Switching To Linux To Serve As The Host Machine

[Rice_King]

Currently I am running XP Pro (32-bit) and testing Ubuntu 8.04 (64-bit) in VMWare on my desktop PC (Quad-Core 2.4 Ghz Intel, 2 GB RAM, 1 TB of drive space). I am a novice on Linux, learning it as I go, taking snapshots at each turn so should I FUBAR anything then a quick fix is just a click away.

For my next OS re-install (a few months away), I am seriously contemplating wiping XP and installing the Ubuntu (64-bit) as the main / host OS, and run XP and / or Vista (64-bit) as VMs inside VirtualBox. My reasoning for this setup is that I understand Linux runs fairly economically and should not consume much of the hardware resources, allowing me to run the Windows VMs fairly well.

I have built XP, Vista and Linux VMs in Parallels, VMWare, and MS Virtual PC on my XP desktop, but am clueless about Linux VM software. I was actually thinking of testing different Linux VMs by installing an XP VM inside the Linux VM running on the XP host... but thought that running a VM inside a VM might just be a bit over the top and probably wouldn't provide me with very good results.

So the questions I would like answers to: What are the pitfalls of deploying such a system? Anyone with experience using VirtualBox on Linux or suggestions for other compatible VM software for Linux?

[dave_boo]

Currently I am running XP Pro (32-bit) and testing Ubuntu 8.04 (64-bit) in VMWare on my desktop PC (Quad-Core 2.4 Ghz Intel, 2 GB RAM, 1 TB of drive space). I am a novice on Linux, learning it as I go, taking snapshots at each turn so should I FUBAR anything then a quick fix is just a click away.

For my next OS re-install (a few months away), I am seriously contemplating wiping XP and installing the Ubuntu (64-bit) as the main / host OS, and run XP and / or Vista (64-bit) as VMs inside VirtualBox. My reasoning for this setup is that I understand Linux runs fairly economically and should not consume much of the hardware resources, allowing me to run the Windows VMs fairly well.

I have built XP, Vista and Linux VMs in Parallels, VMWare, and MS Virtual PC on my XP desktop, but am clueless about Linux VM software. I was actually thinking of testing different Linux VMs by installing an XP VM inside the Linux VM running on the XP host... but thought that running a VM inside a VM might just be a bit over the top and probably wouldn't provide me with very good results.

So the questions I would like answers to: What are the pitfalls of deploying such a system? Anyone with experience using VirtualBox on Linux or suggestions for other compatible VM software for Linux?

Take a look at this link. As I understand n00buntu already has VirtualBox installed by default. I could be wrong, but if I am, it WILL be in the repository. If you've used VMWare, you'll be right at home using VirtualBox.

[niller74]

I am running Virtual Box in Ubuntu on my Vaio. I have been quite happy with it, except the graphics performance is pretty limited. There is not much acceleration available for programs like Adobe and absolutely no 3D acceleration. Adobe programs is the main reason for me to even run Virtual Box. When doing some 3D in Maya or playing a game I am forced to reboot to a 'pure' Windows.

[Rice_King]

Thanks Dave and Niller for the insights.

I am running Virtual Box in Ubuntu on my Vaio. I have been quite happy with it, except the graphics performance is pretty limited. There is not much acceleration available for programs like Adobe and absolutely no 3D acceleration. Adobe programs is the main reason for me to even run Virtual Box. When doing some 3D in Maya or playing a game I am forced to reboot to a 'pure' Windows.

Can you tell me if the lack of video acceleration is the fault of VirtualBox or is it inherent to running Windows in a VM? Would using another VM application, possibly VMware, alleviate that limitation? This is key for me as I use Adobe PhotoShop CS3 on a (near) daily basis.

[dave_boo]

Thanks Dave and Niller for the insights.

I am running Virtual Box in Ubuntu on my Vaio. I have been quite happy with it, except the graphics performance is pretty limited. There is not much acceleration available for programs like Adobe and absolutely no 3D acceleration. Adobe programs is the main reason for me to even run Virtual Box. When doing some 3D in Maya or playing a game I am forced to reboot to a 'pure' Windows.

Can you tell me if the lack of video acceleration is the fault of VirtualBox or is it inherent to running Windows in a VM? Would using another VM application, possibly VMware, alleviate that limitation? This is key for me as I use Adobe PhotoShop CS3 on a (near) daily basis.

It's a problem with all Virtualisation programmes. I suppose that in the future simple devices could be emulated by using an open intel driver that makes calls to opengl natively, but then you start getting into a Wine implementation......

[niller74]

I know it is a limitation in VirtualBox. I read somewhere that VM has a solution to this, but I just googled for it and cannot find it. It was a commercial package though.

I cannot recommend running Photoshop through Wine. Currently only CS2 is supported and there are quite some issues. At least in VirtualBox it works.

[Gumballl]

I heard thru the grapevine that VMware Server 2.0 has finally been released. I am currently using the beta version of such to host WinXP as a guest OS on my Ubuntu 8.04 system.

The graphics, and generally other things, are a bit slow because I am using a single-core system. Soon I hope to procure a new system. But overall I am happy. It is easy to transition from one OS to another.

