Virtinst News
   =================

Release 0.600.0 (July 26, 2011)
-------------------------------
- virt-install: Various improvements to enable LXC/container guests:
- New --filesystem option for <filesystem> devices
- New --init option for container <init> path
- New --container option (similar to --paravirt or --hvm)
- virt-install: Make --location  remotely (with latest libvirt)
- virt-install: New --smartcard option for <smartcard> devices
- (Marc-André Lureau)
- virt-install: New --numatune option for building guest <numatune> XML
- virt-install: option to set --disk error_policy=
- virt-install: option to set --disk serial=

Release 0.500.6 (March 24, 2011)
--------------------------------
- virt-install: --graphics spice now enables spicevmc and qxl
- virt-install: New --disk parameter io=native|threads

Release 0.500.5 (Jan 14, 2011)
----------------------------------
- New virt-install --cpu option for configuring CPU model/features
- virt-install --vcpus option can not specify topology and maxvcpus
- New virt-install --graphics option to unify --vnc, --sdl, spice config
- New virt-install --print-xml option to skip install and print XML

Release 0.500.4 (August 24, 2010)
---------------------------------
- New virt-install --console option for specifying virtio console device
- New virt-install --channel option for specifying guest communication
  channel
- New virt-install --boot option. Allows setting post-install boot
  order, direct kernel/initrd boot, and enabling boot device menu.
- New virt-install --initrd-inject option, which enables installation
  using a _local_ kickstart file (Colin Walters)

Release 0.500.3 (March 24, 2010)
--------------------------------
- virt-install: New --watchdog option: configure a virtual watchdog device
- virt-install: New --soundhw option: More flexible sound configuration
                deprecates --sound, though back compat is maintained
- virt-install: New --security option: configure VM security driver settings
- virt-install: New --description option: set a human readable description
- Better OS defaults: Use <video> VGA and <sound> AC97 if supported

Release 0.500.2 (February 8, 2010)
----------------------------------
 - virt-install: New option --autostart for setting domain autostart flag
 - virt-install: Allow specifying --host-device with lsusb and lspci
                 format (0x1234:0x5678 for USB, etc)
 - virtinst: New 'Interface' module for building libvirt interface XML

Release 0.500.1 (December 3, 2009)
----------------------------------
 - virt-install now attempts --os-variant detection by default. This can be
        disabled with '--os-variant none' (distro detection currently only
        works for URL installs)
 - New --disk option 'format', for creating image formats like qcow2 or vmdk
 - Many improvements and bugfixes

Release 0.500.0 (July 28, 2009)
-------------------------------

This release includes:

 - New virt-install device options --serial, --parallel, and --video
 - Allow various auth types for libvirt connections (PolicyKit, SASL, ...)
 - New virt-clone option --auto-clone: generates all needed input.
 - Option to specify network device model via virt-install --network
     (Guido Gunther)
 - New virt-install option --virt-type for specifying hypervisor type
     (kvm, qemu). --accelerate is now the default behavior: To provision a
     plain qemu VM on a KVM enabled host, use '--virt-type qemu'
 - OVF input support for virt-convert
 - Many bug fixes and improvements

Release 0.400.3 (March 9, 2009)
-------------------------------

This is largely a bug fix release, which fixes several annoying bugs present
in virtinst-0.400.2:

 - virt-install --file was busted
 - virt-install --os-type windows was busted for --cdrom installs
 - virt-install --os-variant values weren't used if installing from a URL

Release 0.400.2 (March 3, 2009)
-------------------------------

  - New virt-clone option --original-xml, allows cloning a guest from
      an xml file, rather than require an existing, defined guest.
  - New virt-install option --import, allows creating a guest from an
      existing disk image, bypassing any OS install phase.
  - New virt-install option --host-device, for connecting a physical
      host device to the guest.
  - Allow specifying 'cache' value via virt-install's --disk options
      (Ben Kochie)
  - New virt-install option --nonetworks (John Levon)
  - Lots of backend cleanups and documentation improvements.

