Ubuntu testdrive is AWESOME. In my words, testdrive lets you test the next version of ubuntu in a VM with a single command.
testdrive ultimately just creates a disk image and runs a virtual machine for you, lets you step through the install from the nightly CD, and then lets you continue to run that VM. I decided to use the exactly same disk image and vm command line to testdrive fedora.
- Download fedora cd image :
curl -O http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/16/Live/x86_64/Fedora-16-x86_64-Live-Desktop.iso - copy a disk image : cp .cache/testdrive/img/testdrive-??????.img fedora16.img
- start the install : kvm -m 2048 -smp 2 -cdrom Fedora-16-x86_64-Live-Desktop.iso -drive file=fedora.img,if=virtio,cache=writeback,index=0,boot=on -usb -usbdevice tablet -net nic,model=virtio,macaddr=DE:AD:BE:EF:A8:CC -net user -soundhw es1370 -vga std -vnc 127.0.0.1:0 -k en-us
Some details:
- That copy a disk image step could probably be done much better by creating the qcow2 file yourself, but this worked for my immediate need.
- The differences in the command line from a testdrive command line, on my system, are memory size (1024/2048) and -vga cirrus v. -vga std.