[opensuse] Kernel change?
So, I got my Windows xp reinstalled and working perfectly, and updated to 11.3. Tired of dual-boot, especially now that my job requires me to go more often to Windows, I looked into VirtualBox. Looks clear enough on vavai's web site and the VB site, but ... Vavai says I absolutely _have_ to have the kernel-default. Using his instructions, I find I have kernel-desktop installed. So I look for instructions to change kernel. The wiki is empty, as far as I can find (23 pages naming "kernel", none telling how to change the kernel without reinstalling). Is it possible to change kernels without reinstalling 11.3? I can, but it seems so extravagant... John Perry -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 07/29/2010 10:32 PM, John E. Perry wrote:
So, I got my Windows xp reinstalled and working perfectly, and updated to 11.3. Tired of dual-boot, especially now that my job requires me to go more often to Windows, I looked into VirtualBox. Looks clear enough on vavai's web site and the VB site, but ...
Vavai says I absolutely _have_ to have the kernel-default. Using his instructions, I find I have kernel-desktop installed. So I look for instructions to change kernel.
The wiki is empty, as far as I can find (23 pages naming "kernel", none telling how to change the kernel without reinstalling). Is it possible to change kernels without reinstalling 11.3? I can, but it seems so extravagant...
Hi John, I've never had to worry about which kernel was installed. Why don't you just try VirtualBox first? Try downloading the "All distributions" link for your architecture here: http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads As root, change the downloaded file's permission bits: "chmod 775 VirtualBox-3.2.6-63112-Linux_amd64.run" for example. Make sure you have the kernel sources install from yast2, then just run the executable run file. The kernel modules will be compiled and installed for you. Then run VirtualBox. The VirtualBox hypervisor should appear and you can then get started installing Win-XP. I've never had this fail, and I've installed many versions of VirtualBox on all the openSuSE 11.x versions. VirtualBox is an excellent package! Regards, Lew -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Fri, Jul 30, 2010 at 07:56, Lew Wolfgang wrote:
go more often to Windows, I looked into VirtualBox. Looks clear enough on vavai's web site and the VB site, but ...
Vavai says I absolutely _have_ to have the kernel-default. Using his instructions, I find I have kernel-desktop installed. So I look for instructions to change kernel.
VirtualBox works fine on kernel-desktop and kernel-default. You don't need to change the kernel.... I use VBox every day for my job, and it's a really rock solid solution to running multiple OSes on a single host. I use it in Seamless mode as well. I have WindowsXP, Vista, 7, RH, FC, Debian, Ubuntu, and various openSUSE VirtualBox guests installed. I've also experimented with Gentoo, FreeBSD and a few other Unix variations (OpenSolaris) using VirtualBox. I recommend it to everyone :-)
Try downloading the "All distributions" link for your architecture here:
Why this one? Why not the RPMs? VBox provides RPMs for 11.3 already... and they work just fine... click and install. No messing around.
Make sure you have the kernel sources install from yast2, then just run the executable run file. The kernel modules will be compiled and installed for you.
Same applies to the RPM... the kernel modules are built during the install. Basic steps: 1. Make sure you've got gcc, make and the kernel sources installed. 2. Download the RPM (or the .run) from the link Lew provided 3. Install the RPM (kernel modules will be built automatically as part of the install if your kernel sources, gcc and make are already installed on the host) 4. Add your use to the vboxusers group (use YaST). 5. Reboot. 6. Start VirtualBox 7. Setup and install Windows XP. Installing a guest OS is well documented on the VirtualBox website... it's actually dead easy and quite logical. 8. Install the guest additions in the guest OS. Tips: Tweak your WinXP Guest settings a bit before installing XP eg set the guest virtual ram high enough for XP (eg 1.5GB if you've got a 4GB host machine), bump up the virtual video card RAM if you can. Enable 2d and 3d support. These settings are all sliders and checkboxes in the VirtualBox profile that gets created when you add a new Guest OS. If you instal a new kernel or change the kernel on the host machine, you only need to run (as root) /etc/init/d/vboxdrv setup to rebuild the kernel modules and you're good to go again. C. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 7/30/2010 1:56 AM, Lew Wolfgang wrote:
On 07/29/2010 10:32 PM, John E. Perry wrote:>> /snip/
Hi John,
I've never had to worry about which kernel was installed. Why don't you just try VirtualBox first?
