[PLUG] Virtual Box

Larry Williams larryw at holbrookmasons.org
Tue Dec 1 20:26:53 UTC 2009


Tim Wescott wrote:
> Does anyone have any experience with VirtualBox?  How'd it go?  Any 
> gotchas?  Anything I should know before I just start happily installing 
> software?  Is there a way to import an already-working hard drive image, 
> or do I just have to install Windows fresh in a new virtual machine?
>   

I use VBox.  You will find that the OSE version, included in the 
standard repositories, doesn't include USB support.  "Full" versions are 
available at virtualbox.org, and there is an Ubuntu repository.

Your current HD image only works in its current hardware environment.  
Mounting it in Vbox, which I don't believe is possible, puts it in a 
different environment.  But you could mount the image in Linux, add it 
as a VBox share (tools inside), then map it to your guest OS.  Or, you 
could back up your HD image using either a cross-platform tool or 
Windows backup, then restore from within the guest OS.

Keep in mind that XP requires at least 384MB dedicated RAM, so your host 
machine should have at least 1GB installed.  More if you want to 
actually do something outside the running guest.  Also, assign at least 
14MB to video if you want to switch to full screen mode.  Other than 
that, it's a pretty painless process to create a guest OS and boot from 
an install CD.

Larry




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