A Taste of FreeBSD With VirtualBSD 43
ReeceTarbert writes "If you wanted to try FreeBSD but didn't have the right hardware, or enough time to make it useful on the desktop, VirtualBSD might fit the bill: it's a VMware appliance based on FreeBSD 7.1-RELEASE and features the Xfce 4 Desktop Environment and a few of the most common applications to make it very functional right out of the box. If you're curious you can have a look at the screenshots, or proceed to the download page and grab the torrent file right away. (Note: VirtualBSD also works in VirtualBox 2.x as long as you create a new virtual machine and select the virtual disk from the archive instead of creating a new one)."
Not quite... (Score:5, Informative)
Note: VirtualBSD also works in VirtualBox 2.x
FreeBSD works in VirtualBox 2.1.2 and later. Earlier versions had a bug which prevented FreeBSD from working correctly.
Mod parent up (Score:3, Informative)
Until just recently FreeBSD installs always failed in VirtualBox.
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However, non-trivial disk acivity (such as compiling a port) caused the OS to shit itself with geometry errors.
That's my experience too, even with VBox 2.1.2-VBox 2.1.4: Any nontrivially intense disk activity will panic/oops the kernel with disk controller related errors. Once or twice it even was triggered in the installation phase when I elected to install some ports from the second CD. And forget about SCSI controller emulation as a workaround -- that instantly dies on newfs.
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Prior to 2.1.2, this VM would fail with the eflags error on any heavy activity. This is a stock install of FreeBSD 7.1, with no extra patching, and now works perfectly. Running Xephyr on the host and
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FreeBSD works in VirtualBox 2.1.2 and later. Earlier versions had a bug which prevented FreeBSD from working correctly.
That's why VirtualBSD mentions VMware Player (or better) explicitly and only places hints about VirtualBox in /boot/loader.conf and /etc/X11/ReadmeVirtualBox.txt (you may also want to run /usr/local/bin/vmware-uninstall-tools.pl as you won't need them any longer).
As I see it, the only problem is that there is no free (as in beer) VMware Player for OS X as the only option is VMware Fusion -- and I don't know if Parallels can run VMware appliances, but that one ain't free either.
Reece
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Oi, as a broke kid I feel I have to paint my face and say... you may take away our code! But you'll never take away my... server 2003 torrent! yaahhhhHHH!!!! *rides off on a horse*
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Maybe you can run cooperative linux under wine?
Terminology (Score:2)
Did I miss some sort of shift in terminology? When did virtual machines start getting referred to as "Appliances"? When I think "appliance", I usually think of toasters, microwaves, stoves, refrigerators, etc. Images for operating systems is the last thing that comes to mind.
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I think it becomes an 'appliance' when it comes already configured and downloadable to you like a black box.
VMware currently hosts some large number here [vmware.com]. Like an 'appliance', you plug it in and go without worrying about the fiddly bit
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Reece
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"When did virtual machines start getting referred to as "Appliances"?"
When vmware player was launched I do believe... and it's not just any virtual machine, it's the use of a virtual machine to distribute a ready working self contained machine that does what it says on the tin (yes, virtual machines come in tins these days) rather than lengthy install procedures or live cds. It's an appliance because it's ready to plug in and go. But, as vmware say, "hate the game, not the player'
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When did virtual machines start getting referred to as "Appliances"?
When the "Marketing Department" got involved.
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The Amana "Internet Appliance" will be the next big thing. A gigantic iPhone that floats in the air and follows(stalks?) you around the house.
Surely you jest (Score:5, Informative)
don't have the right hardware
It is almost more difficult to find wrong hardware for FreeBSD. Granted, it doesn't support quite as many systems as NetBSD, but unless you are running something quite odd it is likely you can run FreeBSD on it. Hell, most systems that are being thrown away right now can run it just fine.
FreeBSD 7.1 was released for:
And if you happen to be running an Alpha, you can still run FreeBSD 6.3 [freebsd.org]
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USB cameras and MIDI devices are examples of hardware categories supported by OpenBSD and not FreeBSD. Until 4.5, however, there is no DRI support on OpenBSD (there is some on 4.4, but it's not finished and not enabled by default).
OpenBSD also tends to have better support for ARM-based platforms. Unfortunately, it does not have any flash-focussed filesystems, although a port of NetBSD's LFS would probably not be too hard.
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see UVIDEO(4) for usb cameras
'man uvideo' on FreeBSD 7.1 returns nothing. It doesn't appear to on 8-CURRENT either [freebsd.org]. On OpenBSD, it gives me a man page listing supported cameras.
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It is almost more difficult to find wrong hardware for FreeBSD.
True, as long as you run it as a server and don't need fancy graphics, audio, and whatnot -- and does a fine job at that. But try it on a modern, off the shelf PC, notebook or netbook and you won't be so lucky. I mean, even a onboard NIC might be problematic!
That said, this is clearly not FreeBSD's fault (as vendors seldom release source code or specifications and stick to binary drivers for select Linux distributions at best) but the result doesn't change: it's a very daunting task to get any kind of mo
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even a onboard NIC might be problematic
I have several systems with onboard NICs, and even onboard wireless NICs, that worked fine right off the bat.
desktop oriented FreeBSD (that's not their goal either, but I digress)
Their motto still is
The Power To Serve
So I would say they aren't all that worried about desktop, yes
I think an argument could be made that anyone who loads FreeBSD on their desktop probably didn't really understand the purpose of FreeBSD to begin with...
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It is almost more difficult to find wrong hardware for FreeBSD. [...] Hell, most systems that are being thrown away right now can run it just fine.
Right. But there is a proverb: "If you are so smart, why so poor?", IOW, if so cool, why popularity is so miserable and much smaller than Linux?
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What if I have a Vax? What version of BSD can I get that will run on that?
(This is largely theoretical, although I *do* have a MicroVax 3100-40 sitting around doing nothing in particular...)
Also, you forgot to mention ARM processors, which are pretty common, and 8-bit and 16-bit x86 systems, which used to be pretty common, pre-PowerPC Macs (6800 processor), and the Z80, among other things.
Does it run xen? (Score:1, Troll)
I don't get it (Score:2)
Where's the login/passwd??? (Score:1)
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Anyway, here goes:
Username: virtualbsd
Password: virtualbsd
root: root4u
Reece