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[[File:virtualbox-logo.png]]Interface Example:[[File:Virtualbox-interface-ex95.jpg]]Oracle VM VirtualBox is composed of:# Oracle VM VirtualBox Base Package: the executable that you have to install on your host operating system# Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack: a binary package that extends the functionality of the VirtualBox base package# Oracle VM VirtualBox Guest Additions: consist of device drivers and system applications that optimize the guest operating system for better performance and usability== Where to Obtain VirtualBox ==*Sun VirtualBox*Sun xVM VirtualBox*Innotek VirtualBox*Oracle VM VirtualBoxVirtualBox is currently maintained by Oracle company. This is because Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems in January 2010 and renamed Sun VirtualBox as "Oracle VM VirtualBox".VirtualBox remains fully functional and free to use for personal use. Oracle defines personal use as any situation in which one person installs the software, and only that individual, and their friends and family, use the software. Oracle does not care if that use is for commercial or non-commercial purposes. Isn't that nice? There are, however, some "enhanced" features that are addons to VirtualBox that are not FOSS (Free Open Source Software.)You can download VirtualBox directly from the Oracle VirtualBox web site. ''You may be required to register with an email address with Oracle, at no cost.''* LINK: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/DownloadsYou can obtain some versions from the Robotz.com FTP site maintained by the Network Administration of this WiKi.* LINK: ftp://ftp.robotz.com/pub/virtualization/The Robotz.com FTP contains other virtualization software, clients, and drivers in addition to VirtualBox.Obtain VirtualBox from your linux distribution's repository.Obtain VirtualBox from the Official Oracle repository (newer version).== Installing Virtualbox ===== Linux: Debian / Ubuntu ===You can install from apt-get or within the software center, however, if you want the latest version you have to get that from Oracle.Oracle Latest Version of Virtualbox* https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_DownloadsAdd the following line to your /etc/apt/sources.list: <nowiki>deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian trusty contrib</nowiki>If you are using trusty-tar this will work, otherwise you need to change the word 'trusty' to match the reference the others are using inside the sources.list file. Just look around in there and you will see the name that you are supposed to use.The Oracle public key is necessary to match and verify the download for the system. Type the following: <nowiki>wget -q https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -</nowiki>To install VirtualBox, do sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install virtualbox-5.0Check to make sure that virtualbox-5.0 is still the latest version. It was at the time of this writing. You may have to change that package name to match the most current version available today.Update 2024: On a Linux Mint 21.1 System adding the following to "Software Sources" deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/oracle-virtualbox-2016.gpg] https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian jammy contribThen doing the keyring dance and apt update it was possible to install a version of virtualbox newer than what is available from the Mint/Ubuntu repositories. At the time of this writing that is version 7.0. You have to replace the word "jammy" with the correct for your version of Ubuntu/Mint.If you wish to see what version of virtualbox is installed use 'vboxmanage' vboxmanage -vTo see what extension packs are installed vboxmanage list extpacks=== VirtualBox Extension Pack ===Update 2024: On a Linux Mint 21.1 System VirtualBox Extension Pack adds some extra features: Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) integration, VirtualBox Remote Desktop Protocol (VRDP), Host webcam passthrough, Disk and full VM encryption. Install the VirtualBox Extension Pack’s version to match the version of VirtualBox installed.