Has anyone had any success installing VirtualBox extension pack under FreeBSD ?

[Manish Jain]

On 07/28/17 03:35, Mario Lobo wrote:
> On Thu, 27 Jul 2017 22:59:56 +0200
> Grégory Reinbold <gregory at nosheep.fr> wrote:
> 
>> On 27/07/2017 05:17, Manish Jain wrote:
>>>
>>> On 07/26/17 15:13, Grégory Reinbold wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> Did you try it?
>>>> https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/virtualization-guest-virtualbox.html
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 26/07/2017 11:16, Manish Jain wrote:
>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>
>>>>> I would, possibly like many others, like to install VirtualBox
>>>>> extension pack under FreeBSD. Currently, the VB::USB situation is
>>>>> so messy that no device other than keyboard/mouse work, not even
>>>>> as OHCI.
>>>>>
>>>>> I tried to open a discussion for this at VB forums :
>>>>>
>>>>> https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=83928
>>>>>
>>>>> There response is so pathetic that it essentially leaves no hope.
>>>>>
>>>>> The only hope seems to be hacking the extension packing with the
>>>>> Linuxulator, getting the extension pack to think that the OS
>>>>> actually is Linux. Has anyone had any success with such an
>>>>> approach / something else ?
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks for any pointers.
>>>>> Manish Jain
>>> Hi Gregory,
>>>
>>> Thanks for replying.
>>>
>>> I think the URL you referred to caters essentially to Guest
>>> utilities. Not to FreeBSD host in general, and in particular USB
>>> functionality under the host in particular.
>>>
>>> While my VB post got a lot of evasive/contradictory statements from
>>> the VB developers (stuff like initial assertion - later corrected -
>>> that VB extension pack is not platform specific), one interesting
>>> statement of the folks there is that OHCI functionality is provided
>>> out-of-the box and not platform-specific implementation.
>>>
>>> Since OHCI only works for keyboard/mouse under FreeBSD, is it
>>> possible that FreeBSD porters actually disable OHCI at our end (in
>>> the process of porting the VB sources for FreeBSD) ?
>>>
>>> Thanks for any information.
>>> Manish Jain
>>>   
>> https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/virtualization-host-virtualbox.html#virtualization-virtualbox-usb-support
>>
>> TheVirtualBox™extension pack is not available for FreeBSD hosts.
>> Without the extension pack, the FreeBSD host cannot passUSBports
>> through to guest operating systems.
>>
>> So, on VB website we can see this:
>> https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch01.html#intro-installing
>>
>> And we can download the extension pack here:
>> http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/5.1.26/Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-5.1.26-117224.vbox-extpack
>>
>> So, how to install it? Maybe this can help you?
>> https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch08.html#vboxmanage-extpack
>>
> 
> A while back, I wrote directly to Frank Mehnert - Oracle Software
> Development Director about this issue.
> 
> 
> He replied as follows:
> 
> 
> ---------------------------------------------
> 
> Hi Mario,
> 
> just saw your other mail and I just saw this mail again. Sorry for the
> late response!
> 
> On Thursday 02 June 2016 16:06:01 you wrote:
>   
>> I've been using VB with my beloved FreeBSD since its early days, when
>> USB 1.0 used to be the standard.
>>
>> Now a days, it is no longer viable, even if we downgrade the USB
>> connection through the OS to usb 1.0. The device shows up on the guest
>> but that is as far as it goes. It simply doesn't work.
>>
>> I see that you have pre-compiled extension packs for Windows and Linux
>> hosts. VB compiles and works great through the ports in FreeBSD. The
>> highest available official version 4.3.38 but through the works of
>> Jung-uk Kim, I am running 5.0.20 right now! If it wasn't for this USB
>> issue, VB would be completely operational on FBSD!
>>
>> You probably have been asked about this a lot, but do you see a
>> possibility anywhere in the future, of providing a pre-compiled
>> extension pack for FreeBSD? I never understood why Windows and Linux
>> have it and FreeBSD doesn't. Is there a particular reason for it?
>>
>> Is there anyway I can help with this matter? Anybody in particular I
>> can plead for this?
>>
>> Again, my apologies for barging in, and thank you for reading and for
>> your time.
> 
> hard to say. I guess if the USB devices worked in the past then this
> was probably because the due to the missing Extension Pack the devices
> were forced to use the USB 1 mode.
> 
> Providing Extenicode for FreeBSD is not impossible but would require
> some effort. The most important part is probably to find a compatible
> build environment.
> 
> I don't say "No" in general but we need to think about this in more
> detail.
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Frank
> 

Hi Mario,

So nice to notice with my [serious] concern is not an individual issue - 
there are folks, some of them senior/core developers, who feel the pinch 
of the issue largely much the same. My views of the USB situation 
exactly match yours - and I actually feel that EHCI/XHCI have played 
spoilsport - at least for FreeBSD, whereunder VB USB was functional 
earlier on.

I do not know what to make of Frank's response - encouraging ? 
discouraging ? But surely not deprecating - which was the attitude of 
the VB developers who posted replies to my message.

Out of frustration with their attitude, I even mentioned the possibility 
for charging a per-user license fee under FreeBSD for the extension pack 
- like Sublime Text does (albeit ST is not FreeBSD-specific). They went 
into a heap of ridiculous prevarications, and I simply closed the issue 
out of my mind.

Thanks for your reply. I am fairly certain that in the days to come 
there will be some progress somewhere - either OHCI becomes functional 
or the extension pack flowers under BSD. Or better still, bhyve comes at 
a par with VB.

Would anyone have any idea whether bhyve can now host an XP vm ? That 
probably is the only vm that I will ever need.

Thanks again.
Manish Jain