sidux.com :: View topic - Is anyone else using VirtualBox? Information, tips, howto

sidux.com

Software - Is anyone else using VirtualBox? Information, tips, howto

Scrooge - Feb 21, 2007 - 01:12 AM
Post subject: Is anyone else using VirtualBox? Information, tips, howto

I was just curious if anyone else was using it: http://www.virtualbox.org/

So far it's worked quite well for me. It does have its limitations but they seem to be working on it and are very responsive. It'n nice to not have to dual-boot for those times you are forced to run a windows app. I have no firsthand knowledge of this but I've read that it is a little faster than vmware.

Smile

slam - Feb 21, 2007 - 07:24 AM
Post subject: Is anyone else using VirtualBox?

I also found it faster than VMWare, and of course I appreciate that the basic version is open source. We are all waiting to see it hitting the Debian Sid repositories, and I guess it would be a fine addition to sidux by then - instead of Qemu/Kqemu, which still lacks performance and a serious GUI.

I also did some tests with the commercial version, but run into some difficulties because of the ancient usbfs model & it's permissions still used there. I also tested a "conversion" of a WindowsXP guest image from VMWare to VBox, which did work out fine with some hands on.

I definitely agree - it is the better alternative to multibooting.

@Scrooge: By the way, thank you very much in the name of the sidux team for your friendly donation today! Smile

Greetings,
Chris

kenyee - Feb 21, 2007 - 09:20 PM
Post subject: RE: Is anyone else using VirtualBox?

slam: how did you convert a VMWare image to VBox? I thought they didn't have migration tools yet? I'd like to get rid of VirtualPC Smile

Oddball - Feb 26, 2007 - 05:12 PM
Post subject: RE: Is anyone else using VirtualBox?

I just installed VirtuallBox, I used the Etch version from VirtualBox:s download site, this must be the commercial version. Anyway so far it worked alright, the installation program made a working module for my sidux kernel without problem, I need xp for running my scanner, digitalizing my old photos, slides, it doesn't work very well with the linux drives. So I will make a try to run it in VirtualBox instead.

Oddball - Feb 26, 2007 - 06:15 PM
Post subject:

I just manage to get my usb scanner to work in VirtualBox I followed the advices from: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php? ... amp;page=2

Quote:

Hey guys, all of you have been very helpful, and i'm up and running on XP and seeing my external HD. I usually write myself short text files with step that work for my installs, so i hope this helps other people...

-Install XP or other OS

-Create a group called "usbfs" and add yourself to it.

-In terminal issue the following command:

sudo gedit /etc/fstab

-In this file paste the following lines, and change the group ID according to the group ID that is shown for the group "usbfs".

# 1001 is the USB group ID
none /proc/bus/usb usbfs devgid=1001,devmode=664 0 0

-Save and close file.

-In terminal, issue the following command:

VBoxManage list usbhost

-Use the output of this command to set up the filters for USB devices under VirtualBox.

-Reboot

*USB DEVICES HAVE TO BE UNMOUNTED BEFORE VIRTUAL MACHINE CAN RECOGNIZE THEM*

This worked but first time I rebooted I got some message on boot about something already was mounted, second time I didn't see this message.

My question is: Is this the right way to enable USB for VirtualBox in sidux also or is there a nother way.

Scrooge - Feb 26, 2007 - 06:50 PM
Post subject:

I just made myself a member of the group usb, (without creating the usbfs group) and then created the filters. It's been working fine so far. Very Happy

Oddball - Feb 26, 2007 - 07:15 PM
Post subject:

On my box the usb group doesn't exist, therefore I created usbfs

dzz - Feb 26, 2007 - 09:29 PM
Post subject:

I installed it (etch .deb) just for the sidux iso a few days ago and wrote in the "installation" forum:

http://www.sidux.com/PNphpBB2-viewtopic-t-1972.html

For me usb just worked (at 12meg/second). I was already in "usb" group maybe thats all you need

I used samba to access to my main system, just because I know how to, but probably not the best way.

I'm curious how it works from a Windows host so I can recommend it in my crusade for converts (Windows users are often terrified of partition changes so won't try Linux)

Oddball - Feb 27, 2007 - 12:13 AM
Post subject:

dzz and scrooge, what version of sidux do you have because as i mentioned before the usb group doesn't exist on my installation?
I'm using 2007-1 lite.

dzz - Feb 27, 2007 - 12:37 AM
Post subject:

oddball:
My main OS is
Kanotix EasterRC4>sidux. Used h2's script to convert. Always regularly DU'd
Guest OS in Vbox is sidux 32 full

Maybe you must create it but I don't know how to, or why it is not already there

Scrooge - Feb 27, 2007 - 11:04 PM
Post subject:

Coincidences.... I also am running a Kanotix-upgraded-to-sidux system.

RRowan - Feb 28, 2007 - 12:17 AM
Post subject:

Wish I could get it to work. I installed VB, added the missing dependency files. Reboot the system, run VirtualBox and I get a rotating hour glass and then it disappears.

Any ideas?

Thanks

RR

Oddball - Feb 28, 2007 - 12:28 AM
Post subject:

RRowan did you get your user a member of the group "vboxusers"? if not do that and it will work.

dzz - Feb 28, 2007 - 01:03 AM
Post subject:

RRowan:

I got the same first try. "VirtualBox" in a terminal told me more than the bouncing ball !

Code:

root@yourbox:~# modprobe vboxdrv

fixed it for me, the module was not loading. You must also be in group "vboxusers" as Oddball says.

Make simple script and mod your menu entry or autoload it on boot.

RRowan - Feb 28, 2007 - 01:16 AM
Post subject:

Thanks Oddball and dzz

I added myself to the vboxuses and did the modprobe thing. I tried running VB from a termnial and got the following message:

Code:

Qt WARNING: VirtualBox: cannot connect to X server :0.0

What is Qt?

Thanks again

RR

dzz - Feb 28, 2007 - 01:30 AM
Post subject:

Don't run it as root. Should work now if you run as user in konsole or menu button. Can't remember if I had to reboot first then modprobe again before permanent fix

RRowan - Feb 28, 2007 - 03:05 AM
Post subject:

dzz wrote:

Don't run it as root. Should work now if you run as user in konsole or menu button. Can't remember if I had to reboot first then modprobe again before permanent fix

Hi dzz,

Rebooting was the key. At least now I can run the program.

Thanks

RR

dzz - Feb 28, 2007 - 11:31 AM
Post subject:

I believe relogin (or reboot) is needed to register user/group changes
If you add the line
vboxdrv
to /etc/modules (as root) it should start on-the-button in future

shame - Mar 05, 2007 - 01:14 PM
Post subject:

I've just given VirtualBox a try, never used any kind of virtual machine before.

I'm hoping to run FreeBSD in it because my network card isn't supported in the proper installed version, not sure if it will work this way.

I've tried running a few linux live cd's in it and they are all working very well and much faster than I expected.

I'd also like to install windows xp in VirtualBox but it came preinstalled so I don't have an install disk Sad

oduffo - Mar 06, 2007 - 10:33 PM
Post subject:

I have VirtualBox up and running with sidux as host and WinXP as guest. It runs imo much faster than vmware and I've got shared folders, which I couldn't create with vmware-player.
But I didn't manage to get my usb-printer to work. I created the group usb, made my user a member, and created the filters properly (I hope). What have I forgotten?
Any help is appreciated.

Gruß
oduffo

h2 - Mar 06, 2007 - 10:51 PM
Post subject:

Do the shared folders 'just work' or does it require running samba on the host?

cheko - Mar 06, 2007 - 10:58 PM
Post subject:

h2 wrote:

Do the shared folders 'just work' or does it require running samba on the host?

No, you must create them with the following command:

Code:

VBoxManage sharedfolder add "VirtualMachineName" -name "samba_name" -hostpath <hostpath>

For example:

Code:

VBoxManage sharedfolder add "Windows XP" -name "share" -hostpath /home/xyz/share

RRowan - Mar 06, 2007 - 10:59 PM
Post subject:

Can VirtualBox use what is already on the computer. Like I dual boot my computer between sidux and WinXP. Can I just VB into the xp partition. Its on a laptop with one HD and its a Sata drive.

Thanks

RR

JackieBrown - Mar 06, 2007 - 11:04 PM
Post subject:

Can't wait for the 64 bit version Sad

h2 - Mar 06, 2007 - 11:38 PM
Post subject:

are you all using the debian etch deb to install vbox?

This is looking really good to me, it was too hard to get this running when I setup all my vmware images, but I'd much rather use vbox if I can, I'll just have to rebuild all my images from vmware, oh well, might as well start fresh again.

I might add a vbox installer to du-fixes package install, I usually wait until I actually want the new feature, then I use my boxes as the first alpha tests for the new feature.

oduffo - Mar 06, 2007 - 11:39 PM
Post subject:

h2 wrote:

Do the shared folders 'just work' or does it require running samba on the host?

Depends on what you think is "just work". You can't drag and drop, but you don't need a networking setup or samba. You create a sharedfolder with the commands cheko has given above (in his example he uses a misleading typo(?). It's not "samba_name" but "share_name" in the manual). Then you can just copy, in Konqueror maybe, a file into the shared folder and you can access that file in your VM and vice versa. It's pretty straightforward. For details see chapter 5.4 of the manual http://virtualbox.org/download/UserManual.pdf

RRowan wrote:

Can VirtualBox use what is already on the computer. Like I dual boot my computer between sidux and WinXP. Can I just VB into the xp partition

No, you first have to create a Virtualmachine. This VM is one huge file of several GB, because everything is incorporated in that file, the system, the Programm and maybe the data which you need. In my case (I run several encyclopaediae (?) like MS Encarta or E. Britannica under WinXP and have the DVD-contents stored on disk, i.e. in the VM-file) the XP.vdi file is 15 GB. But I don't need to dualboot any longer and I use XP only for certain programs where there is no linux-equivalent.

Maybe there is an additional way to mount physical drives into the VM. I'm not yet long and deep enough into VirtualBox to answer that. Perhaps the manual does.

Gruß
oduffo

RRowan - Mar 06, 2007 - 11:49 PM
Post subject:

h2 wrote:

are you all using the debian etch deb to install vbox?

Yes that is the one that I used.

RR

Oddball - Mar 07, 2007 - 12:02 AM
Post subject:

h2 wrote:

are you all using the debian etch deb to install vbox?

I also used that

shame - Mar 07, 2007 - 12:34 AM
Post subject:

I used the etch deb too. Tried building it manually first time but it wouldn't build the kernel module.

@ slam
You mentioned you were using a vmware windows image in virtualbox. Would you care to share how you managed it?

Also, does anyone know how to get it working on sidux64. I believe 64-bit is supported in the svn version but a deb would be better.

JackieBrown - Mar 07, 2007 - 01:43 AM
Post subject:

shame - did you actually read that somewhere (the 64 bit part.) I don't mind svn.

I couldn't find it on the website except that it is being worked on.

shame - Mar 07, 2007 - 02:33 AM
Post subject:

I read it somewhere on the vbox forum. I can't find the exact post but it said it was being worked on, so it may not be fully usable yet.

There is also lots of mention of 64-bit in the svn changesets.

JackieBrown - Mar 07, 2007 - 02:55 AM
Post subject:

Sometimes I miss playing with all the toys Wink

shame - Mar 07, 2007 - 12:49 PM
Post subject:

Please let me know if you have any success with a 64-bit version.
Meanwhile, I'm gonna try somehow getting it to run in chroot (which I reckon is unlikely because it needs a kernel module).

