Hi, I spent some time to get FreeBSD 6.2-STABLE running under Parallels Desktop 3.0 (4128) and under VMware Fusion 1.0 (50460) on a MacMini with 1.86MHz CoreDuo and 2GB RAM. I found that FreeBSD is basically running under both products, but there are differences of course: - Parallels 'feels' somewhat faster, esp. the turnaround of a reboot is noticeably faster but - VMware supports ACPI, which allows shutdown with power-off - VMware has a working sound support. The Parallels sound device is recognized and attached as well (ICH-device), but there's no sound at all... :-( - VMware has a working floppy controller whereas the floppy controller of Parallels is not recognized by FreeBSD (but Windoze, with the same port, irq and drq settings... ??) - The keyboard support of VMware is somewhat better. This is may be a more personal problem, but I like my Macally iKey5 keyboard very much (german layout) and Parallels isn't able to recognize the "<"+">" key (the key left of "Z" on US-Layout) and the "^"+"°" key (the key left of "1" on US-layout). Unfortunately on a german keyboard the pipe-character is RightAlt+"<", so I have no "<", ">" and "|" at all under Parallels (with all guest OSes!) which is really NO fun on a Unix-like OS... Admittedly it works with an apple keyboard... - Special drivers for FreeBSD are a problem on both products. At least they exist for VMware and are working too but with the exception of X11 7.2 drivers for graphics and mouse... FreeBSD has switched to Xorg 7.2 lately and the drivers of VMware are for Xorg 6.9. The mousedriver works for 7.2 as well, so you have a seamless switch between MacOS and X11 concernng the mousepointer. But there's no graphics driver for 7.2 and CPU load is quite high on VMware as well as on Parallels if something is happening on the screen. So in the moment I need both products: Parallels is nearly perfect for Windows XP, it's 3D graphics totally suits my needs since version 3.0, even with the GMA950 chipset graphic on the MacMini. Never thought that that would be possible... But the support for FreeBSD is noticeably better under VWware Fusion, so as long as Fusion is free I'll use this product for running FreeBSD... But I don't want to pay twice so I hope that the Parallels Guys add some work on the FreeBSD support - they should have the time now since the Windows support seems to be ready now. Greetings from Berlin - Matthew
thanks. In other message in this forum I reported the same issue. In Parallels 3.0 I got audio for FreeBSD only via Open Sound, but not through its normal device (ICH2 Intel, in my MacBook Pro). I hope you could solve soon this problem. Thanks in advance! Salvo M.
no, in fact, no difference Hoping to have soon almost the audio, and - better - the Parallels Tools for FreeBSD salvo