Try downloading the "All distributions" link for your architecture here:
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads
As root, change the downloaded file's permission bits:
"chmod 775 VirtualBox-3.2.6-63112-Linux_amd64.run" for example.
Make sure you have the kernel sources install from yast2, then just run the executable run file. The kernel modules will be compiled and installed for you. Then run VirtualBox. The VirtualBox hypervisor should appear and you can then get started installing Win-XP.
I've never had this fail, and I've installed many versions of VirtualBox on all the openSuSE 11.x versions. VirtualBox is an excellent package!
Regards, Lew
I haven't tried Virtual Box, but I make the following observation, and welcome anyone's comment on it: Windows 7 has a virtualizer which allows XP to be run "in a window" as it were. However, when starting this, it's just like booting XP from scratch on a machine where it's the only OS in use. In other words, you don't save any time this way. And it's not really straightforward to share files or data between W7 and the virtual XP, altho it is possible. If this is representative of the performance of Virtual Box, also, then is it worth the trouble to use it? --doug -- Blessed are the peacemakers...for they shall be shot at from both sides. --A.M. Greeley -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 7/30/2010 1:56 AM, Lew Wolfgang wrote:
On 07/29/2010 10:32 PM, John E. Perry wrote:>>
/snip/
Hi John,
I've never had to worry about which kernel was installed.
Why don't you
just try VirtualBox first?
Try downloading the "All distributions" link for your architecture here:
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads
As root, change the
downloaded file's permission bits:
"chmod 775
VirtualBox-3.2.6-63112-Linux_amd64.run" for example.
Make sure you
have the kernel sources install from yast2, then just
run the executable run file. The kernel modules will be compiled and installed for you. Then run VirtualBox. The VirtualBox hypervisor should appear and you can
On Sat, 31 Jul 2010 02:55:47 Doug wrote: then get started installing Win-XP.
I've never had this fail, and
I've installed many versions of VirtualBox
on all the openSuSE 11.x versions. VirtualBox is an excellent package!
Regards, Lew
I haven't tried Virtual Box, but I make the following observation, and
welcome anyone's comment on it:
Windows 7 has a virtualizer which
it were. However, when starting
scratch on a machine where it's the only OS in use. In other words, you don't save any time this way. And it's not really straightforward to share files or data between W7 and the virtual XP, altho it is possible.
If this is representative of the
allows XP to be run "in a window" as this, it's just like booting XP from performance of Virtual Box, also, then
is it worth the trouble to use it?
--doug
It depends, Doug. If you use XP only occassionally, then yes. I use it for another reason. I have a number of different networks that I need to plug into for equipment maintenance purposes, plus the default subnets that different manufacturers use for their equipment that you need for configuration purposes when installing new gear. Some of that equipment requires bespoke software that only runs on Windows, but continually changing network settings on Windows is a pain (and some software doesn't like having multiple ip adressess/subnets assigned to the same network card). Solution: I run openSuSE 11.3 with NetworkManager and have all the necessary networks preconfigured so that I can select the one I need on demand. I then run XP in VirtualBox with NAT networking. I never need to touch XP's network configuration - all the different networks are handled by the host and I can change with a single click (or two). Oh, btw, I virtualised the physical XP partition on the machine and run the VM from that, rather than creating a new VM - that way all my software was still installed and I have the option of booting back into native Windows should I ever need to. Performance-wise, it is slightly slower to start Windows this way but once started the difference in performance is barely noticeable, if at all (at least on my hardware which is a core2-duo at 2GHz with 2B RAM and Intel graphics, and that is running in seamless mode (where the Windows desktop is hidden, apart from the start bar at the bottom of the screen and the windows apps appear to be running directly on the Linux desktop). My KDE4 panel is at the top of the screen so I don't get conflicts between the two. I -- =================================================== Rodney Baker VK5ZTV rodney.baker@iinet.net.au =========================================== ======== -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Fri 30 Jul 2010 at 14:40:03 (-0300 UTC) Rodney Baker wrote:
Oh, btw, I virtualised the physical XP partition on the machine and run the VM from that, rather than creating a new VM - that way all my software was still installed and I have the option of booting back into native Windows should I ever need to.
