From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Mar 11 23:42:07 2013 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.FreeBSD.org [8.8.178.115]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E78E340B for ; Mon, 11 Mar 2013 23:42:07 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from carlj@peak.org) Received: from mail-ie0-x243.google.com (mail-ie0-x243.google.com [IPv6:2607:f8b0:4001:c03::243]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B13F3A22 for ; Mon, 11 Mar 2013 23:42:07 +0000 (UTC) Received: by mail-ie0-f195.google.com with SMTP id c11so2154756ieb.10 for ; Mon, 11 Mar 2013 16:42:07 -0700 (PDT) X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=google.com; s=20120113; h=x-received:x-authentication-warning:from:to:subject:references :mail-followup-to:date:in-reply-to:message-id:user-agent :mime-version:content-type:x-gm-message-state; bh=btKxgwPj7UR+PE/eNO/UzSGwYH2I+1zOrnDR2NLUI3o=; b=oJAbjAWk3RU3XfQTNrWfKUg2WImTDZUdicb0n/d16de0MbRsgNQ3yCXIDzh6CbMbbx U7nG3CsVc/hoJNqD3/dzA6n7l75ETHZtbaSZrOSZat4llZNgMk50HBV1I4rfMWt9iN9s vTmnhLWT1rYnVYpWsjHs9vWK4gnUSXe2HK7bsBv3loJRYJdDvhziKm7KpJoACb8sM5+4 Fpft6lOWI2n3gE+0hR0T4tk4Pa08yXDEBJmu2OGTht7qLTZyLhn5DjyjwIzKs87nCvIR h0G87GvSbV5QB7Wbaw6oAaNfaJQ9H+YBc6NNS6edmL94LAuFvOZiir2Szayf/a1yqM85 7P0w== X-Received: by 10.42.50.71 with SMTP id z7mr10247012icf.39.1363045327365; Mon, 11 Mar 2013 16:42:07 -0700 (PDT) Received: from bonsai.localnet ([207.55.107.62]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id vb15sm17184308igb.9.2013.03.11.16.42.05 (version=TLSv1 cipher=RC4-SHA bits=128/128); Mon, 11 Mar 2013 16:42:06 -0700 (PDT) Received: from oak.localnet (oak.localnet [192.168.193.34]) by bonsai.localnet (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5F9DE3D5C1 for ; Mon, 11 Mar 2013 16:42:04 -0700 (PDT) Received: from oak.localnet (localhost.localnet [127.0.0.1]) by oak.localnet (Postfix) with ESMTP id 24298D4C2 for ; Mon, 11 Mar 2013 16:42:04 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from carlj@localhost) by oak.localnet (8.14.5/8.14.5/Submit) id r2BNg3vI070338; Mon, 11 Mar 2013 16:42:03 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from carlj@peak.org) X-Authentication-Warning: oak.localnet: carlj set sender to carlj@peak.org using -f From: Carl Johnson To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD 9 and Windows XP References: <20130309120741.DED57767@ms5.mc.surewest.net> <20130311135110.9da99d99cfe968f2d904acd0@yahoo.es> <87a9q9udkd.fsf@oak.localnet> Mail-Followup-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2013 16:42:03 -0700 In-Reply-To: (Warren Block's message of "Mon, 11 Mar 2013 12:25:37 -0600 (MDT)") Message-ID: <87620xtsfo.fsf@oak.localnet> User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.2 (berkeley-unix) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Gm-Message-State: ALoCoQlaaNsxnx3uUfsNcBnu6nnZFcLKmVoC/9qQ1oi1vGGveBzQevWmjUlqhoRRbU9tt+wqn3q0 X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2013 23:42:08 -0000 Warren Block writes: > On Mon, 11 Mar 2013, Carl Johnson wrote: > >> It is my understanding that FreeBSD doesn't allow using part of a disk, >> but grabs the entire disk. That means that VirtualBox can't use >> partitions on a disk that any other partitions are being used by >> anything else, including FreeBSD itself. Am I wrong about this? I use >> VirtualBox using vdmk for an entire disk, but I have never been able to >> share with anything else. > > It's very hard to tell what situation is being described here. If the > VMDK is a pointer to a whole physical disk, that would probably make > the disk only usable by one VM. It should be possible to make the > VMDK point to just one partition on the disk. Then other VMs or a > physical machine could use those other partitions while the FreeBSD VM > was running. I was thinking of the case where I tried to allow direct access by a virtual machine to a slice on the same disk that I was running FreeBSD off of. I just looked further into that and discovered that it is possible, but not allowed by geom by default. It can be done by setting 'sysctl kern.geom.debugflags=0x10'. I am sure that you are aware of the dangers, but for anybody else reading this check out the warning in the geom(4) manpage. They refer to this option as 'allow foot shooting' for a reason. -- Carl Johnson carlj@peak.org