[Commotion-dev] Virtual Commotion-OpenWRT with real wifi radios for better test coverage

[Ben West]

Hi All,

I've updated / added the following wiki pages to record my progress in
getting Commotion-OpenWRT nodes under VirtualBox and VMware Player to work
with real USB wifi adapters.  The idea is that a virtual Commotion node
would be more convenient for rapid testing / development cycles than
testing directly on the target device.  Do note these virtual nodes are not
useful for performance testing (e.g. wireless reception / throughput); that
would still require the target hardware.

https://code.commotionwireless.net/projects/commotion/wiki/Virtual-Box
How to run Commotion as a guest VM under VirtualBox.

https://code.commotionwireless.net/projects/commotion/wiki/Virtual-Box-Real-Mesh
How to deploy Commotion as a guest under VirtualBox, with a USB wifi
adapter.

https://code.commotionwireless.net/projects/commotion/wiki/Virtual-Box-Virtual-Mesh
How to deploy Commotion as multiple guest VMs under a single VirtualBox
host, with a virtual mesh between the nodes.

https://code.commotionwireless.net/projects/commotion/wiki/VMware-Player
How to run Commotion as a guest VM under VMware Player.

Compatible images, config tarballs, and VirtualBox appliances files may be
downloaded from https://code.commotionwireless.net/projects/commotion/files

Note that VirtualBox is far less robust than VMware in attaching USB
peripherals to VM guests, so you may likely have to use VMware.  Likewise,
both VirtualBox and VMware will only simulate guests compiled for the x86
platform, although that does not appear to affect function of the
compat-wireless drivers.

Please do respond with your experiences and ideas about using virtual
Commotion nodes for testing and development, or suggested edits to the wiki
pages cited above.  I am planning to assemble suites of automated test
vectors that may be executed on these virtual nodes, with goal of reducing
complexity of the required testing environment (e.g. not every tester needs
a Nanostation M2 on hand).

P.S. Happy new year!

-- 
Ben West
http://gowasabi.net
ben at gowasabi.net
314-246-9434
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