things learned when installing and using Virtual Box

This is a list of things that I learned when installing and playing with VBox. Guest OS- Win7

It’s probably old hat for a lot of users, but this may help some to understand
what VBox is and how it works from a user’s point of view.

—When creating the VM, I chose the dynamically expand route for the .vdi file.
It seemed to be the safest, the most efficient - space-wise, and the most flexible.

—VBox is even cooler with seamless mouse pointer integration. i.e. Where you
can just slide the mouse onto the virtualized guest window from outside (without
the extra step of activating it) to click.
–The GuestAdditions is a virtual disk ‘mounted’ to the VBox application,
looking like a quasi separate drive to the created virtual machines. To install
into the currently running guest OS, click on (at the top of the VBox host window)
Devices | Install Guest Additions.
–Once mounted/installed, this separate drive stays there, for the purpose of
reuse by other virtual machines, if needed.

—my preference for networking is shutting off the wndz network adapter when
not necessary (virus magnet, as someone aptly said. Alureon is the worst (“is
it gone yet? did it leave?” he trembles as he asks while crouched under the desk).
scary stuff… like a rootkit bug.

—There was an incompatibility message displayed concerning the VBox and the
Kernel when trying to starting VBox. I was not sure what Kernel the warning/error
msg was referring to, but after some attempts, it looks like it was the Linux
kernel (as opposed to some type of distinct VBox processing kernel.
Windows APIs/commands seem to be processed directly in the Linux (extended?)
kernel).
–This conclusion came because every time I downloaded a new kernel from
Yast, a new line for OpenSUSE was added to the Grub boot options (unless it
was just coincidence).
–To fix, I used the boot option in the Grub menu with the
greatest number / latest version. Works great with VBox.

—Clicking on the Oracle VBox IDE main host window: File | Virtual Media
Manager, and pressing the Help button at the bottom - will display a user-prompt
asking if you want to download the VBox Manual.

—Snapshots: snapshots don’t seem to work with the OS edition. For me, it hung
at 99%. This occurred three times. The .vdi file gets koruepppteed :slight_smile:
–Exporting an appliance, then later renaming/importing it seems to work
(haven’t needed of them yet to re-import and load).
–The thing about this is that there are three files that are exported, not
one. My advice: export the three files as sets into their own folder.

p.s. see related post as well: http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-help-here/install-boot-login/441693-where-should-win7-go-when-installing-using-virtual-box.html#post2206632

A bad thing: It seems that in 11.3, at least in this configuration, Totem and Banshee do not work when VBox/Win7 is running. Totem and Banshee seem to have a hard time sharing audio resources with VBox/Win7. The little chimes and beeps in Win7 amount to what openSUSE considers music, and therefore requires exclusive access to the audio drivers to chirp, etc. accordingly. It’s either one or the other fella. :sarcastic: