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Date:      Wed, 31 Dec 2014 10:48:20 -0700
From:      Will Andrews <will@firepipe.net>
To:        Glen Barber <gjb@freebsd.org>
Cc:        hackers@freebsd.org, Ryan Kois <ryan.kois@gmail.com>, Alfred Perlstein <alfred@freebsd.org>, re@freebsd.org, Claudia Yadathi <yadathi@gmail.com>
Subject:   Re: How to make a FreeBSD vm in virtualbox.
Message-ID:  <CADBaqmhES1mFJ6iWjwRY=2Y9HJfDeJky%2BqwKmP9TeTdA6ufBfw@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <20141231151723.GA75959@hub.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>

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On Wed, Dec 31, 2014 at 8:17 AM, Glen Barber <gjb@freebsd.org> wrote:
>> 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".

What about shipping Vagrant boxes instead?  I've found those easy to
build automation on top of.

> 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.
[...]
> I strongly oppose depending on building VirtualBox (which has
> implications of its own) for producing VM images, especially when the
> disk image can be created using base utilities alone.  Given that,
> relying on a third-party utility is a step backwards.

Requiring that all tools used in the release process ship with the
base system means FreeBSD will never offer any first-party images for
use with third party tools, obstructing community development around
them.  That would be a shame.

--Will.



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