Re: VMware on FreeBSD host?

Rudolf Polzer <usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> »Ross Alexander« <rwa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > Rudolf Polzer <usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> > > Why as root? qemu works fine as non-root.
> >
> > Wonderful; I must have misread something - I had a strong impression that root
> > was required for full function.
>
> No, but full access to /dev/kqemu is needed for virtualization. If the
> user does not have that access, all CPU instructions are emulated - but
> even then qemu is still fast enough for Windows XP to be usable on an
> Athlon XP 2400+. It does not feel fast at all then, more like a P200,
> but at least it works. Of course with networking support (if qemu runs
> as non-root and without access to a tun device, a network device is
> emulated that maps back to socket calls, so the emulated system behaves
> like behind a NAT gateway that only allows UDP and TCP through - yes, no
> ICMP).

Hmmmmm. When I build/install qemu, I get this note/warning at install time:

FreeBSD host notes:
- needs to run as root in order to use /dev/tap* networking (why?)
(actually RELENG_6 and above now has a sysctl net.link.tap.user_open
to allow users to use it too. don't forget to adjust device node
permissions in /etc/devfs.rules.)
[rest snipped for brevity.]

(This text is from /usr/ports/emulators/qemu/pkg-message.) I don't
have a net.link.tap.user_open oid, so I must be < RELENG_6 (which is
hard to understand, since "uname -a" returns

FreeBSD auberge.bogons 6.0-STABLE FreeBSD 6.0-STABLE #0: Sat Jan 7 10:09:29 MST 2006
root@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC amd64

and my cvsup file (I cvsup about once a week; most recently, 7 Jan 2006) is

*default host=cvsup1.ca.freebsd.org
*default base=/usr/local/etc/cvsup
*default prefix=/usr
*default tag=RELENG_6
*default release=cvs delete use-rel-suffix compress
src-all
ports-all tag=.
doc-all

HOWEVER, it's not the first time doc has been misleading %~/. Thanks for the
advice and encouragement.)

regards,
Ross
.