From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Jan 6 14:18:32 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 C48C5ACF for ; Sun, 6 Jan 2013 14:18:32 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mx02.qsc.de (mx02.qsc.de [213.148.130.14]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8084B196 for ; Sun, 6 Jan 2013 14:18:31 +0000 (UTC) Received: from r56.edvax.de (port-92-195-31-80.dynamic.qsc.de [92.195.31.80]) by mx02.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTP id B16D524717; Sun, 6 Jan 2013 15:18:23 +0100 (CET) Received: from r56.edvax.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by r56.edvax.de (8.14.5/8.14.5) with SMTP id r06EIQNh001974; Sun, 6 Jan 2013 15:18:26 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2013 15:18:26 +0100 From: Polytropon To: jb Subject: Re: FB 9.1 boot loader problem in VirtualBox Message-Id: <20130106151826.68fa31b0.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: References: <50E96474.4060609@FreeBSD.org> Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 3.1.1 (GTK+ 2.24.5; i386-portbld-freebsd8.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list Reply-To: Polytropon List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 06 Jan 2013 14:18:32 -0000 On Sun, 6 Jan 2013 12:09:12 +0000 (UTC), jb wrote: > A general question: to what extent is FB Install aware of installation env (VB > here) ? FreeBSD can only detect hardware "certainly" to a specific point. The idea behind virtualization is that it presents non-existent devices as if they were real. This technology has become so great that many operating systems don't distinguish anymore between real hardware and emulated hardware. :-) > If so, would it make sense to sanitize it to avoid offering install options that > are irrelevant/inappropriate ? FreeBSD is a general-purpose operating system. It can be used for desktops, for laptops, servers without GPU and keyboard, and for virtual environments. This is all possible with the _same_ OS distribution. Disabling things the OS or the installer can do in a way that it does _not_ do things depending on arbitrary circumstances (instead of operator decisions) doesn't sound as an ideal solution, it looks more like "hey look at me, I'm a crippled OS installer which only works for one specific virtualisation environment, and when you're done with installation, there could be things you expect to work which I won't let you do simply because!" However, there _are_ tailored "appliances" of FreeBSD which specificlally target virtualied environments. They are based on FreeBSD as the OS, and add certain preinstallation and preconfiguration. Just have a look at this: http://www.virtualbsd.info/ This interesting project even skips the step of manual installation. Instead it offers a fully functional image for VMware and VirtualBox. It builds on the foundation of FreeBSD, instead of demanding a change of the OS to fit one limited use case by predefining settings that might be inappropriate (or leaving out functionality that would be irrelevant) in this _one_ application. The strength of a general-purpose OS is that it can be applied in many settings. It's the administrator's task to deal with the implications that this set of features implies for any specific case. -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...