Opinions On Using VirtualBox In XP For Suse

[legendkiller]

Hi,
I am a relatively new linux user and have had prior experience with Ubuntu 9.04,but only for couple of weeks....
I wanted to try opensuse 11.2 RC2 without having to go through the process of full installation,due to lack of time at present...

So,i upon research i came across this method of using VB to install opensuse....

I am on Windows-XP..........I want to know what exactly can i expect after installing Suse in VB,i mean is it safe and will suse work fine as normal if i do so.........

[caf4926]

It will work just fine.
Download it from here and get the manual too.
Downloads - VirtualBox

This is written using Linux as host but it will give you an idea
Using Virtual Box - Some Quick Tips - openSUSE Forums

I would recommend a fixed size disc of at least 10GB

i can see no benefit in installing in a VM under XP rather than
running from a Live CD (and not installing anywhere)..

--
palladium
Have a lot of fun..

[hendersj]

On Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:18:41 +0000, palladium wrote:

> i can see no benefit in installing in a VM under XP rather than running
> from a Live CD (and not installing anywhere)..

Running in a VM you're not limited to the seek/read speed of the CD/DVD
reader. There would be a performance difference unless the live media is
specifically set up to cache everything to RAM - in which case you need a
pretty hefty amount of RAM....

Jim



--
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Moderator

[legendkiller]

ok,thanks guys for your reply....i will go ahead with my installation soon and report back here...

[Akoellh]

@palladium and @hendersj

Both of you are correct and both of you miss some points IMHO.

Advantage of a Live CD vs VM:

- Running on the real hardware, good for finding potential hardware related problems before installing the OS on the hard disk

Advantage VM vs. Live-CD:

- Persistent and configurable installation not having those potential problems one might have with the real hardware

If you want to learn something about Linux/$DISTRO _both_ have their use case and both should be considered as complementing parts.

If you really have no intention on installing a Linux distro on your real hardware any time in the future, only a VM will do, if you don't want to have any space on HD ever being taken by Linux, then a Live-CD is the better choice.

IMHO both scenarios are realistic but not very common.

[caf4926]

@Akoellh
It would be nice if more Live CD's gave the option for load to RAM. Those that do absolutely fly. And considering how much RAM is about these days it shouldn't be a problem for many.

[Akoellh]

Originally Posted by caf4926

@Akoellh
It would be nice if more Live CD's gave the option for load to RAM.

Agreed, I always have an USB dongle with grml (medium, so you have fluxbox as GUI if needed and a lot of CLI-tools) and loading it to RAM is not only a performance boost but also convenient if your USB Ports are limited and you need them for other, external hardware (same goes for the CD, where you maybe have only one CD drive and want to burn some data running a live distro).

As grml medium only needs about 90-170 MB of RAM (depending on what you actually run), even older machines can use it.

Originally Posted by caf4926

Those that do absolutely fly. And considering how much RAM is about these days it shouldn't be a problem for many.

I must admit, I don't even know if the openSUSE Live-CDs offer you to load them into RAM, because I never used them myself as "Live-CDs", I only used them as installation media or in very rare cases to show people "how openSUSE looks on their computer".

If it does not, it would shurely be a feature to be seriously considered.

[hendersj]

On Sun, 01 Nov 2009 08:16:01 +0000, Akoellh wrote:

> Both of you are correct and both of you miss some points IMHO.

Good explanation, Ako - definitely are advantages to either option, and
agree 100% that it depends on your goals. :-)

Jim

--
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Moderator