Re: VM image to promote Debian within the neuroimaging community
On 2007-04-13 16:55, Michael Hanke wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm thinking about creating a virtual machine image for VirtualBox to
> promote the use of Debian among neuroimaging scientists. The target
> audience are Windows-users currently using cygwin-based ports of
> available Linux/Unix tools, or even worse win32-only stuff just because
> they have/want to stick to Windows as their OS.
>
> I think VMs are superior to Live-CDs for this task as the VMs can be
> used as a living Debian system that can be further customized. In
> contrast Live-CDs always feel like a snapshot of a certain system that
> one has to live with.
>
> I want to use VirtualBox, because it is freely available and only
> requires little configuration. Besides the usual features of its
> competitors it offers two interesting additions.
>
> 1. It can run 'headless' and provides the video output via an integrated
> RDP server that can be accessed over the network.
> 2. It can mount folders/drives on the host system even without a network
> setup.
>
> I want to use Debian etch as operating system and use as much available
> packages as possible. The desktop choice would probably be XFCE, because
> it require little memory which could be important if the VM host doesn't
> have much RAM installed.
>
> I plan to setup a single user (root only via sudo) for that all relevant
> apps are fully configured to give a nice works-out-of-the-box feeling.
>
> I'd like to keep it as close as possible to a standard Debian system. I do
> not intent to create yet-another-distribution, but a usable example
> installation of Debian etch.
>
> I'd be glad to hear your comments. I'd be especially interested in
> information if a similar project already exists and what I can do to get
> the highest benefit for the Debian project.
>
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
>
> Michael
>
Hello Michael,
I've done something similar with PC-BSD under Parallels:
http://www.neuro.mcw.edu/~bacon/FreeBSD_MRI/unix_under_windows.html
The same Parallels image works under both Mac and Windows. I would hope the
same is true to VirtualBox.
I agree that VMs are much nicer to work with than Cygwin. The main limitation
in a VM guest OS is going to be graphics speed, which will be a big issue for
3d apps like SUMA, Caret, and Freesurfer. This is the one good reason I can
think of to use Cygwin instead of a VM. If there's a way to give the guest
OS direct access to the video hardware, or at least get reasonable 3d
performance (which I've not seen yet), we'll really be in business.
Cheers,
Jason
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