Freebsd – Which virtual machine image for installing FreeBSD

freebsdsystem-installation

The FreeBSD download page offers links to Virtual Machine Images, including one link for AMD64.

That AMD64 folder offers three files:

FreeBSD-10.1-RELEASE-amd64.raw.xz
FreeBSD-10.1-RELEASE-amd64.vhd.xz
FreeBSD-10.1-RELEASE-amd64.vmdk.xz

What are each of these for, what's the difference between them? I cannot find documentation.

In particular I'm wonder if any will work for use in Parallels 10.

Best Answer

`.xz`

First, the last extension .xz is a lossless data compression program and file format which incorporates the LZMA/LZMA2 compression algorithms, say Wikipedia. Developed by The Tukaani Project.

For use on Mac OS X, Apple’s Archive Utility.app cannot handle this format (as of Yosemite). The XZ project page suggests using the XZ Utils library and command-line tool. You can obtain unarchiving apps on the Apple App Store. The Unarchiver app worked for me for the FreeBSD .xz installer files.

`.raw`, `.vhd`, `.vmdk`

Second to the last extension is one of three types of virtual hard drive file formats.

.raw
I do not know.
.vhd
Virtual Hard Disk format. Developed by Connectix (now Microsoft). As of 2005, this format’s spec is available to other parties. Can be used with Parallels Desktop 10.
.vmdk
Virtual Machine Disk format. Developed by VMware. Can be used with Parallels Desktop, and Oracle VirtualBox.

No Go on Parallels 10

While Parallels 10.2 on Mac OS X Yosemite 10.10.2 can open and convert both .vhd and .vmdk formats to its own format, when I tried each FreeBSD installer I got an error saying:

Failed to convert this virtual hard disk.

The guest OS installed on the disk cannot be identified. You can still convert this disk using the prl_convert utility with the --allow-no-os option."

Related Solutions

Freebsd – First FreeBSD install. Is there anything I should know about differences between Linux and BSD

You will notice differences certainly. Most noticable will be differences in the standard userland utilities. FreeBSD does not use GNU ls, GNU cp, and so on. For example, if you're attached to a colorized ls, you may want to alias ls to "ls -G". It does use GNU grep, though. The default shell is a much simpler and less bloated shell than GNU Bash, which is the default on most Linux distributions. If you are attached to bash, that may be one of the first packages you will want to install. The ports system has been the standard way to install software on the various BSDs. Ports downloads the source code, builds it, and then installs it. It's nearly entirely automatic. To install bash, for example, do this as root:

cd /usr/ports/shells/bash && make install && make clean

If you don't do a make clean at the end, you will leave the built source code lying in the ports tree. Many ports have pre-built packages that can be downloaded if you prefer not to waste time building it and don't need to customize it. To install bash as a package, this should do it:

pkg_add -r bash

You can find most any common program in ports including Gnome 3, sudo, rsync, or what ever else you need. A great website for navigating ports is FreshPorts. You also should get familiar with the FreeBSD Handbook.

Centos – Installing centos server in a virtual machine

Installing CentOS into VirtualBox is the way to go. When you start to dual boot, things can get a little tricky. If you want to learn, a Virtual Guest is a great way to break something and keep moving since you can easily restore from snapshot or reinstall.

If all you want is command line with no GUI, one of the options during install asks what kind of you system you want. If you choose Basic Server, it will give you just that; a barebones server with no frills. After installation is complete, you will then need to install the packages you want or need. This is a great way to learn how to install packages and find out what's available.

This person has been kind enough to take screenshots of every step of the CentOS 6.2 installation.

Have fun and make new posts when you need help.