Re: Qemu + tiny core linux = poor man's chromium on NetBSD

[Mayuresh <mayuresh%acm.org@localhost>]

On Tue, Mar 01, 2016 at 10:12:38AM -0700, Swift Griggs wrote:

Thanks for a detailed response!

> >May be if someone has, kindly submit a package to pkgsrc or wip. (Just
> >like libreoffice has native as well as Linux emulation version we might
> >have both in future.)
> 
> That'd be nice. I like how that's done with Firefox.

Good to know you feel that way. I wonder whether we could attract NetBSD
community attention to this so that at least the emulated version could
come up sooner (if that were feasible).

> and/or friends. Even on very fast systems, the performance hit is
> massive.

Yes performance is a problem. I have to make do with it every time
reminding myself that this is temporary and the native version would come
sooner or later. As it is I have to use this only for some pesky sites
that wouldn't work with firefox.

> Are you using some kind of Docker version? I'm just curious.

I am using microcore Linux current version. Not aware of Docker.

> You're lucky then. I've done the same and it doesn't always work. Many
> times it complains about lack of some X11 extensions and XDMCP won't
> work. Sounds like your combination works well.

I think I have seen extension errors when launching chromium from
microcore terminal on host display, but it does come up. The problem is on
main host display the whole X11 freezes after some time. On nested display
(xnest) nothing freezes but I can't read many of the things.

> I suppose you could also try to launch it within an X11 session running
> in Xvnc. Of course, that sucks because you can't simply launch Chrome and
> redirect the display, you have to show the whole "desktop". That's my #1
> complaint about VNC - you can't share out apps (with the not-very-good
> exception of SeamlessRDP which is pretty breaky).

I'll have to use tinycore instead of microcore for that. Since I am
already doing this over Qemu, it could further slow down.

> Does the whole VM lock up or just Chrome within it?

It is host X11 session that locks up, with only mouse movement visible.
Qemu takes 100% CPU in this state. I have to kill -9 Qemu over ssh or by
switching to console.

Mayuresh.