Sun VirtualBox on T60P

[taichi]

Does anyone have any experience in running VirtualBox on a T60P? (I'm running Vista 32 Ultimate)

Supposedly VirtualBox has trouble with an AGP graphics bus. I don't know if my T60P has such a bus, but I did have a problem with the virtual machine trying to update a system driver that I believe was a graphics driver.

Possibly, Virtual PC might be a better match, but I don't know.

Thanks in advance for any insight.

taichi

[GrandMasterKhan]

Does anyone have any experience in running VirtualBox on a T60P? (I'm running Vista 32 Ultimate)

Supposedly VirtualBox has trouble with an AGP graphics bus. I don't know if my T60P has such a bus, but I did have a problem with the virtual machine trying to update a system driver that I believe was a graphics driver.

Possibly, Virtual PC might be a better match, but I don't know.

Thanks in advance for any insight.

taichi

Try it and let us know how it works? I use Virtual PC running XP. I think one has to play with dedicated memory if using Virtual PC. With 4GB on a 64 bit W7 and also ReadyBoost and TurboMemory it is otherwise still sluggish IMO. Not like the base OS which is quick.

[taichi]

Well it worked fine for a couple of hours, and then I tried to install my printer (a Canon MX850) onto the virtual machine, and I forgot one of the peculiarities of installing the Canon printer, which is that you must install the software first before connecting to the printer. It was in the midst of trying to resolve that and fix the installation that I got this peculiar "mandatory" system driver search message. It was a base system driver that was being sought, and when I looked at details, seemed to be a video driver search... a search which came up with no appropriate driver.

Sometimes being on a virtual machine is like being in virtual reality... confusing.

Before experimenting again I thought I would try to gain some wisdom from other pioneers. The copy of XP that I had was only SP1, and downloading SP2 seemed to take forever.

taichi

[moronoxyd]

I use VirtualBox on my R61 under Win XP without problems.
Same for my desktop with Windows 7.


As far as I know Virtual PC 2007 does not support AMD-V and I-VT and thus runs slower than VMware or VirtualBox.

[Marin85]

Running VirtualBox here without problems under Windows 7 x86. The only peripherals I connect to it is just some external HD, though, can´t say about printers and such. The only glitch I have found so far is that using shared folders sometimes makes Windows open properties when double-right-click on folders (instead of opening the actual folder), but this is a minor annoying issue and gets resolved by the next reboot or log-off (if I remember correctly).

[taichi]

Guten tag (actually guten nacht if you're reading this now) to my fellow Thinkpadders in Germany!

I'm going to try a fresh installation of VirtualBox, but I have some questions.

My setup is a T60P which runs a Core Duo Intel, an ATI 5200 GPU, with 3 GB of RAM, running Vista 32 Ultimate. I have 42.5 GB free on the 93 GB (100 gigabyte including restore partition) hard drive.

When you get to the option for formatting, did you choose NTFS quick or NTFS normal?

How much RAM should I dedicate to the virtual drive, and how large a virtual drive do you think my system can sustain? I know that a 5 GB virtual drive was not enough, once I installed Avast antivirus, and Service Pack 2.

I also know that you can enable a virtual GPU through the VirtualBox add-ons, but I am confused about whether I should activate that or not.

My main purpose is to run one program which will not run in Vista, according to the manufacturer, no matter how much I play with the compatibility settings. The technician at the company suggested VirtualBox.

Dunker Schoen

taichi

[Marin85]

1) NTFS quick vs. NTFS normal: probably it does matter only as much as it matters when installing XP on a real machine. Plus on such small virtual HDDs both of them complete quickly. I think it is much more important to defrag the virtual HD after the installation has completed.

2) How much space you will need depends on OS and what you are going to put on the virtual HD. For instance, I set up 4 GB virtual HDs for every XP virtual machine I have. I use a very nlited version of XP, so its installation takes up about 800 MB of storage space. Additionally, I always use dynamically expanding storage instead of fixed-size storage, so the virtual HD doesn´t take all space right away. Fixed-size storage, however, provides better performance, I believe.

3) I once tried the virtual GPU in a Vista and then in a Windows 7 virtual machine for the sake of trying. None could run Aero (unlike with VMware) or had better visual settings at disposal than otherwise. So, I am not really sure how this is supposed to work given the option to enable it...

BTW, it is still tag here, going slowly but surely towards abend

EDIT: forgot to mention that Virtual PC is a total pain to run the last time I checked (a few months ago).

[taichi]

Danke, Marin85:

Weill I reinstalled XP into a 15 GB Virtual Drive, and all seems well except I can't get the VM to detect my USB Canon MX850 printer. I first installed the printer software before connecting the printer as per Canon's instructions, but to no effect.

I then used Revo to uninstall everything from the Canon installation, re booted the VM, hoping XP would detect the printer, but no success.

I then tried using XP's add a printer in control panel, but nothing detected.

I tried adding a filter in VirtualBox's USB device component, adding one arbitrarily (I'm not sure what I'm doing here!), and then saw that I could add a filter for the Canon MX850. But it still doesn't detect!

I'm at my wit's end.

taichi

[taichi]

So I gave up on trying to install the printer onto the virtual machine, and found that the one program that I need to run on the guest XP requires a printer attached to work properly. So I downloaded a virtual PDF printer, which is recognized as a real printer by the program... so the program works. I can make PDF files to the desktop.

The next thing I tried to do was create a shared folder, mounted onto the host desktop that would allow transfer of such files from guest to host. Unfortunately, even after managing to install Guest Additions, I cannot seem to create the shared folder. When I go into devices on the VirtualBox, and try to create a shared folder, and point this shared folder to the shared folder on the host desktop, the little window that says OK is grayed out... inactive.

