From owner-freebsd-emulation  Fri Apr  6  7:51:43 2001
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From: "Matthew Emmerton" <matt@gsicomp.on.ca>
To: <3d@FreeBSD.ORG>, <freebsd-emulation@FreeBSD.ORG>
References: <20010406141120.F3E2B37B506@hub.freebsd.org>
Subject: Re: Different Linux bases
Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2001 10:51:36 -0400
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> I have no idea which one to prefer, but it raises the question
> if it would make sense to organize the emulation to
> host different Linux bases.
>
> How dependent is the present one on RedHat?

I don't think it's too dependent on anything -- just the contents of the
linux_base port.

> What could be nice way to tell the runtime loader
> what installed Linux base to use (if there are different?)

I think the shims are present via sysctl to provide details of the currently
installed emulation:

gabby# sysctl compat.linux
compat.linux.osname: Linux
compat.linux.osrelease: 2.2.12
compat.linux.oss_version: 198144

osname and osrelease could be changed to reflect the installed Linux compat
installation, which we theoretically could support by having different
linux_base ports -- such as a linux_rh6 port (installing to
/compat/linux_rh6) and a linux_suse port (installing to /compat/linux_suse).

However, only one 'Linux' emulation would be available at a time, since it's
impossible to tell from a Linux executable (such as RealPlayer 8) which
version of Linux to run it under, as all Linux binaries are just branded
"Linux".   This the same problem which plagues SVR4 emulation, which allows
emulation of Solaris and SCO binaries.

--
Matt Emmerton


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