Virtualbox?? VMWare??

[ElEdwards]

I would like to get away from WinXP and go completely Kubuntu 8.10...... BUT..... there is a piece of software that I use for work that is proprietary and requires a USB dongle. It's Avid PostDeko, a television graphics generation program that requires WinXP.

I've been reading about Virtualbox and it seems that it won't support USB with a WinXP guest.

Would VMWare work for my situation?

I'd appreciate any thoughts

El

[Snowhog]

Re: Virtualbox?? VMWare??

Would VMWare work for my situation?

I'd appreciate any thoughts

El

Yes. I use VMware Player 2.5. I have two USB HDs and a USB Floppy, and my mouse is USB. All work in VMware Player.

[pansz]

Re: Virtualbox?? VMWare??

I've been reading about Virtualbox and it seems that it won't support USB with a WinXP guest.

Both closed-source and open-source edtion of Virtualbox are free of charge, if you download the closed-source version of Virtualbox from the official site you will have USB support.

[The Liquidator]

Re: Virtualbox?? VMWare??

However as for USB support in Virtualbox in 8.10 you need to read this:

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3099465.0

After following the routine there USB worked for me.

[Fintan]

Re: Virtualbox?? VMWare??

If you already have a copy of xp then first:
http://www.howtoforge.com/vmware_con..._windows_linux
you won't need follow the instructions up to the point of installing vmware server. (point 4, page 3)

to make a copy of your existing xp to a folder (at least the size of your xp)

Then:
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3097965.0

Very fast and works great with usb.

Enjoy.

[The Liquidator]

Re: Virtualbox?? VMWare??

Okay

VMWare's converter was cool, but when I came to use it in Ubuntu with a VM payer I could not connect to the net so could not even activate XP. So it's Virtualbox.

I will need to do a clean install of VB as I attempted to move the .vdi file onto my USB drive but unfortunately it's FAt 32 and it stopped at 4Gb wrecking the file in the proces so I've got to re-work it. So I'm proposing to format the c:\ drive and install the VM there via virtualbox.

Will it be enough to

Format with gparted (as ext3)
Install to the former c:\ drive
edit the grub config to remove the entry for Windows

Or is there something else I need to be doing?

Thanks

[Fintan]

Re: Virtualbox?? VMWare??

VMWare's converter was cool, but when I came to use it in Ubuntu with a VM payer I could not connect to the net so could not even activate XP. So it's Virtualbox.

I have never seen that happen. Oh, well.

Alternately you can get the trial version of workstation 6.5 and install xp that way.

Then just install player 2.5 when you have your xp set up the way you like it.

The reason I like vmware is that imvho it is faster and more stable. I use it for all things adobe.

[The Liquidator]

Re: Virtualbox?? VMWare??

Well, to be more correct, I got the message that I couldn't connect to the MS activation server but because when that fails I am forced to log off (interesting because it is a converted full installation) I'm not given the chance to install anything else - so it might be the server. Will have another go before making my mind up.

BTW - huge progress was made with the installation of the 2.5 player - which installed perfectly 1st time

[The Liquidator]

Re: Virtualbox?? VMWare??

I think I know what the problem is - the virtual machine is not connecting to my ethernet (either hard-wired or wireless). When I converted the c drive, the option for networking I saw was NAT. As that's the one used by Virtualbox I left it like that. However, in the player, selecting a NAT connection produces the following error:

"could not open /dev/vmnet8. No such file or directory". The only setting that does not produce an error message (and an active network icon in the VM window) is "bridged" but that doesn't seem to hook up with my hardware so I am stumped at the moment.

[dibl]

Re: Virtualbox?? VMWare??

I've been using the free VMware Player for 2 years, to run a proprietary MS Visual FoxPro database in Win XP -- the newest Player ver. 2.5 is quite sufficient. No USB issues, or any others, for me. Here's the "how-to":

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3095339.0

[The Liquidator]

Re: Virtualbox?? VMWare??

Thanks for all the help, the decision is taken and the winner is .......VM Player!

I think something may have gone wrong with the initial conversion as I did it again and, well, instead of a simple "activate" page I got the full desktop (with full 1280x800) although a message that I've got 30 days to activate it.

Only problem is that it's slow as a snail because the only space for it currently is a USB Hard Drive. I can't see how any part of it won't work.

Here's the plan. Format sda1 the original c:\ drive to ext3, (keep the name windows) then copy the VDI to it. I would then propose to edit the grub menu to remove the reference to windows as a boot medium.

2 things: Would that take care of the MBR and if not is there anything I should be doing about it? Also I have a FAT 32 partition with the My documents folder on it. I would like to be able to save to that from the VM. How would I go about that please?

Thanks for the help.

Ian

Oh yes, finally because the USB drive is FAT the VDI will be in 2 GB segments. Will that be a problem?

[dibl]

Re: Virtualbox?? VMWare??

Is there some reason the external USB drive needs to be a FAT filesystem format? On my Asus Eee PC, I have a Win XP VM on a SD card, but I formatted the card ext2, and the performance is not awful. I would think FAT would lead to:

1. poor performance
2. poor data reliability

two cents worth ....

[The Liquidator]

Re: Virtualbox?? VMWare??

Unfortunately it's not just me who uses it - it's used by 2 others in my family both of whom use MS only. I did try to create an ext3 partition on the drive earlier today but gparted didn't detect it, sadly.

The intention is to transfer the VDI file (which is currently on that drive) to the hard drive. Will the fact that it's been through a FAT partition process hurt the performance when the transfer is effected?

[dibl]

Re: Virtualbox?? VMWare??

The Win XP VM can live happily on an ext3 partition -- I don't think a Windows user will ever know what the underlying filesystem is. Of course, that OS can only see other FAT and NTFS formatted drives, so if there's data elsewhere that they need to access, that might be an issue. But you could put it on an NTFS partition -- that would be better than FAT.

Odd that GParted did not see that drive. Make sure it is unmounted.

[Fintan]

Re: Virtualbox?? VMWare??

Welcome to the club

The Win XP VM can live happily on an ext3 partition -- I don't think a Windows user will ever know what the underlying filesystem is.

I am not sure about that and imvho doubt that if you want to install an app for any reason it will like ext3.

I have mine on a FAT32 partition and yes, ntfs is probably the best option.

Formatting c:/ shouldn't affect the mbr.

Also I have a FAT 32 partition with the My documents folder on it. I would like to be able to save to that from the VM. How would I go about that please?

Install samba then have a look at my smb.conf file:

workgroup = FINTANHOME
interfaces = eth0
map to guest = bad user

[Data]

path = /Data
read only = no
guest ok = yes
case sensitive = no
strict locking = no
force user = fintan3



[HP1600]

printing = cups
path = /var/tmp
printable = yes
guest ok = yes
guest only = yes

Notice the share (/Data)

You will then have to set up the xp network to see the samba share.

Bthw that activation message is normal. It comes every time you change hardware, which in effect you did. You can either activate it over the internet or over the phone (tedious but works)