### Gavin's notes on getting gitian builds up and running using KVM
These instructions distilled from
[https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KVM/Installation ](https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KVM/Installation ).
You need the right hardware: you need a 64-bit-capable CPU with hardware virtualization support (Intel VT-x or AMD-V). Not all modern CPUs support hardware virtualization.
You probably need to enable hardware virtualization in your machine's BIOS.
You need to be running a recent version of 64-bit-Ubuntu, and you need to install several prerequisites:
sudo apt-get install ruby apache2 git apt-cacher-ng python-vm-builder qemu-kvm
Sanity checks:
sudo service apt-cacher-ng status # Should return apt-cacher-ng is running
ls -l /dev/kvm # Should show a /dev/kvm device
Once you've got the right hardware and software:
git clone git://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin.git
git clone git://github.com/devrandom/gitian-builder.git
mkdir gitian-builder/inputs
cd gitian-builder/inputs
# Create base images
cd gitian-builder
bin/make-base-vm --suite trusty --arch amd64
cd ..
# Get inputs (see doc/release-process.md for exact inputs needed and where to get them)
...
# For further build instructions see doc/release-process.md
...
---------------------
`gitian-builder` now also supports building using LXC. See
[help.ubuntu.com ](https://help.ubuntu.com/14.04/serverguide/lxc.html )
for how to get LXC up and running under Ubuntu.
If your main machine is a 64-bit Mac or PC with a few gigabytes of memory
and at least 10 gigabytes of free disk space, you can `gitian-build` using
LXC running inside a virtual machine.
Here's a description of Gavin's setup on OSX 10.6:
1. Download and install VirtualBox from [https://www.virtualbox.org/ ](https://www.virtualbox.org/ )
2. Download the 64-bit Ubuntu Desktop 12.04 LTS .iso CD image from
[http://www.ubuntu.com/ ](http://www.ubuntu.com/ )
3. Run VirtualBox and create a new virtual machine, using the Ubuntu .iso (see the [VirtualBox documentation ](https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Documentation ) for details). Create it with at least 2 gigabytes of memory and a disk that is at least 20 gigabytes big.
4. Inside the running Ubuntu desktop, install:
sudo apt-get install debootstrap lxc ruby apache2 git apt-cacher-ng python-vm-builder
5. Still inside Ubuntu, tell gitian-builder to use LXC, then follow the "Once you've got the right hardware and software" instructions above:
export USE_LXC=1
git clone git://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin.git
... etc
