User Mode Linux

I thought I had a pretty good idea what UML (User Mode Linux) is before I picked up this book. Turns out that while I wasn't completely off base, I barely had a clue.

As you might imagine, this is a technical book about configuring and using UML. Its author is Jeff Dike, who was the original developer. It's not just a tech book though: Jeff talks about how he created UML, the mistakes and trade-offs he made, and does it all in a graceful and informative way.

You are not just going to learn about UML here: you will also learn quite a bit about Linux kernels in general. As UML itself is a great way to continue learning about the kernel, that's nicely synergistic, isn't it?

I do have a minor complaint: "User Mode Linux" gives extensive coverage to creating a UML kernel from scratch, but otherwise assumes that it was installed by default on your machine. That's not necessarily the case, and locating the RPM without assistance isn't easy. What is it called? This book doesn't say (it's "user_mode_linux"). If you did compile, where do you get a file system to install it on? (try User-mode Linux kernel port for those and the UML rpm)

By the way, I see that someone has started a port of UML to Mac OS X; they don't have anything to show yet, but if it ever does fly, that will be interesting. Keep an eye on UML projects at https://sourceforge.net/search/?words=user_mode_linux&type_of_search=soft.

UML is a great tool for all sorts of applications and projects, and this is a great book to start digging in to it.

• Jeff Dike
• Prentice Hall Pearson Education
• 0131865056

Order (or just read more about) User Mode Linux  from Amazon.com

Tony Lawrence 2006-04-01 Rating: 4.0