* [https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/ Versions files and extension packs]For an example since the test machine has VirtualBox version 7.0.14r161095 the file Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-7.0.14-161095.vbox-extpack was downloaded as it is an exact match. vboxmanage is used to install the extension pack... sudo vboxmanage extpack install Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-7.0.14-161095.vbox-extpack== Review ==A full review coming soon...VMware virtualization -vs- VirtualBox. The are clear advantages to VirtualBox including the FOSS license model.VirtualBox [[UEFI]] does support Windows despite some misinformation published online. Writers like Manali Bhutiyani are erroneous in publishing that there is no support for UEFI. Support exists where needed and is under development where optional. Windows 8 and later work via UEFI in the latest VirtualBox 4.3 releases. Windows 32-bit versions have no UEFI support, however, it is not necessary. Windows 7 64-bit also lacks UEFI support, however, it is also not necessary. It can be disabled and Windows 7 64-bit will install and work correctly without UEFI on virtualization as the guest.VirtualBox has been proven to run faster than VMware server. A timed experiment of an installation of Windows XP as the guest OS took 20 mins in VirtualBox and 35 mins on VMware server. A similar test on the booting time of the guest OS also shows favor to VirtualBox with a timing of 45 seconds compared to over twice as long on VMware server. VirtualBox itself as a download is less than a quarter the size of the VMware installer. Also, VirtualBox has built-in support for remote file sharing. Networking is possible in a number of configurations to isolated test LANs and host bridging capabilities.== Basic Usage ===== hotkeys ===First you need to know what key is defined as the '''HOST key'''. Typically the default HOST key is the '''RIGHT CONTROL KEY'''. The bottom right of the Virtualbox Running VM window will indicate the currently defined HOST key. * Switch to Fullscreen Mode -> '''HOST_KEY + F'''=== share drive with host ===To share a directory with the host for the purpose of moving files from one to the other you need to install a "Guest Additions" driver on the guest machine. This enabled a way to have a shared directory that is visible to the guest machine from the host machine. Guest Additions includes other features relating to sharing between host and guest.To install Guest Additions: In this example the host computer is '''Ubuntu Linux''' and the guest computer is '''Windows 7'''. [[File:virtualbox-guestadd01.jpg]]Choose "Insert Guest Additions CD Image" allows the Windows guest to think that a driver CD was just inserted into an attached cdrom drive containing the necessary driver.[[File:virtualbox-guestadd02.jpg]]On the guest machine in Windows you can see that there appears to be a driver cd available.[[File:virtualbox-guestadd03.jpg]]Open to browse the cd by right-click and select Open. Now locate VBoxWindowsAdditions.exe and right-click to '''Run as administrator'''. You must choose "Run as administrator" on the Windows 7 guest for the driver installer to proceed.[[File:virtualbox-guestadd04.jpg]]Complete the driver installation process which will, at the end, require you to reboot the guest Windows 7 VM.Once installed and your guest OS rebooted, you need to create a virtual shared folder. You can do this by going to Devices again and clicking on Shared Folders.Now click on the Add New Shared Folder button on the right.In the Folder Path box, click the down arrow and then click Other. Browse to the folder on the host OS that you would like to share with the guest OS. In the Folder Name box, give your share a name."auto-mount" versus "Make Permanent" - By ticking Auto-mount the folder will always be mounted in the Ubuntu guest directory /media/sf_myshares (the prefix sf_ will automatically be added).By ticking Make Permanent the shared folders will also be available on the next boot and will be mounted when Auto-mount is ticked in addition.=== network options ===Network "Attached to" options:* Not attached - simulates NIC w/o attached cable* NAT - default to access external network, separating by a simulated router* NAT Network -* Bridged Adapter - circumvent host network stack, direct to network* Internal Network - simulated tiny LAN not visible to host or real network* Host-only Adapter - similar to Internal Network w/o use of host NIC* Generic Driver - UDP tunnel or VDE'''Scenario 1''': you need the guest to have access to the Internet while being on a different subnet from your LAN. Choose: '''NAT''''''Scenario 2''': you need access to the host system via Guest Additions, however, you do not want the guest OS to have any access to the Internet. Choose: '''Host-only Adapter'''.