JackieBrown - Mar 07, 2007 - 06:45 PM
Post subject:

To save you some time, I tried that. I also tried it wth the ia32 libs installed and forcing the deb (the scrip refused to run at all.) Both resulted in spectacular failures

kenyee - Mar 07, 2007 - 11:03 PM
Post subject:

shame wrote:

I'd also like to install windows xp in VirtualBox but it came preinstalled so I don't have an install disk Sad

You can run an imaging program to create an image of your XP partition, then restore it into VirtBox Smile

Hope the 64-bit version is released soon as well. I'm surprised it's faster than VMWare. I've heard VMWare using the VT hardware extensions is slower than using standard VMWare Razz

h2 - Mar 07, 2007 - 11:13 PM
Post subject:

Imaging won't work, because Windows locks itself into the hardware it believes it's running on. So when you put it in virtualbox, it will simply give you the bluescreen of death, unless you are very very lucky. That's because virtual box is showing it the virtual box hardware virtualized, not your current install's hardware.

shame - Mar 07, 2007 - 11:38 PM
Post subject:

I managed to make an install disk from my XP install using nLite and have successfully used it in VMware so I assume it will work on VirtualBox.

I am now about half way through the XP install on 64-bit VirtualBox svn Razz

JackieBrown - Mar 07, 2007 - 11:52 PM
Post subject:

Thanks for taking the plunge shame.... off I go to try the svn version

shame - Mar 08, 2007 - 12:00 AM
Post subject:

You can find the build instructions here: http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux%20 ... structions
It's a messy process but it works so far. One thing you will find is that when you try to modprobe vxboxdrv after the build and install it will fail.
The way around it is to add this to the grub boot line in /boot/grub/menu.lst

Code:

nmi_watchdog=0

I'm not entirely sure what that does, it's just a snippet of info I found when googling the modprobe failure.
I believe it is something along the lines of the nolapic parameter.

<EDIT>
The windows install is now complete and is running fine so far. I'm gonna start messing around with different things to test it out a bit.

<EDIT #2>
I reckon windows actually runs faster in vmware once vmtools are installed.

<EDIT #3>
Just a warning. I've had a couple of very nasty freeze-ups which have resulted in having to shut down the comp via the power switch.

I've also found, like the 32-bit version, no *BSD's will install in this version of Vbox either.
I think I'll stick with VMware for now and try Vbox again after the next release.

JackieBrown - Mar 08, 2007 - 01:03 AM
Post subject:

no go. i get
FATAL: Error inserting vboxdrv (/lib/modules/2.6.21-rc2/misc/vboxdrv.ko): Invalid module format
I added that line to the kernel option in grub but it did not solve it.

The only other problem I saw on google was that you may need to use gcc 3.x. Which version did you use?

shame - Mar 08, 2007 - 03:10 AM
Post subject:

gcc version: 4:4.1.1-15

Tho I see you are using a newer kernel to me (sidux default kernel here).
I can only assume that is the problem.

notz - Mar 08, 2007 - 01:18 PM
Post subject:

i build a package for amd64. it works nicely and much faster than v**multimedia**...

http://notz.homelinux.com/debian/

shame - Mar 08, 2007 - 10:16 PM
Post subject:

Nice one, I'll try that as soon as I get time. I also notice you build QtCurve packages also, wish I'd known, I always end up building it from source.

How well it runs may depend on the host and what is being run.
I noticed on 32-bit, windows seemed to run faster in Vbox but on 64-bit it runs faster in vmware.

If I could get any of the *BDS's to work in Vbox I would probably be switch but unfortunately...

damentz - Mar 09, 2007 - 01:48 AM
Post subject:

For nmi watchdog, this is easier.

As root

Code:

sysctl -w kernel.nmi_watchdog=0

dzz - Mar 10, 2007 - 02:41 AM
Post subject:

Just a few observations with my Vbox on file transfers. I installed it with the .deb, see my earlier posts.

I run Kanotix Easter RC4 (from "upgrade-install" of older versions) >sidux via h2's script. AMD XP2200 1gb ddr, 2.6.19.2-slh-up-5. Runs fine still no reason (yet) to reinstall. Regular DU's always never a serious problem.

I got Vbox originally to look at the new sidux ISO and am now convinced it's superior to v**multimedia**.

Personally I have no use for Windows at all (nor Linuxes other than Debian) but do occasional admin jobs for others. So I tried a Vbox XP install. It installed faster and ran faster than my "real" XP!

Of course I need to access my main system especially my own maintained "apt-move" repository. File transfer rates for me:

ssh: 1.5 Mb/s
samba: 2.5Mb/s
"shared folder" 10+ Mb/s!
384 Mb allocated to the VM.

The shared folder function is well documented in the manual and not hard to set up. As far as I know v**multimedia** doesn't do this.

I made a subfolder with symlinks to my entire "/" and found I could access everything with permissions as on the host system. That included /media with all mounted non-system partitions. So you only need one "shared folder" with your symlinks in it. Had to create a new "group" in the host to allow access to /home (because my vm "user" was a different name)

It might be dangerous what you have write access to from here especially from a Windows guest. As root in the VM I could write to /. But worth noting what can be done if you're careful.

I successfully chrooted to one of my other Linuxes but failed to get write access to root only departments. Probably a good thing and no practical use anyway but still an interesting exercise!

<edit> machine got quite busy while using VM and went a little into swap space but managed OK and could easily switch between the two with open processes on both.

shame - Mar 10, 2007 - 03:05 AM
Post subject:

The 64-bit deb from notz site didn't work for me, complained it couldn't install the kernel module and the svn version I built proved to be very unstable.
I want a virtual windowsXP that 32-bit and 64-bit sidux and other distros can all use by placing it on a shared drive.
I can access the same image in vmware on different distros as well as the different *BSD's I'm trying so virtualbox still isn't cutting it for me at the moment, unfortunately.

I do believe it is much easier to share files between the host and guest in Vbox, something I'm having a lot of trouble with in vmware.

JackieBrown - Mar 10, 2007 - 03:13 AM
Post subject:

So far the svn version I have built (this time using gcc 3.4) is working well.

shame - Mar 10, 2007 - 03:16 AM
Post subject:

How did you get it to use GCC 3.4?
I have done it before but I can't remember how.

<EDIT>
Nevermind, I got it.

HK-47 - Mar 10, 2007 - 03:41 AM
Post subject:

Oddball wrote:

*USB DEVICES HAVE TO BE UNMOUNTED BEFORE VIRTUAL MACHINE CAN RECOGNIZE THEM*

how exactly do i unmount usb devices like printers, webcams etc.? i couldn't get usb to work, maybe this is the cause.

shame - Mar 10, 2007 - 03:48 AM
Post subject:

I found usb devices were working fine in Vbox as long as they weren't physically mounted in the host (such as flash drives).

Had more trouble in vmware, had to go to the vm menu and to removable devices , then hover on it and plugin the device then click on it as it appears.

shame - Mar 10, 2007 - 10:55 PM
Post subject:

@ JackieBrown

I tried recompiling the svn Vbox with gcc-3.4 this time and so far I haven't had a single freeze-up.

Have you got shared folders working in this version? I've read the manual but I'm having no luck with it. I did read the open source version (which svn is I believe) doesn't do shared folders but I'm not sure.

Also, despite the lack of freeze-ups it still doesn't work with *BSD so I'm still swinging back to vmware.

notz - Mar 11, 2007 - 12:42 PM
Post subject:

@shame

you have to build the virtualbox module with module-assistant

Code:

module-assistant a-i virtualbox

also my package is build with gcc-3.4. the virtualbox ./configure takes it automatically if you have installed it.

shame - Mar 11, 2007 - 09:12 PM
Post subject:

@ notz, thanks for the info. The svn version I rebuilt with gcc 3.4 has started freezing up on me again, not sure if it's cos I used the -j3 flag to support dual core maybe.

Anyhow, I'll try your packaged deb again and see if I have more luck. Thanks.

<EDIT>
After running module-assistant a-i virtualbox:

Build of the package virtualbox failed.
I viewed the log but it just said:
Build log starting, file: /var/cache/modass/virtualbox.buildlog.2.6.20.1-slh64-smp-2.1173647694
Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2007 21:14:54 +0000

HK-47 - Mar 12, 2007 - 11:47 AM
Post subject:

has anyone tried this method (from the virtualbox forums) to get usb working? i'm a bit scared to try it because [1] i don't know anything about udev, and [2] it was done in Fedora Core 6. do you think this will work in sidux?

analogtek - Mar 20, 2007 - 06:40 AM
Post subject:

I have been dabbling with virtual box for a few day's. The tip's from this thread was very helpful. the usb tip's mostly. Now I can use the official msn messenger for those buddies that still use winder's....was a bit of a shock to some! I now can with ease send all those silly wink's thing's. The last thing is file shareing from the virtual winder's to linux desktop...I need to do a bit more study on this line... If I find a easy way to do will post the tip's or conferm someone's suggestion. A little how to would be nice..

ockham23 - Mar 20, 2007 - 08:03 AM
Post subject:

There are several ways to share folders with VirtualBox: If the host computer is connected to a router, you should choose "bridged networking" for the virtual machine. The router will assign IP addresses to both host and virtual machine, and they'll behave like two separate computers connected via a LAN. Create a Windows network share inside the virtual machine, and then enter "smb:/" in Konqueror to browse all Windows shares within the LAN.

If you don't have a router, you probably selected net address translation (NAT) for the virtual machine. As a result, host and guest will have IP addresses from different subnets. As far as I know, there's no easy way to access shares on the Windows guest from your sidux host. But you can still share files the other way around, i.e. browse directories on the sidux host. This is from the manual, and it worked for me:

On the host: Open Konsole, and enter

Code:

VBoxManage sharedfolder add "Win2k" -name "home" -hostpath "/home/username"

Win2k=name of virtual machine; username=name of current sidux user
Virtual machine: Open DOS shell (run "cmd"), and enter

Code:

net use s: \\vboxsvr\home

Then launch the virtual machine and look for network drive "S" in my computer.

Alternatively, you can assign a static IP address to the host's ethernet card (e.g., 192.168.0.1) with netcardconfig and launch ssh. Install winscp inside the virtual machine and log in to 192.168.0.1 using your sidux account.

tyche - Mar 21, 2007 - 12:23 PM
Post subject:

Hi folks,

vb is working fine (host:sidux VM:Win2000).

Does anybody know an easy way, to get the printer from SiduxBox working in VB?

Thanks!

tyche

ockham23 - Mar 21, 2007 - 12:53 PM
Post subject:

What kind of printer? Parallel port, USB, network?

HK-47 - Mar 21, 2007 - 12:55 PM
Post subject:

@tych: i just managed to get USB working somehow, using the method Oddball posted. it gives an error on boot (/proc/bus/usb already mounted according to mtab), but it works. i'm not sure why it didn't work before though. once you have that down, and assuming you have a USB printer, you can enable it just like in VMWare -- by clicking VM -> USB Devices -> [your printer], and then install the windows drivers. it works perfectly with my printer.

however, i have another problem now. whenever i enable my USB webcam (Logitech QuickCam STX), the VM slows down to a crawl, making it completely unusable, even after rebooting the VM and the host. it only got back up to speed when i deleted the VM, and created a new one, but using the same virtual hard disk. has anyone else experienced this?

tyche - Mar 21, 2007 - 01:07 PM
Post subject:

Hi ockham23!

