system: Provide a new VM image configuration.

* gnu/system/examples/vm-image.tmpl: Rewrite.
* doc/guix.texi (Running Guix in a VM): Adjust accordingly.

diff --git a/doc/guix.texi b/doc/guix.texi
index 2d5ec86..480fce3 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/guix.texi
+++ b/doc/guix.texi
@@ -24576,13 +24576,23 @@ example graph.
 @section Running Guix in a Virtual Machine
 
 @cindex virtual machine
 @section Running Guix in a Virtual Machine
 
 @cindex virtual machine

-To run Guix in a virtual machine (VM), one can either use the
-pre-built Guix VM image distributed at
+To run Guix in a virtual machine (VM), one can use the pre-built Guix VM image
+distributed at

 @indicateurl{https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/guix/guix-system-vm-image-@value{VERSION}.@var{system}.xz}
 @indicateurl{https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/guix/guix-system-vm-image-@value{VERSION}.@var{system}.xz}

-, or build their own virtual machine image using @command{guix system
-vm-image} (@pxref{Invoking guix system}).  The returned image is in
-qcow2 format, which the @uref{http://qemu.org/, QEMU emulator} can
-efficiently use.
+This image is a compressed image in QCOW format.  You will first need to
+decompress with @command{xz -d}, and then you can pass it to an emulator such
+as QEMU (see below for details).
+
+This image boots the Xfce graphical environment and it contains some
+commonly-used tools.  You can install more software in the image by running
+@command{guix package} in a terminal (@pxref{Invoking guix package}).  You can
+also reconfigure the system based on its initial configuration file available
+as @file{/etc/config.scm} (@pxref{Using the Configuration System}).
+
+Instead of using this pre-built image, one can also build their own virtual
+machine image using @command{guix system vm-image} (@pxref{Invoking guix
+system}).  The returned image is in qcow2 format, which the
+@uref{http://qemu.org/, QEMU emulator} can efficiently use.

 
 @cindex QEMU
 If you built your own image, you must copy it out of the store
 
 @cindex QEMU
 If you built your own image, you must copy it out of the store


@@ -24595,7 +24605,7 @@ vm-image} on x86_64 hardware:
 @example
 $ qemu-system-x86_64 \
    -net user -net nic,model=virtio \
 @example
 $ qemu-system-x86_64 \
    -net user -net nic,model=virtio \

-   -enable-kvm -m 256 /tmp/qemu-image
+   -enable-kvm -m 512 /tmp/qemu-image

 @end example
 
 Here is what each of these options means:
 @end example
 
 Here is what each of these options means:


@@ -24621,7 +24631,7 @@ If your system has hardware virtualization extensions, enabling the
 virtual machine support (KVM) of the Linux kernel will make things run
 faster.
 
 virtual machine support (KVM) of the Linux kernel will make things run
 faster.
 

-@item -m 256
+@item -m 512

 RAM available to the guest OS, in mebibytes.  Defaults to 128@tie{}MiB,
 which may be insufficient for some operations.
 
 RAM available to the guest OS, in mebibytes.  Defaults to 128@tie{}MiB,
 which may be insufficient for some operations.
 

