Hello. According to the tumbleweed portal:
openSUSE 11.4 supports VirtualBox. Due to it not being in the mainline kernel and Tumbleweed routinely receiving kernel updates, it has been decided not to support VirtualBox in the main Tumbleweed repo.
But it does not say wether it is as guest or host VirtualBox is unsupported. I want to run 12.1 as a guest (with Windows 7 as the host) with the option of switching to tumbleweed. Should I be using VMWare Player for this or is VirtualBox fine?
I’m not a VMWare expert, but my understanding is if you install/update the current openSUSE 12.1 kernel with a Tumbleweed provided kernel (not yet available), VMWare/VirtualBox (guest or host) may not function properly or at all. And, you would need to compile your own additional modules for it work again.
You need to install virtualbox from virtualbox external repo.
It works with any kernel, just have to reinstall it after kernel upgrade.
Or recompile its kernel module.
Add this repo Index of /virtualbox/rpm/opensuse/11.4/ and install Vbox from there (Virtual Box 4.1); no 12.1 repo yet but don`t worry it works.
The host will be windows, the guest Linux, not vice versa 
True, i have seen it now… my bad… 
The aforementioned tumbleweed portal states that vmware and hyper-v are supported “because they [vmware and hyper-v] are in the main upstream kernel and require no significant extra resources to make available with each kernel update”. But it’s unclear whether this applies to openSUSE as a guest or as a host (or perhaps both).
Just as a host; not logical for it to apply as a guest in windows
Thank you for pointing out that somewhat conflicting***** statement; “Tumbleweed does support the **vmware **and hyper-v virtual machine architectures”. However, you also asked about VirtualBox. Which, “due to it not being in the mainline kernel and Tumbleweed routinely receiving kernel updates, it has been decided not to support VirtualBox in the main Tumbleweed repo.”.
To answer your original question; “Should I be using VMWare Player for this or is VirtualBox fine?” VMWare is seemingly the clear “choice” if you plan on adding the Tumbleweed repo to your system. My question is, will VMWare remain compatible*****?
***** When you should keep staying at stable release "At this point there is no guarantee to have all additional modules available in the stable release like for Vmware or Virtualbox. And while the Packman Tumbleweed Essential repository attempts to deliver them there is no guarantee they will always succeed due to the incompatibilities with the quickly advancing Linux Kernel. The problems with proprietary Graphics drivers are similar and there is no guarantee they will work tomorrow, even if they do today. If you don’t know how to compile your own additional kernel modules and you don’t wish to learn or keep a very close eye on what is being updated, please don’t use Tumbleweed."
I’m confused by this. What’s the big deal with recompiling the kernel modules? Every Virtualbox user must be familiar with that by now. Not using Tumbleweed yet, just investigating possible pitfalls…
I’m confused by this. What’s the big deal with recompiling the kernel modules? Every Virtualbox user must be familiar with that by now. Not using Tumbleweed yet, just investigating possible pitfalls…
1: You’re right… there isn’t a big deal. It’s a single command after a kernel update.
2: Use the Sun/Oracle RPM FYI link ]
3: this thread’s original question is about installing VMs in VBox in a windows host. And none of the discussion after the OP’s first post is relevant to the OP’s question. But leaving that aside, it’s a doddle to install and maintain Sun/Oracle VirtualBox in Tumbleweed hosts.
On 2011-11-25 02:36, swerdna wrote:
> Just as a host; not logical for it to apply as a guest
The guest machine also needs kernel modules recompiled or prepared (the
main oss 12.1 repo contains vmware-guest-kmp-desktop). Thus it is an issue
for the guest.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)
On 12.1 host with kernel 3.2.0-rc4-5-vanilla you can install Virtualbox using VirtualBox-4.1.6-74727-Linux_amd64.run (from Virtualbox .org Linux downloads rather than YasT. Use Yast only to uninstall Virtualbox.
For VMware use VMware-Workstation-Full-8.0.1-528992.x86_64.bundle + a patch for kernel 3.2 which you can find on the VMware Workstati0on foprum. Note: If you wish to use the GUI installer don’t use sudo - rather login as su and run the .bundle (just change the user from to to your user.
Yes, but you also called VMware “the clear choice” for Tumbleweed users. I can’t see the difference between plain vanilla openSUSE and Tumbleweed in this respect, except that there’ll be more kernel updates in Tumbleweed.
I’m intrigued by this: why does it need kernel modules for the guest?
On 2011-12-14 14:26, gminnerup wrote:
>
> robin_listas;2417574 Wrote:
> I’m intrigued by this: why does it need kernel modules for the guest?
To communicate things to/from the host. Like syncing the mouse on the host
to the one in the guest, resizing the window, matching both clocks… Many
things are done in user-space, but some need help from the kernel.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)
VMware is seemingly the clear “choice”…* (for one user. I did not write) “for Tumbleweed users”, (nor imply it). Also, my use of quotation marks on the word “choice” is to alert the user, the choice is theirs.
I can’t see the difference between plain vanilla openSUSE and Tumbleweed in this respect, except that there’ll be more kernel updates in Tumbleweed
I agree, and if a user knows what to do, all the better. None the less, there are warnings in the Portal:Tumbleweed - openSUSE
Thanks for the clarification. I use Virtualbox mainly for Windows, and have only briefly tested Ubuntu in it, as well as Qimo (for the kids). Never long enough to be confronted with any kernel changes in the guest.