Seamless Guest OS's and more! VirtualBox Seamless Guest OS's and more!

What is VirtualBox? - VirtualBox is an easy to use and setup Virtualisation software. - Runs on Linux/Windows/Mac & OpenSolaris (Not BSD) - Handles many Guest OS's - There are two versions one proprietory and one opensource GPL.

Why would I want to use VirtualBox - VirtualBox is great for checking out OS's quickly   -  Building systems - Testing environments - Testing upgrades before putting them onto production machines - Use legacy programs under thier native OS, such as a windows program.

System Requirements My Setup Asus 1000HE N280 1.66Ghz ATOM 2GB 667Mhz memory 300GB Hard drive.   Recommended Core 2 Duo 2Ghz or greater 2GB or more (512MB per virtual server + 1GB for the base system). Ubuntu/Fedora/OpenSUSE/Mandriva/Debian/RH. There is also a Open Source Version for other distros.

Installation Version: 2.1.4 for Linux Hosts Download from: http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads Install the kernel driver manager (Dynamic Kernel Module Support) $ sudo apt-get  install dkms

Install VirtualBox Install Virtualbox (I just used the gui package manager for ubuntu   Click Install in the package manger, this will add your user to the vboxusers group Make sure you compile the kernel driver 'vboxdrv'. Click close.

Starting VirtualBox Starting VirtualBox for the first time. It maybe not in the menu yet, so start it with the command: $ VirtualBox Accept the license terms (Scroll down to the bottom). Fill out the registration information.

Setup a Guest OS You can setup any OS as a guest.  More guests are supported than hosts.  EG: FreeBSD can be a guest but you cannot use FreeBSD as a host, yet! Click 'New' This will take you to an install Wizard

1st Screen of Wizard Enter a name eg: 'Windows XP'   Select you OS and Version

2nd Screen of Wizard Enter an amount of memory to be used for this Guest.     For Windows XP I recommended 512MB. Type 512MB Hit 'Next'

3rd Screen of Wizard Setup space for the Guest OS.   Click 'New'

4th Screen of Wizard Next...

5th Screen of Wizard Dynamic = Flexible but slow. (Good for checking out distros) Fixed Size = Fixed and Fast. (Good for services & app servers)

6th Screen of Wizard Setup Size. For Windows XP I find 10GB is enough for my requirements.   Location can be on a seperate disk. I wouldn't recommend a network drive.

7th Screen of Wizard Confirm the setup of your VirtualBox guest storage file. In this case it's called: 'Windows XP.vdi' Click 'Finish'

8th Screen of Wizard Now VirtualBox will create the VirtualBox Guest OS drive (the vdi file). Default position for this is in your home directory.

9th Screen of Wizard Now you should have your new drive selected in the drop down. Click 'Next'

End of Wizard Now you should have the summary of what was created. You have created an empty container ready for the installation of your Guest OS.

Main Screen Click on 'CD/DVD-ROM'

CD/DVD Rom Make the CD/DVD-ROM mountable so we can boot our OS and install it into our VirtualBox container.

Main Screen Click on 'Start'

Key Capture info screen. This screen tells you about what keys are used to switch between the host and guest. Click 'Do not show this message again', then 'Ok'

--> Start Guest OS Install Go through your installation of the OS as normal. You will see your VirtualBox container (file) you have setup is shown as a drive.  You can format this without a problem.     Everything from now on is done within that file. -->

Seamless Mode Seamless mode allows you to:  - use the keyboard/mouse in the Guest without having to first capture using the special hotkey.  - Faster switching  - Hide wallpaper of your guest which makes it seem like your guest apps are running directly on your host.

Seamless Mode Select Devices -> Install Guest Additions...

Seamless Mode This will pop up a wizard in your Guest OS.  This works for most Guest OS's.

Seamless Mode Follow the wizard and make sure to hit 'Continue' on all the warning about drivers (Win XP only).   You can safely hit Reboot Now, this will only reboot your Guest OS.

Seamless Mode Now you can start Apps from the Guest OS and have them float around your host OS Apps.

Snapshots Taking snapshots is a great  way to make a quick backup before you test something. You can revert to any of these snapshots, but once you do you loose all future snapshots.

Snapshots Click the camera button          to take a snapshot.

Snapshots Give your snapshot a name and click ok.

Snapshots Now you should see your snapshot and current state:

Troubleshooting Problems: PIIX3 cannot attach drive to the Secondary Master. This means that you have detached a drive which the Guest OS requires.  It maybe a CD/DVD USB drive which was mounted and you have to unmount it in the guest setup. Other problems: With all other problems it's always worth first trying to rebuild the kernel module: '/etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup' If you have upgraded to a special kernel or custom build a kernel you will most likely need to run the above command.

Troubleshooting In Seamless mode if you happen to get the wallpaper of windows XP on the background of your Host OS, this is most likely due to the fact you have Visual Effects Turned on.  Turn off all Visual Effects   On Ubuntu:  System -> Preferences -> Appearance  Visual Effects, select 'None'