Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2013 15:18:26 +0100 From: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> To: jb <jb.1234abcd@gmail.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FB 9.1 boot loader problem in VirtualBox Message-ID: <20130106151826.68fa31b0.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <loom.20130106T130339-525@post.gmane.org> References: <loom.20130106T005723-617@post.gmane.org> <loom.20130106T121300-657@post.gmane.org> <50E96474.4060609@FreeBSD.org> <loom.20130106T130339-525@post.gmane.org>
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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, ...
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