VirtualBox: Don’t pretend you’re anything but a desktop VM product
Edit: As of 2010, Sun has corrected themselves and now state that OpenBSD is only supported with virtualization processor extensions enabled.
VirtualBox, while I like the interface and it has a few features that are lacking in VMWare and other virtualization products, has many issues.
First off, it doesn’t quite implement the x86 instruction architecture perfectly.
Secondly, this is terrible:
VirtualBox Trouble Ticket #192
VirtualBox Trouble Ticket #639
Basically, Sun has insisted for years that VirtualBox emulates OpenBSD perfectly and yet, it has been completely broken for years and they have not only not fixed the bugs in their own application, but have also not stopped insisting that it works just fine. Theo has posted a rant or two about how Virtualbox’s emulation sucks, and how he has wasted time tracking down non-existant bugs because of users repeatedly filing bug reports for segfaulting software when it is in fact just VirtualBox’s shitty emulation; I’m starting to see why he has this opinion.
Seriously, do not use VirtualBox to emulate OpenBSD (or !any! Unix other than Solaris). Everything is broken. Go try QEMU or VMWare.
But, if you want to try it anyway, here’s the settings you’ll NEED to have. Other settings are left up to your own options.:
General
OS type: OpenBSD
System
VT-x/AMD-V: Enabled*
PAE/NX: Enabled
Nested Paging: Disabled
Display
Video memory: 32MB
Hard Disks
IDE Controller Type: PIIX4
Network
Adapter: Intel PRO/1000 T Server
*obviously this is not possible if your host OS/CPU does not support it. OpenBSD segfaults less with it enabled. It runs(…ish) with it disabled.
tl;dr: VirtualBox is an excellent desktop virtual machine software, especially with its new features, like its 3D-rendering pass through technologies, and many-CPU SMP support. It is a terrible server virtual machine software, and is buggy, cannot run any unix distribution properly, except Sun’s own Solaris 10 kool-aid.
