Re: best way to run vista inside freebsd

> I have heard that Win4BSD is really good.

Your hearing is not good.  Win4BSD is a terrible product
when compared
with the very old version of VMware.  Its only advantage is
that you can
run it with more than one CPU (namely, APIC is enabled). 
Win4BSD is
less stable, less responsive, and it appears to be dead as
far as
activity goes.  FWIW, in my opinion qemu/kqemu is not
particularly good,
either.

VMs in general are a problem on Free.  There is an effort to
port the
most recent VMware Workstation by a very good man.  I do
hope this
works, because right now things in the VM world on FreeBSD
truly are
bleak.

Frank

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Frank Staals wrote:
> Frank Jahnke wrote:
>> VMs in general are a problem on Free. There is an
effort to port the
>> most recent VMware Workstation by a very good man. 
I do hope this
>> works, because right now things in the VM world on
FreeBSD truly are
>> bleak.
>>
>> Frank
>>
>>   
> What is the status of that project if I may ask ? I did
some research
> on it some time ago but the best I could find was that
there was
> someone porting vmware-workstation 4.5.X to FreeBSD
allthough there
> were quite a lot problems so there wasn't much progress
it seemed.
>
> Anyway; VM's and FreeBSD don't go well indeed :(
vmware3 is just
> outdated, it won't work as Xen host (yet;  .. it was on
the SoC list,
> but I'm not sure how much has become of it ) and qemu
is a nice
> attempt but it's just not good enough ( especially
since kqemu locks
> up my system in CURRENT ). It would be great if FreeBSD
could be a
> VM-host.
>

Sort of off topic but an other thing (besides run vista) I
eventually
want to do is use it as a OS developement platform (writing
an OS from
the ground up)

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On Fri, 2007-10-19 at 16:47 +0200, Frank Staals wrote:
>   
> What is the status of that project if I may ask ? I did
some research on 
> it some time ago but the best I could find was that
there was someone 
> porting vmware-workstation 4.5.X to FreeBSD allthough
there were quite a 
> lot problems so there wasn't much progress it seemed.

The same fellow is doing the port.  I haven't corresponded
with him for
a while, so I can't really say what the current status is. 
Quite some
time ago the issue was getting VMware to discuss what goes
on in their
kernel module (IIRC).
> 
> It would be great if FreeBSD could be a VM-host.

Agreed.  For me it is the biggest problem with using a
FreeBSD desktop.
One other sign of hope: there has been intermittent work on
a port of
VirtualBox.  When I checked last, the GUI environment would
build.
That's certainly not a complete VM yet, but it is one
necessary piece.

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Frank Jahnke wrote:
> VMs in general are a problem on Free. There is an
effort to port the
> most recent VMware Workstation by a very good man.  I
do hope this
> works, because right now things in the VM world on
FreeBSD truly are
> bleak.
>
> Frank
>
>   
What is the status of that project if I may ask ? I did some
research on 
it some time ago but the best I could find was that there
was someone 
porting vmware-workstation 4.5.X to FreeBSD allthough there
were quite a 
lot problems so there wasn't much progress it seemed.

Anyway; VM's and FreeBSD don't go well indeed :( vmware3 is
just 
outdated, it won't work as Xen host (yet;  .. it was on the
SoC list, 
but I'm not sure how much has become of it ) and qemu is a
nice attempt 
but it's just not good enough ( especially since kqemu locks
up my 
system in CURRENT ). It would be great if FreeBSD could be a
VM-host.



-- 
-Frank Staals


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On Fri, 2007-10-19 at 10:23 -0500, Matt wrote:

> VirtualBox builds from the Innotek svn sources, and the
GUI runs but
> with some issues.  However, it is possible to boot a
full VM instance
> from within VirtualBox on a FreeBSD host (which is very
promising).
> The major missing component (that I'm aware of) is the
kernel
> acceleration module, so the VM is very slow.

That's all very good news, and thanks for the update.
> 
> The VirtualBox developers have been receptive to
contributions that
> were required to get their program to build on FreeBSD,
and they have
> written a skeleton kernel module as a first step to
getting
> accelerated VMs on a FreeBSD host.

The kernel modules always seem to be the main challenge. 
This one at
least is open source, so you don't have to try to figure out
what is
going on.

I'd help, but I'm not that sort of coder.

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On 10/19/07, Frank Jahnke <jahnkesonatabio.com> wrote:

> Agreed.  For me it is the biggest problem with using a
FreeBSD desktop.
> One other sign of hope: there has been intermittent
work on a port of
> VirtualBox.  When I checked last, the GUI environment
would build.
> That's certainly not a complete VM yet, but it is one
necessary piece.
>

VirtualBox builds from the Innotek svn sources, and the GUI
runs but
with some issues.  However, it is possible to boot a full VM
instance
from within VirtualBox on a FreeBSD host (which is very
promising).
The major missing component (that I'm aware of) is the
kernel
acceleration module, so the VM is very slow.

The VirtualBox developers have been receptive to
contributions that
were required to get their program to build on FreeBSD, and
they have
written a skeleton kernel module as a first step to getting
accelerated VMs on a FreeBSD host.  I suspect that they will
also be
receptive if anyone from the FreeBSD community is willing
to
contribute to the kernel module completion.

Anyone able to contribute should drop them a line on their
dev mailing
list, or visit the IRC channel listed at
http://virtualbox.org/wiki/FreeBSD%20build%20instructi
ons.  I've
currently exhausted my limited porting skills (mostly
related to
getting their Makefiles to recognize where FreeBSD keeps
relevant
header and include files) and am willing to help continue
the effort
in any way I can with help from others more skilled in
programming.

Matt
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On Friday 19 October 2007, Frank Jahnke wrote:
> On Fri, 2007-10-19 at 16:47 +0200, Frank Staals wrote:
> > What is the status of that project if I may ask ?
I did some research
> > on it some time ago but the best I could find was
that there was
> > someone porting vmware-workstation 4.5.X to
FreeBSD allthough there
> > were quite a lot problems so there wasn't much
progress it seemed.
>
> The same fellow is doing the port.  I haven't
corresponded with him for
> a while, so I can't really say what the current status
is.  Quite some
> time ago the issue was getting VMware to discuss what
goes on in their
> kernel module (IIRC).

In addition to sponsoring and contributing to the bounty for
this project, 
rsync.net is engaged in some discussion(s) with VMware to
get and keep 
things moving for this newest port, although status updates
are a bit hard 
to come by (perhaps intentionally).

JN
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I managed to run XP on qemu, it was pretty painless.

I'll try with vista the next couple of days and report
back.


---
Regards,
Ghirai.
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Frank Jahnke writes:

> VMs in general are a problem on Free.  There is an
effort to port the
> most recent VMware Workstation by a very good man.

VMware employee?
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On Wed, 2007-10-24 at 00:47 -0400, Francisco Reyes wrote:
> Frank Jahnke writes:
> 
> > VMs in general are a problem on Free.  There is an
effort to port the
> > most recent VMware Workstation by a very good
man.
> 
> VMware employee?

No.  He is the fellow who did the VMware 3 port.

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