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Fedora Weekly News 184

From:  Pascal Calarco <pcalarco-AT-nd.edu>
To:  "fedora-news-list-AT-redhat.com" <fedora-news-list-AT-redhat.com>
Subject:  Fedora Weekly News 184
Date:  Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:35:02 -0400
Message-ID:  <7936B5FE0FA08649B9E2969E1CF5671401187BDF83@ICE-MBX-4.ice.nd.edu>
Cc:  "fedora-announce-list-AT-redhat.com" <fedora-announce-list-AT-redhat.com>
Archive-link:  Article, Thread

1 Fedora Weekly News Issue 184
1.1 Announcements
1.1.1 Fedora 9 (Sulphur)
1.1.2 Meeting Logging
1.1.3 Fedora Packaging Committee
1.1.4 Resources for packagers
1.1.5 Upcoming Events
1.2 Planet Fedora
1.2.1 General
1.3 Ambassadors
1.3.1 Release event in Vancouver, Washington
1.3.2 Release event in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
1.3.3 Release event in Pune, India
1.3.4 Get on the map
1.3.5 Get the word out about your F11 event
1.4 Translation
1.4.1 Setroubleshoot translations are inconsistent with original messages
1.4.2 Bosnian Translations for Fedora 11 Users' Guide is Now Available
1.4.3 New Transifex .po Files Available for Translations
1.4.4 Transifex Component in Bugzilla Removed
1.4.5 New members in FLP
1.5 Artwork
1.5.1 A Gallery in the Works
1.5.2 New Wallpapers Coming
1.5.3 Continual Brainstorming for Constantine
1.6 Virtualization
1.6.1 Enterprise Management Tools List
1.6.1.1 More Device Support in virt-manager
1.6.1.2 Xen, Windows, and ACPI
1.6.2 Fedora Virtualization List
1.6.2.1 Fedora Virt Status Update
1.6.2.2 New Mailing List and New Releases of libguestfs
1.6.2.3 USB Passthrough to Virtual Machines
1.6.3 Libvirt List
1.6.3.1 New Release libvirt 0.6.5
1.6.3.2 libvirt Repositories Mirrored on Gitorious
1.6.3.3 The Role of libvirtd
1.6.3.4 Storage cloning for LVM and Disk backends
1.6.4 Fedora-Xen List
1.6.4.1 Xen dom0 Forward Ported to Latest Kernel

- Fedora Weekly News Issue 184 -
Welcome to Fedora Weekly News Issue 184[1] for the week ending July 12, 2009.
Here are a few highlights from this week's issue. This past week marked the end of life for Fedora
9, and the launch of a new logging tool to help facilitate reporting for Fedora IRC meetings. In
news from the Fedora Planet, an overview of the development changes for Fedora 12, and several
posts around Mono in light of Microsoft's recent Community Promise. In Ambassador news, coverage of
recent Fedora release events in Vancouver, Washington, Malaysia and India. In Translation news, a
new Fedora 11 Users' Guide is now available in Bosnian, changes in Transfix, and new members of the
Fedora Localization Project. In Design news, details on a new Gallery test instance for development
of in-process works by the Art Team. Also some new wallpapers, and more theming discussion around
Fedora 12 'Constantine.' The issue rounds out with news from virtualization-related efforts,
including news of more device support in virt-manager, announcement of a new list for discussion of
"libguestfs/guestfish/virt-inspector discussion/development." These are but a sampling of this
week's Fedora Weekly News -- we hope you enjoy it!

If you are interested in contributing to Fedora Weekly News, please see our 'join' page[2]. We
welcome reader feedback: fedora-news-list@redhat.com<mailto:fedora-news-list@redhat.com>
FWN Editorial Team: Pascal Calarco, Adam Williamson
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue184
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/NewsProject/Join

-- Announcements --

In this section, we cover announcements from the Fedora Project[1] [2] [3].
Contributing Writer: Max Spevack
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-announce/
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Events

--- Fedora 9 (Sulphur) ---

Fedora 9 has reached its end-of-life[1] and will no longer receive any updates.
Fedora 10 will continue to receive updates until about 1 month after Fedora 12's release, and
Fedora 11 will be updated until about 1 month after Fedora 13.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2009-...

