Virtual Machines with Linux host/Win guest (1 Viewer)

[Hedon James]

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What about Virtual Machines? They are stored in default locations within Virtual Box directory. Won't they be wiped out in the process, or will that directory data remain intact, minus the operational program? Or should I move the image.vdi files to an external? If I need to move them, I've got a SAM Linux img and a WinXP img, each 3.5GB that need to be moved to an external, as I've only got 1GB of internal HD to spare.

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Yes, the virtual machines you have already created will be deleted. If you need I will send you an .iso image of whatever windows you need so that you can then burn a cd and install the simplest way. Yes, you can move the .vdi files to an external drive.
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That is EXACTLY the version I previously downloaded; it is still located in the Firefox>Tools>Downloads directory. Do I need to "re-download" or can I just reinstall from the Firefox Downloads manager?

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You can just reinstall with previously downloaded .deb file.
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Sounds simple enough. I can handle that!

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What is exactly what you wanted to do? backup vm's to external drive or RUN them from an external drive?
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That is EXACTLY what I want to do. Sorry for stating otherwise...my bad
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Also, the icon for usb on the bottom right on the vm window looks like the end of a USB cable.
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Let me know where we are at.....Keep up the good work, its only hard the first time!!

-Jtek

I almost forgot, once you have everything installed, in ubuntu go to >System>Adminstration>Users and Groups and in the new window click the "Keys" icon and supply your password.
Then click "manage groups" then scroll down to bottom and select "vboxusers" and click properties. Put a check mark in "root" and "your username" Click ok and close all windows.
Reboot linux.
Load vm.
USB will work now.

Jtek, you ARE the MAN!!!

FWIW, I followed your previous instructions to a "T", figuring that if *.vdi images were gone, then I'd just reinstall them. They were just base installations, with no modifications, and I figured I could use the additional "practice." But FYI...both *.vdi images were immediately recognized by the new VirtualBox. Bonus, right?!

I was pulling my hair out with the usb connections, though, as I could see the grayed out options to select, but it wouldn't allow me to select them. After numerous attempts to check off the selections from within "device" options, restarting VirtualBox, and restarting Linux, I figured I'd messed up somehow... I was prepared to uninstall EVERYTHING (again!) and reinstall EVERYTHING (again!) and hope that did the trick.

Let me tell you how much frustration you saved me by posting the additional steps regarding users/groups and permissions! I would've never figured that out on my own! Again, did exactly what you suggested and VOILA...there's my usb stick showing up as drive E:\ in Virtual WinXP. This is the holy grail to complete my Linux migration! Can't see any reason why my usb External HDD wouldn't be recognized; I'll be backing up my Virtual Machine *.vdi and *.img files to the external and I'm off and running....

Thank you SO MUCH for your advice and expertise!

P.S. I put those dashes ----- in between responses to make it more readable, but that looks horrible. How do you guys "multi-quote" messages so it is easier for readers to follow?

 

[Jtek74]

Jtek, you ARE the MAN!!!

FWIW, I followed your previous instructions to a "T", figuring that if *.vdi images were gone, then I'd just reinstall them. They were just base installations, with no modifications, and I figured I could use the additional "practice." But FYI...both *.vdi images were immediately recognized by the new VirtualBox. Bonus, right?!

I was pulling my hair out with the usb connections, though, as I could see the grayed out options to select, but it wouldn't allow me to select them. After numerous attempts to check off the selections from within "device" options, restarting VirtualBox, and restarting Linux, I figured I'd messed up somehow... I was prepared to uninstall EVERYTHING (again!) and reinstall EVERYTHING (again!) and hope that did the trick.

Let me tell you how much frustration you saved me by posting the additional steps regarding users/groups and permissions! I would've never figured that out on my own! Again, did exactly what you suggested and VOILA...there's my usb stick showing up as drive E:\ in Virtual WinXP. This is the holy grail to complete my Linux migration! Can't see any reason why my usb External HDD wouldn't be recognized; I'll be backing up my Virtual Machine *.vdi and *.img files to the external and I'm off and running....

Thank you SO MUCH for your advice and expertise!

