[vbox-dev] Fuduntu distribution patch

[Klaus Espenlaub]

On 21.05.2012 21:43, Stéphane Charette wrote:
> On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 4:46 AM, Klaus Espenlaub
> <klaus.espenlaub at oracle.com <mailto:klaus.espenlaub at oracle.com>> wrote:
>
>     The policy right now is that we don't really appreciate such "add my
>     favorite OS" contributions, especially if you completely ignore the
>     structure of the existing OS type identifiers (0xTVB00 - T=OS type,
>     V=variant, B=bitness).
>
>
> This brings up something I've always been curious to know.  Is it
> documented what this does?  I'm guessing it tweaks how VirtualBox deals
> with some specific internals, but...what exactly?  And if I pick
> something like Windows but then install Linux, will it work?  If I pick
> RedHat and then install Ubuntu, are there any effects?  To satisfy the
> curiosity of your advanced users, I would love to see something on that
> part of the GUI which either pops up a bubble of help, or goes to a http
> link that explains what changes when I select OS 'A' versus 'B'.

VirtualBox uses the guest OS type mostly for documentation purposes, and 
for showing a nice icon in the GUI. There is only one hack in the code 
currently which enables a guest OS specific optimization in a very 
specific setup, for some oldish Windows variants if you set the OS type 
correctly.

So this has far less influence than you might think. In general it's 
very safe to misdeclare the guest OS type whichever way you like. If you 
notice any behavior or performance differences please see a doctor and 
have your time source checked :)

> (I haven't re-read the end user document in...?  At least a year.  So
> maybe this is already documented and I just haven't come across it.)

Not worth documenting something which almost doesn't exist.

Klaus

> Stéphane


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Dr. Klaus Espenlaub | Snr. Manager Software Development Desktop
Virtualization
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