Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 10:20:15 -0800 From: Adrian Chadd <adrian@freebsd.org> To: Allan Jude <allanjude@freebsd.org> Cc: "freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org" <freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: How to make a FreeBSD vm in virtualbox. Message-ID: <CAJ-Vmok89TzFL-qOsb%2BZs072VBpL3x4eAqM8HrHpxCG-=C5hWw@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <54A43D56.4030306@freebsd.org> References: <13C55A7B-4010-40FA-901B-DF8ED6BADD87@freebsd.org> <20141231042455.GB53230@hub.FreeBSD.org> <24520431-8E2A-4D70-BD2D-D8D76A98C762@freebsd.org> <20141231151723.GA75959@hub.FreeBSD.org> <20141231180639.GE43180@ivaldir.etoilebsd.net> <54A43D56.4030306@freebsd.org>
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On 31 December 2014 at 10:15, Allan Jude <allanjude@freebsd.org> wrote: > On 2014-12-31 13:06, Baptiste Daroussin wrote: >> On Wed, Dec 31, 2014 at 03:17:23PM +0000, Glen Barber wrote: >>> On Tue, Dec 30, 2014 at 10:04:38PM -0800, Alfred Perlstein wrote: >>>> >>>> On Dec 30, 2014, at 8:24 PM, Glen Barber wrote: >>>> >>>>> On Tue, Dec 30, 2014 at 07:42:36PM -0800, Alfred Perlstein wrote: >>>>>> After he linked it to me, I decided that it would make sense if >>>>>> this was scripted and would really make sense as part of the release >>>>>> process. >>>>>> >>>>> >>>>> We already provide VMDK images. There is nothing, that I can see, that >>>>> is different from how I've been testing the various images. Creating >>>>> a new VM and attaching the VMDK to the disk controller is the intended >>>>> workflow. >>>> >>>> The difference is that with a vmdk you must get the exact >>>> combinations of items correct or you will wind up with a FreeBSD >>>> instance that will not boot. With the ova, you just run a single >>>> command "VBoxManage FreeBSD.ova" and stuff "just works", or you can >>>> even just double click on the downloaded file from within your OS >>>> X / Windows/ whatever host and it "just works". >>>> >>>> >>>>> >>>>>> I've written a script that will make a .ova that you can one-click >>>>>> import into Virtualbox (and I think Fusion as well) here: >>>>>> >>>>>> https://gist.github.com/splbio/84bd4d2122782e99fc5c >>>>>> >>>>> >>>>> Can you send the script as an attachment? >>>> >>>> Uh sure. It's attached. >>>> >>> >>> Your script relies on VirtualBox being installed on the build machine, >>> which I do not like. This is one of the major reasons I'm happy Marcel >>> added VMDK support to mkimg(1) - all the components to create the >>> formatted disk image exist in the base system. >>> >> >> Long ago I had created the quick and really dirty: >> https://people.freebsd.org/~bapt/vmdkimage-srcs/ >> >> This created ova files ready to be used in virtualbox (I had problem with vmware >> I don't remember why) >> >> basically an ova file is a tar file in a given order with a template >> (FreeBSD.ovf) and a manifest with checksums) >> >> This is really easy to produce and I agree it would be nice if we could produce >> one. >> >> The matter for having something that worked both in vbox and vmware was playing >> with the disk controler. >> >> What I did back in the time was generating an ova from vbox extracting the .ovf >> reducing to the minimum required the final ovf and ask people to import in in >> vmware (I do not have access to any vmware) >> >> Now that we have mkimg that should be rather easy to create an ova generator at >> least for virtualbox (vmware compatible might be more tricky) >> >> The interesting part is that the ova format is normalized and used by lots of >> the virtualisation tools out there >> >> Best regards, >> Bapt >> > > I was going to say, I thought a .ova file was just a .tar of the .vmdk > and a .xml config file > > It doesn't seem like virtualbox would be required if the .xml file was > generated and then checked into the tree Course not, but then you have two problems - .xml and "no tool to generate / modify the config programatically." -adrian
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