Re: [Qemu-devel] Re: QEMU GUI-Frontend based on Libvert API

[Joe Lee]

Anthony Liguori wrote:
> On Fri, 21 Jul 2006 14:37:10 -0400, Evan Paul wrote:
>   
> > The libVirt project is a community-sponsored project that aims to bring
> > more simplicity and standards to the Linux VM world. At its core,
> > libVirt is a C toolkit that provides interaction with virtualization
> > capabilities of the Linux operating system (and those related to Linux).
> >     
>
> You make it sound so professional :-)
>
>   
> > Currently, there is a project called Virt-Manager that is building a
> > GUI-Frontend using the LibVirt API. More info on the Virt-Manager
> > project can be found here:
> > http://people.redhat.com/berrange/virt-manager/
> >
> > For me, I personally like the idea and focus of libVirt project and
> > would like to see if any QEMU developers from the list would have an
> > interest to team up with me to develop an open source GUI-Frontend based
> > on the LibVirt API.
> >     
>
> Why would you create a second GUI interface when virt-manager already
> exists as a libvirt GUI front-end?
>
> As far as I know, the big hurdle for QEMU and libvirt right now is not any
> GUI aspects (VNC would work just fine).  It's interacting with QEMU.  Xen
> provides an XML-RPC interface to managing instances whereas QEMU only
> really provides the monitor interface.  Of course, there's still a bit of
> work to do before libvirt uses actually uses that interface (it currently
> uses the older S-Expression/HTTP interface).  Basically, there's quite a
> bit of work to do in libvirt before you could even start writing a GUI for
> QEMU.
>
> I have toyed around with the idea of writing an XML-RPC front-end to QEMU
> (with the idea of bridging the gap for libvirt).  DV also had a patch
> floating around to add a socket management interface to QEMU (although now
> there is a TCP character device so I presume his patch is unnecessary).
>
> My first cut at an XML-RPC front-end for QEMU:
>
> http://hg.codemonkey.ws/qemu-rpcd/
>
> Regards,
>
> Anthony Liguori
>
>
>
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>   
> Why would you create a second GUI interface when virt-manager already
> exists as a libvirt GUI front-end?
Well, first let me say I am not a programmer and know very little about 
GUI development and their toolkits. But, I have been reading up and 
learning about what's out there. Having said that, I think 
"Virt-Manager" is built using GTK/Glade with Python and I am not quite 
sure if that would meet the requirements to having a cross-platform GUI 
for users. And, something that would offer a native look & feel to the 
OS platform they use.

As mentioned in my previous email, for OpenSourceDemo.com, I'd like to 
make available a VM software product with a GUI that can be used by 
users using windows, linux, and mac-os. Therefore, I don't know if 
GTK/Glade is the best choice for this. If it is, using virt-manager 
would be great!

> Basically, there's quite a bit of work to do in libvirt before you could even 
> start writing a GUI for QEMU.
Hmm, really didn't know how much work would be involved. But, I think it 
would be good to start, if people like the idea of having a QEMU support 
for libVirt. I just think it would great to harrness and leverage the 
work behind libVirt and have support for QEMU. The GUI part would be 
easy to add on.

Also, if it would take a long time to have support for QEMU using 
libvirt, I was wondering if anyone can help me come up with an interim 
solution to have a gui that I can make available on the site. Would 
greatly appreciate the help with this. Ideally, I am looking for a 
solution where the GUI can package QEMU with it. So, as a user installs 
the GUI on there PC it also installs QEMU in one install. This would 
remove the complexity of having to install QEMU and then the GUI. This 
is how I see most of the available GUI that exist work.

Evan