Re: incus: doesn't include dependencies required for running virtual machines.

[cmspam <cmspam@users.noreply.github.com>]

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New comment by cmspam on void-packages repository

https://github.com/void-linux/void-packages/issues/49267#issuecomment-2019244168

Comment:
>Sorry, it was not my intention hijacking issue.
Unfortunately since edk2-ovmf package is not available for the platform, on aarch64 incus cannot run virtual machines at all.
My regards



Sadly the state of Incus on void in general isn't very ideal. I've had a [pull request](https://github.com/void-linux/void-packages/pull/49265) for the latest version which fixes some major issues sitting for weeks now, with no merge and no discussion from maintainers. Already 6.0 has been out for nearly a month, but we're stuck at 5.1.  But on top of that, with reference to this particular issue, you can't get VMs working without a bunch of hoops to jump through (like the symbolic links mentioned below.) (I don't think that a README will be good enough in this situation, since VMs are core functionality). I have been hoping to advance the conversation about improving this situation and having void be a first-class distro for incus. Maybe, there is not enough interest, but I think there should be, as incus is pretty fantastic software.

The arm64 issue is actually something I hadn't considered, so it's good to bring up, I think. I believe this is also an issue with opensuse, and some other distributions.

Actually, incus expects the OVMF files to have specific names which aren't the names used in many distributions, so symbolic links are necessary for running VMs when using the OVMF package from the repository, making it rather difficult to set up consistently at current state.

We could potentially resolve some or all of these issues by doing something like zabbly does here:
https://github.com/zabbly/incus/blob/daily/.github/workflows/builds.yml

He actually builds OVMF for x86-64 and he builds AAVMF for aarch64. He also builds qemu. Maybe it's overkill for a void incus package, but it makes sure that all functions of incus work well.

I maintain a docker image where I repackage zabbly's builds into a docker image, so you may be able to use it as a stop-gap until the situation on void improves.

There are a lot of people much smarter than I am on here, so maybe someone will have a suggestion about the best way to proceed. I would love to see incus on void working with 100% functionality, without too much manual fixing.