Re: NetBSD under Sun VirtualBox 1.6.2

[Giles Lean <giles.lean%pobox.com@localhost>]

Chavdar Ivanov <ci4ic4%gmail.com@localhost> wrote:

> I am trying to run NetBSD i386 (-current) under Sun VirtualBox 1.6.2,
> using OpenSolaris as a host.
> ...
> [ a kernel panic ]

That may be a VirtualBox problem rather than a NetBSD one.  I
have been trying VirtualBox under OS X 10.5.x (Leopard) with
mixed results.

Trying to install NetBSD 4.0 fails with segmentation faults
when the installer is trying to unpack the distribution.  A
possibly related problem of CPU register corruption has been
observed on OpenBSD:

http://www.nabble.com/Bug-reports-regarding-Innotek-VirtualBox-td15907184.html

Not much technical detail there, but "CPU register corruption"
would indeed provoke anything from kernel panics to
semi-random application crashes. :-(

Other operating systems also have problems: while I can
install OpenSolaris and Solaris 10 (but haven't tested them
beyond installation), trying to install Solaris 9 fails: the
virtual machine hangs before any user interaction.

On the positive side, I have VirtualBox running Linux (CentOS
5.1) well enough to decomission an old 800Mhz Pentium III I
was using previously. This virtual machine I only use for
VPN/ssh/remote desktop access and don't store any critical
data on; my more critical virtual machines continue to be
hosted by VMWare on Windows XP, at least for now.

Regards,

Giles