Release 0.400.1 (January 26, 2009)
----------------------------------

This release includes:

  - Add virt-image -> vmx support to virt-convert, replacing virt-pack
      (Joey Boggs)
  - Add disk checksum support to virt-image (Joey Boggs)
  - Enhanced URL install support: Debian Xen paravirt, Ubuntu kernel and
      boot.iso, Mandriva kernel, and Solaris Xen Paravirt (Guido Gunther,
      John Levon, Cole Robinson)
  - Expanded test suite
  - Numerous bug fixes, cleanups, and minor improvements

Release 0.400.0 (September 10, 2008)
------------------------------------

This release includes:

  - New tool 'virt-convert': Allows converting between different types of
      virt configuration files. Currently only supports vmx -> virt-image
  - New tool 'virt-pack': Converts virt-image xml format to vmx and packs
      in a tar.gz. (Note this will likely be merged with virt-convert in
      the future)
  - virt-install: Support for remote VM installation. Can use install media
      and disk images on remote host if shared via libvirt. Allows can
      provisioning storage on remote pools.
  - virt-install new options:
      new --wait option, allows putting a hard time limit on installs
      new --sound option, to create VM with soundcard emulation
      new --disk option, allows specifying media as a path, storage volume, or
        a pool to provision storage on, device type, and several other options.
        Deprecates --file, --size, --nonsparse.
      new --prompt option. Input prompting is no longer the default, this
        option turns it back on.
  - virt-install: allow setting cpu pinning information for qemu/kvm VMs
  - virt-install: numa support via --cpuset=auto option
  - virt-image: --replace option to overwrite existing VM image file
  - virt-image: support multiple network interfaces in virt-image format
  - use virtio disk/net drivers if chosen os entry supports it (Fedora 9/10,
      Ubuntu Hardy)
  - Numerous bug fixes and minor improvements.

Release 0.300.3
---------------

This release addresses a number of major bugs, and optimizes
aspecst of the installation process. When probing for OS distro
type it will test file existance, rather than fetching the entire
file. RFC compliant NFS uris are now accepted & converted where
needed.  When probing for Red Hat distro variants, look for the
.treeinfo file to determine initrd/kernel locations. Print user
friendly error instead of stack traces, and hide bogus libvirt
error messages from console. Add a --noreboot flag to virt-install
to prevent the automatic reboot at end of installation. Use the
libvirt capabilities XML to determine the guest types supported
by a hypervisor. Add --force option to prevent any interactive
prompting.

Release 0.300.2
---------------

This release fixes a couple of minor bugs. XML attributes are
correctly escaped in the XML. vCPUs can be pinned to pCPUs at
install time. Windows guests will be automatically configured
to use localtime. Improved input validation

Release 0.300.1
---------------

This release fixes a couple of minor bugs. The detection of new
Fedora distros is fixed. The ability to PXE boot install fully
virtualized guests is enabled. Installation of QEMU guests from
remote ISO images is fixed. Choice of default architecture is
fixed on 32-bit.

Release 0.300.0
---------------

This release introduces the virt-image tool which provides the
ability to create guests based on a pre-define image. The image
provides metadata describing the required host virtualization
capabilities, the recommend resource allocations and one or more
pre-installed disk templates. From this is can instantiate new
guests on any suitable hypervisor supported by libvirt. With
the virt-install tool, all new fullyvirtualized guests now get
a USB tablet device configured providing an easier to use pointer.
Further improvements are made to input validation to catch user
errors earlier. Use of the 'xm console' and 'vncviewer' external
programs has been replaced with 'virsh console' and 'virt-viewer'

Release 0.200.0
---------------

This release introduces the virt-clone tool which provides the
ability to clone an existing inactive guest. The disk images
will be copied, new MAC address, UUID and name will be given to
the guest. Documentation is improved with the addition of manual
pages for both virt-install and virt-clone. Validation of input
parameters has been further enhanced, and re-factored to allow
sharing with virt-manager. The virt-install tool can be used to
boot live CD images, with or without underlying storage.

Release 0.103.0
---------------

This release has again focused on stablization and input
validation. UUIDs are now checked for syntactic correctness.
Fixed clashes with disk name & CDROM. Automatically reboot
Windows guest installs with CDROM still attached. The '-'
character is allowed in guest names. OS types /variants are
now specified using their short names. The way Red Hat distros
are detected is changed to be more robust, and cope with CentOS
and RHEL 5 tree layouts.

Release 0.102.0
---------------

This release has focused on stabilization & improved validation
of user inputs. MAC addresses, UUIDs are checked for uniqueness
wrt to other virtual machines. A few minor bug fixes to avoid
deprecated python features, and installation bugs are resolved.

Release 0.101.0
---------------

This release introduces the first support for provisioning
of QEMU / KVM virtual machines. This requires an updated
libvirt of at least 0.2.0 to enable the qemu driver. The
code for fetching bootable kernel/initrd images has been
refactored to facilitate porting to deal with other non
Fedora / RHEL operating systems. Prototype support for dealing
with SuSE paravirtualized installs is provided. The bootable
ISO image for fully virtualized installs can also be fetched
at runtime from an NFS/HTTP/FTP site, or equivalent initrd
and kernels for baremetal. A list of guest operating systems
is now maintained to enable virtual hardware configuration 
to be optimized to suit a particular guest OS.