Re: OS Images(Linux/etc) in ports tree

On Fri, Jun 28, 2024 at 5:10 PM Connor Cooper <connor.a.cooper@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello, I am presenting you all with an idea for the bhyve project that involves the ports tree. I've noticed that a lot of VPS providers have their own images available for various operating systems and it's relatively easy to use compared to even standalone virtualization systems. Considering the existence of FreeBSD and bhyve I also just noticed that the ports tree could be a good potential place for bhyve users to access those images. What is the input of the FreeBSD virtualization community regarding this idea? Thanks.

Some helper scripts, example configurations, maybe some image
downloader program (with easy to use terminal ui), in the ports, yes
:-)

But we do not really want to host other projects/os releases in the
ports.. its not meant for that.. ports are just easy to use generic
automation scripts.. port tree is already pretty big now imagine how
many more GB would people with no interest in bhyve would have to get
over sometimes low bandwidth link :-)

You may want to create a downloader program (preferably with terminal
ui maybe some gui) that would show list of all known operating systems
and their releases just to quickly get the ISO/VM image without even
opening a web browser. Such program should be platform independent so
it would be also helpful on other os. That program would be a good
candidate for a port.

If you think of generic prebuilt bhyve images for various OS this also
could be useful. Some OS already provide VM images - are these
compatible with bhyve? Maybe those images could be easily converted?
Some OS would not even allow such prebuilt images distribution
(probably the commercial license restricted ones such as windows or
macos). Maybe this could be solved with a downloader/converter
program. Anyhow, various OS VM images would require a dedicated
repository but not a ports tree :-)

Thanks for sharing your idea! Maybe this will result with a new useful
tool out there :-)

-- 
CeDeROM, SQ7MHZ, http://www.tomek.cedro.info