It is an parallel-port printer. And VB does not now seriell and parallel-ports Rolling Eyes

thanks for answer!

tyche

ockham23 - Mar 21, 2007 - 01:42 PM
Post subject:

@tyche: Can you ping the sidux host from within the virtual machine? If so, it should be possible to set up printer sharing on the sidux host and access the printer from windows.

wannek2 - Mar 21, 2007 - 03:09 PM
Post subject:

@HK-47
same here, gkrellm shows one 100% busy cpu. But disconnecting camera in the vbox USB-Menue returns almost immediately full cpu power. Why this little thing uses so much cpu power - i don't know.

tyche - Mar 21, 2007 - 04:59 PM
Post subject:

@ ockham23: yes i can ping the host. I am using NAT for the networkcard and the gateway ip is 10.0.2.2. I can ping from the vm, but i can't ping from sidux to the vm?! Is there a way to set up a samba-server in sidux with printer-share that i can connect the the vm? What is the syntax in Windows?

thx

tyche

analogtek - Mar 22, 2007 - 10:44 AM
Post subject:

Another way to share stuff is a bit clunky but it work's.. Send your self a e-mail With attached packed file.. Again I know it sound's rather clunky and crude but work's for small stuff..Simple too..

dzz - Mar 24, 2007 - 02:14 PM
Post subject: vbox and new kernel

Just installed latest kernel 2.6.20.4-slh-up-1

To get vbox running again (rebuild kernel module) all that was needed was a simple

Code:

dpkg-reconfigure virtualbox

modprobe vboxdrv

Beats all that sodding about with v**multimedia** after a kernel upgrade!

Will now be uninstalling v**multimedia**. As far as I am concerned vbox is superior in all ways.

HK-47 - Mar 24, 2007 - 02:39 PM
Post subject: RE: vbox and new kernel

^i have also uninstalled VMWare Server on my system. VirtualBox really is better in a lot of ways. well, except for its handling of USB devices. but other than that, VirtualBox is the best emulator/virtualizer that i've used

dzz - Mar 24, 2007 - 02:50 PM
Post subject: RE: vbox and new kernel

Can see from this forum some have had USB trouble. If it all runs fine on my sidux box, which it does, this must be fixable! Have another look at your usb groups and permissions and fstab.
There are a few quirks like unmounting usb drives in the host but a workaround is usually possible with little effort. You also get high-speed USB which you don't in v**multimedia**
Good results also with samba, ssh and (best way) shared folders

h2 - Mar 24, 2007 - 06:09 PM
Post subject: RE: vbox and new kernel

If we can collect enough system and user specific data maybe we can figure out what is going wrong for users and then give the vbox group some tips to improve their 'it just works' performance, which I'm sure they would also welcome.

dzz - Mar 24, 2007 - 10:28 PM
Post subject: RE: vbox and new kernel

I have posted some statistics in this thread (5 pages now must be popular) also

http://www.sidux.com/PNphpBB2-viewtopic ... rt-30.html

and thanks to all others who posted here. Let's hear some more good news stories. I'm sure the vbox devs would be interested in all this, if they don't already know, and it would be good if other users post theirs.

I just hope the open-source ethic stays and we should be at the forefront to encourage this..

sidux is after all the cutting edge, not just "consumers" and we must give back what we can.

sidux Forum posts should not just be "help I have a problem" we are already well on the way to setting a fine example to the real spirit of Linux

analogtek - Mar 25, 2007 - 02:35 AM
Post subject: RE: vbox and new kernel

A very good comment h2. Here is my 2 cent's. File sharing has to be number one tuffy. The usb thing solved basicly by a tweek in fstab and permission's.. Is it some how possible to just drag stuff from the virtual window to the linux desktop by a coding change at the heart of virtual engine. The mouse move freely in and out after a little install of the guest addition's.. or is there a way to look into the .VDI hd file like you can do with Konqueror as in the real HD's. I have tryed to look inside with several editor's..All I see is code of course..

RRowan - Mar 26, 2007 - 03:19 AM
Post subject: Re: vbox and new kernel

dzz wrote:

Just installed latest kernel 2.6.20.4-slh-up-1

To get vbox running again (rebuild kernel module) all that was needed was a simple

Code:

dpkg-reconfigure virtualbox

modprobe vboxdrv

Beats all that sodding about with v**multimedia** after a kernel upgrade!

Will now be uninstalling v**multimedia**. As far as I am concerned vbox is superior in all ways.

Hey dzz,

Many thanks for the above code. It got my VB backup and running.

Thanks again

RR

Dutchy - Mar 26, 2007 - 07:21 AM
Post subject:

Code:

dpkg-reconfigure virtualbox 

modprobe vboxdrv

That is just too easy. I thought Linux was supposed to be hard.

The only issue that I have run into is that if I have my USB HD available for vbox, it disappears from the host. I let it go from the guest but the host doesn't see it unless I cycle the power of the HD (or reseat the USB connector).

I am going to try the shared folder. I think that is a much cleaner solution to sharing data. I've got 29 days left to test it. Then my Windows won't work anymore because it doesn't like my activation key (which is legal).

I even called MS and compained about that. Didn't get a new key. Answer was "contact the retailer that sold you the computer", I I know they'll say "Just use the system recovery partition" (which I wiped a long time ago) Compaq and their stupid 9GB hidden partition.

Oh well. I'm not missing much. I can always reinstall it and get another 30 days. It wouldn't know. Problem is, windows takes 45 minutes to install. Shocked

Plus all the time it takes to reinstall the apps. At least I don't need a firewall. Time I can be using surfing the net or reading another Linux book! Very Happy

dzz - Mar 26, 2007 - 11:05 AM
Post subject:

Dutchy:
The "shared folder" as I pointed out in an earlier post here can have symlinks to any other areas of the system in it, so only one shared folder is necessary (I put it on my user desktop). In a xp guest you simply map a drive letter to that.

If you link to the /media directory for your (host-mounted) USB hard disk it will also work this way, no need to directly enable the disk in the vm.

I tried linking my entire / just to see if it could be done. It can, but I wouldn't advise that!

Printing? just save your document to the guest's shared drive and the host can print it!

mikekgr - Mar 26, 2007 - 11:23 AM
Post subject: Is there any possibility to have virtualbox wiki entry?

Dear all,
as the subject says: Is there any possibility to have virtualbox wiki or sidux manual entry? (in order to have all trick and tips on the same place? VirtualBox is looking very promised so this wiki record does make sense, what do you think?

For example I want to test virtualbox but I don't want what steps to follow in a step by step manner...

Best Regards,
Mike Kranidis

dzz - Mar 26, 2007 - 12:34 PM
Post subject: RE: Is there any possibility to have virtualbox wiki entry?

I'm sure that would be a job for us users, not overworked sidux devs, to compile and submit though. The general wiki is still under construction. Any volunteers? Also vbox itself is very new. Till then the vbox manual and this forum thread is enough to get started.

The GPL status needs to be looked at more closely too, must of us seem to be using the Etch .deb which is apparently restrictive. Anyone got the facts on this?

Dutchy - Mar 26, 2007 - 02:20 PM
Post subject: RE: Is there any possibility to have virtualbox wiki entry?

I got it all working fine. Get this: my shared folder is a FAT partition.

The USB works fine too, although I do have to unplug or turn off the HD in order to access from the linux side when Windows is done with it.

I even activated the Windows. I called MS here and read the random 25 character key, that refused to activate and the nice lady read me a sequence of 48 numbers for me to type in, and presto.

Talk about pain in the butt, but now I don't have to recreate my windows disk every 30 days. When it gets infected with Viruses, I can just load a snapshot that I took and all is good as new. Sure beats waiting the 45 or so minutes for Windows to install. But even if I do, I can use the same 73 characters to activate it again.

I just love the fact that I can Minimize a whole OS. Time to try some other ones. I always wondered about BSD, but never wanted to give it a partition. Now I don't have to.

shame - Mar 27, 2007 - 01:57 PM
Post subject:

Let me know if you get any *BSD's working in Vbox.
FreeBSD, PC-BSD, RoFreesbie and Freesbie all failed for me, tho they all work in VMware.

Dutchy - Mar 28, 2007 - 01:53 PM
Post subject:

shame,

Just for the challenge.

I have no idea what to do with bsd once it is installed but I'll give it a shot. I've heard good things about freesbie, so I'll try that first. Downloading the iso as I type. I'll let you know what happens.

Dutchy - Mar 28, 2007 - 02:51 PM
Post subject:

Well, sad news I am afraid. Freesbie gave me an error 12 and complained that it couldn't dump. PCBCD (which I also downloaded because the freesbie server was so slow) did the same thing, but I retried it in "safe mode" and that just froze.

Apparently, BSD and VirtualBox 1.3.8 don't get along too well. I'll burn the freesbie to a CD and see if it'll boot on this computer. Then at least I'll know if it's this PC or it's vbox causing the problem.

Now that I think about it, I'll try a linux distro in it. Since the only thing that I managed to get working so far is Windows XP. Its not like I don't have a stack of CD's with different distriubutions of linux here just collecting dust. (I have at least 40)

Dutchy - Mar 28, 2007 - 04:22 PM
Post subject:

OK, I'm posting this while using Freesbie, so I know my ISO works.

I have to say, I am glad I know something about Linux because it just dropped me at a prompt and I was like, ah, what now? I typed ls and saw that there was a Docs directory, so I cd to it and ls again and see a html file, so I'm like.. hmm, let's try strartx. That brought me to a nice XFCE session that had firefox, so here I am. The html file opened automatically and says something to the effect of "we highly recommend using tor and privoxy to protect your privacy. therefore we have provided a script for your use on the LiveCD". I like that attitude and I know there's a nice howto on the sidux wiki to do the same.

One thing I can say for sure, the fonts are ugly compared to my sidux install.

I'll try playing around with vbox and see what I can do to get it to work, but I don't think it will.

I know it looks like I am talking to myself here, with three posts in a row.

shame - Mar 28, 2007 - 08:30 PM
Post subject:

Well vbox and the vbox website claim to support freebsd but all the ones I tried, freesbie, rofreesbie, pc-bsd and freebsd itself are all freebsd based.
I can install all them just fine on my hard drive but my net card isn't recognised so I'm using virtual machines to try bsd out and see if it's worth the trouble.
I did actually get freesbie and pcbsd to work on the svn version of vbox butsince it crashed horribly very often it wasn't much good to me.
So I'm still stuck with vmware but that is working well so I'm not missing vbox too much.

dzz - Mar 29, 2007 - 05:23 PM
Post subject: shared folders

Just tried a new experiment with VB.

I installed Kanotix-Easter-rc4 just to see what would happen when a dist-upgrade pointing at Testing was done (worked OK after a few manual tweaks). I even got a 2.6.20 kernel running after. The DU was very large and probably not worth the bother, when the etch netinstaller is now quite good. Why I did this and the fine details is another subject, except that it was for my own experiments and VB is ideal for this. I remain an unrepentant sidux convert for my main OS!

I wanted to archive the .debs from the DU as they are useful for any future Etch admin jobs for myself or others. The cd drive wouldn't register as a writer in the VM. Samba and ssh are (for me) too slow to move big files from the VM.

I could not get shared folders to work. After installing vboxadditions apparently correctly in the guest attempts to mount just gave errors. Neither the VB manual nor extensive google searches produced the answer

Then I discovered the guest module "vboxvfs" was not loading on bootup. Scripting it (in the guest) to autostart along with the appropriate mount command fixed all, preventing a murderous rage attack! Now it's automatic on startup.

