I'm trying to get Virtual Box up on Windows 7, so I can install Linux on it, and use that to go online, rather than an unsupported op. system. Machine specs: Bare bones, motherboard is a Gigabyte H77-DS3H. CPU i7 Ivy Bridge. Computer is 7 years old.

I have the latest VB with the Extension Pack. The problem is that VB does not recognize my CD drive, or iso images. I get an error message that incorrect settings have been detected, which has to do with hardware acceleration. So I try enable it, but can't. The "OK" button stays grey-ed out. I did some research, found out I needed to enable acceleration in my bios. Tried doing that. Only thing I could find was something about Vanderpool. When I enable that however, the problem is even worse. EVERYTHING is greyed-out.

I was going to join the Oracle VB forum, but when I saw it was Pro Boards I decided not, as I have had nothing but problems with their forums. I refuse to jump through anymore of their hoops re: changing my password. too bad, because the new Bodhi forum is Pro Boards, and it's my daily driver Linux system. So I'm posting here in hopes someone may have some insight.

Is your VT-x disabled? https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=96462

Welcome to VB It's my fav (even VB5 on 12yo 1G ram no-VT-x Win7 netbook).

Usually, just taking the VB GUI defaults 'just works', in just a few clicks.

You might have to click on Storage and 'insert' your <Distro>.iso file into the IDE cd drive

Were you trying to make some changes to the System Paravirtualization? (or Display?)
Try: Machine -> Remove (delete all files) and make a new VM

More specific details might help. Best wishes. (I know it will work out well!)

p.s. preinstalled Bodhi 6 and Bunsen 2.1 here:
https://www.osboxes.org/bodhi-linux
https://www.osboxes.org/bunsenlabs/
(un-7z the .vdi and use it as existing virtual hard disk image file)

I think there's even a (fairly) easy way to: make an exact copy of your running distros and VB them on your Win7 (8G+ ram hopefully)

One more tip: changing the Net from NAT to bridged makes it easier to talk to the VM

Make sure that virtualization is enabled in the BIOS.

When you create a new VM select linux as the type and the version that matches. If the version isn't listed use whatever its based upon like debian, Ubuntu etc.

I always use 64 bit guests. After you create the VM your ready to start it up. When the VM first starts you will be able to select the ISO file to use as the start up boot disk.

And the ISO file should boot just as if it was written to a CD/DVD disk.

https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch...l#gui-createvm

https://superuser.com/questions/1236...3h-motherboard

Page says bios doesn't mention vt-x.

1 members found this post helpful.

Big +1 for finding that mobo info.

Do you think changing the OS setting to Win8
might be their trick to getting VT-x to work?

(I had to go back to VB5.2 and only 32bit guests because my N450 cpu truly doesn't have vt-x)

The setting name is actually "Intel Virtualization Technology" and disabled by default.

https://download1.gigabyte.com/Files...77)-ds3h_e.pdf

Thanks for all the replies. I tried installing VB 5, and everything worked fine. The only change I made to my computer was previously, when I enabled Virtualization (that was the Vanderpool thing). I have Xubuntu 20 up and running, am on it now. the wireless dongle I use just worked, no tinkering necessary.

So there is something about the latest version of VB that isn't compatible with this machine, I guess. I chose VB 5 because it came out just a few years later than the computer itself, so I figured it would be compatible.

Any real danger in running an older version of VB? It's much easier than trying to track down and fix the problem with VB 6.

No, only that it is not supported anymore.

Just for reference I run CentOS 7 with VBox 6 on a Dell Optiplex 780 which is an Intel Core 2 Duo. In theory it should work on your system which is a few years younger...

It's on page 44-45, section 5.2 in .pdf in #6
(but might not be same as yours: I didn't see Vanderpool nor a Windows version selection)

Are you using a 32bit guest (Xubu)?

IF just #6 doesn't work (to get vt-x), maybe
IF you follow ALL the details in the BIOS screenshots in #4,
you will get what VB6.1 needs (for vt-x)
Won't the guest run terribly slow without vt-x?
(Core 2 Duo has vt-x) I get only 173 dmesg|grep BogoMIPS (host 3332*2cores)

(Slackware took many hours just to process its package list, step before install!)

Sea Monkey: You mentioned that the guest might run terribly slow. In fact that is the case. So bad that I'm probably going to give up on the idea, and just not go online very much with this machine, since it must use Windows 7 (I just cannot bring myself to "upgrade" to 10).

what is weird is that an older computer, from 2009, is running W7 as a guest inside Linux, and W7 is fast on it. It's an AMD dual core, 6150se. I made no adjustments to the bios. but the newer computer, from 2014, has problems...more planned obsolescence...

I believe you can get the vt-x enabled, and then it will be much better.

Comments from other LQ'ers welcome.

CPU i7 Ivy Bridge is good (&certainly has vt-x).
Amount of RAM?

What do you mean by Vanderpool thing? Did you enable virtualization per the manual?

My understanding is that older machines may refer to virtualization as Vanderpool. In the Bios, it is listed as the virtualization setting, and mentions the name Vanderpool. That is the right setting, as disabling it renders the machine incapable of 64 bit virtualization. Enabling it has the desired effect. So I'm sure that is the setting. It was disabled by default. Enabling it had no effect on VB 6.1. but VB 5 worked fine with it enabled, while disabling it on VB 5 also had the effect of rendering it unworkable for 64 bit.

Ram is 32 GB.

32GB ram: WOW! In that case, you 'just have to' get that pesky <whatever [else] VB6 needs> Enabled (to reach Nirvana )

IF you're willing to keep digging, try (ALL) the settings in the photos in #4 link (which I quote from)

Maybe post a photo of where it says "Vanderpool" ... (I wonder what else it needs ...)

But I can empathize with 'giving up' here. Good luck.

p.s. @Other LQ'ers: maybe the 'other missing' setting is the one that addresses the (50x slower) speed ... VB6 "hardware acceleration" issue
(The OP seems to have found like half of what comprises vt-x, I guess... IDK)

Or maybe it's worth posting the (incredibly extensive) VB log to VB.org forum