smartsection.item.56/virtualbox-vs-qemu.html :)

I installed the X11 window server, Xming, and allowed for access from all hosts in the "launch" window (not a necessarily a secure way to go, but there was no granular configuration in the launch window to specify hostnames), and I was very happy to see an rxvt window generated from the Linux living in the emulator. I was also excited to be able to cut+paste text between Windows and Linux's rxvt. You have to "export DISPLAY=192.168.56.1:0.0" from the ipconfig command on the laptop to direct the windowing instructions from the Linux in emulation to the Xserver on the laptop.

Then I tried an Xwindows editor: Xemacs. This started but failed to perform after starting, so I won't be running any fancy IDEs, such as Eclipse, for instance, at least with this arrangement. Perhaps I am short on memory (though all this GNU/Linux confligeration came back to me quickly ;) ). I have a gigabyte coming in the mail: ebay for $3.00 + shipping.

Perhaps WWW-based program editing tools, if they exist in a usable format, will satisfy though they usually don't (such as this one on blogspot doesn't).

Why virtualization is important to me
I am tyring to create an environment on my laptop that will allow me to access Linux from Vista, the system I am stuck with because of the laptop builder, SONY. My strategy is to run a LAMP and Zend framework appliance in an emulator (a more realistic word for what is called virutualization), and connect to it with X windows.

Connection to the Laptop
The connection to the laptop is important so as to have a decent window to work in, or possibly to use with editors such Emacs or an IDE such as ZEND Studio. I have found that there are a lot of problems with Windows LAMP installations such as WAMP; it seems like it is a matter of learning how to run virtualization on Windows, or de-bugging WAMP. Building in a Linux environment is helpful because nearly all web servers are Linux and I have found that migration from windows to linux is difficult enough to take up someone's time full-time.

So what is the problem?
Since the problem is with the virtual "network" within the laptop, Qemu seems to be the best choice, or perhaps path, because Qemu seems to have the most network control. It is unfortunate that the free software community has not resolved and documented solutions for this obvious issue for the two open emulators, Qemu and VirtualBox, or that community members are not sharing the details of the solutions. They just give hints that the problem can be solved but no actual script code. Perhaps they feel that you should suffer as they have; I actually study this phenomena about the open community as part of my work on the Information Society.

Other alternatives
The other path is simply to work on Linux full-time or in a dual boot machine. The problem here is that more time has to be invested into making Wifi work on Linux, as the Linux community as made hardware support nearly impossible for the manufacturing "community" by adhereing to a monolithic model rather than migrating to a micro-kernel. If you remember, Linux was born as a debate between Linus and a professor named Andrew Tannenbaum. Tannenbaum's system, Linux, was (or is) microkernel, as is every other major system: all of Microsoft since Win95, Apple's OSX, and of course the up-coming L4 micro-kernel foundation.

L4 Microkernel as a virtualization solution, and as a solution period
On the topic of L4, the approach is run machines on top of the L4 microkernel, rather than emulate PCs as processes, which if you think about it, is a pretty lame way to do things.

As of a few years ago, L4 ran Linux on top of its microkernel factors faster than linux runs as an independent monolith, which implies that not only Windows sucks, but Linux as well. So much for Linus' fame!

The obvious thing to do is of course look at the needs of the world of systems users, something like 6 billion members of the Information Society, and design a system that suits it as a aggregation of individuals, families, and communities.

Thinman is a model I created nearly a decade ago (before my whole industry got shipped to Bhopol, India !?!?) where I applied knowledge gleaned from the Perl CPAN distribution system with my experiences managing large networks as if each of these network systems, and their supporting network servers, had Perl VMs that received by both data and code instruction to implement the data, or to collect data and form it into a generic complex structure binary format (and not deliberately crippled XML). The Perl community was supposedly building a VM, and it was the most brilliant design imaginable, and it was to be the basis of my Thinman design, but it never came to fruition. I attempted to explain the underlying problem in my article here "Linux and Perl, Both Hands Tied."