Anyone else with a shared folder problem in a Linux guest, check your modules are loaded properly!

gs - Apr 06, 2007 - 01:26 PM
Post subject: RE: shared folders

another question:
I got virtualbox running alright including the usb_matter,but:
it does not see my Skystar-DVB-pci-card which is working in the host. Is there a way to tell the guest
to use this card?...similar to telling which usb-device to use....?

ockham23 - Apr 06, 2007 - 02:25 PM
Post subject: RE: shared folders

Definitely no way. This would require a different virtualization concept.

michaa - Apr 06, 2007 - 02:40 PM
Post subject:

shame wrote:

... I can install all them just fine on my hard drive but my net card isn't recognised ...

Are you really sure your netcard isn't recognised? I had trouble with virtualbox recognising my NC during the install of w2k. I did not get it working. After a while I found out that I needed to ***reboot*** to get the netcard working with virtualbox.

So I do not know whether or not this situation can be compared with yours in any way , but it sounds similar.

Dutchy - Apr 06, 2007 - 06:10 PM
Post subject:

I didn't try kanotix because I figured what's the point. I will say that the net card worked in everything that I managed to get to boot, which is almost everything except for any variety of BSD.

I have to say though I have been so happy with sidux that I have no reason to run any other version of Linux in a VM. I don't know why I keep trying all these other distro's. There's no point in it really. Oh, Sabayon wouldn't boot in VirtualBox.

kukacster - Jul 02, 2007 - 09:10 PM
Post subject:

I've read the whole 6 pages but I did not find the exact solution to use usb things under windowxp in virtualbox on sidux tartaros fresh install. Could you help me, please?\

ockham23 - Jul 05, 2007 - 10:22 PM
Post subject:

For some reason, "USB controller" is disabled by default. You have to change the settings of the virtual machine before you start windows.

faraaz - Jul 08, 2007 - 01:30 PM
Post subject:

Go to machine settings>usb tab on the left. Enable USB controller. Start up your windows guest. If all goes well, you should get a pop up in Windows saying USB controller detected.

You can also try to set up a USB filter for your devices. I dunno how much this will help though. But it makes it easy to enable and disable devices once the guest OS is running.

mb - Sep 04, 2007 - 01:04 AM
Post subject: Vitualbox is in Sid now

This maybe old news, but apparently VitualBox is now in Sid.

DeepDayze - Sep 04, 2007 - 04:28 PM
Post subject: Re: Vitualbox is in Sid now

mb wrote:

This maybe old news, but apparently VitualBox is now in Sid.

Perhaps most of the tips/tricks in this thread may still apply. But its possible many of the glitches and bugs will be rectified in future vbox versions. Lets still give the new version a try and continue to post any bugs/tips/tricks/workarounds here Smile

Edit: Fixed the insensible stuff...

bevo - Sep 05, 2007 - 03:34 PM
Post subject:

Hi,

searching in Sid for VirtualBox I allways get version 1.4 is version1.5 not available yet?

bevo

ockham23 - Sep 05, 2007 - 03:48 PM
Post subject:

There's a package called "virtualbox-ose". It's version 1.5, but I haven't tried it. I installed version 1.5 from Innotek's website because it includes non-free guest additions. Maybe someone else can shed some light on this discrepancy.

bevo - Sep 05, 2007 - 04:02 PM
Post subject:

@ockham23
have you installed Etch or OSE from VirtualBox.org?

kpackage lists virtualbox-ose as version 1.4

bluewater - Sep 05, 2007 - 04:05 PM
Post subject:

Quote:

The good news here are that in the next version of virtualbox these Guest Additions will be available from the website and can be downloaded automatically with virtualbox.

http://www.der-winnie.de/posts/Virtualb ... bian_Main/

That would be the 1.5 in debian sid I would think,or maybe 1.6..
There are issues to keep it dsfg

ockham23 - Sep 05, 2007 - 04:14 PM
Post subject:

Code:

root@D1607:/home/einfach# apt-cache policy virtualbox

virtualbox:

  Installed: 1.5.0-24069_Debian_etch

  Candidate: 1.5.0-24069_Debian_etch

  Version table:

 *** 1.5.0-24069_Debian_etch 0

        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

     1.4.0svn4130-dfsg-1 0

        500 http://ftp.us.debian.org sid/main Packages

bevo - Sep 05, 2007 - 05:24 PM
Post subject:

@ockham23

hmmm, bei mir sieht das so aus, fehlt mir da was in der sources.list?

Code:

volkmx09:/home/bernd# apt-cache policy virtualbox

virtualbox:

  Installiert:1.4.0-21864_Debian_etch

  Mögliche Pakete:1.4.0svn4130-dfsg-1

  Versions-Tabelle:

     1.4.0svn4130-dfsg-1 0

        500 http://ftp.de.debian.org sid/main Packages

 *** 1.4.0-21864_Debian_etch 0

        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

ockham23 - Sep 05, 2007 - 05:33 PM
Post subject:

Nein, da fehlt nichts. Ich habe das Etch-Paket heruntergeladen und manuell installiert.

h2 - Sep 05, 2007 - 05:37 PM
Post subject:

I just made a new script, svmi virtual machine installer that makes vbox setup a snap.

Also has vmware support, but that section is not complete yet.

This is tested and seems to be working well. smxi now also iincludes an svmi starter, so it can be run from inside smxi too, for example to recompile the kernel modules after a kernel install, and so on.

bevo - Sep 05, 2007 - 05:41 PM
Post subject:

@h2

Thanks, I have seen that already this morning, but was not sure wether it will install version 1.5 or not.

Outstanding as always !

h2 - Sep 05, 2007 - 05:50 PM
Post subject:

It installs the version in sid, I waited to make it until vbox hit sid, trying to support deb installs manually I've found to be a very bad idea long term.

virtualbox-ose 1.5 hit sid today, by the way.

DeepDayze - Sep 05, 2007 - 10:52 PM
Post subject:

Where you get the vboxadditions?

DeepDayze - Sep 05, 2007 - 10:53 PM
Post subject:

any idea why I get error when trying to start an image that says 'Cannot initialize console". Using vbox 1.5 from sid

bevo - Sep 08, 2007 - 03:13 PM
Post subject:

Hi,
I used h2 script to update vbox 1.4 to 1.5 now the USB support is gone Sad

Could it be that the OSE in SID version does not support USB?

bevo

rodneyck - Sep 08, 2007 - 04:05 PM
Post subject:

I have 1.5 and usb support works with the latest kernel.

bevo - Sep 08, 2007 - 04:21 PM
Post subject:

ok, but from SID or from Innotek?

HK-47 - Sep 08, 2007 - 11:02 PM
Post subject:

one of the differences between the version built by Innotek and the OSE is USB support. more here.

rodneyck - Sep 09, 2007 - 01:01 AM
Post subject:

Oh sorry, from Innotek. I did not realize there was more than one maker.

bevo - Sep 09, 2007 - 10:09 AM
Post subject:

I found a bypass, so I still use VBOX from SID (h2 script) and have acces to USB device.

Activate USB device on host and temporary connect from guest.

bevo

Oddball - Sep 09, 2007 - 12:00 PM
Post subject:

Quote:

Activate USB device on host and temporary connect from guest.

Can you explain howto, I need USB support for my scanner, thats why I run Virtualbox.

bevo - Sep 09, 2007 - 12:41 PM
Post subject:

@Oddball

Sorry, I was misleading. My bypass only works for data media aka folders.

In your case I think you have to use the ETCH package from Innotek.

Oddball - Sep 09, 2007 - 01:11 PM
Post subject:

Yes I have to go back to the etch package, I tried the sid version with h2:s script and it works good but I need the usb.

craigevil - Sep 10, 2007 - 07:39 PM
Post subject:

Doesnt the guestadditions take care of things like usb?

CoolHand - Sep 11, 2007 - 02:41 PM
Post subject:

NO- usb support, as well as rdp is only available in the closed source version from innotek. They have a .deb download on their downloads page for etch for the closed source version.

http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Editions

http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

mb - Oct 20, 2007 - 02:50 AM
Post subject: Virtualbox 1.5.2

Has anyone upgraded to 1.5.2 and were there any problems? I use the OSE version.

feffer - Oct 21, 2007 - 02:41 AM
Post subject: Converting from Vmware to VirtualBox

I've been using Vmware Workstation for about a year. After the last kernel upgrade (to 2.6.23-slh-smp-2), Vmware seems to have broken. In previous kernel upgrades, I just recompiled the Vmware module, but that doesn't seem to work now. After reading this thread, I installed VB (the Etch .deb). I'm wondering if I should:

1. Convert my existing Vmware VMs to .vdi for use on VirtualBox, or

2. Just start over and build new VMs on VirtualBox, or

3. Try to troubleshoot Vmware to get it working with the new kernel.

I saw some earlier references in this thread about converting Vmware machines, but didn't see any follow-up. Have others done this successfully? I tried using instructions from a Ubuntu forum, but the resulting image file for Windows XP wouldn't boot. Is going this route just not worth the trouble?

Curious how other switchers have handled this.

feffer

paleoflatus - Oct 21, 2007 - 03:43 AM
Post subject:

I've never used or read up on virtualisation before, but I run 4 sidux desktops and a sidux laptop. I've been purely linux for about 10 years. My wife missed a few Windows(TM) games when I did a full sidux install on her old IBM Vista desktop, so I decided on the spur of the moment to load Virtual Box while upgrading with smxi.

It installed faultlessly. I then loaded XP pro on it and added her games. No problems whatsoever and she's now a happy little Aussie, running full-screen Windows(TM) in sidux when she wants to play kyodai mahjongg etc.

What the sidux community have done is pure magic!

eislon - Nov 16, 2007 - 07:24 PM
Post subject: Re: Converting from Vmware to VirtualBox

feffer wrote:

I would guess that you can try out the VMWARE server 2 beta software, it is now also in 64 bit and works very good under sidux64.
it is worth a try. the web interface is also very good.

craigevil - Nov 16, 2007 - 11:25 PM
Post subject: RE: Re: Converting from Vmware to VirtualBox

Quote:

Source for the VirtualBox Guest Addition module
This package provides the source code for the virtualbox guest addition kernel modules. The virtualbox-ose-guest package is also required in order to make use of these modules. Kernel source or headers are required to compile these modules.

IS this only for the Guest or the host, it showed up in debian repo with todays update.

h2 - Nov 17, 2007 - 02:52 AM
Post subject: RE: Re: Converting from Vmware to VirtualBox

I think I'll add an installer for the usb supporting vbox in svmi, which is the module run by smxi (svmi, by the way, is also run as a standalone script, like sgfxi, another module of smxi), I need that too, that's the only difference currently.

Overall both virtualbox and vmware are working nicely by the way.

feffer - Nov 17, 2007 - 08:37 PM
Post subject: RE: Re: Converting from Vmware to VirtualBox

After that earlier post, I did get vmware working under 2.6.23-slh-smp-2. I also have virtualbox running, so I have a chance to compare them. So far both seem similar speedwise on my aging 32 bit system. I'm more used to using vmware, but virtualbox looks very promising.

h2 - Nov 17, 2007 - 08:45 PM
Post subject: RE: Re: Converting from Vmware to VirtualBox

they are all fine for my systems on new kernels.

nobbe - Nov 17, 2007 - 08:59 PM
Post subject: RE: Re: Converting from Vmware to VirtualBox

hi h2

hast du schon eine Lösung für usb integriert?

geht bei mir einfach nicht, seit Monaten ;-(((

grüße
nobbe

JackieBrown - Nov 17, 2007 - 09:41 PM
Post subject: Re: RE: Re: Converting from Vmware to VirtualBox

feffer wrote:

Have you tried it on th 2.6.24.rc kernels yet?