== GUESTADDONS DOES NOT WORK IN CONSOLE ONLY, REQUIRES X.ORG ===== Make VM available from different user accounts on one computer === First you have to locate the virtual hard drive of the shared machine in a directory where different users have appropriate permissions. By default VirtualBox puts the VMs in your home directory in a path like: /home/username/VirtualBox VMsThis can be moved to a location where all users have permission to access the VMs. Make the VirtualBox VMs directory under /home so all users can access it. mkdir /home/VirtualBox\ VMs groupadd vboxusers usermod -aG vboxusers nicolep We created a group vboxusers and added a user nicolep to the group. For all VMs we can chgrp vboxusers * and chmod 775 * To change default folder on GUI client: File -> Preferences -> General and with command line: VBoxManage setproperty machinefolder /home/VirtualBox\ VMs For existing VMs the second user will not be able to see those created under the first user's x.org login session because VirtualBox has a configuration file that lists the VMs. If user 1 is Joe and user 2 is Nicole, we want to make it so Nicole can use Joe's VMs. cp /home/joe/.config/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml /home/nicole/.config/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml Now they both have the same list of VMs. Next problem is permissions. Every time Joe opens a VM under his login, the permissions get changed locking Nicole out. VirtualBox takes ownership of the VM and changes the permissions resulting in the following error afterwards when you switch user accounts. [[File:virtualbox-warning-permissions.jpg]] The commands have to be manually entered again. cd /home/VirtualBox\ VMs chgrp vboxusers * -R chmod 775 * -R Having to change the permissions back each time you login as the other user is not desirable. There are some workarounds suggested by sources online. * [http://askubuntu.com/questions/341508/how-can-i-prevent-virtualbox-from-changing-the-permissions-on-the-vbox-file To workaround this issue ... a vbox file for each user in the same folder] See other comments in the discussion tab. === GUESTADDONS DOES NOT WORK IN CONSOLE ONLY, REQUIRES X.ORG ===rpm --import http://apt.sw.be/RPM-GPG-KEY.dag.txt <nowiki>rpm --import http://apt.sw.be/RPM-GPG-KEY.dag.txt</nowiki>wget http://pkgs.repoforge.org/rpmforge-release/rpmforge-release-0.5.3-1.el6.rf.i686.rpm <nowiki>wget http://pkgs.repoforge.org/rpmforge-release/rpmforge-release-0.5.3-1.el6.rf.i686.rpm</nowiki>rpm -K rpmforge-release-0.5.3-1.el6.rf.*.rpm <nowiki>rpm -K rpmforge-release-0.5.3-1.el6.rf.*.rpm</nowiki>rpm -i rpmforge-release-0.5.3-1.el6.rf.*.rpm <nowiki>rpm -i rpmforge-release-0.5.3-1.el6.rf.*.rpm</nowiki>yum install dkms yum install dkmsmkdir /mnt/cdrom mkdir /mnt/cdrommount /dev/scd0 /mnt/cdrom mount /dev/scd0 /mnt/cdromyum install dkms binutils gcc make patch libgomp glibc-headers glibc-devel kernel-headers kernel-devel yum install dkms binutils gcc make patch libgomp glibc-headers glibc-devel kernel-headers kernel-devel=== USB 2.0 Support ===This requires the installation of Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack. The procedure here has been tested on VirtualBox 4.3.10 on 14.04.1 LTS _Trusty TahrTo see what extension packs you may already have installed type this command: sudo VBoxManage list extpacksTo download goto:* https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Download_Old_Builds_4_3Scroll down the page to find the version that matches what you have. For this example the correct one was found on page 2 under: "VirtualBox 4.3.10 (released Mar 25th 2014)". Click on "Extension Pack All Platforms"* Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.3.10-93012.vbox-extpackYOU MUST DOWNLOAD THE EXTENSION PACK VERSION THAT MATCHES YOUR VIRTUALBOX INSTALL VERSIONGoto the file and right click, choose to open in VirtualBox. You will be prompted to install the extension. After initiating installation you will see an install progress dialog box. KDESudo will prompt you for your password. This prompt opens behind the current window and sometimes cannot be seen. If the install progress indicator is not moving it is probably because you have been prompted to enter the password for sudo, and the dialog is hidden behind the current window.If successful, the dialog will display: The extension pack '''Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack''' was installed successfully.note: if you install the wrong version then you need to remove it before proceeding. Use the following command to remove any defunct or incorrect version vboxmanage extpack uninstall "Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack"=== Windows 7 64-bit Extremely Slow ===Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64 Bit) runs very slow in virtual box.It was noted in the log several lines indicating AsyncCompletion delays. This is disk related. 01:12:42.042957 AsyncCompletion: Task 0x007f0767284200 completed after 30 secondsenable the Host I/O Cache in Storage > Controller: SATA. ... RESOLVED PROBLEM.* https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch01.html[[Category:Computer_Technology]][[Category:Linux]]