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There are cases where you want to persist data between different snapshots in VirtualBox. To accomplish this, do: C:\>path=%path%;"c:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox" C:\>vboxmanage modifyhd Persistent.vdi --type writethrough

When cloning a Ubuntu guest machine, you need to take care of few details to make it work properly. Below are the key items to change: Update /etc/hostname , change it to the new machine name Update /etc/hosts , change one of the loopback name to the new machine name. Modify /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules so that eth0 (generally) points to the updated MAC address of the virtual machine. References: https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7749&sid=89e480f0dfb234c062a058995976a424

Can't run Windows 8 virtual machine using VirtualBox (4.2.4) on Dell 610 machine :( Error message says: VT-x/AMD-V hardware acceleration is not available on your system. Certain guests (e.g. OS/2 and QN) require this feature and will fail to boot without it Looks like Win8 needs VT-x/AMD-V hardware to work. Reference(s): https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=48256

Installing Fedora 16 on Virtualbox is a no sweat activity. But for those uninitiated it probably helps to provide a little guidance. See below for one of the many possible configurations: General Name: f16 OS Type: Fedora System Base Memory: 1024 MB Processor(s): 1 Execution Cap: 100% Boot Order: CD/DVD-ROM, Hard Disk VT-x/AMD-V: Enabled Nested Paging: Enabled Display Video Memory: 128 MB 3D Acceleration: Enabled 2D Video Acceleration: Disabled Remote Desktop Server: Disabled Storage IDE Controller IDE Secondary Master (CD/DVD): Empty SATA Controller SATA Port 0: f16.vdi (Normal, 80.00 GB) Audio Host Driver: Windows DirectSound Controller: ICH AC97 Network Adapter 1: Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop (NAT) Serial Ports Disabled USB Device Filters: 0 (0 active) This is typical configuration with NAT networking. So guest can connect to the outside world but the outside world cannot connect to the guest directly. For this exercise, I use live CD as the media for installati

Tried to update my Ubuntu host today and it did pickup that new version of VirtualBox is available (4.1.8). All other packages installed properly except that VirtualBox installation was complaining about missing dkms.conf file, see error message below. $: sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup * Stopping VirtualBox kernel modules [ OK ] * Uninstalling old VirtualBox DKMS kernel modules Error! Could not locate dkms.conf file. File: does not exist. [ OK ] * Trying to register the VirtualBox kernel modules using DKMS [ OK ] * Starting VirtualBox kernel modules [ OK ] Though it looks like installation was fine but I am concerned about its effects to VirtualBox functionality. To fix this, do: $: cd /var/lib/dkms/vboxhost $: sudo rm -r 4.1.4 $: sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup Of course you have to re

I have been using VirtualBox for awhile now but I mostly use Windows as the host machine. I just had setup few Linux boxes as VirtualBox host and found a need to save files in the host as I normally do snapshots and clean 'em up. Mounting a shared folder is easy, what caught me was that I can't change ownership of the folder created under the shared folders. So my regular user account can't create files. I realized that mount actually accepts options as to who would have access to the mounted folder, so to mount with read/write access to a user, do: sudo mount -t vboxsf -o rw,uid=1000 userdat /mnt/userdat Where: uid=1000 is the user ID of the user. For example, I have a user named timus, to get the ID, you can do: timus@ubu1110:~$ cat /etc/passwd | grep timus timus:x: 1000:1000 :timus,,,:/home/timus:/bin/bash As can be seen, timus uid is 1000 and group ID is 1000 as well. userdat is the VirtualBox shared folder name. /mnt/userdat is the mount point Key

Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Alpha 2 was released last February 3, 2011. I have it installed on VirtualBox 4.0.2 with Windows 7 Professional as the host. Installation was smooth and uneventful. But installing VirtualBox guest addition that comes with the default installer seems like incompatible with Ubuntu Natty Alpha 2. Here is what I got when I tried to install: Warning: unsupported pre-release of X.org Server Installed It seems like some changes has to be done before it will work with this version of Ubuntu. But since VirtualBox does have an open source version of the guest additions, this can be used instead of the stock version. To do this, you have to: apt-get update apt-get upgrade apt-get install virtualbox-ose-guest-utils apt-get install virtualbox-ose-guest-x11 Reboot and enjoy Ubuntu Alpha 2!!!! Updates: [23March2011]: Since 21March2011, Guest Additions that comes with VirtualBox 4.0.4 does not work anymore. Updated my copy today and installed the above packages and it sav