I can't get it to work and was curiuos if others have this problem (I know we have pretty different system but if I know it works on that kernel, I will keep trying.)

h2 - Nov 17, 2007 - 09:58 PM
Post subject: RE: Re: RE: Re: Converting from Vmware to VirtualBox

nobbe, since usb integrated is supported in the binary, non open source version, I can simply add an installer for that, maybe I'll do that today, I'll see.

towo| - Nov 17, 2007 - 10:04 PM
Post subject:

No, without changing an file, vboxdrv does'nt compile with 2.6.24-rcX.
In svn the fix for vboxdrv is done, and yu can fix this compile-error yourself by editing
/usr/share/virtualbox/src/include/iprt/types.h

# define false linux_false
# define uintptr_t linux_uintptr_t
# include <linux/types.h>
# include <linux/stddef.h>
# undef uintptr_t
# undef false

with this 2 changes, vboxdrv will compile under kernel 2.6.24

JackieBrown - Nov 18, 2007 - 12:40 AM
Post subject:

That got it - thanks towo|

Scrooge - Dec 29, 2007 - 03:31 PM
Post subject:

VB has just been upgraded to 1.5.4

VirtualBox 1.5.4 (released 2007-12-29)

* USB 2.0 support
* PulseAudio backend
* GUI: ﬁxed accelerators in German translation
* GUI: ﬁxed registration dialog crashes
* GUI: allow to enter unicode characters to the name of the registration dialog
* GUI: pre-select attached media in the disk manager when opened from the VM settings dialog
* GUI: remember the last active VM
* GUI: don’t accept empty paths for serial/parallel ports in XML
* GUI: ﬁxed NumLock / CapsLock synchronizazion on Windows hosts
* GUI: don’t start the kernel timer if no VM is active (Linux host)
* VMM: improved compatibility with FreeBSD guests
* VMM: properly restore CR4 after leaving VT-x mode
* VMM: patch code and disassembler updates
* VMM: with VT-x a pending interrupt could be cleared behind our back
* VMM: workaround for missed cpuid patch (some Linux guests refuse to boot on multi-core CPUs)
* VMM: ﬁxed code for overriding CPUID values
* API: don’t crash when trying to create a VM with a duplicate name
* API: don’t crash when trying to access the settings of a VM when some other VMs are not accessible
* API: ﬁxed several memory leaks
* ATA/IDE: ﬁxed SuSE 9.1 CD read installer regression
* Floppy: ﬁxed inverted write protect ﬂag
* USB: virtualize an EHCI controller
* USB: several minor ﬁxes
* Network: ﬁxed MAC address check
* Network: host interface ﬁxes for Solaris guests
* Network: guest networking stopped completely after taking a snapshot
* Network: don’t crash if a network card is enabled but not attached
* PXE: ﬁx for PXE-EC8 error on soft reboot
* NAT: update the DNS server IP address on every DNS packet sent by the guest
* VGA: reset VRAM access handers after a fullscreen update
* VGA: don’t overwrite guest’s VRAM when displaying a blank screen
* ACPI: implemented the sleep button event
* VRDP: ﬁxed crash when querying VRDP properties
* VRDP: netAddress ﬁxes
* VRDP: ﬁxed the Pause/Break keys over VRDP
* VRDP: sync NumLock / CapsLock sync over VRDP
* VRDP: workaround for scrambled icons with a guest video mode of 16bpp
* VRDP: reset modifer keys on RDP_INPUT_SYNCHRONIZE
* VRDP: reset RDP updates after resize to prevent obsolete updates
* Clipboard: Windows host/guest ﬁxes
* Clipboard: ﬁxed a SEGFAULT on VM exit (Linux host)
* Clipboard: ﬁxed a buffer overﬂow (Linux host)
* Shared Folders: ﬁxed memory leaks
* Linux installer: remove the old kernel module before compiling a new one
* Linux host: compatibility ﬁxes with Linux 2.6.24
* Linux host: script ﬁxes for ArchLinux
* Linux host: load correct HAL library to determine DVD/ﬂoppy (libhal.so.1 not libhal.so)
* Linux host: make sure the tun kernel module is loaded before initializing static TAP interfaces
* Windows additions: ﬁxed hang during HGCM communication
* Windows additions: ﬁxed delay when shutting down the guest
* Linux additions: added sendﬁle support to allow HTTP servers to send ﬁles on shared folders
* Linux additions: make additions work with Fedora 8 (SELinux policy added)
* Linux additions: sometimes ARGB pointers were display incorrectly
* Linux additions: several small script ﬁxes

h2 - Dec 29, 2007 - 05:25 PM
Post subject:

Thanks for the alert, I'll update svmi to use the new version as well. Although I'll have to be a bit careful with the slh made kernel modules, which will be 1.5.2 until the next kernel I assume.

DeepDayze - Dec 29, 2007 - 06:22 PM
Post subject:

Will we then need to upgrade the vboxadditions in our VM's?

h2 - Dec 31, 2007 - 08:50 PM
Post subject:

svmi is now updated to handle the new 1.5.4 non-ose release.
version: 0.8.5

Please note: your addons install will match your installed vbox version

Current supported version numbers are 1.5.0, 1.5.2, and 1.5.4

So: svmi -V 1.5.2 would install the vbox non-ose vbox, and then if you continued, the vbox non-ose 1.5.2 addons.

Current non ose are 1.5.4, so if you want to upgrade the non-free, make sure to also install the latest addons at the same time.

For current, you don't need to use -V option, it will all be automatic.

For ose users, keep in mind, those are sid packages, currently: apt-cache policy virtualbox-ose:
Installed: 1.5.2-dfsg2-7
Candidate: 1.5.2-dfsg2-7

h2 - Dec 31, 2007 - 09:08 PM
Post subject:

version 0.8.6: automated the addons installer version number detection, because users will probably not handle this correctly.

So for all addons, the script will simply install the correct addon iso for your currently installed vbox version.

<update>I looked into this a bit more, and now the script will support the following non-ose vbox installs/addons: 1.5.0 1.5.2 1.5.4

As new versions are added I'll update it.

Now users should have no problems with version mismatches between the addons and the current sid version or etch non-ose version.

We'll see how that goes over time, please post any issues if you have them, especially if something fails to properly match.

bevo - Jan 01, 2008 - 12:32 PM
Post subject:

runing svmi to update virtualbox-non-ose stops/hangs with

Code:

--13:30:15--  http://1.5.4/virtualbox_1.5.4-27034_Debian_etch_i386.deb

           => `virtualbox_1.5.4-27034_Debian_etch_i386.deb'

Auflösen des Hostnamen »1.5.4«.... 1.5.0.4

Verbindungsaufbau zu 1.5.4|1.5.0.4|:80...

I tried this within several hours.

bevo

miksmi - Jan 01, 2008 - 03:07 PM
Post subject: VirtualBox kernel driver not installed

Greetings everyone,

First, let me congratulate entire sidux team for an incredible distribution, man pages, and forum. I'm using Ubuntu and am migrating to sidux.

I'm running sidux 2007-04.5 "Ερως" christmas special.

I read the pages of this sticky post "Is anyone else using VirtualBox?" and I installed VirtualBox using:

# apt-get install virtualbox-ose
# svmi
4) install-vbox-ose
6) install-vbox-addons-ose

When I run
5) build-vbox-module-ose
I get this error:

Extracting the package tarball, /usr/src/virtualbox-ose.tar.bz2, please wait...
Target package file
/usr/src/virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.23.12-slh-smp-2_1.5.2-dfsg2-7+1_i386.deb already
exists, not rebuilding!
(however, you could use the -f switch to ignore it)
dpkg -Ei /usr/src/virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.23.12-slh-smp-2_1.5.2-dfsg2-7+1_i386.deb
Selecting previously deselected package virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.23.12-slh-smp-2.
(Reading database ... 77322 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.23.12-slh-smp-2 (from .../virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.23.12-slh-smp-2_1.5.2-dfsg2-7+1_i386.deb) ...
Setting up virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.23.12-slh-smp-2 (1.5.2-dfsg2-7+1) ...
vboxdrv module should now be up and running.
Ignore this error message, it's meaningless: FATAL: Module vboxdrv not found.

When I run VirtualBox OSE and try to start a virtual machine, I get the error (as expected):

VirtualBox kernel driver not installed. The vboxdrv kernel module was either not loaded or /dev/vboxdrv was not created for some reason. Please install the virtualbox-ose-modules package for your kernel and execute '/etc/init.d/vboxdrv start' as root.
VBox status code: -1908 (VERR_VM_DRIVER_NOT_INSTALLED).

/etc/init.d/vboxdrv doesn't exist.

Are there sidux-specific installation instructions?

h2 - Jan 01, 2008 - 09:28 PM
Post subject: RE: VirtualBox kernel driver not installed

bevo, sorry, that was a stupid mistake on my part, that's now corrected.

miksmi: this was the situation I was afraid of, 1.5.4 just entered sid, but the precompiled slh modules are for 1.5.2

I will have to add a more robust test for that situation, should be up in a few minutes

h2 - Jan 01, 2008 - 10:15 PM
Post subject: RE: VirtualBox kernel driver not installed

0.9.1: fixed up a bunch of changes in vbox to handle more complicated set of circumstances.

I'm not sure if this is best, but for the module builder, it will now always install the latest virtualbox-ose and virtualbox-ose-src packages before proceeding, which will force updates. But otherwise it's too complicated to match src and vbox.

Also, because users might see mismatches between their current kernel download directory slh virtualbox module version numbers and their currently installed vbox, I'm adding tests to make sure the module is built if slh modules are older than current.

Let me know if anyone has problems with this, I don't really like the forced update of virtualbox-ose to add the module, but I guess objectively, that's the best way to handle it.

This is tested and seems to work fine.

addons also had a change, by the way, as of 1.5.4 they are no longer offering a separate _OSE version.

I hope vbox doesn't start emulating ati here.... but these changes so far do make sense, so it might be just some more reasonably long term stuff. We'll see.

BenGoodrich - Jan 02, 2008 - 12:04 AM
Post subject: Re: RE: VirtualBox kernel driver not installed

h2 wrote:

0.9.1: fixed up a bunch of changes in vbox to handle more complicated set of circumstances.

Problem here. The module assistant thing let me look at the errors, but I don't know if or where those were logged. Here is the smvi log

Code:

Script started: 2008-01-01-18:57:23

Installed Kernel: 2.6.24-rc5-git3-slh-smp-4

svmi script version: 0.9.2

=======================================

Start Install log:

=======================================

function: check_install_tools - message: started

function: check_install_tools - message: completed successfully

function: install_vbox_module - message: started

(Reading database ... 283218 files and directories currently installed.)

Removing virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.23.9-slh-smp-1 ...

Purging configuration files for virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.23.9-slh-smp-1 ...

dpkg - warning: ignoring request to remove virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.24-rc5-git3-slh-s which isn't installed.

Building vboxdrv module now and running modprobe...

ERROR: (197) The module: vboxdrv failed to build.

h2 - Jan 02, 2008 - 12:23 AM
Post subject: RE: Re: RE: VirtualBox kernel driver not installed

There's no official support for 2.6.24 kernels.

However, if you want to see how the latest is, new 2.6.24 testing kernel was just released today, probably with vbox modules, though I can't say for sure.

Using testing kernels has to be considered as an unsupported part of sgfxi or svmi, although useful feedback mechanism.

Try to install today's testing kernels then see if it works.

BenGoodrich - Jan 02, 2008 - 06:44 AM
Post subject: Re: RE: Re: RE: VirtualBox kernel driver not installed

h2 wrote:

Try to install today's testing kernels then see if it works.

Working. Thanks h2.

