virtual windows under Slackware64?

astrogeek · 07-26-2012, 02:00 PM

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?

273 · 07-26-2012, 02:04 PM

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.

astrogeek · 07-26-2012, 02:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 273

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.

Gerard Lally · 07-26-2012, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by astrogeek

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.

273 · 07-26-2012, 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gezley

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.

TobiSGD · 07-26-2012, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 273

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

273 · 07-26-2012, 05:03 PM

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

chrisretusn · 07-26-2012, 06:13 PM

Erased

zsd · 07-27-2012, 09:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisretusn

Ouch you could have worded that better.

Yes you can run "/etc/rc.d/rc.vboxdrv setup" -OR- you can run ./VirtualBox-blah-blah4.1.18-78361-Linux_amd64.run to reinstal VirtualBox. Both accomplish that same task.

Of course if you are using slackware packages then this will of course not be what you want to do.

Running /etc/rc.d/rc.vboxdrv setup produces an error that can confuse anyone who does not know to ignore it, which is why I prefer to tell folks to reinstall.

Code:

# /etc/rc.d/rc.vboxdrv setup
Stopping VirtualBox kernel modules ...done.
Uninstalling old VirtualBox DKMS kernel modules ...done.
Removing old VirtualBox pci kernel module ...done.
Removing old VirtualBox netadp kernel module ...done.
Removing old VirtualBox netflt kernel module ...done.
Removing old VirtualBox kernel module ...done.
Trying to register the VirtualBox kernel modules using DKMS ...failed!
  (Failed, trying without DKMS)
Recompiling VirtualBox kernel modules ...done.
Starting VirtualBox kernel modules ...done.

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.

chrisretusn · 07-27-2012, 09:29 PM

Erased

zsd · 07-28-2012, 07:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisretusn

My

was that you could have worded your post better. You could have said "as an alternative you can simply rebuild the modules by running "/etc/rc.d/rc.vboxdrv setup". Instead you tell me I an giving out incorrect, false information.

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?

chrisretusn · 07-28-2012, 10:16 PM

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.

zsd · 07-29-2012, 04:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisretusn

You state "I didn't say that reinstalling virtualbox is wrong." Ok lets recap on this exchange. "That's not true...", "That is simply not correct.", "supplying incorrect information", "You were giving out false information." "which is false". Hmm... Well I guess your right, your did not specifically say reinstalling VirtualBox is wrong.

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.

T3slider · 07-29-2012, 04:25 PM

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.

ponce · 08-03-2012, 01:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ponce

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

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.