--- Meeting Logging ---

A new tool for IRC meeting management[1] is available for Fedora channels on Freenode. Jon
Stanley[2] explained that the tool "was developed by our friends over at Debian, who are using it
to record their meetings as well. We would like all Fedora meetings to be recorded using this
mechanism, such that there's one format for all of the logs."
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2009-...
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Jstanley

--- Fedora Packaging Committee ---

There is an open seat on the Fedora Packaging Committee[1]. Those who are interested should contact
Tom Callaway[2].
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-announce/2009...
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Spot

--- Resources for packagers ---

Kevin Fenzi[1] has "setup some machines/virtual instances here to assist maintainers that might not
have access to all versions/arches Fedora runs on."[2]. If you want more information, see the
appropriate wiki page[3].
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Kevin
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-announce/2009...
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Machine_Resources_For...

--- Upcoming Events ---

Consider attending or volunteering at an event near you!
North America (NA)[1]
Central & South America (LATAM)[2]
Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA)[3]
India, Asia, Australia (India/APJ)[4]
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Events#FY10_Q2_.28June_2009...
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Events#FY10_Q2_.28June_2009...
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Events#FY10_Q2_.28June_2009...
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Events#FY10_Q2_.28June_2009...

-- Planet Fedora --

In this section, we cover the highlights of Planet Fedora[1] - an aggregation of blogs from Fedora
contributors worldwide.
Contributing Writer: Adam Batkin
http://planet.fedoraproject.org

--- General ---

Karsten Wade presented[1] the position for relicensing the Fedora documentation (wiki,
docs.fedoraproject.org, upstream guides at fedorahosted.org) from OPL to Creative Commons (CC)
Attribution-Share Alike (BY SA) 3.0.
Paul W. Frields outlined[2] the (shortened) development process and schedule going forward for
Fedora 12. The feature freeze (July 28) rapidly approaches!
Steven Fernandez asked[3] "Is Red Hat really an Open Source company?" Steven explained the
background behind the post: "This question keeps cropping up every once in a while on different LUG
lists where I lurk. It is a fairly established fact now in the FOSS world (or for that matter in
the software world) that businesses can be both Open Source as well as commercial (ie: for profit).
However, the specifics of the mechanism for doing this is still not well understood."
There was a bit of discussion in the blogosphere around Microsoft's recent decision[4] to apply
their Community Promise[5] (covenant not to sue) to the C# language specification and Common
Language Infrastructure (CLI). Ismael Olea excerpted[6] an excited e-mail from the fedora-mono
mailing list. Not everyone was quite so optimistic however.
Michael DeHaan reminded[7] us that only the core language and libraries are covered under the
promise, and notably absent are some of the components that would make it useful including Windows
Forms and ADO. Michael added "My long held theory is that mono was never to be considered a legal
threat, it is a tool to be used in a strategy of erosion ? insert a compelling technology, then
provide a migration path by adding on proprietary extensions. It erodes Linux and it erodes OSS?
and advocacy for it, even in purely legal/ethical ways, using just the free bits, and so forth,
help enhance that position and acceptability."
Alex Hudson pointed out[8] that "this is going to have a surprisingly negative effect within the
community, however. It validates the arguments of people worried about Mono, and this proposed
split of Mono into "Standard bits covered by MCP" and "Other bits not covered by MCP" is actually
going to fuel the flames: inevitably, people will assume the non-MCP bits are a total patent
mine-field, no matter what is actually in that area. Parts that people are quite happily shipping
right now - such as ASP.net - will be targetted next by people "anti" Mono. And for the parts
covered by MCP; well, I expect not much to change: certainly, it's not likely to convert many
people to Mono."
David Woodhouse shared[9] an amusing (true) story about trying to recover the cost of Windows
Vista, from a brand new laptop.
Michael DeHaan trialed[10] Ubuntu Netbook Remix on a netbook and found a number of areas where
Fedora may be able to improve its user experience.
Vincent Danen discussed[11] the idea of "responsible disclosure" in response to rumors of a
mysterious OpenSSH 0-day exploit floating around the internet.
Mohd Izhar Firdaus Ismail posted[12] an event report (and photos!) from a Fedora 11 Release Event
held by the Fedora Malaysia team.
Chitlesh Goorah announced[13] that the Fedora Electronic Lab will be switching the default desktop
from KDE to Gnome.
Scott Williams built[14] a set of RPMs containing drivers for some ATI Radeon HD video cards, from
a new experimental branch that contains 3D support. "You will need both the driver and the mesa
package to enjoy all the 3d stuffs. Again, experimental - use at your own risk."
http://iquaid.org/2009/07/06/why-relicense-fedora-documen...
http://marilyn.frields.org:8080/~paul/wordpress/?p=2604
http://lonetwin.blogspot.com/2009/07/is-red-hat-really-op...
http://port25.technet.com/archive/2009/07/06/the-ecma-c-a...
http://www.microsoft.com/interop/cp/default.mspx
http://olea.org/diario/archive/2009/jul-07-1.html
http://michaeldehaan.net/2009/07/07/before-you-congratula...
http://www.alexhudson.com/blog/2009/07/07/mono-and-mcp/
http://www.advogato.org/person/dwmw2/diary.html?start=207
http://michaeldehaan.net/2009/07/10/the-episode-where-our...
http://linsec.ca/blog/2009/07/09/towards-responsible-disc...
http://blog.kagesenshi.org/2009/07/eventreport-fedora-11-...
http://chitlesh.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/fel-spin-switchi...
http://vwbusguy.wordpress.com/2009/07/11/free-open-source...