Ubuntu 10.10 was released 10/10/10 (October 10, 2010) what an amazing date. The new version was praised with the latest packages (kernel 2.6.35, gcc 4.4.5, Firefox 3.6.12, GNOME 2.32.0 and many more). The fanfare was heavily geared towards the new Ununtu font that was purported to be crisp and clear. Since everyone is busy and I have time to mock around with the new distro, I made a series of screen captures that shows the installation sequence and a peek at how the desktop looks like. I have done this using Virtualbox 3.2.10, see below for my configuration: General Name: ubu1010 OS Type: Ubuntu System Base Memory: 1024 MB Processor(s): 1 Boot Order: CD/DVD-ROM, Hard Disk VT-x/AMD-V: Enabled Nested Paging: Enabled Display Video Memory: 12 MB 3D Acceleration: Disabled 2D Video Acceleration: Disabled Remote Display Server: Disabled Storage IDE Controller IDE Secondary Master (CD/DVD): Empty SATA Controller SATA Port 0: ubu1010.vdi (Normal, 120.00 GB) Audio Host Driver:

This is a screen capture tour of installing OpenSUSE 11.3 in VirtualBox guest machine. I have been trying to do a screen capture documentation of the top 5 linux distributions from www.distrowatch.com . So far, this is the first distribution that suggests to have 1GB of RAM during LiveCD installation. Though the 1GB requirement is unusual, the installation is straightforward. As can be expected from the top linux distributions nowadays, all of the activities are being done through GUI. Below is my guest configuration: General Name: opensuse113 OS Type: openSUSE System Base Memory: 1024 MB Processor(s): 1 Boot Order: CD/DVD-ROM, Hard Disk VT-x/AMD-V: Enabled Nested Paging: Enabled Display Video Memory: 12 MB 3D Acceleration: Disabled 2D Video Acceleration: Disabled Remote Display Server: Disabled Storage IDE Controller IDE Secondary Master (CD/DVD): Empty SATA Controller SATA Port 0: opensuse113.vdi (Normal, 120.00 GB) Audio Host Driver: Windows DirectSound Controller:

In this blog post, I have documented via screen capture how to install Mandriva 2010 Spring. I haven't explicitly mentioned that it was being done in VirtualBox guest machine as it does not really matter much, at least for the most part not unless you have a hardware that is not supported by the distribution out of the box. Mandriva installed VirtualBox guest additions by default but using OSE. [timus@localhost bin]$ /usr/bin/VBoxControl -v 3.1.8_OSEr61349 What's nice with VirtualBox is that it is progressing at a very quick pace, releasing an update almost on a monthly basis. Majority of the changes since 3.1.8 are small enhancements and bug fixes. You have two options in keeping current, using OSE version or PUEL version. In this post, I will document updating guest additions based on PUEL. Online repositories are not setup by default in Mandriva, I believe this is a conscious decision to detect the best connection where the user is located. To setup the software online

I have been using Ubuntu for a while and I pretty much like it most of the time. It has the latest and the greatest and it looks nice too, at least that's the way I perceived it. In fact, back in Ubuntu Intreprid I played around installing a minimal Ubuntu . This time around, I would like to install a pretty much stripped down version of Ubuntu Lucid Lynx, it is kind of a minimal install that still looks like Ubuntu. Install method has not changed much since Intreprid actually. Without further ado, let us get our hands dirty. Okay, download the latest minimal iso from Ubuntu . You can always download it from the mirrors, I find USC  mirror to be quite fast. While download is busy, let us configure our guest Ubuntu machine in VirtualBox. Here is what I have: General Name: ubu1004mini OS Type: Ubuntu System Base Memory: 512 MB Processor(s): 1 Boot Order: CD/DVD-ROM, Hard Disk VT-x/AMD-V: Enabled Nested Paging: Enabled Display Video Memory: 12 MB 3D Acceleration: Disabled 2D