Talk:VirtualBox

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A comment [[User:Larry|Larry]] 13:52, 13 May 2024 (UTC)
: A reply [[User:Sally|Sally]] 12:29, 5 November 2024 (UTC)
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Graphics Support etc.

Talk status

This discussion is done as of April 28, 2017.

To get graphics support (High color framebuffer with 800x600 and a starting X11) it seems to be a requirement to make the following kernel setting because there a some parts of this driver which are also necessary for VirtualBox

Device Drivers ---> 
   <*> Graphics Support --->
      <M> DRM driver for VMware Virtual GPU

By the way also some other settings should be made

Processor type and features --->
   [ ] Machine Check / overheating reporting

Power management and ACPI options --->
   [ ] Suspend to RAM and standby
   [ ] Hibernation (...)

--GOS (talk) 12:36, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

Why does the first kernel option specifically say "VMware"? You sure this is for VirtualBox? Second, what do the ACPI options have to do with VirtualBox? --Maffblaster (talk) 18:54, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

I'm closing this discussion, because I have updated the kernel configuration in the article with a proper (graphical) configuration. Also, there's no reason to disable that stuff power management... --Maffblaster (talk) 22:52, 28 April 2017 (UTC)

APIC vs. ACPI

Talk status

This discussion is done as of February 9, 2013.

In Performance Problems > Microsoft Windows Guest: I'm not sure if this is a mistake or Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller is really meant to be APIC. In any way, this should be cleared up to avoid users getting confused over this looking like a mistake. Smartass (talk) 15:27, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Regarding the terms used, the section is alright. The VirtualBox option is called IO APIC, and within the Windows guest one has to configure the system to ACPI (Control Panel -> Device Manager -> Computer -> ACPI x86-based PC). But in general, I think this section is outdated - from personal experience, enabling IO APIC does not pose any problem for Windows guests whatsoever, and the mouse-over hint in the GUI clearly tells you how and when to use the option. -- Maxxim (talk) 23:04, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

Maxxim , if you think the warnings for IO APIC the Troubleshooting section can be safely removed (you seem to have experience with it), then please remove them and mark this discussion as done (just change open in the {{Talk}} template listed above to done. It will be nice to close it out. --Maffblaster (talk) 23:40, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

While browsing the VirtualBox forum, I found rather inconclusive reports regarding the impact of the I/O APIC feature. Therefore, I revised the section to give the advice 'you may want to look into this' instead of 'disable itǃ', which I think is more adequate. -- Maxxim (talk) 07:18, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for helping us do our homework. :) Are we okay to close up this discussion now? --Maffblaster (talk) 16:43, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

headless or Qt... why not both ?

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This discussion is done.

I'm amazed, I wish to have the option to start a virt machine in headless mode (using Shift+Start [key combo], or in regular mode using Start) from the VirtualBox GUI... It is fully possible using the binary package (under windows binaries at least) but if I add headless in package use flag of virtualbox then the flag excludes qt from the build phase.

Am I missing something here ? — The preceding unsigned comment was added by Ugadal (talk • contribs) October 14, 2013‎

No, you're not missing anything - this actually is (in my opinion) a misconception of the USE flag 'headless'. This flag only defines whether the GUI is built/installed or not, however, it got nothing to do with the headless feature of VirtualBox itself. To make a long story short: if you install VirtualBox with the default USE flags (i.e. -headless), you'll get exactly what you want, the GUI and the ability to run VMs in headless mode (handled by the executable VBoxHeadless). I think this should be addressed at the ebuild maintainer, the USE flag should be renamed, e.g. nogui, or inversed+renamed, e.g. +gui. -- Maxxim (talk) 23:05, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

Maxxim , very good description of the issue here. Please open a bug for this package on our Bugzilla. :) --Maffblaster (talk) 23:24, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

Doneǃ -> https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=610344 -- Maxxim (talk) 07:34, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

Perfect. I reviewed the bug. Looks like at least one other user agrees with you (as do I). If you need to link back to this dicussion in the bugzilla comment to better explain that headless != actual VirtualBox headless functionality, feel free to do so. I think it just boosts your case for the USE revision. I'll close this discussion now since the (hopefully) future editions will remove the headless USE flag! --Maffblaster (talk) 16:52, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

Another common problem?

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This discussion is done.

After an update, virtualbox failed to start my virtual machines, complaining about a mismatch of the drivers and suggesting that it is due to a failed installation. modinfo showed the up-to-date version. Nevertheless, reloading the modules with rmmod and modprobe helped. If others run into that, please promote it to the main wiki page. --Aharel (talk) 13:05, 26 January 2014 (UTC)

Hi Aharel , This page is publicly editable, so you can actually add this information yourself in a "Troubleshooting" section. Kind regards, --Maffblaster (talk) 21:37, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

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networking

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This discussion is done.

