looking for virtual machine for testing booting ISO images

From: Jeremy C. Reed (reed_at_reedmedia.net)
Date: 12/31/03

  • Next message: Greg 'groggy' Lehey: "Re: Booting from vinum RAID 1: How should I edit my disk label?" 
    Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2003 22:23:27 -0800 (PST)
To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org

    I am looking for a method where I can boot ISO images in a chroot-like
    environment. (I understand that VMware and Virtual PC may be able to do
    this, but I'd prefer to use an open source product.)

    I was told on the plex86 list to look at bochs. I did look at some bochs
    documentation that mentioned making and using an ISO image for Windows
    (which I don't use). But my guest operating system will be Linux or
    NetBSD. I didn't find any bochs documentation on using FreeBSD as the host
    system and booting Linux or NetBSD ISO images.

    I asked the bochs-developers list (because I didn't see a "general" bochs
    discussion forum) but didn't get any feedback.

    For example, I make bootable NetBSD and Linux CDs, and I can test the
    executables and environment by mounting the ISO image and chrooting to it.
    (But this doesn't test the boot and init.)

    I want to test the entire bootup starting with the ISO image's embedded
    bootable 2.88 floppy image, booting kernel, running /sbin/init, et cetera
    (without wasting time having to physically burn a CD and rebooting using
    that new CD on a test system each time).

    Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas on what I can use to boot a
    bootable ISO image?

    I see ports/emulators/bochs ... does anyone know how to get it to boot a
    bootable ISO image (where host is FreeBSD and ISO is Linux or NetBSD)?

    Thank you for any advice,

       Jeremy C. Reed
       http://bsd.reedmedia.net/

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  • Next message: Greg 'groggy' Lehey: "Re: Booting from vinum RAID 1: How should I edit my disk label?"

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