VirtualBox

From Leo's Notes
Last edited on 14 June 2020, at 23:56.

I was trying to setup VirtualBox on my Athlon 2600+ server under my desk to run Windows XP. The following are the steps which I used to install and use Virtual Box:

Install[edit | edit source]

VirtualBox on CentOS 5

wget http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.0.8/VirtualBox-4.0-4.0.8_71778_rhel5-1.i386.rpm
yum -y install libGLU SDL
rpm -ivh VirtualBox-4.0-4.0.8_71778_rhel5-1.i386.rpm

Setting up a Windows VM[edit | edit source]

As per the documentation at: http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch07.html#idp11472496

$ VBoxManage createvm --name "WindowsXP" --ostype WindowsXP --register
$ VBoxManage modifyvm "WindowsXP" --memory 256 --acpi on --boot1 dvd --nic1 bridged --bridgeadapter1 eth0
$ VBoxManage createhd --filename "WindowsXP.vdi" --size 10000
$ VBoxManage storagectl "WindowsXP" --name "IDE Controller" --add ide --controller PIIX4
$ VBoxManage storageattach "WindowsXP" --storagectl "IDE Controller" --port 0 --device 0 --type hdd --medium "WindowsXP.vdi"
$ VBoxManage storageattach "WindowsXP" --storagectl "IDE Controller" --port 0 --device 1 --type dvddrive --medium /mnt/box/downloads/OS/windows_xp-sp3.iso
$ VBoxManage modifyvm "WindowsXP" --vrde on

To start the newly created virtual machine, run:

$ VBoxHeadless --startvm "WindowsXP"


Making Remote Desktop Work[edit | edit source]

By default, the Virtual Box install does not come with the extension pack which enables VRDE. If you attempt to start the VM with VRDE enabled:

$ VBoxHeadless --startvm "WindowsXP" --vrde on

You will see this error in your log file:

VRDE: VirtualBox Remote Desktop Extension is not available.

To install the extension pack, download the latest extension pack at: http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/

$ wget http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.0.8/Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.0.8-71778.vbox-extpack
$ VBoxManage extpack install Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.0.8-71778.vbox-extpack

Changing the DVD drive ISO[edit | edit source]

First, unmount the image by running:

$ VBoxManage storageattach "WindowsXP" --storagectl "IDE Controller" --port 0 --device 1 --type dvddrive --medium emptydrive

then remount the drive as shown in the setup section previously.