virtual windows under Slackware64?
 

Dear Slackers,
I need to run Windows 7 virtualy under Slackware64. What are my options, has someone
already implemented that, is there a handy step-by-step how to somewhere?

As suggested by @wildwizard, VirtualBox may be your best bet.

Go to https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads. You're going to be downloading two files, both for VirtualBox 4.1.18.

On this page, you want VirtualBox 4.1.18 Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack, click the link for all platforms to download it.

Above the Extension Pack is a list of binaries, click the link VirtualBox 4.1.18 for Linux Hosts then on the page that opens scan down the list to All Distributions and select the link AMD64; that file is roughly 75M.

Before you go any further, consider where you want your virtual machine installed (not the VirtualBox software -- that gets installed in /opt) -- the Win7 virtual machine. VirtualBox defaults to install virtual machines in your home directory; you will need to allocate at least 30GB to Win7 to make it useable (more likely 50GB or more depending upon what you're going to do with it -- Win7 is a disk hog).

If you've got enough room for 30-50G in /home that's OK; however, you may want to use a spare disk drive or an unused disk partition for your virtual machine(s). You don't need to do that to install VirtualBox, but you will have to decide before you install Win7.

You need to add a group, vboxusers and you need to add that group to your user ID, that's done below.

You can install VirtualBox now:
That installs it.

The manual is included in the downloaded file, it's at /opt/VirtualBox/UserManual.pdf (it's also on-line at the VirtualBox web site). Be a Real Good Idea to crack it open and read the Installation chapter just to get familiar with what's going below here.

If you're using KDE, click the KDE menu, then System and look for Oracle VM VirtualBox, click that to start VirtualBox.

That opens a window, Oracle VM VirtualBox Manage.

In that window, click on File, Preferences. The first display is General that shows the Default Machine Folder; the first part of that will be in your home directory. If you've got enough disk space in /home to install Win7, don't fiddle with it; otherwise, choose the absolute path to where you've got enough disk space (you may need to create a directory named virtual somewhere in your file system before you do this and you will need to modify permissions to it.

For example, I have my virtual machines in /var/lib/virtual (virtual is a mounted file system). The entry in /etc/fstab looks like this:
That's a lot of fooling around but you may need to do it if you don't have space in /home. In /var/lib,
That is,
You do not need to put your virtual machines in /var/lib, they can be in your home directory (if you've got space in /home that is), they can be in /usr/local or wherever you've got space.

Next thing is to install the Extension Pack that you downloaded. If the Manage is not still open, open it again, select File then Preferences then Extensions.

Click the diamond-shaped icon with an orange triangle on it to the top right of the Action-Name-Version window. That opens a window titled Select an extension package file, navigate to where you downloaded the extension pack -- it's named Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.1.18-78361.vbox-extpack. Double-click it (open it) and get it installed.

After you've done all that, you're ready to install your Win7 guest (and wait for almost 200 critical updates; don't you just love Windows?). You don't need to do any partitioning for Win7, that'll get done as you go, but you will need to set some things, the name of the virtual machine (Win7 is good) and the amount of RAM allocated to the virtual machine -- if you've got 4G RAM, let Win7 have half of that but no more. If you've got 2G RAM, give it half and so on. Read the manual pages for recommendations for other settings, accepting the defaults in most cases but refer to the manual and the little hints that pop up when you slide the cursor over a selection.

After you've done all that, started Win7, let all the critical updates download and install, register the thing, all that there is one final step: you need to install the Guest Additions (they're included with the download).

You must install the Guest Additions in safe mode; i.e., boot Win7, hold down f8 and select safe mofe. You can select "Install Guest Additions" from the Devices drop down when Win7 is running (sometimes I've had that not work) or select Computer then double click on CD Drive D:VirtualBox Guest Additions -- I've had more luck with that, YMMV. Then reboot and you ought to be good.

Hope this helps some.

VirtualBox is also available from http://slackbuilds.org/. Note that you will need a multilib setup for your Slackware64 and a few other dependencies which are already part of SlackBuilds.org. I also recommend SBoPkg for working with SlackBuilds.org.

The Oracle Proprietary package didn't require the multilib setup last time I used it like the Open Source edition did. Plus the OSE at SlackBuilds doesn't have support for USB 2.0 devices and other advanced driver features as the Oracle version.

Both are free however, so its just a pick and choose issue. Free Proprietary or Free open source. If you don't need USB 2.0 devices supported just stick to the OSE version.

