[vbox-dev] Patch to make configure work better on FreeBSD

[Jason Spiro]

2007/6/19, Fabian Ruch <Fabian.Ruch at gmx.de> wrote:
...

> Yes, VirtualBox is _building_ on FreeBSD (with current subversion
> revision on FreeBSD 6-STABLE)

I didn't use svn; I just tried to build the release that came out a
week and a half ago.  It didn't build for me with the OS type
autodetected as FreeBSD.

> > Changes:
> >
> > * I add a little TODO comment saying we should use the -pthread option
> > * I use sdl-config (a tool that comes with SDL) to find out SDL paths
> > * I add FreeBSD's Qt package location to QTDIR
> > * I mark FreeBSD as a valid OS type
> > * I display a tip encouraging the use of the --build-xalan option
> > * I don't check for ALSA on FreeBSD because FreeBSD apps can't use ALSA
> > * Many fixes to allow the use of /bin/sh instead of /bin/bash
>
> Same changes here for configure.

You made the same changes to the configure script as I did?  Including
the xalan tip?  :-)

...
> Are you or is anybody else trying to port VirtualBox to FreeBSD?
> Especially the Kernel Drivers as Alexey said just before.

I was not really trying; I just wanted to try compiling it to see if
it would build on FreeBSD.  That is why I worked on the configure
script.  I did not change any other code, and for now I have no plans
to try.  But let's exchange contact info anyway?

As for your question of does anybody else have plans?  I personally
don't know.  IIRC somewhere on the VirtualBox web site there was a
feature comparison chart with VMware and one other product.  Under the
list of supported hosts for VirtualBox they wrote:

        FreeBSD (under development)

Who wrote that?  Was it someone who is working on porting?

Also, I notice that there is a freebsd.x86 directory in the source
tree[1] with copies of as86 and bcc (even though "portinstall bcc"
would provide those tools too).  Who created that directory?  Was it
someone who is working on porting?

About the kernel drivers:  How were they made?  If they are based on
KQEMU (which is now open source), whoever is porting should note that
a version of KQEMU is available for FreeBSD.[2]  Maybe we can adapt
that.

Also, FreeBSD has a Linux compatibility layer included, but it can't
run Linux kernel modules.  Plus there are no ports for the linux glibc
headers: one must use the rpm command to install Fedora Core 4 RPMs
like glibc-headers and glibc-kernheaders.  But I have another idea.
Luigi Rizzo is working on a project to get Linux kernel modules to
build almost unchanged on FreeBSD.[3]  The README[4] says he currently
is focusing on webcam drivers.  I don't know anything about vbox's
kernel modules, but I wonder: would it be worthwhile to extend Luigi
Rizzo's work until FreeBSD could run vbox's Linux kernel modules
without modification?  This would not just help vbox, but would help
numerous people trying to run low-level Linux software on FreeBSD.

[1] http://www.virtualbox.org/browser/trunk/tools/freebsd.x86

[2] http://www.google.com/search?q=qemu+freebsd

[3] http://info.iet.unipi.it/~luigi/FreeBSD/linux_bsd_kld.html

[4] http://www.jspiro.com/files/email/linux-kmod-compat-20070326.tgz-extracted/linux_compat/README

-- 
Jason Spiro: Linux consultant, web developer, Windows corporate trainer.
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