Any tips on creating a shared folder? If I can do this I can output my work to the guest desktop, and put it into the shared folder, opening it on the host desktop and printing it out normally.

I feel like I'm 90% there once I lick this shared folder problem.

Thanks,

Taichi

[Marin85]

Quick solution out of my head: create the folder inside the program installation folder under Program Files. The O.K. button should then be enabled.

[taichi]

Dear Marin85:

Thanks for your help.

You're saying I should create the shared folder inside of...which installation program?

I tried to enable sharing of the folder on the Host desktop for that particular folder, and now I'm trying to enable file sharing on the Guest desktop.

Confusing.

taichi

[Marin85]

Sorry, I haven´t been clear enough. This is a path that should work -> C:\Program Files\Sun\VirtualBox\accessible. Inside it you can create your shared folder. Notice the two additional options that appear after you have picked that path for the shared folder!...

[taichi]

Dear Marin85:

I created a folder inside Accessible, gave it a name, made sure that Vista enabled sharing for it, and then I opened VirtualBox. I went to devices, and to file sharing, tried to create shared folder, could create the path to Accessible wherein lay the shared folder, but as always the okay button is grayed out, and so I am unable to actually create the connection.

I also went into XP on the test desktop, and tried to see if there was anything I could do within shared folders there.

Out of curiosity, should I create on the guest desktop a folder with the same name that I have given to the folder in Accessible?

danke,

Taichi

[Marin85]

OK, last try from me (I have just tried to create an arbitrary shared folder and in fact it didn´t work!): rename the subfolder inside Accessible to "Shared" (without the quotes) and see if that works out. This is what I have set on my machine: either I am forgetting something or there is something wrong with that program... (more likely it is the first one)

You will be able to access the shared folder via network places from within the guest OS. I am not sure, you may be required to enter the exact path in order to locate the shared folder (I believe this is actually referring to Vista an Windows 7), which in my case would be \\VBOXSVR\Shared.

Hope this helps,

Marin

[taichi]

Well we made some real progress. Under devices in the VirtualBox (before opening the OS) I now have a shared folder named shared but I don't know how to find or access it in the guest OS desktop.

I searched for and found a folder named shared in the Guest XP, and copied a PDF document into that folder, then looked for it in the shared folder on the Host OS. But there is nothing in that folder.

So we made very significant progress in creating a shared folder in virtualbox. It feels like I'm almost there.

taichi

[at both ends]

Let me describe how it's done with ubuntu as the host OS and XP as the guest. With luck, your XP under Vista will work the same way. I presume for the rest of this that the Vista shared folder setup is correct, but unfortunately cannot check.

1. Start up the virtual machine running XP and login if necessary.
2. Explore your computer using <Windows>E. (Opening My Computer from the desktop or start menu will not work).
3. In the left pane, there is a list of folders. Using the little + buttons, expand "My Network Places", then "Entire Network", then "Virtual Box Shared Folders". Do not double click on any of those folder names; use the + buttons.
4. At this point, you should be able to see the host shared folder as both icon and name. Click on the icon and drag a copy to your desktop. A shortcut will be created.

That shortcut is a persistent link to the shared folder on the host.

[Marin85]

1. Start up the virtual machine running XP and login if necessary.
2. Explore your computer using <Windows>E. (Opening My Computer from the desktop or start menu will not work).
3. In the left pane, there is a list of folders. Using the little + buttons, expand "My Network Places", then "Entire Network", then "Virtual Box Shared Folders". Do not double click on any of those folder names; use the + buttons.
4. At this point, you should be able to see the host shared folder as both icon and name. Click on the icon and drag a copy to your desktop. A shortcut will be created.

That shortcut is a persistent link to the shared folder.

That is precisely what to do!

[taichi]

Dear Marin85:

Thank you for yesterday's excellent excerpted advice.

Unfortunately, I had already gone down the network route, based on some reading that I did, but made the mistake of double clicking on items on that tree rather than using the +, so even though I have what appears to be a shared folder with the path to the folder "shared" in the Accessibles folder, the shared folder doesn't seem to work, whether I copy and paste or drag and drop, the files don't seem to transfer.

taichi

[Marin85]

I am truly clueless... What at both ends wrote, should be working no matter whether you have clicked/browsed inside or not... Moving a file from the guest to host or vice versa via the shared folder can be sometimes slow, so maybe wait a bit and try to refresh... If that does not work, destroy the shared folder and create a new one according to the procedure posted above.

Good luck,

Marin

[taichi]

Thanks, Marin. I'll give it a go.

Have a good weekend.

taichi

[taichi]

Dear Marin85:

Success!

I can now drag files generated in the virtual OS to the shared folder and open them up in the host OS. I did a number of things intuitively, buoyed up by your optimism and good thinking.

I found when I went into properties of such important folders as the "shared" folder that sharing for the shared folder was not enabled! So I enabled sharing, then enable sharing on its shell folder, Accessible, and then on the Sun VirtualBox folder itself.

Another thing is that when I looked into properties for the "shared" folder I noticed that certain file types are permitted by default, and some are not, although you can add permission for other file types. Surprisingly, you would think that PDF, a common file type, would be in the default whitelist. But it was not! So I added PDF.

One last thing, when I examined the shared folder volume, which at first blush looks empty, I discovered that if you push the Compatible Files button it will suddenly reveal shared files. When I did that I saw my two PDFs.

Now whether it was one, or a combination of all of those things, something worked, and I am grateful to you for your persistence and your help, without which I would have been stumbling around.

By the way, in response to an earlier question about VirtualBox itself, putting aside my inability to install a printer, necessitating this workaround, XP runs very smoothly, and the whole virtual machine seems very stable.

Now I can use my old program on my newer machine, and print the output on my host OS

Danke,

Taichi