Debian GNU/kFreeBSD

Debian GNU/kFreeBSD is taking the userland component of the Debian distribution and layering it over top of a FreeBSD kernel, or, as they put on their web site:

"Debian GNU/kFreeBSD is a port that consists of GNU userland using the GNU C library on top of FreeBSD's kernel, coupled with the regular Debian package set."

What this means is that we are able to offer our clients a 'Linux' environment without having to run in an emulation mode.

Caution

This VPS is based on a work in progress by the Debian community and may or may not be production quality, although we do have clients currently playing with it.

This VPS is a self-managed one, in that our administrative tools will not work with it, since they are currently all designed around the FreeBSD layout. We hope, over time, to extend our administrative tools to work with this, but, until then, this is meant more for those with a certain degree of Debian systems ability and knowledge.

In order to improve communications concerning the use of this VPS, we have created a 'client focussed' forum to allow and encourage clients to talk amongst themselves about both problems, and experiences, with it.

Known Problems / Bugs

At this time, the only known problem/bug with Debian GNU/kFreeBSD is that the process tools (ps / top) do not work. The current workaround for this is to use the proc file system that is auto-mounted in order to list processes (ie. cat /proc/*/status - where the first field is the command being run).

As we find out about other problems or limitations, we will try and update this list.