Just curios on this part Rodney: What do you mean you have virtual-ized the physical XP partition? Could you be more detailed? Cheers, -- Marco Calistri (ex IK5BCU) http://mcalistri.blogspot.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 07/30/2010 10:25 AM, Doug wrote:
On 7/30/2010 1:56 AM, Lew Wolfgang wrote:
On 07/29/2010 10:32 PM, John E. Perry wrote:>> /snip/
Hi John,
I've never had to worry about which kernel was installed. Why don't you just try VirtualBox first?
Try downloading the "All distributions" link for your architecture here:
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads
As root, change the downloaded file's permission bits:
"chmod 775 VirtualBox-3.2.6-63112-Linux_amd64.run" for example.
Make sure you have the kernel sources install from yast2, then just run the executable run file. The kernel modules will be compiled and installed for you. Then run VirtualBox. The VirtualBox hypervisor should appear and you can then get started installing Win-XP.
I've never had this fail, and I've installed many versions of VirtualBox on all the openSuSE 11.x versions. VirtualBox is an excellent package!
Regards, Lew
I haven't tried Virtual Box, but I make the following observation, and welcome anyone's comment on it:
Windows 7 has a virtualizer which allows XP to be run "in a window" as it were. However, when starting this, it's just like booting XP from scratch on a machine where it's the only OS in use. In other words, you don't save any time this way. And it's not really straightforward to share files or data between W7 and the virtual XP, altho it is possible.
If this is representative of the performance of Virtual Box, also, then is it worth the trouble to use it?
Hi Doug, Yes, it's worth the trouble. The Windows window appears as just another window on your desktop that you can minimize, drag around, and cut-n-paste to. Windows has access to your CD/DVD drive and your USB devices. Since the Windows disk drive is really nothing but a Linux file in your home directory, it can be easily backed up and restored when your Windows break (virus?) Windows has access to your Linux home directory, it appears as a networked disk. I use it to run IE to double-check web sites that I develop (web sites look different to Windows). You could even have multiple versions of Windows running at the same time. I also use it to run income tax software at tax time. Really, it's liberating to realize that your whole Windows World is nothing more than another process on Linux. As for performance, I really don't notice any difference for my usage. A friend of mine installed VirtualBox on his Apple Macbook Pro and then installed Ubunto in the VM. In the full-screen mode you can't see any Apple-isms at all, completely Linux. He's a scientist and ran a benchmark that he wrote (very large DFT transforms) on both the Apple and Ubunto environments. Virtualized Ubunto was actually a bit faster than compiling/running in OS-X! Granted, there are probably many reasons for this, but it does prove a point. Another thing to consider is that VirtualBox and Vmware present a completely standard environment to the Windows OS. Some folks absolutely need to use Win-XP because they need to run software that hasn't been (and won't be) ported to Vista/Win-7. But if they need to purchase new hardware, it will come with Win-7. Further, drivers won't be available to down-grade to XP on this new hardware. So just install Linux, which accommodates just about any new hardware environment, then install a VM and XP and you're cooking. BTW, I prefer the "all distributions" way to install VirtualBox. I had a problem once when upgrading one of the RPM versions. YMMV. Regards, Lew -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
I haven't tried Virtual Box, but I make the following observation, and welcome anyone's comment on it:
Windows 7 has a virtualizer which allows XP to be run "in a window" as it were. However, when starting this, it's just like booting XP from scratch on a machine where it's the only OS in use. In other words, you don't save any time this way. And it's not really straightforward to share files or data between W7 and the virtual XP, altho it is possible.