DeepDayze - Jan 02, 2008 - 01:05 PM
Post subject: RE: VirtualBox kernel driver not installed

I believe slh already updated the kernel package to reflect the new vbox OSE modules update.

bevo - Jan 02, 2008 - 07:13 PM
Post subject: Re: RE: VirtualBox kernel driver not installed

h2 wrote:

@h2
never mind that happens once in while Wink

still excelent scripts Very Happy

bevo

miksmi - Jan 07, 2008 - 01:59 AM
Post subject: post svmi, /etc/init.d/vboxdrv doesn't exist

Thanks for the help so far.

I ran:
apt-get dist-upgrade (per smvi instructions)
apt-get install sidux-scripts
svmi, yielding this tty output and log:

Setting up virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.23.12-slh-smp-2 (1.5.4-dfsg-1+1) ...
Ignore this error message, it's meaningless: FATAL: Module vboxdrv not found.
vboxdrv module should now be up and running.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Script started: 2008-01-06-20:32:07
Installed Kernel: 2.6.23.12-slh-smp-2
svmi script version: 0.9.4
=======================================
Start Install log:
=======================================
function: check_install_tools - message: started
function: check_install_tools - message: completed successfully
function: install_vbox_module - message: started
Building vboxdrv module now and running modprobe...
function: install_vbox_module - message: completed successfully

I configure and start a virtual machine (winXP) from VirtualBox OSE with this error:

VirtualBox kernel driver not installed. The vboxdrv kernel module was either not loaded or /dev/vboxdrv was not created for some reason. Please install the virtualbox-ose-modules package for your kernel and execute '/etc/init.d/vboxdrv start' as root.
VBox status code: -1908 (VERR_VM_DRIVER_NOT_INSTALLED).

After running svmi, /etc/init.d/vboxdrv doesn't exist; should it?

piper - Jan 07, 2008 - 02:11 AM
Post subject: RE: post svmi, /etc/init.d/vboxdrv doesn

You should have 1 script in /etc/init.d concerning vbox

virtualbox-ose

If you just updated your kernel, reinstall vbox, steps 4, 5, 6

miksmi - Jan 08, 2008 - 04:01 PM
Post subject: RE: post svmi, /etc/init.d/vboxdrv doesn't exist

piper: Thanks; that solved the VERR_VM_DRIVER_NOT_INSTALLED error.

Outstanding! The sidux team is helpful and responsive! (and n00b-tolerant) The more I use the sidux distro, the more fun I have! Very Happy

h2 - Jan 08, 2008 - 04:21 PM
Post subject: RE: post svmi, /etc/init.d/vboxdrv doesn

For vbox-ose, only steps 5 and maybe 6 are needed, I think anyway, since svmi now updates vbox-ose packages before running the module install.

However, I think there is some slight bug, not sure what it is, in the module install step, that should have 'just worked' for new install, but I've seen this too, I had to run it twice.

piper - Jan 10, 2008 - 03:35 AM
Post subject: RE: post svmi, /etc/init.d/vboxdrv doesn

Quote:

For vbox-ose, only steps 5 and maybe 6 are needed

Normally yes, I agree, but, twice so far, I had to do all three, probably picinic Wink

muchan - Jan 10, 2008 - 01:25 PM
Post subject: RE: post svmi, /etc/init.d/vboxdrv doesn

I have just installed (d-u) new version of virtualbox-ose, then after that svmi (via smxi)
5, and got this:

VirtualBox kernel driver not installed. The vboxdrv kernel module was either not loaded or /dev/vboxdrv was not created for some reason. Please install the virtualbox-ose-modules package for your kernel and execute 'modprobe vboxdrv' as root.
VBox status code: -1908 (VERR_VM_DRIVER_NOT_INSTALLED).

Result Code:
0x80004005
Component:
Console
Interface:
IConsole {1dea5c4b-0753-4193-b909-22330f64ec45}

To make sure new stable kernel installed, 2.6.23.13-slh64-smp-1
and did 4,5,6 option to make sure. but the problem persists.
(driver installation was so fast that I felt nothing was done...)
I got that known 'FATAL:' error and ignored, but now seems this FATAL was real. Smile

I'll try non-ose install to see if it works better for now.

drb - Jan 10, 2008 - 01:38 PM
Post subject:

Quote:

However, if you want to see how the latest is, new 2.6.24 testing kernel was just released today, probably with vbox modules, though I can't say for sure

How will this affect the non-free version of vbox?

drb

muchan - Jan 10, 2008 - 02:21 PM
Post subject:

Installed non-ose version, but I didn't find the programs location. Sad

driver was running behind.

Then I went back to previous kernel of this pc 2.6.23.9-rc1-slh64-smp-1, and reinstalled ose version.
This time module compiling (blue) screen appeared and worked properly.
So, I guess problem was something about building module for 2.6.23.13-slh64-smp-1.
(beside my problem of unable to find non-free executable...)

h2 - Jan 10, 2008 - 05:39 PM
Post subject:

the non free is: VirtualBox
note the upper/lower case.

I'm suspecting you did something or other wrong, I just did some upgrades and had no issues.

Again, if you have -ose installed, the slh kernels contain modules that will install automatically when the kernel is installed if you had ose running prior to new kernel install. For non-ose, you need to rebuild the module, using step 5. as of yesterday, this works fine on 32 bit, but I don't deal much with 64 bit so i can't say if it has some bugs.

since the user pool for 64 bit is so much smaller in sidux than 32 bit, about 1/10-1/15 I'd say, clearly bug reporting and finding will be that much less reliable, smaller pool of users.

h2 - Jan 15, 2008 - 09:20 PM
Post subject:

Fixed a small bug in svmi module upgrading. I've found that if you're running the sid virtualbox-ose module, the upgrades are not happening at all as I expected them to. So the module upgrade apparently needs to be run manually each time at least a major version upgrade occurs, like 1.5.2 to 1.5.4. So I removed the check for module already running on module install, now it will remove the old module stuff, no matter what, and reinstall either the latest slh kernel modules, if available, or it will build the module from source, as always.

Note: if you install a new slh kernel with vbox modules installed on old one, the new kernel will automatically install the proper module deb by itself. But if you were running say 1.5.2 and you installed say a 2.6.23.13 kernel, you'd have to upgrade vbox since it would be using the wrong module. This is going to have to be cleaned up a bit I think, maybe some more checks and tests.

Also, I found that the updated version is slightly breaking some windows guest additions functions, so you have to keep your guest additions updated as well, and manually reinstall them in the client as well.

All in all, not something I'd consider mature re technology, still has a way to go, that connection between host and guest should not be breaking just because of a small version upgrade in virtualbox. It's ok if you only run one vm, but if you're running many, you have to manually upgrade the guest additions for each one, at least I haven't found any other way to do it yet, hopefully I will though.

But this svmi tweak polishes off a few glitches and rough edges in the process, I'll keep my eyes on it, I'm using this stuff fairly actively, but if I can't get usb working at some point in the reasonably near future, either ose or non ose, I'll have to go back to vmware to get some work done.

Also, if anyone has a solution to hyper slow connectoin between client and host using shared host folders, please let me know, current connection speeds remind me, literally, of a time I tried setting up modem based remote office access for a client, it's incredibly slow. Are there any tricks I'm missing to make the guest and host see each other better? As it currently is, the shared directory is just barely working, it's virtually unusable for production work.

DeepDayze - Jan 16, 2008 - 01:57 PM
Post subject:

I can check the Vbox forums on whether the issue with slow shared folder access has been reported.

drb - Jan 16, 2008 - 03:29 PM
Post subject:

Quote:

Note: if you install a new slh kernel with vbox modules installed on old one, the new kernel will automatically install the proper module deb by itself.

Should this work with the non-free version as it didn't with my last kernel upgrade?

drb

IGNORE THIS QUESTION as the answer was a little further back in this thread - only works for ose version.

h2 - Jan 16, 2008 - 05:20 PM
Post subject:

No, luckily the module updater in the kernel installer checks to make sure it's the ose version before doing the automatic update/iinstall of the deb.

I think some of the little fixes I did in svmi yesterday may help the process of keeping the ose edition in smooth sync, but i have to say, the lack of a stable api or whatever you call it seems to be a real problem for a lot of FOSS projects, you should really be able to install say a guest additions package and have that work on all future upgrades, with extra features merely added on as further apis etc. virtualbox will need to fix this if they want to be taken seriously as a major player in vm market, vmware has been doing that for a while now, although vbox has some pretty good out of the box functionality that vmware player does not have, but I think server does. Not sure, haven't run server yet.

Scrooge - Feb 12, 2008 - 09:21 PM
Post subject:

Sun is acquiring VirtualBox (Innotek)

http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/pr/2008-02/sunflash.20080212.1.xml

mb - Feb 20, 2008 - 01:18 AM
Post subject: VirtualBox 1.5.6

VirtualBox 1.5.6 is available from innotech. Are there any negative issues with upgrading?

h2 - Feb 20, 2008 - 01:28 AM
Post subject: RE: VirtualBox 1.5.6

added 1.5.6 to svmi.

drb - Feb 20, 2008 - 09:56 AM
Post subject:

Non-free virtualbox 1.5.6 updated OK here as part of normal d-u. Everything working fine

drb

h2 - Feb 20, 2008 - 06:01 PM
Post subject:

Non-free virtualbox couldn't update as part of the normal du, it's a manually installed deb. I wonder what happened there?

Crust - Feb 20, 2008 - 06:23 PM
Post subject:

My guess is that he added the virtualbox repo to his sources.list

"Debian-based Linux distributions: Add one of the following lines according to your distribution to your /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb http://www.virtualbox.org/debian gutsy non-free
deb http://www.virtualbox.org/debian feisty non-free
deb http://www.virtualbox.org/debian edgy non-free
deb http://www.virtualbox.org/debian dapper non-free
deb http://www.virtualbox.org/debian etch non-free
deb http://www.virtualbox.org/debian sarge non-free
deb http://www.virtualbox.org/debian xandros4.0-xn non-free"

http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

slam - Feb 20, 2008 - 06:27 PM
Post subject:

The Etch repo from virtualbox has been behaving well so far in sidux, I use it since the very beginnings. However, sidux users are strongly advised to not add 3rd party repositories, specially if they are not dedicated to Debian Sid/sidux.
Greetings,
Chris

drb - Feb 20, 2008 - 06:33 PM
Post subject:

Yes, the etch vitualbox repository

Is there a 'correct' way of installing / updating non-free virtualbox in sidux?

drb

h2 - Feb 20, 2008 - 06:33 PM
Post subject:

Oh, this is good to know, I also tend not to trust 3rd party repos, though opera has been behaving quite nicely since they figured out how to do actual testing on live sid systems (who wants to bet that's using sidux?)

I'll add this as an svmi option I think at some point.

Crust - Feb 20, 2008 - 06:58 PM
Post subject:

I updated non-free virtualbox by just installing the new version in svmi.
It worked fine for me.

I don't trust 3rd party repos either.

drb - Feb 20, 2008 - 07:16 PM
Post subject:

So what does svmi call upon to update a package like non-free virtualbox. Does it just download the virtualbox etch deb? Presumably the installation will continue to 'see' existing .vdi files?

drb

h2 - Feb 20, 2008 - 07:18 PM
Post subject:

yes, it just downloads it. Nothing changes other than the vm software, your existing stuff should be untouched. It would be a severe, massive, bug, if a version upgrade of a vm broke any of the vm images.

drb - Feb 21, 2008 - 11:37 AM
Post subject:

Hi h2,

Perhaps you can clarify; I'm not sure the benefits of not using the virtualbox repository if svmi only downloads the same .deb. I guess you can 'block' the download if there are any reported breakages - is this the only benefit of using svmi rather than the repository direct?

