[Semibug] Questions about Vagrant Cloud boxes for BSDs

[Nick Holland]

On 07/11/17 21:19, James E Keenan wrote:
...
> 2. OpenBSD
> 
> I've never succeeded in getting a working (meaning:  connected to the 
> Internet) OpenBSD VM, but I see that boxes are available here:
> 
> https://app.vagrantup.com/boxes/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&sort=created&provider=&q=OpenBSD
> 
> I could use such a box to familiarize myself with OpenBSD as well as to 
> smoke test Perl.
> 
> Has anyone used such boxes to keep up with OpenBSD development?

In general, OpenBSD is either going to Just Work or fail big time with
virtualization environments.  Just Works for VMware and VirtualBox all
the times I've tried it, works on KVM as provided by Vultr.  Second hand
word is it Just Works on many others, too.

However, for "OpenBSD Development", I'd suggest real hw.  Virtualization
platforms are flawed and buggy as heck, they usually barely work with
the platforms they are intended to support; platforms other than Windows
and Linux, you get what you get.  Not saying don't do it, but be aware
you have TWO things to troubleshoot now -- the OS and the underlying
fake hw.

Now ... if you are talking about application development, that's a
different matter.  Then, sometimes various VM features become very nice.

When it comes to familiarizing yourself with an OS, unless you
understand the underlying VM environment very well, it's a bad way to
learn an OS, as now you have TWO things you are learning.

I don't get what they are offering there, not really sure I want to.
Just get an official OpenBSD image from an OpenBSD mirror and install
it; using someone else's build sounds crazy to me.

Nick.