Installing *BSD under VirtualBox


I managed to install FreeBSD and OpenBSD under VirtualBox. With NetBSD I gave up :-(. Here are some tips:

  • This is a good general OpenBSD tutorial
  • If you get the following message with OpenBSD:
    uid 0 on /: file system full
    /: write failed, file system is full
    Segmentation fault

    The solution described by this VB ticket might help you. Specifically you need run the machine from the command line with the -noraw0 switch.

  • For FreeBSD choose the PCne-PCI II network card (instead of III) and 10BaseT as your media type if you want your networking to work
  • A quick starter for NetBSD: it fails to ping the DNS server in NAT mode (10.0.2.3), but the network still works, so you can go ahead with the install.
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3 responses to “Installing *BSD under VirtualBox”

  1. Hello,
    please write what version of VBox you are using and if you are running it on VT-x/AMD-V capable hardware with hardware virtualization support switched on.
    Thanks!
    Karel

  2. VirtualBox 2.0.6 (the “free as in beer” version”) on Windows XP SP3 on a Core 2 Duo with VT-x support.

    The settings are as follows:
    FreeBSD: ACPI, VT-x and PAE enabled
    NetBSD: ACPI, IO APIC, VT-x and PAE enabled
    OpenBSD: only ACPI enabled (also, run from the command line as I mentioned in the post)

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