VirtualBox

The first advantage that the user discovers in Virtualbox is easier setup comparing to VMware.

The configuration is also very simple; everything is configured using nice GUI instead of Perl script.

Finally, the performance is stunning; it works a lot faster than VMware.

To see dot files and dot folders in the Windows host, select "Show hidden files and folders" in the folder options.

Better than VMware for me because:

• no need to change frequency scaling (less noise, less power consumption)
• don't intercept all key events, in particular Ctrl+Alt+arrow, which allows to cycle through desktops without having to go out of the VM first.

Choose the easy route: add the following line to your /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian jaunty non-free

Combine downloading the Sun public key (for apt-secure) and registering it with:

wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/sun_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

To install VirtualBox, do:

sudo aptitude install virtualbox-3.0

Note: Ubuntu users might want to install the dkms package to ensure that the VirtualBox host kernel modules (vboxdrv, vboxnetflt and vboxnetadp) are properly updated if the linux kernel version changes during the next apt-get upgrade.

sudo aptitude install dkms

Clone a master Virtual image with the following command:

VBoxManage clonevdi Master.vdi Clone.vdi

or just copy your disk and use an undocumented command to assign a new UUID to your new disk:

cp Master.vdi Clone.vdi
VBoxManage internalcommands setvdiuuid Clone.vdi

A word of caution, after a reboot when trying to start the Windows VM you may get this error:

Unknown error creating VM (VERR_{HOSTIFINITFAILED}). VBox status code: -3100 (VERR_{HOSTIFINITFAILED}).

The fix is simple - you need to manually run "sudo chmod 666 /dev/net/tun" manually - it doesn't seem to work automatically from the rc.local file. If anyone has a solution to this please let me know!

When using NAT, to be able to print to a network printer from a Windows XP guest, you must setup the printer on the host, share it and connect to it from the guest!

In details:

If you go to add the printer in Control Panel on the Guest XP OS, you select Network Printer then select the "Connect to a printer on the Internet or on a home or office network" option.

In the URL field below that you need to type it in this format.

http://DEFAULTGATEWAY:631/printers/PRINTERNAME

The Default Gateway of my Windows XP OS is "10.0.0.2" and my printer name is "C510", so mine looked like this:

http://10.0.2.2:631/printers/C510

Then after you click Next it will ask you to install the driver for it.

Edit: BTW Make sure that the internet firewall has the port open otherwise it MIGHT not work.

Creation of a WinXP VM with Virtual Box 3.0.4 r50677 All default options except the following.