From owner-freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Tue Feb 23 20:11:44 2016 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BFD75AB1031 for ; Tue, 23 Feb 2016 20:11:44 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from zbeeble@gmail.com) Received: from mail-yw0-x231.google.com (mail-yw0-x231.google.com [IPv6:2607:f8b0:4002:c05::231]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 (128/128 bits)) (Client CN "smtp.gmail.com", Issuer "Google Internet Authority G2" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 7E091160A for ; Tue, 23 Feb 2016 20:11:44 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from zbeeble@gmail.com) Received: by mail-yw0-x231.google.com with SMTP id h129so156418420ywb.1 for ; Tue, 23 Feb 2016 12:11:44 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type; bh=+wxPFDh7zY0W5RKOENx8A/vTyahQeH989DTuxDbhFzM=; b=ijSA2PQuEzWbVFge+tsRC7e2gHkB7B6OqpGZHWlKiYDiUELNkQdrBirC5pOBz9fbz3 QB12Iozu+jKVA/Ics+HD3SW0GVz2vmTxuhowr30iqS/iIITgXQxLKRry/ii15q+1G4FC dYXeBzf4/FvaPfDJYb7TiL44encVKDf6aQmuDJwtm9D2b/br+0/yAmNeaFfhctM/FWKD 2NRdZw6nUqymuR30abv+ohpLhB31jYPmhf6bp5ZvSjWHgKiOxMrZAcYqgF8BnS4gMTEX kPQXOtX9iO8BGtEETdWidLwiZfZaoMK6jK+mywPtjdzTFIESiqeU6hoq+wkIqStIqomn I2+Q== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20130820; h=x-gm-message-state:mime-version:date:message-id:subject:from:to :content-type; bh=+wxPFDh7zY0W5RKOENx8A/vTyahQeH989DTuxDbhFzM=; b=gUZRfmAt1rIIVq0P+UIOVqRRkCg/+Or1TbVM+ZTOIkQ1oYSQp6o/QYarR6pwGTDqej HL1bCugSNpF0o0iqa0RaAEnQ/6SmjE9SZtBv6ayttdtTuf8HmVsHCXgr50Sy3aTLfP26 alwDVgcKTyqvppdHVH5XG0KHt5fcyI9e8c3yD8DBe+Ga59uA+oRcFLMweO48vePsO0b1 DYChGz5bTx+WDmUkAXtcARYkD2EhA4gNoUVQVAtp07K2g8oE4uXTkyandctgYyyVpysv RNQdMVzN7t3Fivgfl7DRsuDFMM11l/e0cipzM5PHTjYm7U3T3z9utDujaUDoW5KHElTL VcmQ== X-Gm-Message-State: AG10YORDKAdX89Hn71pew4uGJkNvLn+UxIv5VHiDxLdGAVu60ab6jX2hyfPbAx+obL6cfwn/N/bTbnFsO2ZKBg== MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Received: by 10.129.116.134 with SMTP id p128mr17135808ywc.80.1456258303645; Tue, 23 Feb 2016 12:11:43 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.37.27.130 with HTTP; Tue, 23 Feb 2016 12:11:43 -0800 (PST) Date: Tue, 23 Feb 2016 15:11:43 -0500 Message-ID: Subject: Multi-boot dual-boot magic machine. From: Zaphod Beeblebrox To: FreeBSD Hackers Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.20 X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.20 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 23 Feb 2016 20:11:44 -0000 So my end goal is this: that I can run win7 with an FreeBSD guest and I can run FreeBSD with a win7 guest. and that both of these are achieved such that there is one copy of each operating system on the workstation. Now... I have achieved the former --- that is FreeBSD boots both by itself and under vmware hosted by win7. On the bare metal, this uses the nvidia binary driver, but on the VM, it would be convenient if this used the vmware driver. Not _just_ that, but the nvidia binary driver has several options to drive two monitors where as the vmware instance would only have one. Has anyone given any thought to 1. Detectiing system changes in loader 2. Setting system environment variables from loader 3. Having filesystem alternatives based on environment variables (a-la DG-UX0 ... or some other way to achieve this?