-- Ambassadors --

In this section, we cover Fedora Ambassadors Project[1].
Contributing Writer: Larry Cafiero
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors

--- Release event in Vancouver, Washington ---

Kevin Higgins reports that the Fedora 11 release event in Vancouver, Washington, was the first
Fedora event of any kind there, and the first Linux event in Clark County since June 4th, 2005.
Matt McKenzie also reports from the event as well
For more on the event, visit http://crossbytes.wordpress.com/ and http://linuxknight.net/

--- Release event in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia ---

Izhar Firdaus reports that on 4th July 2009, the Fedora Malaysia Team, in collaboration with Saito
College held a Fedora 11 Release Event on campus in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. Izhar says that they
had more than 90 people attend.
For more on the event, visit
http://blog.kagesenshi.org/2009/07/eventreport-fedora-11-...

--- Release event in Pune, India ---

Nilesh Govande reports that July 5 was a celebration day at Red Hat's Pune Marigold office -
courtesy of the Fedora 11 release. The event was totally informal where the developers and college
students had a chance to interact with each other. Attendees asked questions and the answers came
from actual contributors of distribution.
For more on the event, visit
http://www.linuxforu.com/news/its-party-time-at-the-launc...

--- Get on the map ---

Want to find the nearest ambassador? How about one in Romania? Now you can.
Susmit Shannigrahi reports that finding out the nearest ambassadors, which was once a tedious task,
is now as simple as viewing a map. The map is at https://fedoraproject.org/membership-map and
instructions on how to place yourself on the map can be found at
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_ambassadors_map

--- Get the word out about your F11 event ---

Fedora 11 was released on Tuesday, June 9, and with it a variety of activities around the release
will be forthcoming. As such, with the upcoming release of Fedora 11, this is a reminder that
posting your event on Fedora Weekly News can help get the word out. Contact FWN Ambassador
correspondent Larry Cafiero at lcafiero-AT-fedoraproject-DOT-org with announcements of upcoming
events -- and don't forget to e-mail reports after the events as well.