* For advanced networking setups you should emerge:
* net-misc/bridge-utils and sys-apps/usermode-utilities

--666threesixes666 (talk) 07:20, 8 April 2014 (UTC)

Sure, yes the ebuild will output this suggestion post-emerge. These things could be mentioned under an "Additional software" section. Closing discussion. Thanks! --Maffblaster (talk) 21:35, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

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Host-only network adapter

Talk status

This discussion is done as of April 28, 2017.

It might be helpful to add a section before "Enable port forwarding..." which goes over the few easy steps to add a Host-only network adapter so you can SSH the guest, rather than using port forwarding or other methods. You may need to create an additional host interface, but this is easy enough to do.

I should be able to tackle this, but its "not a today job" ... -- veremit (talk) 01:22, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

I'm not sure if's a common phrase in Britain, but "there's no time like the present.". Take some action, friend! :) --Maffblaster (talk) 16:53, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

Yes, Sir! will pick this up now I've unbroken my VirtualBox install (kernel, modules mismatch!) -- veremit (talk) 23:27, 12 April 2017 (UTC)

Time goes ticking by...no updates yet from Michael Everitt (veremit) ... --Maffblaster (talk) 22:53, 28 April 2017 (UTC)

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Graphics Controller

Talk status

This discussion is done as of 2022-01-24.

In running VirtualBox 6.0.4 on macOS, I couldn't get X11 to start until I changed the Graphics Controller option (from its default) under Settings -> Display -> Graphics Controller. Of the three options that I tried, only VBoxVGA worked. This might be worth mentioning in the Wiki article, as it can save users quite a bit of time debugging why X11 failed to start. Lambroisie (talk) 01:04, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

Sounds good. Please mention it in the article if it is relevant. Thank you! --Maffblaster (talk) 21:18, 24 January 2022 (UTC)

Seems like this comment could really be useful to anyone with this problem, thanks !!

I'll see if I can integrate something into the article some time, but there is much more to do... As Maffblaster says, it would really help if you wouldn't mind adding something to the article yourself - even if it isn't perfect, it is easier for editors to touch up something than to research what to write from scratch - and we all have a lot on already ;).

Making a quick change to the wiki really shouldn't be hard: Wiki:Contributor's guide. All the best -- Ris (talk) 20:32, 10 February 2022 (UTC)

Kernel configuration

Talk status

This discussion is done as of 2022-02-20.

What about the "required" option: [*] Virtualization ---> Actually this option alone does not add any kernel code according to the kernel docs. --Massimo B. (talk) 08:45, 24 January 2022 (UTC)

Hello Massimo B. , it would appear the documentation is missing some of the symbols beneath that option. If you know what is missing please the configuration. I don't think there's anything left to discuss here, just work to get done. Thank you! --Maffblaster (talk) 21:17, 24 January 2022 (UTC)

Kernel modules

Talk status

This discussion is still ongoing as of 2022-01-26.

Why mentioning /etc/modules-load.d/virtualbox.conf in order to load the modules at startup, when /usr/lib/modules-load.d/virtualbox.conf is already provided by app-emulation/virtualbox-modules and doing the same thing? --Massimo B. (talk) 15:54, 26 January 2022 (UTC)

Guest Additions

Talk status

This discussion is still ongoing as of 2024-08-27.

Please change "user running the X session" into "user running the X or Wayland session"

--Lucatrv (talk) 21:50, 27 August 2024 (UTC)

CONFIG_VMWGFX

Talk status

This discussion is still ongoing as of 2024-10-20.

This configuration option does not seem to be part of the kernel options anymore for kernel 6.1.111. It is not present in the submenu mentioned in the documentation.

Search VMWGFX with F8 in make nconfig and you get this:

See which dependency is =n, probably in your case it's DRM_KMS_HELPER, search for it and see where it is, then set it to m or y until you can select the desired option.

If you use make menuconfig, search is on key "/" Viorel (talk) 06:33, 20 October 2024 (UTC)

Thanks, I indeed see it in the search result, but the prompt that I read in the search window ("DRM driver for VMware Virtual GPU") does not appear in the menu. I tried both menuconfig and nconfig, and also observed the same behavior on more recent 6.6.52 kernel and older 5.15.167. I must be missing something, should I have activated another option for this one to show up ?Xavier10

Sorry, copy/paste error, I meant HYPERVISOR_GUEST. That's the one with =n under "Depends on". If you search for it, it's under Processor type and features -> Linux guest support. You need to enable it to see VMWGFX. Viorel (talk) 08:33, 20 October 2024 (UTC)

Thanks, I confirm that adding the HYPERVISOR_GUEST option allows to select the DRM_VMWGFX option and fixes the issues that I had with the guest VM not launching X. Maybe it would be useful to add this option to the list of mandatory options in the documentation (I also seem to observe that 'make oldconfig' could discard it when upgrading from an older kernel...).Xavier10 10:18, 20 October 2024 (UTC)