Why Obama-nomics will ultimately fail most Americans

We are so deep in sh*t nothing will work! (in simple graphs)

The data below comes from Michael Hodges, http://mwhodges.home.att.net/

Our economy has not:

• provided for long periods of rapidly rising real median family incomes, especially for one wage-earner families.
• provided for steadily rising rates of savings for families. Savings are less than ever.
• provided for rising living standards with less debt. Household debt ratios explode higher than ever before, much faster than national income.
• made it easier for families to make a choice for one spouse to stay at home. Families several decades ago which could be well supported with one wage-earner, and very few of today's families realize such.

From Michael Hodges' graphs, the assumption to make about American decline is simple -- a complete reliance on other countries for manufacturing, and more recently services. But saying that "we want others to do stuff for us" perhaps because we are lazy is false; everyone wants to work, and the communities that made the stuff we use have been hurt beyond comprehension by the export of their manufacturing abilities. All factories are efficient; the idea that a community's manufacturing contribution to the nation, or any other contribution responsibilities should be taken away and given to others for any reason is simple cruelty.

In the small city that I live in, Torrington, Connecticut, there was in recent years a highly successful bearing factory that was among the best in the world. A foreign competitor was allowed to buy the factory simply to shut it down, to eliminate it as a competitor. This maneuver was legal, thanks to Congress, and was not challenged by the town, who told the citizens that they must work harder to compete in the "global market."

With the end of this important factory, along with the demise of many of this small city's other businesses, there has been a rise in desperation and crime as the really good citizens see themselves driven away often to be replaced by criminal populations annexing regions on behalf of big city gangs. With the rise in crime, and a horrendous local murder rate fueled by crack, this small city is now planning to convert this closed bearing factory into a justice center, complete with both courts and prisons.

This plan seems by design; it seems easier to find employment as part of a prison release program that as a normal job seeking citizen. From the historical perspective, this region is transfiguring itself from a healthy rural community with an effective democracy into slave-state based on prisoners. This is all very recent; I can distinctly remember the bearing factory, and the many other factories here in full, and virtually pollution-free, productivity.

In my honest opinion, things have to change. There has to be a criteria for describing and finding people who facilitate this kind of disastrous change, they have to be found, and they have to be prevented from carrying out this kind of activity. The first part, creating a descriptive criteria, seems easy enough, but the second step, acting to save the community, could be impossible. The criteria will no doubt describe the kinds of persons who facilitated Germany's decline into a slave state, and it took World War II to dislodge and imprison those "facilitators."

These charts showing American decline are by Micheal Hodges. They show very easily that American decline has been a long process, and has been so effective as to appear to be planned. His strongest data implies a shift from self-reliance and global leadership, to a nearly complete reliance on other nations, and local, regional, and national collapse.

The rationale behind such destructive leadership can only fall into two categories: treachery and mental illness. Recent research implies that those two things may be the same, and may fall under the psychological description of malignant narcissism. It may take the US military to dislodge this disorder, as it exists in the highest places and resembles the worst humanity has had to present: Hitler, Stalin, Saddam Hussein.