-- Translation --
This section covers the news surrounding the Fedora Translation (L10n) Project[1].
Contributing Writer: Runa Bhattacharjee
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/L10N

--- Setroubleshoot translations are inconsistent with original messages ---
Domingo Becker reported presence of setroubleshoot audit strings in English inspite of complete
translation in the particular language[1]. The rapid changes in the module cause the .pot files to
be changed frequently. Some of the possible reasons for the inconsistency are: the strings have not
been marked for translation or inclusions, the translations have not been merged when the .pot
files have been updated[2]. Piotr Dr?g also informed that the translations may not have been
included with the latest builds of the module[3].
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-Ju...
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-Ju...
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-Ju...
--- Bosnian Translations for Fedora 11 Users' Guide is Now Available ---

Arnes Arnautovi? has translated the Fedora 11 Users' Guide to Bosnian[1] and the document has been
published to the Fedora Docs website by Ruediger Landmann[2].
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-Ju...
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-Ju...
--- New Transifex .po Files Available for Translations ---

Dimitris Glezos informed the list about the availability of updated .po files for translation of
the transifex module[1].
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-Ju...
--- Transifex Component in Bugzilla Removed ---
The deprecated 'Transifex' component under the 'Fedora Localization' product has been removed from
the Red Hat Bugzilla and all the relevant bugs have been moved to the 'Website' component[1].
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-Ju...

--- New members in FLP ---
Aveek Sen[1] (Hindi & Bengali-India), Igor Gorbounov[2] (Russian), Tomek Chrzczonowicz[3] (Polish)
joined the Fedora Translation Project recently.
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-Ju...
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-Ju...
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-Ju...

-- Artwork --
In this section, we cover the Fedora Design Team[1].
Contributing Writer: Nicu Buculei
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork

--- A Gallery in the Works ---
Máirín Duffy informed[1] on @design-team about a test instance of a gallery software, something
being a wishlist item for a long time, and asked about ways to use it "How do you think we should
proceed with it?". Martin Sourada suggested[2] using it for a while "perhaps make it accessible to
design team members and start filling it with extra wallpapers and see how it works? And hold a
session after some time (perhaps a month) to discuss whether the test instance works as we'd like
or not" and [[User:luya|Luya Tshimbalanga] proposed[3] some categories "Could it be used to display
past Fedora release wallpapers, contributors wallpaper like Martin mentioned similar to what Fedora
Forum used to have until vBulletin upgrade, sketches."
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/design-team/2009...
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/design-team/2009...
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/design-team/2009...
--- New Wallpapers Coming ---
María Leandro asked for feedback[1] on @design-team about a few wallpaper concepts, which were
received positively, as for example by Máirín Duffy[2] "I think these works are a very good start
start; I think the shading and coloring on mosaico2 is very suitable for a background. It's not too
high-contrast, or stark, or distracting which is good for a wallpaper" along with a number of
improvement ideas from various members of the team, on which Maria based a second iteration[3],
also received positively[4] "This one is great. The lighting is perfect."
María also showed[5] a number of wallpaper proposals she did for the Education SIG[6], which, as
Máirín Duffy observed[7], didn't comply with the logo usage guidelines[8] "I have a concern here
with the logo - we're not supposed to change the Fedora logo like that, it's really really against
the guidelines". On a tangent, a sub-logo for the education SIG was created[9] by Máirín.
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/design-team/2009...
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/design-team/2009...
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/design-team/2009...
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/design-team/2009...
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/design-team/2009...
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SIGs/Education
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/design-team/2009...
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Logo/UsageGuidelines
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/design-team/2009...
--- Continual Brainstorming for Constantine ---
Máirín Duffy reviewed a stalled conversation about creating a theme linked to the Fedora 12
codename, a good opportunity for Paul Frields[1] and Nicu Buculei [2] to chime-in with their (to
long for this report) replies on the issue.
On the same 'Constantine' concept Samuele Storari explored[3] a column "maybe we can work on the
Roman Art Style and not only havin focus on the mosaic, there're the basrelief or the Monumental
sketch or the Bas-relief decoreting the Constantine Column" and Angella Inzinga with a coin[4]
"I've been toying with a coin-imagery based idea of the campgate. [...] I'm hoping to have
something up to post soon."

http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/design-team/2009...
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/design-team/2009...
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/design-team/2009...
http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/design-team/2009...