Just because of that I am asking. I saw virtualbox in salckbuilds.org, but it requires multilib, which I do not want. I found xen in slackbuilds, which is can be compiled from sources. Has anyone had success configuring xen in Slackware64?

The other option is to go libvirt with a QEMU/KVM backend. qemu-kvm and libvirt are already available in slackbuilds.org and they're pretty straightforward to install, no need for multilib. For creating the VM itself, look at virtinst and virt-viewer slackbuilds for lightweight VM provisioning.

Kvm doesn't have a complete support for windows 7 guests (I was testing it in these days, it gets stuck at boot): things will probably get better with kernel 3.6.

Oh? I have been running a Windows 7 guest in qemu-kvm for over a year now. No issues with installing from an ISO, no issues running it.

Eric

here I seem to have hit this and in my comment I was referring to this: as it's ok for you, maybe it depends on something specific of my setup/cpu, or it can be also I got it all wrong :D (in this case, sorry :) )

Perhaps it is because I only buy AMD CPU's for my virtualizing hosts, no Intel ;-)

Eric

VirtualBox works just fine on Slackware64. I have been using it for quite sometime without AlienBOB's multilib. I have several virtual machines, including Window XP, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

The simplest and easiest method and the one I use, is to use VirtualBox's installer.

You can get the installer here. Linux_Downloads – Oracle VM VirtualBox. First thing to do on that page is download the "VirtualBox 4.1.18 Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack" Next on that page look for "All distributions i386 | AMD64" and download either the i386 (32-bit) or the AMD66 (64-bit) file. File names VirtualBox-4.1.18-78361-Linux_x86.run or VirtualBox-4.1.18-78361-Linux_amd64.run respectively. I of course use the 64-bit one, multilib is not required. I do not have that installed.

The installer takes care of almost everything, just run it as root. It will install to /opt/VirtualBox/

When it is finished, add your self to the vboxusers group (as root of course).

If you are doing all of the root stuff from a terminal window in your regular account, I would recommend logging out and back in again to ensure that adding your account to the vboxusers group takes effect.

When you first start VirtualBox, from the File menu, select Preferences, then Extensions and add the extension pack.

Next thing I "recommend" is to change the Default Machine Folder (File, Preferences, General) from the default "VirtualBox VMs" to VirtualBoxVMs. I am not a fan of spaces in file, directory names, it can and does cause problems. Up to you though, as I said it is a recommendation.

With the Preferences window still open select Extensions and install the Extension Pack you downloaded.

Now are ready to install your first VM. Once installed be sure to install the Guest Additions.

One thing I should mention, as it comes up from time to time, if the kernel gets upgrade in Slacware you will have to reinstall VirtualBox.

I might note that I run 64-bit VirtualBox on 64-bit Slackware (stable), no Multilib, and have installed and used XP, 32-bit Win7 and 64-bit Win7. XP is now gone as is 32-bit Win7; 64-bit Win7 works just fine, thank you. I'm using QuickBooks daily with no problems whatsoever. The only problem I've had was with this year's TurboTax (so have lots of other folks -- it won't run -- but it seems to be associated with Win7 .NET stuff last I heard). I've installed Adobe Reader in Win7, works just fine (no need for Multilib on the Slackware side).

I have tried the SBo build (well, two years ago) which did not support USB and other handy stuff and I stick with the binary download (the *.run one) which, as far as I can tell, fully supports everything I need to do to get stuff in or out of Win7 (like flash drives and DVDs). Sound works (using the OSS audio driver). Solitaire and Spider work with all the flashy card dealing and sound effects (thanks to the Guest Additions).

Everything works if you let it.

That's not true, you only need to rebuild the kernel modules by running
/etc/rc.d/rc.vboxdrv setup
as root.

Cheers.

It has been roughly a year since I last booted my virtual Windows, but...

I think most options have already been mentioned. VirtualBox OSE is good enough for most simple software tasks. Proprietary VirtualBox has USB support, but last time I tried it was pretty lame and slow.

Standalone Qemu is plain slow since Kqemu modules were dropped. KVM is nice, but you need a processor able to handle it, so if you have a crappy processor you are out of luck.

Being a FOSS sectarian, I have forgotten about Oracle VirtualBox. USB drives can be "cheated" in the OSE version, while printers and such have always worked sub-optimally. Qemu is too slow and my processor won't run KVM. That leaves me with VirtualBox OSE.

If you want a quality experience, just run a true OS instead of a virtual one, seriously. Or do as I do and use no Windows at all :-)

I have a questions not directly on topic - so I do not intend to send this thread down another path. No long license discussions please...