If this is representative of the performance of Virtual Box, also, then is it worth the trouble to use it?
--doug
Performance, as usual, will depend upon the machine. Generally XP runs fine with 512MB of RAM. If you can allocate this or as much as a gig, and you have a modern processor (esp multi-core so you can allocate a core to the vm), then you're probably good to go. On this machine XP in VBox starts in <30 seconds and typical sw performs as well as native. Shared folders are very easy to set up and use (just be sure to also install Guest Additions; you'll need that anyway for other features). VBox even maintains a repository, so installation and updates are easy, too (you do need to remember to re-install with a kernel change, to rebuild the driver). Much more convenient than dual-boot, just another window (or window[s] if you go seamless) on the desktop. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Quoting Doug <dmcgarrett@optonline.net>:
On 7/30/2010 1:56 AM, Lew Wolfgang wrote:
On 07/29/2010 10:32 PM, John E. Perry wrote:>> /snip/
Hi John,
I've never had to worry about which kernel was installed. Why don't you just try VirtualBox first?
Try downloading the "All distributions" link for your architecture here:
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads
As root, change the downloaded file's permission bits:
"chmod 775 VirtualBox-3.2.6-63112-Linux_amd64.run" for example.
Make sure you have the kernel sources install from yast2, then just run the executable run file. The kernel modules will be compiled and installed for you. Then run VirtualBox. The VirtualBox hypervisor should appear and you can then get started installing Win-XP.
I've never had this fail, and I've installed many versions of VirtualBox on all the openSuSE 11.x versions. VirtualBox is an excellent package!
Regards, Lew
I haven't tried Virtual Box, but I make the following observation, and welcome anyone's comment on it:
Windows 7 has a virtualizer which allows XP to be run "in a window" as it were. However, when starting this, it's just like booting XP from scratch on a machine where it's the only OS in use. In other words, you don't save any time this way. And it's not really straightforward to share files or data between W7 and the virtual XP, altho it is possible.
If this is representative of the performance of Virtual Box, also, then is it worth the trouble to use it?
Performance in VirtualBox (VB) for most applications (e.g., Quicken, not the latest Quake/Doom/etc.) is quite acceptable and nearly native speed. If the Windows 7 virutualized XP makes it hard to share files, then VB is ahead of it. VB allows a "networked" drive that maps to a directory in the host filesystem. Jeffrey -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 2010-07-30 07:32, John E. Perry wrote:
So, I got my Windows xp reinstalled and working perfectly, and updated to 11.3. Tired of dual-boot, especially now that my job requires me to go more often to Windows, I looked into VirtualBox. Looks clear enough on vavai's web site and the VB site, but ...
Vavai says I absolutely _have_ to have the kernel-default. Using his instructions, I find I have kernel-desktop installed. So I look for instructions to change kernel.
The wiki is empty, as far as I can find (23 pages naming "kernel", none telling how to change the kernel without reinstalling). Is it possible to change kernels without reinstalling 11.3? I can, but it seems so extravagant...
It is very easy. Fire up YaST, search "kernel", in the list choose the kernel-default, click to install. Done. If everything goes to plan, you will have at least two entries in the grub menu, one for the desktop kernel, another for the default kernel, and other two for "failsafe" with both kernels. If you later decide to remove one of the kernels, it is just as easy. Whether you really need that kernel or not for VB, I can't say. It makes some sense to me (preemtpive multitasking, was it?), but I don't really know. - -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 11.2 x86_64 "Emerald" GM (Elessar)) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.12 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with SUSE - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAkxSeasACgkQU92UU+smfQXyFACeK8CmVZeNlAqq1UOY9iHm1FtF YSUAn1oHaTBJxG8CJM11mhoVaCXTRwS1 =kL2z -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 07/30/2010 01:32 AM, John E. Perry wrote:
So, I got my Windows xp reinstalled and working perfectly, and updated to 11.3. Tired of dual-boot, especially now that my job requires me to go more often to Windows, I looked into VirtualBox. Looks clear enough on vavai's web site and the VB site, but ...