diff --git a/gnu/system/examples/vm-image.tmpl b/gnu/system/examples/vm-image.tmpl
dissimilarity index 78%
index 6dc67b0..d451c42 100644 (file)
--- a/gnu/system/examples/vm-image.tmpl
+++ b/gnu/system/examples/vm-image.tmpl
@@ -1,58 +1,85 @@
-;;; This is an operating system configuration template for a "bare-bones" setup,
-;;; suitable for booting in a virtualized environment, including virtual private
-;;; servers (VPS).
-
-(use-modules (gnu))
-(use-package-modules bootloaders disk nvi)
-
-(define vm-image-motd (plain-file "motd" "
-This is the GNU system.  Welcome!
-
-This instance of Guix System is a bare-bones template for virtualized environments.
-
-You will probably want to do these things first if you booted in a virtual
-private server (VPS):
-
-* Set a password for 'root'.
-* Set up networking.
-* Expand the root partition to fill the space available by 0) deleting and
-recreating the partition with fdisk, 1) reloading the partition table with
-partprobe, and then 2) resizing the filesystem with resize2fs.\n"))
-
-(operating-system
-  (host-name "gnu")
-  (timezone "Etc/UTC")
-  (locale "en_US.utf8")
-
-  (firmware '())
-
-  ;; Assuming /dev/sdX is the target hard disk, and "my-root" is
-  ;; the label of the target root file system.
-  (bootloader (bootloader-configuration
-               (bootloader grub-bootloader)
-               (target "/dev/sda")
-               (terminal-outputs '(console))))
-  (file-systems (cons (file-system
-                        (device (file-system-label "my-root"))
-                        (mount-point "/")
-                        (type "ext4"))
-                      %base-file-systems))
-
-  ;; This is where user accounts are specified.  The "root"
-  ;; account is implicit, and is initially created with the
-  ;; empty password.
-  (users %base-user-accounts)
-
-  ;; Globally-installed packages.
-  (packages (append (list nvi fdisk
-                          ;; mostly so xrefs to its manual work
-                          grub
-                          ;; partprobe
-                          parted)
-                    %base-packages))
-
-  (services (modify-services %base-services
-              (login-service-type config =>
-                                  (login-configuration
-                                    (inherit config)
-                                    (motd vm-image-motd))))))
+;; This is an operating system configuration for a VM image.
+;; Modify it as you see fit and instantiate the changes by running:
+;;
+;;   guix system reconfigure /etc/config.scm
+;;
+
+(use-modules (gnu) (srfi srfi-1))
+(use-service-modules xorg desktop)
+(use-package-modules bootloaders nvi wget xorg)
+
+(define vm-image-motd (plain-file "motd" "
+\x1b[1;37mThis is the GNU system.  Welcome!\x1b[0m
+
+This instance of Guix is a template for virtualized environments.
+You can reconfigure the whole system by adjusting /etc/config.scm
+and running:
+
+  guix system reconfigure /etc/config.scm
+
+\x1b[1;33mConsider setting a password for the 'root' and 'guest' \
+accounts.\x1b[0m
+"))
+
+(define this-file
+  (local-file "./vm-image.tmpl" "config.scm"))
+
+
+(operating-system
+  (host-name "gnu")
+  (timezone "Etc/UTC")
+  (locale "en_US.utf8")
+  (keyboard-layout (keyboard-layout "us" "altgr-intl"))
+
+  (firmware '())
+
+  ;; Below we assume /dev/vda is the VM's hard disk.
+  ;; Adjust as needed.
+  (bootloader (bootloader-configuration
+               (bootloader grub-bootloader)
+               (target "/dev/vda")
+               (terminal-outputs '(console))))
+  (file-systems (cons (file-system
+                        (mount-point "/")
+                        (device "/dev/vda1")
+                        (type "ext4"))
+                      %base-file-systems))
+
+  (users (cons (user-account
+                (name "guest")
+                (comment "GNU Guix Live")
+                (password "")                     ;no password
+                (group "users")
+                (supplementary-groups '("wheel" "netdev"
+                                        "audio" "video")))
+               %base-user-accounts))
+
+  (packages (append (list nvi wget) %base-packages))
+
+  (services
+   (append (list (service xfce-desktop-service-type)
+
+                 ;; Copy this file to /etc/config.scm in the OS.
+                 (simple-service 'config-file etc-service-type
+                                 `(("config.scm" ,this-file)))
+
+                 ;; Choose SLiM, which is lighter than the default GDM.
+                 (service slim-service-type
+                          (slim-configuration
+                           (auto-login? #t)
+                           (default-user "guest")
+                           (xorg-configuration
+                            (xorg-configuration
+                             (keyboard-layout keyboard-layout))))))
+
+           ;; Remove GDM.
+           (remove (lambda (service)
+                     (eq? gdm-service-type (service-kind service)))
+                   (modify-services %desktop-services
+                     (login-service-type config =>
+                                         (login-configuration
+                                          (inherit config)
+                                          (motd vm-image-motd)))))))
+
+  ;; Allow resolution of '.local' host names with mDNS.
+  (name-service-switch %mdns-host-lookup-nss))