Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2003 22:23:27 -0800 (PST) From: "Jeremy C. Reed" <reed@reedmedia.net> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: looking for virtual machine for testing booting ISO images Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.43.0312302211510.6950-100000@pilchuck.reedmedia.net>
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I am looking for a method where I can boot ISO images in a chroot-like environment. (I understand that VMware and Virtual PC may be able to do this, but I'd prefer to use an open source product.) I was told on the plex86 list to look at bochs. I did look at some bochs documentation that mentioned making and using an ISO image for Windows (which I don't use). But my guest operating system will be Linux or NetBSD. I didn't find any bochs documentation on using FreeBSD as the host system and booting Linux or NetBSD ISO images. I asked the bochs-developers list (because I didn't see a "general" bochs discussion forum) but didn't get any feedback. For example, I make bootable NetBSD and Linux CDs, and I can test the executables and environment by mounting the ISO image and chrooting to it. (But this doesn't test the boot and init.) I want to test the entire bootup starting with the ISO image's embedded bootable 2.88 floppy image, booting kernel, running /sbin/init, et cetera (without wasting time having to physically burn a CD and rebooting using that new CD on a test system each time). Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas on what I can use to boot a bootable ISO image? I see ports/emulators/bochs ... does anyone know how to get it to boot a bootable ISO image (where host is FreeBSD and ISO is Linux or NetBSD)? Thank you for any advice, Jeremy C. Reed http://bsd.reedmedia.net/
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