Review: UML Book by Jeff Dike

I just spent an hour looking at the UML site but for the life of me I can't begin to phathom as to how to actually install let alone run it on my system.

Can someone give me a clue here? When I go to the "Download it" link I can't actually find "it". There's root filesystems, RPMs for 2.4, and patches but where do I get the actual "linux" command? Searching around for an RPM was completely useless.

Also, everything looks horribly out of date. Or am I missing something fundamental?

The funny thing is I have actually ran UML before when I fiddled around writing kernel modules. And I recall it was really easy to do.

Actual "linux" command? It's not like a program where you can just type "linux".

It's an entire operating system.

It's exactly like a program where you can type "linux". That's why UML is so cool!

If I recall correctly, all you do to "get" UML is configure your kernel with the UML architecture instead of x86. It then generates the UML executable instead of a bootable kernel.

@miallen:

I can't begin to phathom as to how to actually install let alone run it
@miallen:

The funny thing is I have actually ran UML before
Huh?

@gmt:

@miallen:

I can't begin to phathom as to how to actually install let alone run it
@miallen:

The funny thing is I have actually ran UML before
Huh?

I think the implication was that Miallen had, on a computer long ago and far away, successfully used UML, but now couldn't remember how he'd made it work.

The correct way to install user-mode-linux, is, of course, 'apt-get install user-mode-linux'.

Steve, smug Debian user.

I was along the right lines earlier, but now got around to finding exactly how it works.

Switch to your kernel source directory, and then run:

ARCH=um make menuconfig

(or whatever type of config you like). That will generate the UML binary.