Virtualbox

I am just starting to experiment with Virtualbox.

I am using the non-OSS version (1.6.0) and have installed XP in a Virtual Machine.

There are two users on my openSuSE 10.3 machine, and I would like both to have access to XP. Virtualbox is available to both, but I can't work out how to configure it so that both have access to XP. My installation put the virtual disk with XP on it in my home user area (/home/username/.VirtualBox/VDI/XP), but if I try to set up a VM for the second user, pointing the virtual disc to the existing one, when I try to run XP it starts to load, then crashes.

I would be very grateful for any advice on how to configure things so that we both have access to the virtualised XP machine from our own user areas, but without duplicating the XP installation.

Thanks in advance.

Think your having permission problems I would of thought the easiest without mucking around with permissions would be to store the images in /home/

Both users should be able to access there failing that you can make a folder they can there.

Does the second user have the right permissions (rw) to the virtual disk file?

[Edit]
Ouch, FM was faster..
[/Edit]

I copied the virtual disk image to /home, and changed all permissions so that anyone could read or write (for testing purposes).

Virtualbox seems to be working OK. It's getting as far as trying to start XP(Home Edition).

XP itself is then crashing (no surprise there, then!) for the other user. It's fine for the user who did the installation (me).

The error message is about a hard disk problem, and advises running chkdsk /F to find disk errors.

Do you think I need to re-install XP in some different way?

Strange so that leaves me with one question, are we talking the same user in the image?

Doesn't really make sense it's the same image for both, it shouldn't even know about unix permissions. So I'm inclined to think if vbox is getting to run it then it must be a config in the image.

Strange so that leaves me with one question, are we talking the same user in the image?

Doesn't really make sense it's the same image for both, it shouldn't even know about unix permissions. So I'm inclined to think if vbox is getting to run it then it must be a config in the image.
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I'll try to describe how my machine is set up, and what I'm trying to do.

I have a dual-boot machine, running openSuSE 10.3, and XP(Home). I have a recovery/re-installation disc for XP, created from the original XP installation.

SuSE has 2 users, myself and my wife. I want us both to be able to access XP through VirtualBox, with a view to eventually getting rid of the Windows partition on my hard disk.

I installed Vbox, created a VM, and then installed XP from the disc, while logged in as myself. All went well (apart from XP wingeing about needed to re-authorise). All the data has been stored in /home/my_name/.VirtualBox/. I can run XP perfectly while logged is as myself.

If I log in as my wife, VirtualBox is present as a New Application. I start it up, create a new VM, and tell it to use an existing virtual disc, and point it at the one in my /home directory. All seems to go well, until I try to run the VM, when XP crashes as described.

I have tried copying my .VirtualBox directory into my wife's home directory, and just the virtual disk into /home as suggested, but with the same result.

I've just been reading in the manual about creating clones of virtual disks, but this seems to be defeating the object. I shouldn't need two copies of it, surely?

Hope this helps.

[Edit]

Just a thought: I originally installed the OSS version of Vbox (1.5) from the repos, then replaced it with 1.6 as I needed USB support. The virtual disk was created by the OSS version. Could there be an incompatibility? I'll try creating a new VM tomorrow, and re-installing XP, just in case.

Ok I just tried for you and all I can say mmm why does it do that. I left it where it was made sure all permissions where correct and got the same error as you.

Hopefully someone else can enlighten both of us, I'm out of ideas has to be something we're missing. But hehe.. been a while since I've seen a BSOD.

Ok I just tried for you and all I can say mmm why does it do that. I left it where it was made sure all permissions where correct and got the same error as you.

Hopefully someone else can enlighten both of us, I'm out of ideas has to be something we're missing. But hehe.. been a while since I've seen a BSOD.
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Wow! Thanks for going to so much trouble for me, FM.

Since you're getting the same result, I won't re-build the VM, but I'll post this on the Sun Vbox forum & bug report to see if I get any response.

The BSOD is a great reminder (if I needed one) of why I use Linux

Many thanks again!