-- Virtualization --

In this section, we cover discussion of Fedora virtualization technologies on the
@et-mgmnt-tools-list, @fedora-xen-list, @libvirt-list and @ovirt-devel-list lists.
Contributing Writer: Dale Bewley

--- Enterprise Management Tools List ---
This section contains the discussion happening on the et-mgmt-tools list

---- More Device Support in virt-manager ----

Cole Robinson patched[1] virt-manager to implement adding of virtual video devices in the 'Add
Hardware' wizard. Cole also implemented[2] attaching serial and parallel devices.
Both these features were added to virt-install[3]. Serial ports can be directed to sockets
listening on remote hosts. For example: --serial udp,host=192.168.10.20:4444. That may come in
handy for the F12 Hostinfo feature[4].
http://www.redhat.com/archives/et-mgmt-tools/2009-July/ms...
http://www.redhat.com/archives/et-mgmt-tools/2009-July/ms...
http://www.redhat.com/archives/et-mgmt-tools/2009-July/ms...
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/Hostinfo
---- Xen, Windows, and ACPI ----

Guido Günther noted[1] that virt-install disables ACPI and APIC for Windows XP guests. Adding, that
it seems "that Windows XP is working fine with acpi/apic enabled which has the immediate advantage
that poweroff via ACPI works as expected. So does it make sense to handle winxp the same win2k3?".
Windows 2003 guests have ACPI enabled.
Pasi Kärkkäinen went to the xen-devel list and confirmed[2] and relayed "Keir Fraser replied that
ACPI with Windows has been working properly at least since Xen 3.1.0 days". Pasi then updated the
Xen wiki page[3].
http://www.redhat.com/archives/et-mgmt-tools/2009-July/ms...
http://www.redhat.com/archives/et-mgmt-tools/2009-July/ms...
http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/XenWindowsACPI

--- Fedora Virtualization List ---
This section contains the discussion happening on the fedora-virt list.

---- Fedora Virt Status Update ----

Mark McLoughlin posted[1] another Fedora Virt Status Update reminding that Fedora 12 is quickly
approaching with the Feature Freeze on 2009-07-28.
Also mentioned were:
Details of a fix for "a dramatic slowdown in virtio-blk performance in F-11 guests"[2]
Note on Xen Dom0 support.
New wiki pages created.
Detailed run-down of current virt bugs.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-virt/2009-July/msg0...
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/509383
---- New Mailing List and New Releases of libguestfs ----
Richard Jones announced[1] the creation of a new list[2] dedicated to
"libguestfs/guestfish/virt-inspector discussion/development".
The current release is now 1.0.57[3], but Richard is so fast that may change by the time you read
this.
Recent new features:
virt-df - like 'df' for virtual machines
New Perl library called Sys::Guestfs::Lib
Now available for EPEL
Tab completion in guestfish now completes files and devices
Big change to the code generator
Lots more regression tests
guestfish commands: time, glob, more, less
new commands: readdir, mknod*, umask, du, df*, head*, tail*, wc*, mkdtemp, scrub, sh, sh-lines.
Debian native[4] (debootstrap, debirf) support
See previous release announcement for 1.0.14 in FWN#179[5] and be sure to see the project
homepage[6] for extensive usage examples.

http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-virt/2009-July/msg0...
http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/libguestfs
http://www.redhat.com/archives/libguestfs/2009-July/msg00...
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-virt/2009-July/msg0...
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue179#New_Release_li...
http://libguestfs.org/
---- USB Passthrough to Virtual Machines  ----
Mark McLoughlin posted instructions[1] for attaching a USB device to a guest using virt-manager in
Fedora 11. This could previously (FWN#165[2]) be accomplished only on the command line.
Unfortunately, those wishing to manage their iPhone or newer iPods in a guest (yours truly
included), KVM does not yet support the required USB 2.

http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-virt/2009-June/msg0...
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue165#Hot_Add_USB_De...