There was an update yesterday (virtualbox_1.5.6-28241) - there was a further update today (virtualbox_1.5.6-28266) with a 0.3MB larger .deb - I wouldn't have known about this if the virtualbox repository wasn't in my sources list. The install has gone without any problems.

drb

slam - Feb 21, 2008 - 12:31 PM
Post subject:

Actually the Virtualbox repository is a bad example for the problems that might come in with 3rd party repositories, as it just contains 1 single .deb which is usually in good shape (although it's targeted at Etch, and not at Sid).

3rd party repos become specially problematic, if they are not properly set up, the packages are not properly built - or they contain closed source software which then drops the easy and uncontrolled way into your system. Opera, Skype or Google repos come to my mind as examples when talking about it.

Of course you can use such repos carefully, by always examining all changes it brings in with a dist-upgrade. But if you don't have the time/knowledge to do so, better relay on original Debian repos, and add single .deb packages you trust. Feel free to ask here for recommendations, we all use such packages from time to time.

Greetings,
Chris

mb - Feb 21, 2008 - 08:25 PM
Post subject: virtualbox-ose

Is the new virtualbox-ose 1.5.6 installable through smxi?

h2 - Feb 21, 2008 - 08:31 PM
Post subject: RE: virtualbox-ose

virtualbox-ose is a sid package, and currently is not upgraded:

apt-cache policy virtualbox-ose
virtualbox-ose:
Installed: 1.5.4-dfsg-5
Candidate: 1.5.4-dfsg-5

mb - Feb 21, 2008 - 11:28 PM
Post subject:

OK thanks h2

dekalbave - Feb 22, 2008 - 10:17 AM
Post subject: svmi: non-ose 1.5.6 not working

I tried upgrading non-ose and got the following message:

The vbox virtualbox.1.5.6-28241_Debian_etch_i386.deb download failed, the file name probably changed.
Please let the svmi script maintainer know.

So, I'm letting you know....just wondering if the file name actually changed, or if there might be some other reason for the
error 404 message.

edit: searched around, seems there is a file name change to
1.5.6-28266

drb - Feb 22, 2008 - 03:09 PM
Post subject:

Yes - virtualbox_1.5.6-28266 is the latest version; downloads, installs and runs ok.

drb

h2 - Feb 22, 2008 - 05:44 PM
Post subject:

dekalbave, the file name did change, and svmi is now updated.

For 1.5.4 they never updated it, I guess this time something needed fixing.

MucRonin - Feb 22, 2008 - 08:04 PM
Post subject:

drb wrote:

Yes - virtualbox_1.5.6-28266 is the latest version; downloads, installs and runs ok.drb

confirmed, installed with smxi after h2 changed the link, everything up and running smooth. (from ose to non-ose edition)

dekalbave - Feb 22, 2008 - 08:23 PM
Post subject:

Everything works now. Great work.
Thanks, h2!

sleekmason - Mar 09, 2008 - 11:13 PM
Post subject:

For the usb problem It was easy for me to goto 11.4.6 in the virtualbox manual and do the fix for etch. I just commented out the line and inserted the other one and bam! USB works . . for a windows guest. If this has already been posted, please delete.

sleekmason - Mar 10, 2008 - 01:53 AM
Post subject:

Ok, this is too cool. I normally run Fluxbox without much in the way of glitter, but have a "friend" who runs vista and swears by the crap. I decided to go all out. i now have Windows xp running inside virtual box, in Full screen mode, in Compiz. I can leave it in full screen and use the rotate cube fuction to get to it. It. Is. Awesome. Combined with the switching to sidux(from his point of view) and then having all these cool effects, Bet he gets really ticked off:) everything fuctions, and i threw 2000 gigs of ram at the whole thing. Linux, and sidux in particular is awesome. I wish I had some use for windows other than to show off virtualbox:( Anybody got some cool ideas I do in windows? I cant really come up with any. oh well.

mig - Mar 10, 2008 - 02:38 PM
Post subject:

hi guys,
i want to install my sidux Box in VirtualBox at work. Have a Windows Network with proxy server and almost closed workstations (bluecoat, locked devices etc., fortunately not for me....)
I have also an independent DSL-Access (FritzBox Fon Wlan) in my room, so i thought to install a second ethernet card on my workstation. It is possible to access only this second card from VBox? What else can i do? Don't want to install Wlan-USB.

Thank you for any help.

Greetings,
mig

muchan - Mar 10, 2008 - 11:16 PM
Post subject:

if your guest sidux doesn't need to see the host's IP, you don't need anything.
virtualbox offers virtual netcard for guest, using NAT as default,
So the guest OS can see the outside world via host's network connection.
(at least so, in the case of virtualbox for linux... I suppose it the same for Win version)

If you want to make outside world see your guest sidux, or the guest and host communicate
each other you need to set a bridge, etc.
(I don't know how to do it on Windows, but I think you can do without second network card)
Read the manual and forum of VirtualBox first

michaaa62 - Mar 11, 2008 - 07:21 AM
Post subject:

sleekmason wrote:

How about a blue screen of death on the windows desktop? Twisted Evil

But your machine is still working!!! Razz

cheers Micha

DeepDayze - Mar 11, 2008 - 12:39 PM
Post subject:

if you can get to trigger a BSOD on full screen mode that ought to scare your buddy...until you rotate the cube again to get back your sidux desktop Very Happy

mig - Mar 12, 2008 - 12:28 AM
Post subject:

muchan wrote:

Hi, muchan thanks for your reply. Because of the proxys (closed for any access without policy) and the closed network i am not able to use NAT and the host network connection, but i want to use DSL access on second ethernet. I am not able to select this ethernet access.

mig

muchan - Mar 12, 2008 - 11:58 AM
Post subject:

hmmmm, this isn't NAT at your gateway, but it's NAT on your virtualbox host computer,
so IMHO it should work in closed network... everything that goes from vbox guest is sent
as your vbox host's IP address to outside world. so your proxy server wouldn't see it from
other pc... (I hope I understood the situation correctly)

mig - Mar 12, 2008 - 06:22 PM
Post subject:

muchan wrote:

thanks for reply. i hope i wrote it understandly....
at work we have a closed network with proxy, bluecoat and device control. there is no other possibility to go on the net than ie6. anyway, using sidux as VM i can go out to the net but only these adresses allowed from bluecoat.
Therefore i want to access a DSL connection (with the same PC), but access this only with the sidux VM. the rest of the configuration should remain the same.

mig - Mar 13, 2008 - 01:35 PM
Post subject:

oh my god, user manual chapter 6.4.: bridging on windows hosts....

Thank muchan anyway!

Greets,
mig

sleekmason - Mar 14, 2008 - 04:48 AM
Post subject:

Quick question: Is there a way to have "XP Guest" full screen in Fluxbox, on say, "desktop2" and use keybindings to switch between the desktops at will? and where might I find the file to do this, . . . or . . . what is the best way to do this?

muchan - Mar 14, 2008 - 11:24 AM
Post subject:

Full screen of vbox geust is in the vbox guest menu. (but you don't change the screen resolution with it, so you get thick black "frame" around xp desktop, unless xp's resolution exactely match the host X windows resolution.

About moving toe "desktop2", I can't say about fluxbox, but on my fvwm configuration I can do it just the same
way as any other X applications.

sleekmason - Mar 14, 2008 - 12:10 PM
Post subject:

Full screen works just fine. What I need to do is switch windows without switching out of full screen . . . some sort of key combination? Also see my post in general about font and size probs as i goofed up:)

askani - Mar 14, 2008 - 01:36 PM
Post subject:

I wish there was a way to make a bridge network for mere mortals. I like VirtualBox, but bridged is much easier on VMWare.

muchan - Mar 14, 2008 - 09:29 PM
Post subject:

sleekmason wrote:

Quote:

the trick is press right Ctrl button. It release the key and mouse binding to (fullscreen) guest OS, and
the host OS (thus flux) will get the input. In my case I assined Ctrl+Up/Down for navigating Screens or
Desktop on Fvwn, it works as you want.

askani wrote:

Quote:

I wish there was a way to make a bridge network for mere mortals. I like VirtualBox, but bridged is much easier on VMWare.

1) apt-get install uml-utils bridge-util

2) configure /etc/network/interfaces
(well... I don't have it on this pc, so i'll post it tommorow)

3) /etc/init.d/networking restart (or reboot )

4) for guest of vbox, chose Network, host connection, and write tap1

and it worked. I'll post (or edit) the rest tomorrow, if no one will write before me)

sleekmason - Mar 14, 2008 - 11:15 PM
Post subject:

Excellent:) Thank you much. I was hoping to not have to leave full screen, but good is got is better than not!

askani - Mar 15, 2008 - 12:06 AM
Post subject:

2) configure /etc/network/interfaces
was the kicker....
I've seen a few scripts, etc floating around on the web... I'm interested in seeing what step 2) is.
Thanks for the info.

muchan - Mar 15, 2008 - 05:32 PM
Post subject:

askani. example of /etc/network/interface, using br0 as DHCP client and tap1 for vbox guest

Code:

# /etc/network/interfaces -- configuration file for ifup(8), ifdown(8)

auto lo

iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0

iface eth0 inet manual

auto tap1

iface tap1 inet manual

 tunctl_user <yourname>    #<--- change here to username who runs vbox (without < >!)

auto br0

iface br0 inet dhcp

 post-up chmod 0666 /dev/net/tun

 bridge-ports eth0 tap1

 bridge-ageing 7200                #<-- timeout setting for 2 hours

 bridge-fd     0

in case you use static IP, the last part for br0 changes to:

Code:

auto br0

iface br0 inet static

 address 10.10.1.2           #<-- here your static IP

 netmask 255.255.255.0

 gateway 10.10.1.1           #<-- here your gateway

 broadcast 10.10.1.255

 post-up chmod 0666 /dev/net/tun

 bridge-ports eth0 tap1

 bridge-ageing 7200

 bridge-fd     0

eth0 and br0 starts from 0, so maybe using tap0 instead of tap1 is more logical?
I don't know, but I use tap1 as "Don't fix if it's not broken" principal. ^^
hope it works.

askani - Mar 16, 2008 - 11:53 PM
Post subject:

Thanks for the info...
I hadn't seen the dchp example before...

askani - Mar 17, 2008 - 01:10 PM
Post subject:

muchan,
This is my current file

# The loopback network interface
auto lo eth0
iface lo inet loopback
iface eth0 inet dhcp

Do I just cut and past your example in?

muchan - Mar 17, 2008 - 05:59 PM
Post subject:

first backup...
# cp /etc/network/interfaces /etc/network/interfaces.orig
Smile

(make sure that the packages are installed before it, otherwise you'll get error at restarting network)

two lines of lo remains there.

from iface tth0, (lastline) on
put my example (without lo) for dhcp, and ajust to your username.
If it doesn't work, rename it (mv), and copy the backup file back to interfaces.

askani - Mar 17, 2008 - 08:04 PM
Post subject:

After a couple of attempts, I gave up... Maybe I'm dense Wink

I still say that VMWare bridged is much easier to use, unless I know
the parameters I'm trying to feed interfaces. I was hoping that since I posted my current interfaces file, someone would give me
the file (with the bridged info) back. Am I lazy? Maybe. But I just want bridge networking. I find menu options easier than editing
interfaces;)
Still open for suggestions.

muchan - Mar 17, 2008 - 10:13 PM
Post subject:

When things doesn't work as you wished, you need to tell exactly what you did,
and how it didn't work. Maybe I forgot something. maybe one thing is still missing.