	During the 30 years 1977-2007 inflation-adjusted median income fell steadily for full-time male workers
	The chart at left shows a 48 year trend of that part of disposable income that has been saved - - called 'personal savings rate'. Prior to 1970 the rate of personal savings was rising, as were family incomes. Most families then had but one wage earner showing that they lived will well without today's increasing debt ratios (see chart below).
	This chart shows soaring household debt ratios during the past 2 decades of stagnant inflation-adjusted median family income growth. The chart shows that household debt increased two times faster than general economic growth. The chart shows that during the 1960s and early 1970s the household debt ratio held fairly steady at about 53% of national income - which means household debt was not growing faster than growth of the total economy. Therefore, during this period of rising inflation-adjusted family incomes households did not increase their debt ratios.
	This chart shows the trend of the number of manufacturing workers as a percentage of all U.S. employees (non-agriculture) - - from 26% in 1960 to 9% in 2008, a 64% drop in the manufacturing ratio.
	This chart measures the U.S. merchandise (goods, excluding military) trade balance each year since 1959. It shows previously the USA ran a balance of trade, meaning we were able to sell enough goods to other nations to pay for what we purchased from them. America now runs massive deficits. If a country runs a trade deficit it is borrowing from the rest of the world so that it can spend in excess of its own production. This means the USA is less competitive than before. NOTE: The U.S. is setting record negative trade balances each year.
	This chart shows the USA cumulative merchandise trade deficit - - with all nations since 1985. (cumulative means adding all deficits) The cumulative merchandise goods trade deficit was $8.2 Trillion during the last 23 years (since 1985). That means each American man, woman and child effectively borrowed $27,152 from producers in other nations, because we Americans consumed more goods from other nations than we produced and sold abroad. As a result, foreigners now own over $8 trillion more in US assets than in 1985.
	The chart at left shows America's total debt (sum of all government debt and all private debt of households, business, and financial sectors) started to grow faster than growth of the economy's national income - - at about the same time (late 1970s to early 1980s) - - increasing even faster today.
	Graphic reality of China Trade

Related Links:
Rattlesnake Manifesto
Americans kill, so what is the kindest way to kill?
Hyper-DE-flation makes sense
Lies of the Times: Obama needs to fufill his promise
Beginning the American Break-Up: Ending the CIA
Inflation Key to the Recession Cycle
Spiritual Darwinism: Natural and Native Empathy

Ideas for Codezero native L4 Implemen...

Codezero:
http://www.l4dev.org/doku.php

This next OS needs another layer on top of the UI technology that directly talks to the user. I think that to directly integrate the user into the system, there has to be some kind of mind-mapping interaction with the OS as part of the capabilities that are offered to the user in the UI. Beyond this, the user needs to integrate into the "cloud," which is the rest of society, through the mind mapping, which then becomes minds-mapping. (??)

There is a need for the user to break out of the "client / server" mode, where I see the server as master and the client as slave, a direct extension of the original Information Society that the Jews escaped from: "Let my people go!!" This necessitates one to one connections between devices of this model where the connections are only supported by services but not controlled by them (presumably for money, or "tribute").

Equally important is full support for hardware manufacturers especially with respect to plug-in modules: completing the break from monolithic architecture. Completing this break is what l4 is about. Possibly even going further, a facility could be created to easily convert existing drivers to show manufacturers "good faith" respect to the peripheral market.

In my opinion, the most "excellent" architecture belongs to the "Parrot VM," which unfortunately has stalled, and perhaps needs to fork away from its parentage in Perl towards internal support. In short its programming language resembles CPU architecture in that it does uses registers making it factors more efficient, which of course lends to miniaturization and low power use.

LISP persists as a well-perfected interpreter language, and might make a model for the next system's native management language, though I would use names like "mash-up" or "zing" to describe a language and try to base it on the most accepted and popular interpretations of OO architecture.

I feel if all the necessary architectural aspects of an essential OS are represented, expert voices can implement their architectural ideas so as to finally give the world what it really needs.

Paraphrasing Bahadir Balban:
Codezero is a modern L4 microkernel implementation written in C that targets embedded platforms and aims to implement native OS components. It has a design and API that is similar to existing L4 microkernels.

Two current services: a default pager called MM0 that supports for instance fork, clone, execve, exit, mmap, shm. The second called FS0 and implements the virtual filesystem layer supporting open, close, read, write, lseek, stat, fsync, etc.

It is GPLv3 licensee, and a copyright share agreement option for contributions. On the next few releases there will be a port of the Xynth windowing system. Only that ARM is supported as the first architecture.