--- Libvirt List  ---
This section contains the discussion happening on the libvir-list.

---- New Release libvirt 0.6.5 ---
Daniel Veillard announced[1] a new libvirt release, version 0.6.5. "This is mostly a bug fix
release, though it includes some serious improvements for storage/NPIV[2] and on the OpenNebula
driver[3]."
New features:
create storage columes on disk backend (Henrik Persson)
drop of capabilities based on libcap-ng when possible (Daniel Berrange)
Improvements:
create and destroy NPIV support (David Allan)
networking in UML driver (Daniel Berrange)
HAL driver restart thread safety (Daniel Berrange)
capabilities and nodeinfo APIs for LXC (Daniel Berrange)
iNUMA API for VBox (Daniel Berrange)
dynamically search and use kvm-img qemu-img or qcow-create (Doug Goldstein)
fix qemu and kvm version parsing (Mark McLoughlin)
serial number for HAL storage (Dave Allan)
improve error reporting for virConnectOpen URIs (Daniel Berrange)
include OS driver name in device XML (Daniel Berrange)
fix qemu command flags fetching (Cole Robinson)
check that qemu support -drive format= (Cole Robinson)
improve emulator detection (Cole Robinson)
changes to config parser to accomodate VMX syntax (Matthias Bolte)
update network schemas and driver for missing elements (Satoru SATOH)
avoid changing file context if not needed (Tim Waugh)
skip labelling if no src path (Cole Robinson)
add arm emulation if qemu-system-arm is present (C.J. Adams-Collier)
libvirt 0.6.4 was released[4] on May 29. Daniel Veillard is "shooting for a slightly smaller
development cycle, in order to be able to push the next version in time for Fedora 12 Beta, this
means a new release at the end of July, so only a bit more than a couple of weeks for pushing the
changes, I really hope we will be able to include a first version of the ESX driver and Power
Hyprvisor, if it's the case I think it will be worth bumping the release name to 0.7.0."

http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-July/msg0...
http://www.libvirt.org/storage.html
http://www.libvirt.org/drvone.html
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue179#New_Release_li...
---- libvirt Repositories Mirrored on Gitorious ----
Development of libvirt recently moved[1] to git as the source control management system. Daniel
Berrange announced[2] "I have created a libvirt project[3] on gitorious which has a mirror of the
master branch of the libvirt.git repository. This mirror is *readonly* and updated automatically
every 15 minutes. The purpose of this mirror is to allow people to easily publish their personal
libvirt working repos to the world. The master upstream repository for libvirt does not
change[4]".

http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-July/msg0...
http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-July/msg0...
http://gitorious.org/libvirt
http://libvirt.org/git

