About a year ago I created an xp-32 oracle vm on a 12.3-64 tower. That xp is very old and it took considerable effort to get it working the way I wanted. Recently I upgraded the non-uefi 12.3 to non-uefi 13.1. The xp vm works fine. The oracle version is 4.2.18_OSE r88780.
Since the 13.1 upgrade, I tried to do a uefi install 12.3 on the same hdd as a dual boot with the 13.1. That made the 13.1 unbootable, but still intact. Last I reinstalled the 12.3 as legacy so now I have a dual boot of 12.3 and 13.1, both on the same hdd.
After the install problems, I don’t think I can have uefi and legacy on the same hdd with both bootable. When 13.2 comes along I would like to install it as uefi. That will leave the 13.1 intact, but unbootable.
My question again is can I run the 13.1 xp vm I have from another opensuse OS?
If this is possible, I have the legacy 12.3 to practice on, trying to run the 13.1 xp vm. Heboland.
Let me try this again. So have a 64-bit legacy dual boot 12.3 and 13.1. Both are lxde desktop if that matters.
The 13.1 has an Oracle XP-32 VM that works when I boot the 13.1 (XP13).
Now I have Oracle installed on the 12.3. I created another XP-32 VM (XP12).
I want to run the XP13 when I’m booted to 12.3. In the 12.3/home/me/VirtualBox VMs directory I created a symbolic link to 13.1/home/me/VirtualBox VMs/XP13 and named it XP13. That’s setting alongside the XP12 directory.
So far the 12.3 virtual box is ignoring the link. Opps, I just tried Machine > Add. Now it’s needs Oracle SW loaded into the 12.3 virtual box that the 13.1 VB already has. I was expecting I would have to use import on 12.3 or export on the 13.1.
I may be able to make this work on my own now. There doesn’t seem to be much interest in this stunt, but I can post back the results if I’m successful! Heboland.
One of the big reasons why people use virtualization is Portability, you should be able to copy or point to any VM’s files and run on any machine, not just the original machine.
Your dual boot is like running the VM in another machine.
Some rules of thumb for success…
Use the same virtualization technology, right down to the exact version number. Some minor version differences may not make a diff, but the further difference the less likely you’ll be successful.
To run a set of VM files on a different machine, the usual procedure is to “Create” a new VM but instead of also creating a new disk you simply point to an existing diskfile.
Of course, you need sufficient permissions (often root or Admin access unless a special User Group with sufficient permissions is created).
When simply pointing to a shared source, be careful if you want to run multiple Guests from the same files. If any Guest modifies the files it’s possible that another Guest will read the file as corrupted and perhaps then corrupt the file further. So, I generally do <not> recommend shared source for simultaneous live running Guests.
The above applies to all virtualization technologies, not just the VBox the OP is using (and neglected to mention in his first post)
Until I started experimenting on this thread, I didn’t realize how portable VMs are. Sorry about not mentioning vbox! Are there other Oracle VMs besides vbox?
Thank you for the guidelines!
I was able to link to to XP13 from 12.3 and then later copy it to 12.3. The 12.3 vbox version is 4.2.6 while the 13.1 vbox version is 4.2.18. I think both of the vbox versions were from the opensuse repros. I downloaded the 4.2.6 vbox-extpack from Oracle, but the VBoxManage CLI install failed partway thru. VBoxManage extpack uninstall also failed to remove the Oracle 4.2.6 vbox-extpack. The install error message was version mismatch!
I found I could invoke Oracle VM Vbox Manager File > Preferences > Extension. A right click on the installed extpack gives a “remove” menu. This got rid of the crashed install. Right clicking in the empty Extension window gets an “add” menu. The add menu has a browser to find the extpack to add. Using the add menu browser, I pointed to a 4.2.10 extpact file in the 13.1 home.
I think that 4.2.10 extpack file is the one I installed into the 13.1 vbox a year ago. I tried to install that with the add menu browswer and it installed OK. My thoughts regarding the extpack behaviors is the Oracle 4.2.6 extpack was not compatible with the opensuse 4.2.6. I’m guessing I got the 4.2.10 extpack from opensuse repos last year and that it is compatible.
One other comment I would like to include here that might save someone else some confusion, is a bios setting on my Asus P8Z77-V LK mobo; Enable Intel Virtualization Technology. This setting got changed when I updated my bios. On this 64-bit mobo this bios setting is only necessary for VMs if the OS is 64-bits.
With a 64-bit OS the VM will crash the host unless this bios setting is enabled! FWIW my XP13 is about 3GB.
I’m going to mark this tread solved! I got what I wanted altho I may not have named this thread the best possible. Heboland.
> - To run a set of VM files on a different machine, the usual procedure
> is to “Create” a new VM but instead of also creating a new disk you
> simply point to an existing diskfile.
On vmware player, and I assume workstation works the same way, I simply
copy the entire directory holding the virtual machine. When you try to
run it, vmware asks if you moved or copied it. I don’t have the
implications clear, but the dialog suggest a choice if you are not sure.
> The above applies to all virtualization technologies, not just the VBox
> the OP is using (and neglected to mention in his first post)
I’ll probably stick with vbox. XP13 is my fax machine. At least when I created it, vbox didn’t have access to pci hw. I have an old serial port modem that sends and receives my faxes. I’ve used Linux efax and hylafax, but neither fill the bill for me as well or as simply as XP fax.
Few features have caused me more dried blood than that bios setting I mentioned! Someone on this site finally figured the problem out after having it diagnosed as a memory problem. The broken memory test in 12.2 caused me to replace my dram. I thought my new tower was broken!
That’s all in the rear view mirror now, but not forgotten. Heboland.