[nmglug] QEMU/KVM; Thunar as root?

[Tom Ashcraft]

On Thu, 2019-08-08 at 15:11 -0600, Ted Pomeroy wrote:
> Tom, have you tried invoking thunar from a root terminal. 
No.  Until now I hadn't thought of anything so sensible and obvious. 
So far (other than the scary warnings about possibly damaging my
system) it looks like that might be just what the doctor ordered.

> Also you might check the man oh co or sync to see if you can show
> progress in one of those as you make copies. Just a thought. Ted P.
"...check the man oh co or sync..." is entirely greek to me.  Can you
elaborate a little? (I assume it translates to something like 'make
sure it's plugged in' or 'try Google, idiot.'  I'm in the process of
discovering that this last might be a good idea...)  

Thanks,
Tom
> 
> On Thu, Aug 8, 2019, 1:02 PM Tom Ashcraft <trailerdog234 at comcast.net>
> wrote:
> > I've got Debian 10 XFCE installed to and running from a USB
> > stick.  
> > Inside that I have two identical Debian minimal-install server VMs
> > that 
> > run under QEMU/KVM behind NAT so that I can have the two talk to
> > each 
> > other as a network inside the single computer.  This for purposes
> > of 
> > safely practicing and experimenting with things like SSH keys and 
> > WireGuard without external network or internet access.  All, well
> > and 
> > good; works great as long as I stick to the same computer and nic
> > with 
> > which I created the VMs.
> > 
> > The problem is that I have limited storage for snapshots and clones
> > so 
> > that currently, if I screw something up or switch computers,
> > experience 
> > indicates that I have to create new individual VMs by installing
> > from 
> > scratch to start again clean. That takes a long time.
> > 
> > So I'm thinking that before I waste too much more time reinventing
> > the 
> > wheel every time I go 'round, that I ought to be able to copy
> > clean 
> > unused images of my two VMs on another USB stick so that I can
> > just 
> > conveniently delete and replace as required.
> > 
> > First question:  I ought to be able to create an elastically sized
> > VM 
> > with QEMU/KVM in a manner similar to how dynamically allocated
> > storage 
> > works in VirtualBox so that the image I copy across different USB
> > sticks 
> > can be relatively small and quick to copy?
> > 
> > Second question:  At present I must copy via command line as root
> > or 
> > with sudo as Thunar GUI file manager won't give me permission by
> > any 
> > means I can discover.  I'd like to use Thunar so I can get some
> > visual 
> > feedback about copy progress.  I ought to be able to run Thunar
> > from the 
> > desktop as root somehow, right?
> > 
> > As I write I *think* my old laptop with USB 2.0 is somewhere in
> > the 
> > midst of copying an 8.0 GB image, but it keeps timing-out into 
> > lockscreen, and for all I know something has gone wrong.  The USB
> > sticks 
> > are warm as a cup of coffee, but the cursor in the terminal is
> > just 
> > sitting there without blinking and it's all taking way too long:
> > 
> > tom at debian10xfceUSB: /var/lib/libvirt/images$ sudo cp generic-
> > 2.qcow2 
> > /media/tom/C58A-66EE/
> > 
> > All hints and advice are welcome.
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > 
> > Tom
> > 
> > 
> > 
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