Virtual Box v2.0.6

VirtualBox is a general-purpose full virtualizer for x86 hardware. It isn’t an emulator as such, the virtual machine is a complete operating system, however the hardware interface is emulated in software.

Targeted at server, desktop and embedded use, I have used it purely in its desktop role. The virtual machine run in VirtualBox can be configured as a fully blown OS, with drive and USB access, and it can run full screen.

What follows are some of the notes I’ve made when using VirtualBox on my hardware, in a desktop role, running a variety of OS’s.

What’s Needed

In order to run VirtualBox on your machine, you need:

· Reasonably powerful x86 hardware. Any recent Intel or AMD processor should do.

· Memory. Depending on what guest operating systems you want to run, you will need at least 512 MB of RAM (but probably more, and the more the better). Basically, you will need whatever your host operating system needs to run comfortably, plus the amount that the guest operating system needs.

· Hard disk space. While VirtualBox itself is very lean (a typical installation will only need about 30 MB of hard disk space), the virtual machines will require fairly huge files on disk to represent their own hard disk storage. So, to install Windows XP, for example, you will need a file that will easily grow to several GB in size.

· A supported host operating system.

· A supported guest operating system

Installing VirtualBox -> Virtual Machine -> Guest OS

Installing VirtualBox is straightforward, simply download and run the install file from the VirtualBox site.

Once installed in your host OS, you will need one (or more!) guest OS’s to run in VirtualBox. From my experience VirtualBox has run every flavour of Windows and Linux I have thrown at it. A useful feature is that the user can install directly from an image (.iso) file on the local hard drive. This is done using the ‘New’ menu option, which invokes the New Virtual Machine wizard. The wizard gives various options, including where to store the guest. It gets stored as a single large file, and I found it useful to have a folder full of virtual guest OS’s.

When setting up your new guest OS on your virtual machine, you can either use a CD, or a locally stored .iso file to boot from. Virtual Box will boot from the image/CD, and from here you can run a live CD image (as is normal for most Linux distributions), or install directly (if that is the option on the image, a la Microsoft Windows).

It’s recommended to use fixed hard drive space, rather than dynamic, for each guest OS installation as it speeds things up considerably.

Mount Device/Image Notes

To mount a CD or .iso image file: Devices -> Mount -> CD/ROM. And drill down to the CD or image file.

VirtualBox Guest Add-ons

After installation, when the guest OS is running in VirtualBox, it is worth installing the VirtualBox Guest Add-ons. This is part of the Virtual box application, and is simply selected from the menu when the guest OS is running. If running Linux, you will need root access to install it.

The guest add-ons enable screen resizing, full screen mode, USB access, improved mouse pointer integration, folder sharing, etc.

Options Available using VirtualBox Guest Add-ons

USB Notes

VirtualBox implements a virtual USB controller and allows you to connect arbitrary USB devices to your virtual machines without having to install device specific drivers on the host OS.

I found the best way to enable USB access was to check the ‘Enable USB Controller’ option for a specific guest OS before booting it up, and not to use the USB Device Filters, but rather enable each individual USB device individually, after the guest OS has booted up.

Once USB support has been activated in a XP host OS, Virtual USB Hardware Device installation will automatically take place.

Resolution Notes

Before installing the guest Add-ons, I found the default resolution in the guest OS’s to be 800x600. Some Linux desktops aren’t useable at this resolution.

3D card acceleration is not possible in Virtual Box.

To exit full screen mode: R CTRL & F.

On older Linux distros, you might need to edit the resolution manually. To do this, edit etc/x11/xorg.conf. In “modes 640x480 etc” add your desired resolution value.

Shared & Network Folders Notes

To share a local folder, enable the Shared Folders option, in the Settings menu. Drill down to a local folder, and this folder will now be accessible from both the host and guest OS. I found SP3 in XP disabled this. However I could still access my network folders using the relevant mount or (Samba based) network browsing applications found in the Linux distribution (my favourites include Lisa, and Linneighbourhood).