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On Thu, January 24, 2008 13:03, viv wrote:
>
> On Thu, 2008-01-24 at 09:18 +0000, george wrote:
>> 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
>>
> Phew - I don't think that it was as hard as that for me (64bit Kubuntu),
> or I would not have ever got it installed !
>
> Viv
I seem to recall;
emerge VirtualBox
When one burns one's bridges, what a very nice fire it makes.
-- Dylan Thomas
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