[oe] VMware disk image type

[Mike Westerhof]

On 4/4/2011 6:21 AM, Mickael Chazaux wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> 2011/2/23 Tom Rini <tom_rini at mentor.com>:
>> On 02/23/2011 05:48 AM, Mickael Chazaux wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I see there is a vmware.conf in conf/machine, but it does not generate
>>> vmdk (vmware virtual disk files) files. Here are the steps I take to
>>> do that:
>>>
>>> - create an empty file the size wanted (with dd),
>>> - format it to ext3 (mkfs.ext3 myfile)
>>> - mount it loopback (mount -o loop myfile /mnt)
>>> - untar the OE-generated rootfs in /mnt
>>> - create a /boot/extlinux.conf [1],
>>> - install extlinux in /boot (extlinux -i /mnt/boot)
>>> - umount,
>>> - convert to vmdk (using qemu-img -O vmdk myfile myfile.vmdk)
>>> - boot it in vmware.
>>>
>>> Is it possible to add a "vmdk" image to openembedded to do this
>>> automatically?
>>
>> Yes, patches would be welcome.  This would reside in conf/bitbake.conf.  See
>> the ubi/ubifs image examples for how to generate slightly complex images
>> like this.  And I would recommend adding vmdk.ext[234] as the image names
>> (and supply at least one of them, someone else might step up and do the
>> regex for the others if you don't).  Thanks!
>>
> 
> The problem is the loopback mount, which requires root privileges, and
> is required by extlinux for its installation. Is there another method?

Can't you just copy or otherwise re-use the existing code for creating
ext3 images?   (I think that uses fakeroot to do the job, which avoids
loopback mounts and all the potential problems that involves.)

-Mike (mwester)