I have no M$ installs and very limited access to any MS systems except via internet.

Not often, but once in a while my curiosity says that it would like to install W7 or W8 in a VM as a reference point (my last was W2K). I am completely removed from the M$ sphere so I would not know where to start to obtain an ISO other than buying one - not going to happen.

So, is there a FREE way that I could obtain a W7/8 ISO to install under VirtualBox for this purpose?

If you just want to have a look and play then there's the Release Preview of Windows 8:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...elease-preview
I have it running under VirtualBox at the moment.

Thanks, I'll have a look at it.

There's also a 60-day evaluation version of Windows Server 2008 available at microsoft.com. You're allowed to renew the evaluation period a number of times, giving you a total evaluation period of 240 days as far as I remember.

Thanks, I shall be giving that a look.

And also a 90-days trial version of Windows 7 Enterprise: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/cc442495

Cool, thanks, I've been spending so much time using Linux I'd forgotten to brush up on my Windows skills.

Erased

I really don't think you are in any position to be wagging your finger. You said (in your earlier message) "if the kernel gets upgrade in Slacware (sic) you will have to reinstall VirtualBox." That is simply not correct. Had you said "...one thing to do is to reinstall VirtualBox" then you would have been correct.

Going through a considerably longer procedure (possibly including reinstalling an extension package, but I'm not going to reinstall to verify that) just to avoid a not-very-scary message is something that some people might want to avoid. Presumably, the nice people at Oracle went to the effort of providing the "rc.vboxdrv setup" function so people don't have to reinstall.

You could just as easily tell people to ignore the warning message when they re-do the setup. If you really want to be helpful to other readers, supplying incorrect information in definitive statements may not be the best thing to do.

Erased

You were giving out false information. You said "if the kernel gets upgrade (sic) in Slacware (sic) you will have to reinstall VirtualBox." which is false, plain and simple.

I didn't say that reinstalling virtualbox is wrong. Are you not able to see the difference between these two things?

If the kernel gets upgraded in Slackware64 you will have to rebuild the VirtualBox kernel modules. If you are using the VirtualBox provided installer (as of this posting VirtualBox-4.1.18-78361-Linux_amd64.run) you can reinstall VirtualBox or you can run "/etc/rc.d/rc.vboxdrv setup" to rebuild the kernel modules. The first takes a few seconds more to complete then the second. The second produces a message "Trying to register the VirtualBox kernel modules using DKMS ...failed!" (Failed, trying without DKMS). DKMS is not installed on Slackware, so this message can be ignored, the modules will be successfully registered without DKMS.

If you are using the the SlackBuild.org SBo virtualbox and virtualbox-kernel packages (currently at VirtualBox 4.1.14) you will have to rebuild the virtualbox-kernel package and reinstall it. Note the the virtualbox package will not build on a Slackware64 system without 32-bit libraries installed. If you want to build this package it is highly recommended that you install AlienBOB's multilib packages for Slackware64 using Sébastien's Multilibpkg and Compat32pkg which make installing and maintaining Multilib a snap. If you did want multilib, the VirtualBox installer is the way to go, 32-bit is not required.

You know, I was wondering whether you are unable to distinguish between the concepts of "this is ONE way to do it" and "this is THE ONLY way to do it", or whether you are pathelogically unable to admit that what you said wasn't correct.

I'm still not sure, but I'm leaning towards the latter.

Can either or both of you find a way to realize how pointless this discussion is now that the advice has been presented in full and somehow resist the need to have the last word? The needless bickering is nearly equal in length to the rest of the thread at this point. If you really want you can mutter unintelligible insults to each other into a pillow and spare us the drama.

just FYI, this one got solved with kernel 3.6-rc1: running now windows 7 pro 64bit with qemu-kvm-1.1.1 on my core2 desktop at work.

I am running VirtualBox (VB) 3.2.12 on Slackware 13.1 32-bit. In preparation for moving to Slackware 14 64-bit, I first want to update VB to 4.1.20 on the 13.1 system to verify the latest VB is working okay. I plan to use both systems during the transition period and I need the same versions of VB on both.

I read that the OSE version cannot be compiled on 64-bit. If true then that is a bummer. I don't really need anything offered in the extension pack and the OSE version has done well for me through the years. As I don't want to use multi-lib on the eventual Slackware 14 64-bit install, seems then I need to use the Oracle installer when I install VB to Slackware 14. In that case, I figure I might as well use the installer on 13.1 too.

