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Date:      Fri, 19 Oct 2007 10:23:20 -0500
From:      Matt <datahead4@gmail.com>
To:        jahnke@sonatabio.com
Cc:        aryeh.friedman@gmail.com, punosevac@math.arizona.edu, questions@freebsd.org, Frank Staals <frankstaals@gmx.net>
Subject:   Re: best way to run vista inside freebsd
Message-ID:  <cd6b4a5b0710190823p2788131bpc1345fa7d3caa5@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <1192806195.39526.55.camel@pinot.fmjassoc.com>
References:  <1192767877.39526.41.camel@pinot.fmjassoc.com> <4718C378.4090609@gmx.net> <1192806195.39526.55.camel@pinot.fmjassoc.com>

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On 10/19/07, Frank Jahnke <jahnke@sonatabio.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%20instructions.  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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