[Pkg-virtualbox-devel] Bug#794466: VIrtualBox future in Debian

[Ritesh Raj Sarraf]

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On Wed, 2017-01-25 at 18:38 -0500, Jeremy Bicha wrote:
> 3. Something needs to be done about whatever in the installer suggests
> installing the virtualbox-ose package. Since I clicked OK, I thought
> it *did* install something useful for VirtualBox but I don't think it
> did.
> 

This must be from back when VBox had better support model. Given its current
status, we should fix the installer and not support VBox there.

> 4. I have not had the #2 problem with other distros. Ubuntu includes
> some minimal VirtualBox-compatible driver as part of its default
> kernel. Could Debian do the same so that Debian will actually run on
> VirtualBox?
> 

You mean the driver provided by the virtualbox-guest-dkms package ?
The easiest would be if VBox worked on upstreaming that driver. For Debian,
carrying that external driver may not be desirable unless the kernel team's
policy changed in recent past.

> 5. As far as the drivers go, if they aren't in a Debian release, then
> once someone actually gets Debian running, I guess they'll either just
> keep whatever drivers they installed the first time. Or maybe they'll
> use VirtualBox's guest additions iso to install the drivers. Neither
> way offers automatic update of drivers. I feel this situation is worse
> from a security perspective than having a Debian package that is at
> least updated on major new Debian releases.
> 

Hmmm. This one is a worrisome state. But the iso package is part of non-free.

> Why can't the Security Team treat VirtualBox like how it's been
> treating WebKit1? Still have it in the archives but with a prominent
> notice that Debian does not provide security updates.
> 
> 6. Assuming that VirtualBox won't be in the next stable Debian
> release, I guess we need a page like mozilla.debian.net for it?
- -- 
Ritesh Raj Sarraf | http://people.debian.org/~rrs
Debian - The Universal Operating System
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