P.S. I put those dashes ----- in between responses to make it more readable, but that looks horrible. How do you guys "multi-quote" messages so it is easier for readers to follow?

I am glad you got everything working, and your quite welcome for the help. I can remember being fairly new to linux and having tons of people help me. So what goes around comes around, its good Karma!

Good to know about the *.vdi still being there. I though they might be but wasn't sure. Hadn't had an opportunity to test it.

You don't want to know how long it took me to figure out the "user groups" issue. I almost totally forgot about it!

The multi-quotes? Honestly I have never tried it. I am sure someone will chime in with the answer.

-Justin

 

[Rickboy]

I know this is over and done with but I would have done this a little differently..

My understanding is that you had a dual boot system with WinXP and Umbuntu and you wanted to virtualize the WinXP parition and then extend the Umbuntu partition or create a 2nd Umbuntu accessible partition..

This is how I would have handled it..

Tools needed
-USB drive
-VMware Server for Linux distros (freeware)
-VMware Converter Stand Alone (freeware)

1. attach USB drive and boot to WinXP
2. Install VMware Converter Stand Alone.
3. Initiate P2V conversion of WinXP parition into a virtual disk. (you can P2V the machine running VMware Converter) The target storage will be the USB drive.
4. After P2V is completed, shutdown XP and boot into Umbuntu
5. repartition the old NTFS partition into whatever format you want or extend the Umbuntu partition.
6. Copy vmx, vmdk, nvram files to the local drive (unless you want to run on USB)
7. Install VMware Server on Umbuntu
8. Import virtual machine into VMware Server
9. Configure virtual hardware resources as needed.
10. Boot new XP VM and enjoy...

 

[Hedon James]

I know this is over and done with but I would have done this a little differently..

My understanding is that you had a dual boot system with WinXP and Umbuntu and you wanted to virtualize the WinXP parition and then extend the Umbuntu partition or create a 2nd Umbuntu accessible partition..

This is how I would have handled it..

Tools needed
-USB drive
-VMware Server for Linux distros (freeware)
-VMware Converter Stand Alone (freeware)

1. attach USB drive and boot to WinXP
2. Install VMware Converter Stand Alone.
3. Initiate P2V conversion of WinXP parition into a virtual disk. (you can P2V the machine running VMware Converter) The target storage will be the USB drive.
4. After P2V is completed, shutdown XP and boot into Umbuntu
5. repartition the old NTFS partition into whatever format you want or extend the Umbuntu partition.
6. Copy vmx, vmdk, nvram files to the local drive (unless you want to run on USB)
7. Install VMware Server on Umbuntu
8. Import virtual machine into VMware Server
9. Configure virtual hardware resources as needed.
10. Boot new XP VM and enjoy...

I appreciate you chiming in, even though it's over & done with. I'm always interested in someone else's way, to see if I can learn something from them. I understand what you are suggesting and I actually considered doing it your way, even using VMWare instead of VirtualBox.

However, my WinXP partition was 26GB of assorted Win programs on a 40GB hard drive; accordingly, my "backup" image was 26GB. I did indeed store it on an external usb drive, but don't want to run it from there due to potential performance issues. And I don't want to import a 26GB virtual drive onto Ubuntu, as I will have lost all the disk space that I want to allocate to Ubuntu. Inasmuch as I'm only interested in Virtual Machine for Windows software that Linux cannot replace, I ended up deciding on a base WinXP installation with specific installation of only those programs I'm interested in, i.e. Quickbooks, Zune, etc...

But I understand where you are coming from and if I had more hard drive to permanently spare to Windows, I probably would've done it exactly the way you described! Thanks for posting that!

 

[Rickboy]

I appreciate you chiming in, even though it's over & done with. I'm always interested in someone else's way, to see if I can learn something from them. I understand what you are suggesting and I actually considered doing it your way, even using VMWare instead of VirtualBox.

