kvm install freebsb

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Published: Thursday, 10 December 2015 12:33
Ramnode KVM VPS's have Alpine Linux mini ISO's in their Netherlands location. It is still possible to install Alpine Linux if your VPS provider does not support it by using kvm or qemu [ if egrep --color=auto 'vmx|svm|0xc0f' /proc/cpuinfo does not give you any output ].

I have used these instructions to install Alpine Linux on a low end VPS at ZXhost. Today ZXhost kindly added a 64bit Alpine Mini ISO to their German location.

Alpine + openvswitch + psad uses 65 mib of RAM.

Mount & boot from the VPS Provider's Rescue CD [ rescue-pro / grml / gparted ]. These are normally Debian based distributions which have kvm already installed so you may not need to apt-get install qemu-kvm. If you run out of RAM performing the installation you could also partition the disk & install Debian into the boot & non root partitions. Boot the VPS & follow the instructions below.

Alpine Linux ZXhost KVM VPS
 
Download your Alpine Linux or Custom ISO image:

Bash Code
 
wget -P /tmp http://wiki.alpinelinux.org/cgi-bin/dl.cgi/v3.2/releases/x86_64/alpine-mini-3.2.3-x86_64.iso
 
It is probably a good idea to service start ssh & login to ssh so the following commands can be pasted into the terminal.

Start kvm [ if you have virtualization extensions available on your VPS ]

Bash Code
 
MYISO=/tmp/alpine-mini-3.2.3-x86_64.iso
qemu-system-x86_64 -netdev type=user,id=mynet0 -device virtio-net-pci,netdev=mynet0 -m 512M -localtime -enable-kvm -drive index=0,media=disk,if=virtio,file=/dev/vda -vga qxl -spice port=5900,addr=127.0.0.1,disable-ticketing -daemonize -cdrom $MYISO -boot d
Alternatively start qemuegrep --color=auto 'vmx|svm|0xc0f' /proc/cpuinfo returns nothing:

Bash Code
 
MYISO=/tmp/alpine-mini-3.2.3-x86_64.iso
qemu-system-x86_64 -netdev type=user,id=mynet0 -device virtio-net-pci,netdev=mynet0 -m 512M -localtime -no-kvm -drive index=0,media=disk,if=virtio,file=/dev/vda -vga qxl -spice port=5900,addr=127.0.0.1,disable-ticketing -daemonize -cdrom $MYISO -boot d
 
On your LOCAL machine forward a port through an ssh tunnel to your VPS & start a SPICE session:

Bash Code
 
MYIP=1.2.3.4
ssh -4 -v user@$MYIP -L 5900:localhost:5900
apt-get install virt-viewer
remote-viewer
spice://127.0.0.1?port=5900
 
You will now be able to install Alpine Linux or your Custom ISO.

You can also use a variation of these instructions to mimic a console if it is broken. Boot from a Rescue CD &:

Bash Code
 
qemu-system-x86_64 -netdev type=user,id=mynet0 -device virtio-net-pci,netdev=mynet0 -m 512M -localtime -enable-kvm -drive index=0,media=disk,if=virtio,file=/dev/vda -vga qxl -spice port=5900,addr=127.0.0.1,disable-ticketing -daemonize -boot c
 
Change -enable-kvm to -no-kvm if /dev/kvm does not exist.