Import DTN2hops

DTN2hops is a testbed of four virtual machines, node1 to node4, five switches, a switch wrapper and three channel emulators. It comes in two files, which you have downloaded into your Downloads folder:

• DTN2hops_26_Feb_2026.vbp, the archive of the testbed: its bricks, and the private copy of the disk of each machine, with what was done in it;

• debian13.tar.gz, which holds the disk image that the private copies are made on, debian13.qcow2. The archive doesn't hold it.

Before you start, extract debian13.qcow2 into Downloads, where it takes 6.8 GB. In a terminal:

cd ~/Downloads
tar -xzf debian13.tar.gz

You import the testbed into Virtualbricks. The testbed was made with Virtualbricks 2.1, and Virtualbricks converts it while it reads the archive.

Open the archive

1. Choose Projects › Import…. A window opens, and asks for the archive.

   

2. In it, click Home, double-click Downloads, choose DTN2hops_26_Feb_2026.vbp, and click Open. The Import Project window opens, reads the archive, then shows what it holds.

   

What the window offers

Name

DTN2hops_26_Feb_2026, the name of the file. If another project already has this name, the window suggests DTN2hops_26_Feb_2026-2: an import never replaces an existing project. You can change it; under the input box, the window says if and why a name can't be a project's: it's empty, is too long, etc.

The bricks

Below the name, how many bricks of each kind the project has, by the names of the Bricks tab: Netemu are the channel emulators.

Images

The archive doesn't have this image., once the window has looked through the archive. Then a row for debian13, used by the hda disk of each of the four machines, with three choices:

• Copy, from the archive to the shared images of your workspace. It's grey: the archive doesn't hold the image, and there is nothing to copy.

• Use a file… of this computer.

• Leave unset: the image stays without its file, until Find the File…, in the Images tab, gives it one.

Leave unset is chosen: the window looked for the image where the project had it, /home/carlo/VB_images/debian13.qcow2 on the computer the testbed was made on, and in your shared images, as debian13.qcow2 or debian13, and found it in neither. It doesn't look in Downloads.

Open the project after the import

On: once imported, the testbed opens in the main window.

Import

Grey until the window has read the archive, and whenever something stops the import; the window says what.

Choose the image

1. In the row of debian13, click Use a file…. In the window that opens, click Home, double-click Downloads, choose debian13.qcow2, the file you extracted from debian13.tar.gz, and click Open.

   

The row now says Uses ~/Downloads/debian13.qcow2. The import points the private copies of the four machines at it, so that they keep what was done in them. It must be the image the testbed was made on: a private copy holds only the changes over its image. If you use a different one the machine finds a damaged disk.

The other two choices don't do for this testbed:

Copy

Grey: the archive doesn't hold the image.

Leave unset

The virtual machines can't start until Find the File…, in the Images tab, gives debian13 its file.

Import

1. Click Import. The window shows the progress, and Cancel becomes Stop: an import stopped removes what it wrote. You can close the window, and let the import finish.

   

Once imported, the project opens: the main window shows DTN2hops_26_Feb_2026, with its thirteen bricks, all stopped.

If a brick of the previous project was running before the import, the project is imported but doesn't open: stop the bricks, then open it from the Projects window.

The start button of switchwrapper is grey: a switch wrapper is a switch that another program runs, at /var/run/switch/sck, and it runs while that program's switch is there. See The kinds of brick.