Vavai says I absolutely _have_ to have the kernel-default. Using his instructions, I find I have kernel-desktop installed. So I look for instructions to change kernel.
Sorry for the delay in participating here; I'm reading up on building VB vm's, and other things are also intruding on my time. I jumped in and installed VB into my desktop version on my laptop; it all appeared to go smoothly. I guess I'll find out how smooth the rest is when I finally get around to actually building vm's. Thanks particularly to Lew Wolfgang and C (how did Bilbo and Aragorn ever beat you!) for relieving my apprehension on the need to change kernels; thanks to C for the detailed VB instructions, which went smoothly. Thanks Carlos, for the easy instructions on changing the kernel version. I didn't follow them, but I've kept them for reference. Guys, the wiki pages on VB and kernel change are very much out of date or nonexistent. Hint, hint :-). jp -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Wed, Aug 4, 2010 at 08:25, John E. Perry wrote:
I jumped in and installed VB into my desktop version on my laptop; it all appeared to go smoothly. I guess I'll find out how smooth the rest is when I finally get around to actually building vm's.
Where people often have trouble with VMs is that they accept all the defaults for a guest config without putting much thought into what those defaults are... eg trying to install openSUSE guest into a guest VM with only 256MB of RAM defined in the guest settings. Suggestion... set up a guest using the defaults, and then before you install the guest OS, select the VM from the list and click Settings. Poke through the settings and see if they actually make sense for your host hardware and the guest OS you want to install. If your hardware can handle it, I'd suggest bumping up a few defaults. - System > Motherboard > Base Memory - Basic rule of thumb I use here is... set to no more than 50% of your host RAM. So if you have 4GB, don't set this to 3GB... instead maybe 1.5GB is what it could be set to. You can set it higher that 50%, but then your host OS will probably start to swap fairly heavily depending on what you're doing on the host side, and you'll take a performance hit on both the host and the guest. - Display > Video > Video Memory - I always set this as high as possible (128MB) if the host video card can handle it - Display > Video > Extended Features - Enable 3D acceleration for all guests - Enable 2D acceleration for Windows guests (only works with Windows guests) - Storage Here you can point the virtual CD ROM drive at an ISO (eg the openSUSE 11.3 ISO) and boot from that. I've bumped into a possible bug here where it won't let you attach the ISO as a drive and assign it to the virtual CD ROM all in one step. You might see the same. Basically you attach the ISO and then when you try to assign it to the virtual CD ROM you get an error about the VM Name being invalid. I just exit out of the settings and go back in again and the problem resolves itself. Since you've installed on a laptop, you probably have limited resources (eg RAM). You might need to tweak the VM Settings a bit after install to find what works best... eg a WinXP guest can run fine on 512MB (or 768MB) of RAM which is a good match if you're running a laptop with only 2GB of RAM. If you've got 4GB you can bump that up to 1GB or 1.5GB (or even 2GB if you need to) without noticing it on the host side... and so on. All other settings are probably OK at default for your first try. You may want to explore the Shared Folders settings which will allow you to map shared directories on your host as network drives on the guest. Always install the GuestAdditions as the first thing you do after you boot a guest the first time. See http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch04.html for instructions on how to install. This provides drivers and other things for the virtual hardware that vastly improves the performance of the guest OS. I use VirtualBox every day - when I'm working I have my openSUSE 11.3 host, and on top of that I have Ubuntu 10.04 running in Seamless mode and Windows XP or Windows 7 running in a window (I've got loads of RAM on the host side so I can easily run more than one guest at the same time). I can switch back and forth between all 3 OSes without any trouble. They have a common shared directory on the openSUSE host which shows up as a network drive on the guests, so I can test my work on 3 OSes at the same time. On the Windows guest, the only thing I've found that doesn't work so well is gaming (low frame rates being the main issue)... anything else including playing streaming web video works fine. C. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
participants (9)
-
C -
Carlos E. R. -
Doug -
dwgallien -
Jeffrey L. Taylor -
John E. Perry -
Lew Wolfgang -
Marco Calistri -
Rodney Baker