Re: [Qemu-discuss] How to load a host file in the client while not yet installed ?

[Tony Su]

Possible solutions
1. Post-install script. This is common if you are a large Enterprise admin, your task is to push installations to multiple targets using a common install source but of course each target must have certain unique configs like machine name, mac address, pre-configured user access, applications, etc. A Hosts file can be pushed or pulled similarly.

2. Depending on your distro, there may be tools to modify the install image itself that are easy to use. So, for instance on openSUSE you have kiwi and SUSE Studio.

3. You can mount a bootstrap image(partially installed image of final deployment), eg regular mount, as a loop or as an NFS mount or as a chroot, then copy the Hosts file to it, then copy the files to the target.

All seem to me are possible options. I don't know why you should think an unsupported file system should be an issue if you're using a typical virtualization technology like QEMU(there are also others) that supports virtualized file systems. Would be a problem only if using something like chroot or LXE which unlike full virtualization run as Host system processes and use the Host subsystems directly.

So, for instance in one scenario you might want to experiment with an unsupported file system on Linux. So, if FreeBSD supports that file system, then create a FreeBSD Guest on that alien file system using something like QEMU on your Linux box.

Tony