Derek Hildreth’s Blog

Not Everyday: Three OS’s Running Simultaneously [Screenshots]

This isn’t something that you see everyday… Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Ubuntu Hardy Heron all running simultaneously thanks to VirtualBox and Compiz Fusion. Screenshots taken by yours truly (click on the thumbnail for larger image). Enjoy!

Tags: compiz, fusion, microsoft, screenshot, ubuntu, virtual machine, virtualbox, vista, xp

How To: Install VirtualBox on Ubuntu 8.04LTS (Hardy Heron) [Tutorial]

Introduction:

This guide is intended to help users fully install VirtualBox and all of it’s features which don’t work out of the box such as USB support.

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Tags: guide, Hardy Heron, how to, install, Linux, troubleshoot, tutorial, ubuntu, virtualbox

How To: Properly Backup a VirtualBox Machine (.VDI)

Most people don’t realize that making a backup of a VirtualBox Machine (.vdi) is more complex than just copy/paste. If you do that, you’ll soon realize (when it’s too late) that it doesn’t work! This is the proper way to backup your VirtualBox Machine:

VBoxManage clonevdi source destination

Example:
VBoxManage clonevdi ~/.VirtualBox/VDI/WindowsXP.vdi ~/WindowsXP_Backup.vdi

Then, wait for it to complete. It may take a while depending on the size of your .vdi file (or how much space you allocated towards your virtual machine).

Tags: .vdi, backup, Linux, tutorial, virtualbox

How To: Install VirtualBox on Fedora 8 (Werewolf)

Updated January 9th, 2008

This is a tutorial on how to get VirtualBox up and running on Fedora 8. If you havn’t yet, add yourself as a “sudoer” by visiting the tutorial this page. Also, this tutorial is for the 32-Bit version of VirtualBox, so you’ll have to customize a little more to get the 64-bit version running (as pointed out in the comments). Everything in the “code” sections should be copy/pasted/typed into the terminal. Right, let’s get to it:

1.) Get the VirtualBox 1.5.4 package from the VirtualBox website for Fedora 8 and install it.
wget http://www.virtualbox.org/download/1.5.4/VirtualBox-1.5.4_27034_fedora8-1.i586.rpm && sudo rpm -ivh VirtualBox-1.5.4_27034_fedora8-1.i586.rpm

2.) Get the kernel-devel package:
sudo yum install make automake autoconf gcc kernel-devel


3.) Run the setup file for VirtualBox:
sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup

4.) Add yourself to the “vboxusers” group (don’t forget the “-” dash!):
su -
usermod -G vboxusers -a username
exit
5.) Run, and enjoy!
VirtualBox
I would recommend disabling compiz if you have it running for VirtualBox. I’ve noticed that it [i]really[/i] slows things down (especially in fullscreen mode).

6.) To Get USB Support:

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/forum/showpost.php?p=847612&postcount=4

7.) To Properly Backup the VirtualBox Machine (.vdi):

Please refer to my other page here:

How To: Properly Backup a VirtualBox Machine (.VDI)

8.) To Get Sound Working:

Highlight your virtual machine and click on the “Settings” button. Click on the “Sound” category, and then check the “Enable Sound” option. In the drop-down box, select “PulseAudio”. You should now have sound.

9.) To enlarge an already created VDI or Disk Image:

I plan on making this a little neater, but for right now, I wanted to share the information that I found via the virtualbox forums. A gentleman by the nickname of “gushy” posted these instructions:

• Create a new disk using Virtual Disk Manager (in VirtualBox goto File -> Virtual Disk Manager)
• download System Rescue CD
• set your current VM to have the new disk image as it’s second hard disk and the System Rescue CD iso file as it’s CD
• boot the vm from the CD
• at the command prompt type startx
• when X Windows starts, type gparted in the terminal that is open on screen
• in gparted select the windows partition and choose copy
• select the second hard disk
• right click on the representation of the disk and click paste
• gparted will prompt you for the size of the disk, drag the slider to the max size
• click apply
• wait …….
• when it’s done right click on the disk and choose Manage Flags, and select Boot
• exit gparted and power off the VM
• change the VM settings to only have one disk (the new bigger disk) and deselect the iso as the CD.
• boot the VM into your windows install on it’s new bigger disk!

Original post is located in this thread. And, if your experience was anything like mine, your windows virtual machine will perform a disk check when rebooting for the first time on the larger disk.

Tags: .vdi, fedora 8, how to, install, tutorial, virtualbox