From owner-freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Sep 11 18:14:27 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 62EE61065670 for ; Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:14:27 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from Klaus.Espenlaub@Sun.COM) Received: from gmp-eb-inf-1.sun.com (unknown [192.18.6.21]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id ED8788FC1D for ; Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:14:26 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from Klaus.Espenlaub@Sun.COM) Received: from fe-emea-10.sun.com (gmp-eb-lb-1-fe3.eu.sun.com [192.18.6.10]) by gmp-eb-inf-1.sun.com (8.13.7+Sun/8.12.9) with ESMTP id m8BAI5bL025062 for ; Thu, 11 Sep 2008 10:18:05 GMT Received: from conversion-daemon.fe-emea-10.sun.com by fe-emea-10.sun.com (Sun Java System Messaging Server 6.2-8.04 (built Feb 28 2007)) id <0K7000F01X0MRN00@fe-emea-10.sun.com> (original mail from Klaus.Espenlaub@Sun.COM) for freebsd-ports@freebsd.org; Thu, 11 Sep 2008 11:18:05 +0100 (BST) Received: from [192.168.1.159] ([10.196.62.159]) by fe-emea-10.sun.com (Sun Java System Messaging Server 6.2-8.04 (built Feb 28 2007)) with ESMTPSA id <0K7100I9Y0M1NX40@fe-emea-10.sun.com> for freebsd-ports@freebsd.org; Thu, 11 Sep 2008 11:18:02 +0100 (BST) Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:17:53 +0200 From: Klaus Espenlaub In-reply-to: Sender: Klaus.Espenlaub@Sun.COM To: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org Message-id: <48C8F051.7060107@sun.com> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT References: <48C52718.5080807@sun.com> User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.16 (Windows/20080708) Subject: Re: VirtualBox looks for FreeBSD developer X-BeenThere: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting software to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:14:27 -0000 Hi, Torfinn Ingolfsen wrote: > On Mon, Sep 8, 2008 at 3:22 PM, Klaus Espenlaub wrote: >> #include > > I speak for myself and nobody else. I do not claim that I in any way > represent FreeBSD. > >> freebsd is yet another kernel for which the VirtualBox devs would have >> to figure out how to safely achieve a few things normal applications >> don't ever need. Like dealing with physical memory, getting along with >> the scheduler and stuff like that. It's also true that the written >> documentation in VirtualBox about this area leaves something to be >> desired - again a manpower problem. > > It is easy for me as an outsider to see that this can be viewed from > the opposite angle: > > "VirtualBox is just another virtualization solution for FreeBSD. We > are sorry that the VirtualBox team can't find any time to provide the > necessary documentation. Currently FreeBSD don't have any developers > with enough free time to figure things out from the documentation > available now. You see - it is simply a manpower problem." I like to do such rewordings myself every now and then, but this one was not very constructive. It incorrectly implies that whoever will attempt this will be on his own figuring out what needs to be done. We'll help with information as much as we can. What I wrote is that the currently available written documentation isn't enough to do this. The very same is true for the FreeBSD documentation though, because if it were trivial to figure out what kernel functions perform the operations needed by the VirtualBox driver this issue wouldn't exist. But no one gains anything by pointing fingers, and thus all I'm saying is that we'll improve the documentation in cooperation with whoever is interested. My mail was intended to start cooperation, and I still hope there's someone picking up this offer. We're easy to contact, on #vbox-dev on freenode. Klaus