http://www.virtualbox.org A new update is out . 1.6 -- -- Jeff <jeff <at> arcticpc.com>
Using it here at home for my wife's computer so she can use a couple Windows-only time wasters. Works pretty slick. Now, what She'd really like would be her dual-boot XP desktop fully integrated into a VirtualBox session so She wouldn't need to reinstall anything, but thus far I've only been playing with VirtualBox for half a day and can't find a way to use an existing hard disk install of XP as the basis for a session and I'm not too experienced with virtual machines as computers are a hobby, not a vocation for me. On Sun, 2008-05-04 at 11:30 -0800, Jeff wrote: > http://www.virtualbox.org > > A new update is out . 1.6
David Prentice writes: > Now, what She'd really like would be her dual-boot XP desktop=20 > fully integrated into a VirtualBox session so She wouldn't=20 > need to reinstall anything, but thus far I've only been=20 > playing with VirtualBox for half a day and can't find a way=20 > to use an existing hard disk install of XP as the basis for a=20 > session and I'm not too experienced with virtual machines as=20 > computers are a hobby, not a vocation for me.=20 It's -(Continue reading)possible- to do this. There are a number of caveats currently that make it more=20 difficult than a walk in zero-gee, but it's not improbable that you'll succeed. There are a few threads that detail changes you'll need to make to your installed XP system -- such as removing existing "motherboard" devices and drivers, disabling MS's AGP driver, etc, and the fun part, modeling the existing hard-drive. best bet? make sure you have a _good_ backup, and lots of time to do this. And if you can, have a dedicated computer just for performing the transition, because you'll want to be online during the entire operation, and you will be rebooting. This is a lot easier to perform using VMWare Workstation, but of course, there's a price difference.http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Migrate_Windows http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324764 # AGP driver
On Sun, 4 May 2008 11:30:01 -0800 Jeff <jeff <at> arcticpc.com> wrote: > > http://www.virtualbox.org Just to throw out another virtualization option, Qemu works well also. http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/ It's web site is plain, and there's not a lot of press about it, but Qemu just works. Regarding migrating a WinOS install off a physical disk, Qemu can boot a raw dd'd image and it can also convert from a raw image into several different formats that use less space. However, the video and IDE device issues are still there - Windows just really wasn't built to be migrated across hardware environments. Attached is a screenshot of my WinOS install in a Qemu VM on a FreeBSD host. The VM mounts my home directory via SAMBA and PATs out via PF on the host. Although I mostly use OpenOffice for Microsoft centric docs, I just can't find anything to replace Visio - and by replace, I mean read and write the file formats and grok all those vendor templates. Tom ====================================================================== "Z-80 system stack overflow. Shut 'er down Scotty, the system's sucking mud" - Error message on TRS 80 Model-16B Tom Simes simestd <at> netexpress.com ======================================================================(Continue reading)
On Mon, 5 May 2008 09:07:32 -0800
Tom Simes <simestd <at> netexpress.com> wrote:
> Attached is a screenshot of my WinOS install in a Qemu VM on a FreeBSD
<snip>
> -- Binary/unsupported file stripped by Ecartis --
> -- Type: image/jpeg
> -- File: qemu_on_freebsd.jpg
Well, alrighty then. Guess you'll just have to take my word for it.
Tom
======================================================================
"Z-80 system stack overflow. Shut 'er down Scotty, the system's
sucking mud" - Error message on TRS 80 Model-16B
Tom Simes simestd <at> netexpress.com
======================================================================
Actually, Leif's explanation makes a lot of sense for why this just can't be done easily. It isn't just a matter of migrating the Desktop and some applications. Oh how simple THAT would be from Linux. Instead what I'll have Her do is pretend that VirtualBox XP is a "brand new computer". Heck, XP in Vbox under Linux is faster than XP native. By far. And I've only given it a pittance of ram and video memory. No, I'm convinced (thanks Leif!) that my time (and Hers) would be better spent getting Vbox tweaked a little more kindly so that she can get GoPets to run. Yes, geeks, this is all about The Wife's desire to have GoPets run on Linux. Which may be a moot point, because according to GoPets forums they're close to releasing a native Linux port of the game client anyways. But they're always saying they're close to "doing something" and it doesn't happens. GoPets is some MMORPG substitute for WOW where your avatars/characters are goofy little animals and instead of running around pkilling noobs they learn skills and earn swag. Its servers and backend are all Linux. Oh, if you decide to join I'll give you her userid so she can earn free swag for you signing up. Its like crack, kids, so stay away. On Mon, 2008-05-05 at 09:12 -0800, Tom Simes wrote: > On Mon, 5 May 2008 09:07:32 -0800 > Tom Simes <simestd <at> netexpress.com> wrote: > >(Continue reading)
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