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

[Fabian Ruch]

> Hi,

Hi

> The FreeBSD binary packages system includes almost all the vbox build
> requirements, but vbox's configure script doesn't work on the OS.  I
> have written a patch to make the vbox 1.4.0 configure script work
> better on FreeBSD.  It is attached.

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

> 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.

> I did not try to make the Xlibs lib and include path detection work or
> to build the Qt test app with the -pthread option.  This is because I
> don't know if any configure test results I captured would properly
> affect the kBuild process.  So, the configure script still fails on
> FreeBSD, but it manages to get further before failing.
> 
> I have tested my patch on FreeBSD 6.2-RELEASE.  It works fine.  I am
> fairly confident it will work fine on all other platforms too.  I
> release my contributions to the public domain.  No warranty.
> 
> Could you kindly review my patch?  Or, if you are busy, could you at
> least open up a ticket with the patch attached?  Either way please let
> me know what you decide.

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

> Regards,
> Jason

Regards,
Fabian

> P.S.  Thanks for making an open source edition of this wonderful
> product available.
> 
> P.P.S.  If you used autoconf to generate your configure script, the
> script would automatically work on Solaris, HP/UX, AIX, FreeBSD,
> OpenBSD, NetBSD, and dozens of other OSes.  Do you happen to know:
> Why don't you use autoconf?