---- The Role of libvirtd  ----
Hugh Brock described[1] a client's desire to make "libvirtd be a one-stop shop for everything they
need to do on a virtualization host, including things we have traditionally held out-of-scope for
libvirt. A partial list of those things would include:"
In-depth multipath config management
Hardware lifecycle management (power-off, reboot, etc.)
HA configuration
Hugh then asked "why *not* expand the scope of libvirtd to be a one-stop shop for managing a node?
Is there a really good reason it shouldn't have the remaining capabilities libvirt users want?"
Daniel Berrange replied[2] "This is essentially suggesting that libvirtd become a general purpose
RPC layer for all remote management tasks. At which point you have just re-invented QPid/AMQP or
CIM or any number of other general purpose message buses. libvirtd has a core well defined goal:"
Provide a remote proxy for libvirt API calls
"If you want todo anything more than that you should be considering an alternative remote
management system. We already have 2 good ones to choose from supported with libvirt"
QPid/AMQP, with libvirt-qpid[3] agent + your own custom agents
CIM, with libvirt-CIM[4] + your own custom CIM providers
"Furthermore, adding more plugins to libvirtd means we will never be able to reduce its privileges
to an acceptable level, because we'll never know what capabilities the plugins may want."
Hugh countered [5] "given a libvirt-qpid daemon on the node that handles RPC over QMF (for
example), is there not some value in having libvirt expose a consistent API for the operations
people want to do on a host regardless of whether they have directly to do with managing a virtual
machine or not?"
Daniel Berrange didn't "really see any value in that" "You're just putting in another abstraction
layer where none need exist. Just have whatever QMF agent you write talk directly to the thing you
need to manage."
Hugh "I will note that when I presented the large client with the option of QMF talking to multiple
agents on the node but exposing (effectively) a single API and a single connection, they seemed
much happier. So perhaps the right way to attack this is with the ovirt-qpid[6] daemon we are
currently working on."
Daniel Veillard was[7] "a bit synpathetic to the suggestion though." "I think libvirt API should
help run those virtualization nodes, I would not open the gate like completely, but if we could
provide all APIs needed to manage the node on a day by day basis then I think this is not really
beyond our scope. I think that netcf(FWN#170[8]) is an example of such API where we start to add
admin services for the purpose of running virtualization. Things like rebooting or shutting down
the node would fit in this, maybe editing a drive partition too."
"Basically if we take the idea of a stripped down Node used only for virtualization, then except
for operations which are first time setup options or maintainance, I think we should try to cover
the requirements of normal operations of that node. To some extend that means we would step on the
toes of CIM, but we would stick to a subset that's sure."

http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-July/msg0...
http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-July/msg0...
http://libvirt.org/qpid/
http://libvirt.org/CIM/
http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-July/msg0...
http://ovirt.org/
http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-July/msg0...
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue170#First_Release_...

---- Storage cloning for LVM and Disk backends ----

Cole Robinson submitted[1] a patch series which "implements cloning for LVM and disk backends. Most
of the functionality is already here, it just needed some reorganization to be accessible for every
backend."
"I verified the following scenarios produced a bootable image:"
Clone within a disk pool
Clone within a logical pool
Clone a raw file to a disk pool
Clone a disk pool to a logical pool
http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-July/msg0...
--- Fedora-Xen List ---
This section contains the discussion happening on the fedora-xen list.

---- Xen dom0 Forward Ported to Latest Kernel ----
Previously, Xen dom0 support in Fedora was provided by forward porting the Xensource patches from
kernel 2.6.18 to the version found in the Fedora release at the time. This consumed developer
resources and led to separate kernel and kernel-xen packages for a time. As of Fedora 9[1] this
practice was deamed[2] untenable, and support for hosting Xen guests was dropped from Fedora.
Work has since focused on creating a paravirt operations dom0[3] kernel based on the most recent
upstream vanilla kernel. This work is incomplete and not expected to be done before F12 or even
F13. However, experimental dom0 kernels[4] have been created for the adventurous.
Pasi Kärkkäinen tells[5] us the Xen 2.6.18 patches have now been forward-ported to the current
2.6.29 and 2.6.30 kernel. "Forward-porting has been done by Novell for OpenSUSE. Novell also has a
forward-port to 2.6.27 for SLES11."
The patches can be found here[6] here [7] and here[8].
Pasi added "These patches are still more stable and mature than the pv_ops dom0 code.. Also, these
patches have the full Xen feature set (pv_ops still lacks some features)."
More history is avilable[9].
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/release-notes/f9/en_US/sn-V...
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-xen/2007-November/...
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/XenPvopsDom0
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue170#Experimental_D...

--- end FWN 184 --

Pascal Calarco, Fedora Ambassador, Indiana, USA
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Pcalarco
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