[ Date Index ] [ Thread Index ] [ <= Previous by date / thread ] [ Next by date / thread => ]
I have just installed virtual Windows XP using VirtualBox and I thought my experience might be useful. This is fairly long so be warned. I have 2 computers, a 32 bit and a 64 bit, both AMD and both with Mepis installed. I have a Windows XP installation on the 32 bit which I use for mostly legacy work, the odd app that I haven't found a Linux replacement for and some family trees in a micrografx format that I can't export. You know what a PITA rebooting is so I managed to instal virtual WinXP on the 32 bit about a 9 months ago with much kerfuffle. Mepis was then based on Ubuntu, no 64 bit was available and how I did it is lost in the mists of time except that I did it from the command line as it wasn't in Synaptic's repositories. The latest release Mepis 7 is based on Debian 4.0 Etch and that's what this is about and is probably relevant to quite a few on the list. I started with the 64 bit machine (leave the working one be), updated Mepis and there in the Apt repositories in Synaptic was Virtual Box for Debian 4. I installed it and got an error message that it could not compile a kernel (the heart of the virtual system) due to incompatibilities. The VBox user manual is very good so I downloaded the latest and refreshed my memory. There are several lib files that you have to have but all were already included in the distro. What you must do is ensure that you have a matching set of the following by checking the versions in Synaptic: linux-headers linux-image linux-kbuild linux-kernel-headers (not too sure about this one) linux-source These files are all installed in /usr/src/ The source seemed OK but a couple of the others were not installed. I rectified that and then ran as root /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup as instructed. The kernel compiled without a hitch. But Virtual Box (under System on the menu) would not run as I didn't have permission. This was my only criticism of the manual as it told me to add my user name to the vboxusers group but not how to do it. To my trusty O'Reilly's Linux Pocket Guidewhere I found that the place to be is a text file, /etc/group. VBox install adds vboxusers to the end of this file and you just add your user name to this entry (as root of course). And away I went, VBox opened no bother and I installed WinXP following the pretty simple instructions. It now resides in a 10 Gb directory in my home partition. The 32 bit install was a bit more difficult. I upgraded Mepis to 7, found VBox in Synaptic, checked the linux-* (see above) dependencies, installed and read the error messages. The Linux source was not installed and I had trouble getting a matching set of linux-* flies. The 32 bit distro seems to have a fair bit of legacy rubbish in its repositories. The biggest problem I had was with the linux-source files. I installed from Synaptic but VBox still couldn't see them when I ran /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup. I then found that Synaptic only downloaded a tar file. I unpacked the tarball into a sub directory (/usr/src/linux-source-2.6.22 in my case) but VBox couldn't find them. The error message said set the directory using a command DEV-???=directory but this didn't seem to work (I can't remember what the 2nd half of the DEV- was and I'm not going to screw up my system to find out). I then looked at the /var/vbox-install.log file which seemed to be looking for the source in a sub directory called /linux/. I renamed the source directory to /linux and everything worked. Installed WinXP etc., etc. Install the Guest Additions from the virtual machine or the mouse will drive you mad. You have to set up a share directory between the host and virtual machine to access files between the 2. Not a very convenient way to work but acceptable. I can't access the files on the virtual XP as I can on the real XP by mounting fat32 drives. I now have WinXP on both my computers (I only use one at a time) so now to sort out the networking. You know you can do it. Give it a go. George -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html