[vbox-dev] FreeBSD Port Status

[Jens Schweikhardt]

Martes G Wigglesworth wrote:
> Greetings List.
> 
> I have been attempting to inquire as to the status of any FreeBSD port
> work.  I would like to get involved, however, I have not had a chance to
> make contact with the correct person, except for a breif IM session on
> the channel.
> 
> Anyone have any status as to the functional behaviors of the attempts to
> port to BSD?  I was directed to the "wiki" that I am not sure was there
> a few months ago, however, there is still no information on how
> functional the port is.

Which "wiki" page are you referring to, exactly?
There is some general porting info on 
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Porting_VirtualBox
There's also a very initial page with build instructions at
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/FreeBSD build instructions
(with spaces around "build").

The "Port Status" as such is more or less "no one we know of took a 
serious stab at it". If you make it happen, the fame is yours :-)

A common misunderstanding is that "porting" means just creating a 
Makefile for /usr/ports/emulators/VirtualBox (Creating a FreeBSD 
"port"). This would be the smaller part by far.

To make VirtualBox work on FreeBSD as a host you would have to 
port/write C code interacting with the kernel. Just like on Linux, a 
loadable kernel module would be necessary, modifying various system 
calls and kernel operations in general. As you can imagine, considerable 
in-depth knowledge of the FreeBSD kernel would be a requirement.

All such code would have to be under the MIT license or, as an 
alternative, you could sign a Sun Contributor's Agreement. See 
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Contributor_information for details.

If you think you are up to the task we would be happy to assist you. As 
I am a FreeBSD committer myself, I could help getting any patches to the 
FreeBSD kernel code in the tree (should the need arise).

Please let us know how we can proceed. Thanks again for your interest in 
porting VirtualBox to FreeBSD!


Regards,

        Jens Schweikhardt

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