[dave_boo]

I heard thru the grapevine that VMware Server 2.0 has finally been released. I am currently using the beta version of such to host WinXP as a guest OS on my Ubuntu 8.04 system.

The graphics, and generally other things, are a bit slow because I am using a single-core system. Soon I hope to procure a new system. But overall I am happy. It is easy to transition from one OS to another.

Check your RAM. I've always recommended enough to run the host system + the amount that you need to run the guest system. I.E., at least 1 GB for Linux host, 512 for Win98 guest, 1,5 GB for WinXP guest, and minimum of 2 (preferably 3!) for Vista guest.

[Crushdepth]

Maybe worth setting up dual boot Windows/Ubuntu on your computer? I find it very useful to have access to both, as there's some things you just can't do on one or the other.

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi

I am running Ubuntu 8.04 as my only OS and have also VMWare server on it. Some time ago i used to have Windows XP in there as a VM, thinking i need it for some tasks - over time i found that all i need to do can be done either wiuth Linux-native apps or in Wine, so i deleted the XP virtual machine, but kept VMWare installed.

Yesterday my colleague gave me a Windows-CD - GENUINE (!!) Windows 95 And in the morning today i toyed around with that, ended up doing my fastest Windows-Install ever (after preparing the VM's "HDD" with Dos 6.22 first!) - installed Windows 95 in 8 minutes flat. 3 GB dedicated HDD, 256 MB RAM. It <deleted>' FLIES. Took me a while to figure out how to get it online and after that was done, i installed the latest IE that supports Win95 (5.5 SP2) and Firefox 1.5, and then i had to go to work.

BUT with the "VMWare tools" installed, graphics acceleration should not be an issue - i remember under Vista, where i ran XP in a VM (also VMWare) in order to play a game that wasn't vista-compatible, the graphic was excellent, i ran it fullscreen and it was just like a native XP install (also only a single-core machine).

I think it has much to do with how much RAM you have and can give the VM - the more the better (except for Win95 which won't take more than 300-ish MB).

Best regards....

Thanh

[Ajarn_Jonesy]

Thanks Dave and Niller for the insights.

I am running Virtual Box in Ubuntu on my Vaio. I have been quite happy with it, except the graphics performance is pretty limited. There is not much acceleration available for programs like Adobe and absolutely no 3D acceleration. Adobe programs is the main reason for me to even run Virtual Box. When doing some 3D in Maya or playing a game I am forced to reboot to a 'pure' Windows.

Can you tell me if the lack of video acceleration is the fault of VirtualBox or is it inherent to running Windows in a VM? Would using another VM application, possibly VMware, alleviate that limitation? This is key for me as I use Adobe PhotoShop CS3 on a (near) daily basis.

It's a problem with all Virtualisation programmes. I suppose that in the future simple devices could be emulated by using an open intel driver that makes calls to opengl natively, but then you start getting into a Wine implementation......

I currently use Windows XP in a vmware environment. We constantly use Macromedia tools, and have not had any issues with them. 2 things here. Make sure that you have Vmware tools or virtual box version. The other is to make sure that you have enough CPU / Ram given to the os. If you are running xp on less than a gig of ram in a virtual environment then you are going to see issues with the programs you are running.

Another thought is that it sounds like you are using the Virtual box console to use your xp box. Is that a correct assumption? Try using remote desktop from your linux desktop.... you will find that this will be a lot smoother. I watch videos through mine with no loss of quality.

1 other thing that struck me when I was reading this post ..... Gaming... If you are a serious game or semi serious. Try installing wine then download and install an engine called Cedaga which runs in conjunction with wine. I use this on my ubuntu workstation and my games work just as well as they did from my windows xp install... here again though you have to make sure that you have ram/graphics/cpu enough to run it correctly.

[dave_boo]

I currently use Windows XP in a vmware environment. We constantly use Macromedia tools, and have not had any issues with them. 2 things here. Make sure that you have Vmware tools or virtual box version. The other is to make sure that you have enough CPU / Ram given to the os. If you are running xp on less than a gig of ram in a virtual environment then you are going to see issues with the programs you are running.

Another thought is that it sounds like you are using the Virtual box console to use your xp box. Is that a correct assumption? Try using remote desktop from your linux desktop.... you will find that this will be a lot smoother. I watch videos through mine with no loss of quality.

1 other thing that struck me when I was reading this post ..... Gaming... If you are a serious game or semi serious. Try installing wine then download and install an engine called Cedaga which runs in conjunction with wine. I use this on my ubuntu workstation and my games work just as well as they did from my windows xp install... here again though you have to make sure that you have ram/graphics/cpu enough to run it correctly.

Good advice. Each VM gets 2 GB of RAM and 1 core on my machine. Unless I'm busy transcoding videos; I haven't taken the time to work out the NAT issues so that dvd::rip uses a VM (although I'm sure it's possible).

Does Macromedia utilise calls to the video card to accelerate its proccessing? That's the issue that niller74 has; Adobe is, to my understanding, good at making calls to help process things.

I read his post to mean he had one box and rebooted into a Windows enviroment. RDP is nice though.

Cedega does not need Wine installed first. It's a derivative (fork) or Wine. It doesn't hurt to have Wine also installed, since there's some programmes that run in it that run in Cedega, but oh well.