A Taste of FreeBSD With VirtualBSD

ReeceTarbert writes "If you wanted to try FreeBSD but didn't have the right hardware, or enough time to make it useful on the desktop, VirtualBSD might fit the bill: it's a VMware appliance based on FreeBSD 7.1-RELEASE and features the Xfce 4 Desktop Environment and a few of the most common applications to make it very functional right out of the box. If you're curious you can have a look at the screenshots, or proceed to the download page and grab the torrent file right away. (Note: VirtualBSD also works in VirtualBox 2.x as long as you create a new virtual machine and select the virtual disk from the archive instead of creating a new one)."

Comments

Not quite...

[TheRaven64]

Note: VirtualBSD also works in VirtualBox 2.x

FreeBSD works in VirtualBox 2.1.2 and later. Earlier versions had a bug which prevented FreeBSD from working correctly.

Re:Not quite...

[jdong]

However, non-trivial disk acivity (such as compiling a port) caused the OS to shit itself with geometry errors.

That's my experience too, even with VBox 2.1.2-VBox 2.1.4: Any nontrivially intense disk activity will panic/oops the kernel with disk controller related errors. Once or twice it even was triggered in the installation phase when I elected to install some ports from the second CD. And forget about SCSI controller emulation as a workaround -- that instantly dies on newfs.

Mod parent up

[Nimey]

Until just recently FreeBSD installs always failed in VirtualBox.

Re:Terminology

[gstoddart]

Did I miss some sort of shift in terminology? When did virtual machines start getting referred to as "Appliances"? When I think "appliance", I usually think of toasters, microwaves, stoves, refrigerators, etc. Images for operating systems is the last thing that comes to mind.

I think it becomes an 'appliance' when it comes already configured and downloadable to you like a black box.

VMware currently hosts some large number here. Like an 'appliance', you plug it in and go without worrying about the fiddly bits.

Of course, if you want to install it all from scratch, go ahead. :-P

Cheers

Re:Terminology

[x2A]

"When did virtual machines start getting referred to as "Appliances"?"

When vmware player was launched I do believe... and it's not just any virtual machine, it's the use of a virtual machine to distribute a ready working self contained machine that does what it says on the tin (yes, virtual machines come in tins these days) rather than lengthy install procedures or live cds. It's an appliance because it's ready to plug in and go. But, as vmware say, "hate the game, not the player'

Surely you jest

[damn_registrars]

don't have the right hardware

It is almost more difficult to find wrong hardware for FreeBSD. Granted, it doesn't support quite as many systems as NetBSD, but unless you are running something quite odd it is likely you can run FreeBSD on it. Hell, most systems that are being thrown away right now can run it just fine.

FreeBSD 7.1 was released for:

• 64bit AMD
• 32bit x86
• 64bit Intel (Itanium)
• PC98
• PowerPC
• 64bit SPARC

And if you happen to be running an Alpha, you can still run FreeBSD 6.3

Re:Terminology

[jo42]

When did virtual machines start getting referred to as "Appliances"?

When the "Marketing Department" got involved.

Re:Where's the login/passwd???

[ReeceTarbert]

You have it right a the login screen and in the readme file contained in the archive! ;-)

Anyway, here goes:

Username: virtualbsd
Password: virtualbsd

root: root4u

Reece