Depenguinator Project

B

balanga

Just came across The Depenguinator Project.... which allows you to upgrade a Linux system to FreeBSD !!!

I haven't tried it yet myself and don't know if it works. It's was written 20 years ago, but sounds interesting and will give it a try shortly.

Does anyone know anything about it?
 
See also: https://docs.freebsd.org/en/articles/remote-install/ (basically the same thing, but with a recent version of mfsBSD)

It will work in some cases. If your hoster uses XEN and only passes partitions (instead of a whole virtual disk) to your VM, you will likely have no luck, because then, you won't be able to install a full bootloader ... the host machine will need to be able to access your filesystem (UFS or ZFS for FreeBSD) in order to boot it, and that's unlikely with a hoster only supporting Linux.

In general, it's technically interesting, but I wouldn't recommend it. Even if you get it to work, you'll be on your own with no support from your hoster. Better look for one actually supporting FreeBSD.
 
That guy knows how to make an introduction, the first sentence is funny as hell.
Technically I am not qualified enough to talk, but after so many years I really doubt it will work, remember systemd came into the party since.
 
gotnull said:
Technically I am not qualified enough to talk, but after so many years I really doubt it will work, remember systemd came into the party since.
Click to expand...
Systemd is irrelevant here (edit: because the previously installed Linux system isn't used for anything but copying an mfsBSD image to the boot volume). Sure, "depenguinator" is unmaintained for many years now, so most likely not usable any more, but see the link I posted, you can still do the same trick. It works using mfsBSD, so you will have a working BSD system running entirely from a memory disk, which enables you to cleanly install a real FreeBSD on the disk you booted from, because it isn't needed any more at runtime.
 
yep you are right, I looked at what it does and indeed whatever is already installed that won't change anything because the disk is mostly wiped out. I already read something like this or a similar method (on the forum I think) from people who wants to install freebsd on vps where it is not proposed by the hoster.
 
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