1. Does anybody make a slackBuild script wrapper similar to the one provided for nvidia?

2. If not, does the VB installer provide a good uninstall option?

Thanks much. :)

I don't know if it will help any but I've been installing the binary versions and using them for years with no problems; you just download the ".run" (and the Extension Pack), install VirtualBox, install the Extension Pack and away you go. I've been running on Slackware 64 (stable), installed XP, Win7 (64-bit), Ubuntu (32-bit) to fiddle with and Slackware 32-bit (couple of versions) also for fiddling. No problems worth getting excited about. There's no need for multilib to install and run a 32-bit virtual machine.

Uninstalling VirtualBox is simple; there are two ways to do so,
or
(where "VirtualBox.run" is, currently, VirtualBox-4.1.20-80170-Linux_amd64.run (and the Extensions is Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.1.20-80170.vbox-extpack). You don't need to separately uninstall the Extension Pack, when VirtualBox goes, so goes the Extension Pack with it. You install VirtualBox (using the ".run"), then install the Extension Pack (once). Your existing virtual machines will be there waiting for you to install the Guest Additions in them.

A word of advice -- if you're going to install Guest Additions in a Windows virtual machine it's a good idea to boot Windows in Safe Mode and install the Guest Additions. This is discussed in /opt/VirtualBox/UserManual.pdf. Safe Mode is mandatory for installing XP Guest Additions, more or less optional for Vista and Win7 (but I do it anyway -- it is, after all, Windows, ya know?).

If your Slackware host is doing graphics -- you've got drivers installed and working -- the virtual machines will use those drivers as well. Perhaps "use" is not quite correct, the guest uses the host for audio and video and you don't need to install any drivers in the guest for either.

Hope this helps some.

I have seen many quotes like that in the past couple months. In short, that is simply wrong. There is no such thing as Proprietary VirtualBox or OSE VirtualBox. There's virtualbox and the extension pack. You can get virtualbox in two forms, via the binary installer from Oracle or compiling from source. Compiling from source requires multilib AT COMPILE TIME, but not for running virtualbox. The end result is roughly the same, in fact if you compile it from source you get something that is compiled for Slackware and integrates better into the system. The binary for example is linked against pam, so certain functionality is not available on Slackware. If you compile from source you don't have that restriction.

And regarding the extension pack, it does not care whether you installed the binary or from source.

The decision is yours to make what to pick, but there is NO functionality missing if you compile from source. On the contrary, you actually get MORE functionality by not using the precompiled version.

This is interesting. I believe it's usually reported that USB doesn't function when OSE is built/installed.

The binary is easier to install but if there is additional functionality with OSE then perhaps more of us may choose that route.

Can you be more specific about what additional functions we get with OSE versus installing the binary?

Thanks.

Well, don't get your hopes up, there is nothing huge. It's mostly small stuff.

Previously VNC support was only available to the OSE version of virtualbox. I don't know if since the unification of the two editions that is now also enabled in the binary.
The binary is linked against pam, which caused issues with some features in the past. Again, that might not be the case anymore.
I do consider proper system integration a feature. No matter how good the binary installer will get, it will never replace pkgtool.

USB is definitely a non-issue. The base virtualbox package (both binary and from source) have good support for USB, partially even USB 2.0 support. Full USB 2.0 support comes with the extension pack, which you can install just fine whether you built from source or used the binary installer (which was the whole point of introducing extension packs)

Which part?

I've been checking and I cant see any part that has a link to pam in 4.1.18

I've never had a problem with the virtual box .run installer. I know there are advantages to the slack build, but for me they don't outweigh USB support, but then again I like the Nvidia installer too.

Either way windows 7 runs just fine in vbox.

There should be a VBoxAuthPam.so file somewhere. I never really cared much for the binary version so I don't know where exactly.

That still sounds like you think that is mutually exclusive. It's not.

It's a non-issue for me. The .run works well for me and is quick and convenient, and I've never had an issue with virtual box. Granted, I only use it for test driving distros and for certain things my kids need windows for.

That's fair. There's nothing wrong with using the binary, I'm sure it works fine for the majority of users.
All I intended to do was to sort out a few misconceptions :)

Yeah, as far as I knew the OSE didn't support USB, but I've been using the binary so long, I honestly have no clue. It never made any sense to leave USB out to begin with that I could tell!

Can't see that file and Google only gives reference to the .c file from the OSE edition.

A Google search with it in quotes gives 0 results.

There it is