Virtual Box

[Bozo]

Check this link first:
http://blog.windowsvirtualization.com/virtualization/virtual-machines-performance-comparison

Download from here:
http://www.virtualbox.org/


Bozo :joker:

 

[Mercutio]

Don't buy it. BS. Four times the standard CPU performance of VMware and disk performance that exceeds physical reality? No disclosure of what hardware was used in the tests?

Um, no.

 

[Bozo]

I installed it on Server 2003 as the host. I installed XP as the guest.

It blows VMWare and Virtual PC out of the water for speed and usability.

Bozo :joker:

 

[ddrueding]

I agree with Merc that the synthetic numbers in the blog are bogus, unless he was running them on a massive server.

But I did just install it and a Ubuntu 7.10 guest, and it seems quite snappy. It also looks like it didn't make as much of a mess of my network cards as VMWare Workstation or Server do.

 

[Bozo]

I installed XP as the guest. The install time was way shorter than VMWare. And, XPs' speed (snappyness) is the same as if it was installed in the normal way.
I'd like to find a way to install Virtual Box on a computer that is not connected to the internet.

Bozo :joker:

 

[ddrueding]

I'd like to find a way to install Virtual Box on a computer that is not connected to the internet.

How would this be difficult?

 

[Clocker]

When u do Ubuntu, what version of Linux do you select when Virtualbox asks for OS type?

Thanks

 

[ddrueding]

Linux 2.6

 

[Bozo]

How would this be difficult?

When you start the program it wants you to register. I only installed it once, but I could not get past the registration when installin a guest OS.
I'll have to install it again.

Bozo :joker:

 

[ddrueding]

I typed in the information, but I don't think I was connected to the internet at the time (it was on a VM inside VMWare Workstation)

 

[timwhit]

Just tried it out. Installed Windows XP in under 15 minutes. Feels vastly faster than VMWare, even with VMWare tools installed.

 

[ddrueding]

Hmm, I wonder how gaming performance is...this could be the trick to get me onto Ubuntu...

 

[timwhit]

I installed the Unreal Tournament 3 demo in my XP VM, but it won't start the game.

 

[timwhit]

Can someone explain this HDTach score?

This was done running the virtual machine off of a 500GB Samsung drive.

 

[ddrueding]

Looks like it does some kind of crazy buffering in it's virtual device emulation. That could explain a lot WRT "snappiness"

 

[Clocker]

Dumb question: Is there a way to seamlessly switch between the Virtual OS and my main OS? When I start the Unbuntu virtual OS, right now the only way I can get out of it is to log out of Unbuntu...

 

[ddrueding]

Press the right Ctrl button once.

 

[sechs]

Have any of you folks been using Virtual Box?

I'm looking at taking the leap from VMware Workstation, since it costs money.

 

[timwhit]

Have any of you folks been using Virtual Box?

I'm looking at taking the leap from VMware Workstation, since it costs money.

I've played around with it at home, seems to work fine. I haven't tried to use it long term for anything though. I believe that you are supposed to for pay support if you are using it for commercial purposes.

 

[ddrueding]

I played with it for a while, but I stopped once I had VMWare ESXi servers lying around.

 

[P5-133XL]

I tried it when it went to v3. I stopped when I couldn't SMP fold on it because it will only allow a single CPU when running 64 bit linux under a 32 bit host (XP). VMWare server does not have that limitation ...

 

[Chewy509]

Have any of you folks been using Virtual Box?

Using it daily for testing purposes. Running WinXP, Win2K8 and Solaris guests at the moment. The host is XP x64, and all the SMP stuff works nicely.

There are a few bugs in v3.0 in regards to OpenGL acceleration, so I would recommend v2.2.4 if that feature is important. (3D Acceleration is currently broken on Solaris guests).

IMO, much better than Virtual PC, but is not a replacement for the high-end VMWare stuff.

PS. If you want to avoid the support for commercial use, then the GPL version is also available, but it does lack some features that the closed source version does.

 

[sechs]

I get the vibe that Virtual Box is more comparable to VMware server rather than workstation.

There are some key ease-of-use features that drove me to pay for workstation rather than using server for personal use.

 

[Gilbo]

I haven't tried it, but the latest version supports 3D graphics. Specifically DirectX 8.0 & 9.0 (experimental, obviously just for Windows), and OpenGL (apparently decently-tested stability for Linux & Windows).

Impressive...

 

[Chewy509]

I haven't tried it, but the latest version supports 3D graphics. Specifically DirectX 8.0 & 9.0 (experimental, obviously just for Windows), and OpenGL (apparently decently-tested stability for Linux & Windows).

Impressive...

On a windows XP x64 host, running a Solaris guest (x64), I was able to play Quake2 fullscreen (1680x1050) on Intel 965G graphics as around 40-50fps using OpenGL acceleration within the guest using Virtual Box v2.2.4. No issues with it at all.

Sadly VB v3.0 broke OpenGL acceleration with Solaris guests.

I haven't tried DX acceleration yet, but Win2K8 runs very nicely as a guest in VB v3.0.

 

[Fushigi]

I thought I would try Virtual Box on my work laptop as I've a need to start looking at Open Solaris. I installed the latest version just fine. The first sign that all was not well was when the installer disabled my AV app and didn't re-enable it when the install was done. After manually enabling it, I created a VM for Open Solaris and mounted the ISO image to install it. When I started the VM it started up and initialized a bunch of Solaris things. Then it decided it wanted to f**k over the video drivers (no, I had not enabled 3D acceleration). So after a few minutes I'm staring at a blank screen and the PC is beeping occasionally.

One hard power down and boot up later, the video is still messed up. I set the resolution to the norm but it wouldn't let me adjust color depth beyond 8 bit. VirtualBox has been uninstalled. The video drivers (nVidia Quadro 135) have been re-installed. Another reboot and I could fix the color depth.

I'm not going to waste any time troubleshooting the problem. This is my main workstation and I can't afford the downtime right now. I'll look into a spare machine for Open Solaris.

 

[ddrueding]

Wait...it messed up the video drivers outside the VM? That is inexcusable.

 

[Fushigi]

Exactly. I've no idea what it was trying to do. It had opened a window that was probably 1024x768 or maybe 1280x1024 and then poof .. the screen went black and I had to reboot into a very ugly lo-res mess.

 

[Mercutio]

Personally, I blame nVidia.

 

[Howell]

I've been using VMware server. (free)

 

[Stereodude]

Personally, I blame nVidia.

I blame Bill Gates, Che Guevara, and Mary Queen of Scotts. :cyclops:

 

[Howell]

Che always gets a bad rap.

 

[sechs]

Mary Queen of Scotts

Did you mean Queen of Scotts Miracle-Gro?


Anyway, it turns out that VirtualBox won't run 64-bit guests without hardware virtualization extensions, which is a non-starter. I'm not going to replace my computer so that I can test 64-bit operating systems in a VM.

I also can't easily import my existing VMware VMs. That's a pain in the rear.

With Oracle buying out Sun, the increased crapification of this product is assured.

 

[Chewy509]

Sadly VB v3.0 broke OpenGL acceleration with Solaris guests.

This has been fixed in the v3.0.2 release, as well as other 3D acceleration features.