Re: Fwd: How do I instal Dragonfly BSD from a hard drive - rather than CD?

[Bill Hacker <wbh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Emiel Kollof wrote:

> Hi guys,
>
> Forwarded to the users list (The forwarded post is below) and also a reply to 
> this guy. I know it's a troll, but I thought it was way too funny for you 
> guys to miss. It nearly made me choke on my morning coffee. This guy owes me 
> a new keyboard because coffee | nose > keyboard.
>
> Heck for this reason alone I'll bite ;)

Emiel, you are too easily amused... ;-)

> Hi Pete.
*SNIP*

> Installing in windows is not possible, was never possible, and will never be 
> possible. DragonFly is not a windows application. It's a full blown operating 
> system that wants absolute control over your hardware. It's way easy to just 
> dedicate a partition for DragonFly and just boot from network/cd and install.
>
> Cheers,
> Emiel

*SNIP*

Spiritually correct, ;-)  ... but technically inaccurate.

Not that I recommend it, BUT DragonFly should be comparable to other 
*n*x in this regard:

- I have run FreeBSD under Connectix / Innotek beta Virtual PC on OS/2 
Warp 4.X host.

- Likewise FreeBSD and Linux under eCS SVISTA beta. (eCS host)

- Likewise FreeBSD and Linux on Mac OS X, VPC 5.X and 6.X

- Also OS/2 on Mac OS X host with VPC 5.X & 6.X

The only one that actually seems to be able to 'pierce the veil' of the 
virtual machine is OS/2, which takes around three hours to convince that 
the emulated environment can be used.  No surprise, given the way it 
tests hardware before installing.

As Connectix sold VPC to MS between VPC 5 and 6, all of the above should 
be as do-able on an NT-family WinBox as any other.

So DragonFly BSD should be no less 'installable under Windows' than 
FreeBSD or Linux,
i.e - while the 'guest' OS has full use of what it perceives as its own 
hardware, the 'VPC' is itself a task under the host OS.

Needless to say, there are other alternatives to VPC or SVISTA when the 
host is Unix/Linux.

Handy for the wandering sysadmin to do with emulation of client 
environments on a single laptop.

There is however, another very practical use for development:

The VPC can be stopped and stored in a 'frozen' state.

In this mode, VPC stores the *entire* emulated environment, machine, 
data, memory, CPU register and program-counter, etc. in a container file.

That container file can be e-mailed to a co-worker with a compatible VPC 
environment, and opened in the identical state as when frozen.  But half 
way 'round the world.

That might yet be of value for debugging, and partly because the 
emulated machine is 'standardized'.

Bill Hacker