However, my WinXP partition was 26GB of assorted Win programs on a 40GB hard drive; accordingly, my "backup" image was 26GB. I did indeed store it on an external usb drive, but don't want to run it from there due to potential performance issues. And I don't want to import a 26GB virtual drive onto Ubuntu, as I will have lost all the disk space that I want to allocate to Ubuntu. Inasmuch as I'm only interested in Virtual Machine for Windows software that Linux cannot replace, I ended up deciding on a base WinXP installation with specific installation of only those programs I'm interested in, i.e. Quickbooks, Zune, etc...

But I understand where you are coming from and if I had more hard drive to permanently spare to Windows, I probably would've done it exactly the way you described! Thanks for posting that!

This is obviously for other people's future reference..

When you do a P2V conversion using VMware Converter, you have several disk options. One is that you can resize your volume and partition size. In your case, you could resized the 26GB drive down to whatever size will accommodate the data already on the source disk. So if you only have 3GB of data, you can resize the virtual disk down to 4GB to 25GB (allowing space for the page file and any growth).

Another option that is that you can have a virtual disk created in 2GB blocks. So lets say you have that 26GB disk with only 3GB of data. The virtual disk would be created with 2 x 2GB files. The virtual machine would still see the disk as a 26GB volume. VMware Server (or player or workstation) will create another 2GB virtual disk file when you start to go beyond 4GB of data.

 

[Hedon James]

Pagin Jtek again...

Playing around with Vbox and got Quickbooks loaded onto VM XP, restored old backup, and Quickbooks is up and running on VM WinXP just like it is "real" windows. I'm doing backflips here, and just slackjawed at the awesomeness of Virtual Machines...a whole new world!

During the Quickbooks process, it occurred to me how much FASTER that install & restore would've gone if I could've used network resources. I noticed the "network interface" icon right next to the usb icon; and the network interface is enabled as "Adaptor 1 (NAT)", so I tried to setup a network connection using my Network Setup Smartkey on a USB stick, but I get a message "The wizard cannot create a wireless network, either because a wireless network adaptor is not installed or because software for the wireless adapter is not installed." Although this computer is connected to the network via ethernet cable, just like 3 other computers on my network, I used the same usb stick with network setup that worked on the other 3 ethernet "Windows" computers, as well as 4 wireless laptop computers.

I'm wondering if I have an incorrect setting enabled on my Vbox network interface. Is there a way to allow Virtual WinXP to access my network attached file storage and/or a network server?

 

[Jtek74]

Ok, let me make sure I understand the question.
You have a server or a NAS (please specify which one or both) on your home/office network that you would like to be able to connect to from your windows vm?

Instead of installing Quickbooks from a cd you were interested in perhaps doing a network install? Same with data restore?

So are you looking to just add some mapped drives to windows vm? Do you need windows vm to join a domain?

Or is all this talk about connecting to server/NAS NOT on a home network, ie a remote connection?

Please try to give me the exact scenario and i will try my best to help.

 

[Hedon James]

Ok, let me make sure I understand the question.
You have a server or a NAS (please specify which one or both) on your home/office network that you would like to be able to connect to from your windows vm?

Instead of installing Quickbooks from a cd you were interested in perhaps doing a network install? Same with data restore?

So are you looking to just add some mapped drives to windows vm? Do you need windows vm to join a domain?

Or is all this talk about connecting to server/NAS NOT on a home network, ie a remote connection?

Please try to give me the exact scenario and i will try my best to help.

I have 4 desktops and 4 laptops in my network. The 4 desktops each have their own NAS via external usb HDD, and the laptops are almost used as "dumb terminals" for the desktop, so I can access my desktop while I work by my pool, patio, or wherever I feel like working that day; I like to save desktop data to the attached NAS usb HDD, but backup each computer to a NAS device that is NOT directly connected to the usb HDD. For example desktop1 and laptop1 will save data, files, etc... to usb drive1 attached to desktop1, but will BACKUP to usb drive2 attached to desktop2, but mapped as network drive "Z" on desktop1 and laptop1. (I'm not a big fan of centralized server storage of data due to a bad experience...I prefer NOT to have all my data in 1 central location!)