I'll soon install sidux on another PC and set virtualbox with bridge, so, I'll try step by step
manner, and tell you if something was missing in my early post.

askani - Mar 18, 2008 - 12:37 AM
Post subject:

I'll give another try when I'm back at the office...

askani - Mar 18, 2008 - 02:58 PM
Post subject:

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo eth0
iface lo inet loopback
iface eth0 inet dhcp

auto tap1
iface tap1 inet manual
#<--- change here to username who runs vbox (without < >!)
tunctl_user <userid>
auto br0
iface br0 inet dhcp
post-up chmod 0666 /dev/net/tun
bridge-ports eth0 tap1
bridge-ageing 7200 #<-- timeout setting for 2 hours
bridge-fd 0

Seems to work...
Thanks

muchan - Mar 18, 2008 - 10:40 PM
Post subject:

auto lo eth0 <--- declares two in one line? I didn't know this syntax

iface eth0 inet dhcp <-- i think it isn't good.... you make eth0 a bridge-port from br0 for host. so br0 is dhcp client, not eth0 (but if it works, then ok...)

askani - Mar 19, 2008 - 12:48 AM
Post subject:

# The loopback network interface
auto lo eth0
iface lo inet loopback
iface eth0 inet dhcp

Was what was already there.

muchan - Mar 19, 2008 - 11:40 AM
Post subject:

hmmmm, you add br0 as the dhcp client instead of eth0 without bridge.
eth0 get internal address, not exposed to outside world, and
vbox guest OS is connected to that br0 via tap.
That is my understanding about bridge. (Correct me if I'm wrong!)

So, when you configuer to use bridge, IMHO, the eth0 should not be dhcp client.

askani - Mar 19, 2008 - 12:56 PM
Post subject:

Like I said,
# The loopback network interface
auto lo eth0
iface lo inet loopback
iface eth0 inet dhcp
Was already there (I didn't modify it).
I added your stuff.
...And like I said, VB is still rough around the edges for creating bridges. VMWare is a menu option or a button.

muchan - Mar 19, 2008 - 10:09 PM
Post subject:

It\s cpmpletely a miscommunication.

If bridge is there or not is not Vbox problem, but network interfaces problem.
So if it works, it's OK, but if Vbox doesn't work with bridge, it's not vbox's problem, but your config is wrong.

And I'm saying eth0 should not be dhcp client IF you are to use bridge.
It's dhcp client without bridge, but br0 is the dhcp client in my stuff.
(that is, MY stuff is not only br0 setting, but eth0 setting included.)

So, if it works, leave it. but if it doesn't work, it's because you didn't do "my struff" as I said.
In other word,
Change the eth0 line!
that's what I've been saying in these post.

askani - Mar 19, 2008 - 11:00 PM
Post subject:

OK, you see what I have... can you modify it (and post it back) as you think it should be an I'll give it a try.
I didn't say VBox was the problem, I said VMWare was much easier to set up bridged.
It's a menu option.

muchan - Mar 25, 2008 - 10:24 PM
Post subject:

First two corrections, I wrote some messages ago;

Quote:

1) apt-get install uml-utils bridge-util

but the actual name of packages were: uml-utilities bridge-utils
so i wrote both wrong,
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I just installed these packages on another pc, so I wirte what I did,

1) as root

Code:

apt-get update

apt-get install uml-utilities  bridge-utils

2) as root

Code:

vim /etc/network/interfaces

and edited to be:

Code:

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system

# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface

auto lo

iface lo inet loopback

#auto eth0

#iface eth0 inet dhcp

auto eth0

iface eth0 inet manual

auto tap0

iface tap0 inet manual

 tunctl_user  muchan

auto br0

iface br0 inet dhcp

 post-up chmod 0666 /dev/net/tun

 bridge-ports eth0 tap0

 bridge-aging 7200

 bridge-fd    0

3) as root

Code:

/etc/init.d/networking restart

4) start virtualbox-ose
a) chose the guest vm, and click the "Network" in details tab.
b) in the "Adapter 0" tab, check that the "Enable Natwork Adapter" checkbox is checked
c) drop down the "attached to" and chose "Host Interface"
d) in the below, "Host Interface setting" "Interface name" type

Code:

tap0

e) press OK

Then start the guest vm.

additional to check that the bridge is working.
1) in host's console, "ifconfig" and check the IP address of br0
2) in guest's console, "ping <host_br0_IP_address>" and see that you get replies. Ctrl+C to stop
3) in guest's console, "ifconfig" and check the IP address of eth0
4) in host's console, "ping <guest_eth0_IP_address>" and see that you get replies. Ctrl+C to stop

In my home network, the first DHCP and second DHCP address is always same, so
i put both on the host and guest's /etc/hosts and i can call them by name both way.
ssh or sshfs also works so the file system is transparent even without using shared directries.

That's all folks!

askani - Mar 26, 2008 - 02:28 AM
Post subject:

Can't wait to give it a try....
Thanks for the info (again)

shame - Apr 27, 2008 - 01:10 AM
Post subject:

Although I use virtualbox and generally it works well for me, I still find usb hit and miss, sometimes it works and others it doesn't.

I haven't tried vmware for a while and I can't remember how that went for usb.
Is usb support and shared folders in vmware up to much these days and is it worth switching?
Also, does the latest vmware in debian have the new unity seamless windows mode?

h2 - Apr 27, 2008 - 05:36 PM
Post subject:

usb and shared folders are now solid in vmware, and have been for a while. last year shared folders weren't working, even with hacks, now they just work. usb has always worked since I started using it.

I'm hoping that sun releases fully free vbox with usb support sooner than later.

dekalbave - May 02, 2008 - 08:33 AM
Post subject: No full-screen mode for hardy heron?

I have 1.5.6 non-ose installed, and ever since I created a vm for the new Ubuntu, vbox goes into full screen mode, but Ubuntu doesn't. Haven't had this problem with other distros I've played around with....hmmm, does Ubuntu not play nicely with vbox?

BelaLugosi - May 02, 2008 - 08:43 AM
Post subject:

Just an abstract thought...

Did you set the correct screen-resolution in ubuntu?

drb - May 02, 2008 - 08:45 AM
Post subject:

shame
I've had no problems with USB printers, scanners, cameras, webcam etc. etc. with vbox non-OSE 1.5.6. Only no firewire support . . .

drb

dekalbave - May 02, 2008 - 08:59 AM
Post subject:

BelaLugosi wrote:

Just an abstract thought...

Did you set the correct screen-resolution in ubuntu?

Actually, I thought of that, but the only available choices were 800x600 and 640x480. Maybe I'll try another method.

mig - May 02, 2008 - 09:10 AM
Post subject:

same thing here with vb non ose 1.5.6 on sidux64

mig

BelaLugosi - May 02, 2008 - 09:30 AM
Post subject:

Have you installed the "VirtualBox Guest Additions"? With that, you should be able to change the screen resolution.

mig - May 02, 2008 - 09:37 AM
Post subject:

yes, guest additions installed. no change.

mig

honorshark - May 02, 2008 - 09:45 AM
Post subject:

Uhm.. and if you have modify the Virtualbox properties? Maybe the x.org config by hand? .. Maybe it would work.. I used Virtualbox yesterday, and worked like a charm. You can adjust many things in Virtualbox, so keep trying... (mainly on display section and so on)

mig - May 02, 2008 - 10:56 AM
Post subject:

i tried to modify xorg.conf, but the sections are different from then in "our sidux". I will go on and try.

Thanks,
mig

dekalbave - May 03, 2008 - 01:17 AM
Post subject:

Well, I added the guest additions, and it should allow resizing of the guest OS, but it doesn't work. I'm not sure the answer is in xorg.conf unless there is a separate one for Vbox that I'm unaware of, because there is no section in xorg.conf for VirtualBox per se.

And getting back to my original point in starting this discussion,
other distros go into full screen mode without any problem.
Only Ubuntu 8.04 seems to have a problem (I admit, haven't tried any previous Ubuntu's in vbox). So, I do have to wonder...
unfortunately, when I Google virtualbox and Ubuntu, I just get a lot of pages on how to get vbox running on Ubuntu (apparently they departed from the Debian way of using certain files), but nothing on running Hardy in virtualbox. Oh well, it's really not a big deal for me, I was just trying out Ubuntu to familiarize myself with it a bit - but perhaps other users need something in Ubuntu (don't know what that would be) and this is a problem if they don't want to install it to the hard drive.

Scrooge - May 04, 2008 - 12:55 PM
Post subject:

Have you tried it with 1.6?

VirtualBox 1.6.0 (released 2008-04-30)

This version is a major update. The following major new features were added:

* Solaris and Mac OS X host support
* Seamless windowing for Linux and Solaris guests
* Guest Additions for Solaris
* A webservice API
* SATA hard disk (AHCI) controller
* Experimental Physical Address Extension (PAE) support

In addition, the following items were ﬁxed and/or added:

* GUI: added accessibility support (508)
* GUI: VM session information dialog
* VBoxHeadless: renamed from VBoxVRDP
* VMM: reduced host CPU load of idle guests
* VMM: many ﬁxes for VT-x/SVM hardware-supported virtualization
* ATA/IDE: better disk geometry compatibility with VMware images
* ATA/IDE: virtualize an AHCI controller
* Storage: better write optimization, prevent images from growing unnecessarily.
* Network: support PXE booting with NAT
* Network: ﬁxed the Am79C973 PCNet emulation for Nexenta guests
* NAT: improved builtin DHCP server (implemented DHCPNAK response)
* NAT: port forwarding stopped when restoring the VM from a saved state
* NAT: make subnet conﬁgurable
* XPCOM: moved to libxml2
* XPCOM: ﬁxed VBoxSVC autostart race
* Audio: SoundBlaster 16 emulation
* USB: ﬁxed problems with USB 2.0 devices
* MacOS X: ﬁxed seamless mode
* MacOS X: better desktop integration, several look’n’feel ﬁxes
* MacOS X: switched to Quartz2D framebuffer
* MacOS X: added support for shared folders
* MacOS X: added support for clipboard integration
* Solaris: added host audio playback support (experimental)
* Solaris: made it possible to run VirtualBox from non-global zones
* Shared Folders: made them work for NT4 guests
* Shared Folders: many bugﬁxes to improve stability
* Seamless windows: added support for Linux guests
* Linux installer: support DKMS for compiling the kernel module
* Linux host: compatibility ﬁxes with Linux 2.6.25
* Windows host: support for USB devices has been signiﬁcantly improved; many additional USB devices now work
* Windows Additions: automatically install AMD PCNet drivers on Vista guests
* Linux additions: several ﬁxes, experimental support for RandR 1.2
* Linux additions: compatibility ﬁxes with Linux 2.6.25

dekalbave - May 08, 2008 - 04:56 PM
Post subject:

Thanks, Scrooge. Upgrading and installing Guest Additions
did the trick.

BTW, seamless mode is kinda cool, too.

zonker - May 17, 2008 - 08:19 PM
Post subject:

seamless rocks. What id like to know is; how do I get to run seamless virtualbox on one desktop, and still be able to rotate/ switch desktops without having to minimize it (as soon as vbox is seamless it grabs all keyboard input...) ?

tyche - Jun 07, 2008 - 08:47 AM
Post subject:

Hi Folks,

1.6.2 is released, check it out Smile

cu

tyche

leonsk - Jul 04, 2008 - 11:20 AM
Post subject:

The 1.6.2_OSE works very fine and is smooth as can be. Several MS apps (Money 2004, Office 2003) loaded fast and easy in the WinXP-SP2 client, and are executing perfectly. Guest Additions is very much necessary for shared folders; installing that is si