Gentoo as VirtualBox Guest

syzygy — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:37:02 +0000

For a while, I kept an old 733MHz computer in my rack to use as a test box, where I could play with various software without needing to worry that what I was doing could cause problems for my desktop.� I have not used it in a while, but I decided that having a physical test machine is unecessary for what I generally want to test.� So I decided to create a set of Gentoo virtual machines in VirtualBox (version 2.2.2) so that I could run software in an isolated environment and easily be able to start again from a clean state if necessary.� Following the article on the Gentoo Wiki was helpful, but was not complete.

The first issue is the naming of the hard disk block device.� The minimal live CD detects the drive as /dev/hda however, using the driver suggested in the wiki will detect the drive as /dev/sda.� This is not a big problem so long as you make sure to use sda in /etc/fstab and in the GRUB configuration.� I’m sure there is a reasonable explanation for why this happened, but this was the simplest solution that I could think of.

Now that I have a basic, clean Gentoo install, I make two copies.� The first is a backup of the virtual machine without any extra programs installed.� This will let me install any program from the state of a brand new Gentoo install.� The second, copy is the same as the first, but with the addition of X and XFCE, so I can play with graphical programs without compiling X every time.� Virtualbox supports creating snapshots of the virtual machine hard drive, so I can revert the machine to the last state before the software I’m testing was installed.

Now that everything is working, it’s time to start testing.� First up will be XFCE 4.6.

Syzygy Tech » gentoo wiki

Gentoo as VirtualBox Guest