I'd like to duplicate this setup with my Ubuntu VirtualBox WinXP, effectively accessing NAS data, files, etc... from within VirtualBox WinXP and also saving files FROM Virtual WinXP TO a NAS device. While I want to make it part of my home workgroup, I don't need to join a domain, nor do I need remote access. MAYBE someday in the future, IF it has that capability and IF I can figure out a practical use for that; but not today, and probably not EVER?!

Can I do that from VirtualBox WinXP? Retrieve from and Save to NAS usb device?

 

[Jtek74]

I have 4 desktops and 4 laptops in my network. The 4 desktops each have their own NAS via external usb HDD, and the laptops are almost used as "dumb terminals" for the desktop, so I can access my desktop while I work by my pool, patio, or wherever I feel like working that day; I like to save desktop data to the attached NAS usb HDD, but backup each computer to a NAS device that is NOT directly connected to the usb HDD. For example desktop1 and laptop1 will save data, files, etc... to usb drive1 attached to desktop1, but will BACKUP to usb drive2 attached to desktop2, but mapped as network drive "Z" on desktop1 and laptop1. (I'm not a big fan of centralized server storage of data due to a bad experience...I prefer NOT to have all my data in 1 central location!)

I'd like to duplicate this setup with my Ubuntu VirtualBox WinXP, effectively accessing NAS data, files, etc... from within VirtualBox WinXP and also saving files FROM Virtual WinXP TO a NAS device. While I want to make it part of my home workgroup, I don't need to join a domain, nor do I need remote access. MAYBE someday in the future, IF it has that capability and IF I can figure out a practical use for that; but not today, and probably not EVER?!

Can I do that from VirtualBox WinXP? Retrieve from and Save to NAS usb device?

Yes, this is no problem. I am wrapping up at work. I will tell you the steps when I get home tonight. for a little preview you are basically going to change your vm network adapter from "NAT" to "bridged" and join the work group the rest of your network is on. Then you can map drives till the cows come home.
So the simple answer is "YES". You can do all the things that you asked.

 

[Hedon James]

Yes, this is no problem. I am wrapping up at work. I will tell you the steps when I get home tonight. for a little preview you are basically going to change your vm network adapter from "NAT" to "bridged" and join the work group the rest of your network is on. Then you can map drives till the cows come home.
So the simple answer is "YES". You can do all the things that you asked.

Heh!

Save yourself the trouble! I changed my setting for network adaptor interface from NAT to bridged and it automatically found my etho01 network connection. Started VBox WinXP and checked network connections and ALL my network computers are there, as well as attached NAS usb devices!

I'm good for now...this should keep me busy for quite awhile!

Thanks again for your help Jtek!!!

 

[Jtek74]

Excellent...glad you got it figured out. Wasn't able to get online last night. i have a 9month old and she decided to be fussy last night! Man, am I tired!

Any future questions just let me know!

GEAUX SAINTS!

-Jtek

 

[llama]

W7 has gone **** up on me (or will in a couple of days) so I have officially given up on keeping an entire partition dedicated to a Windows o/s. Instead I installed Virtualbox 3.1 http://www.howtoforge.com/installing-virtualbox-3.1-on-an-ubuntu-9.10-desktop (not that anybody here needs a howto) and discovered that VB has simplified the seamless mode.

I installed an XP guest so I can use my mapping software and two mapping websites with ActiveX controls (that won't work on IES4Linux), and the seamless mode really makes interaction with my GNOME desktop much easier.

 

[Hedon James]

W7 has gone **** up on me (or will in a couple of days) so I have officially given up on keeping an entire partition dedicated to a Windows o/s. Instead I installed Virtualbox 3.1 http://www.howtoforge.com/installing-virtualbox-3.1-on-an-ubuntu-9.10-desktop (not that anybody here needs a howto) and discovered that VB has simplified the seamless mode.

I installed an XP guest so I can use my mapping software and two mapping websites with ActiveX controls (that won't work on IES4Linux), and the seamless mode really makes interaction with my GNOME desktop much easier.

VirtualBox is AMAZING, isn't it?! If you hadn't started up the program yourself, would you even know you're using a virtual machine? That's mind-blowing to me!

And maybe you already figured this out, but don't forget to initialize your "shared folder" to share data/files between the two OS platforms. That could come in real handy for you!