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Successful Guest Setups on Mac OSX

Posted: 6. Aug 2008, 21:47
by amagine
Usually forums are full of problems, and examples of setups which do not work. I thought it may be just as useful to create a thread discussing detailed descriptions of setups which are successful and working as desired.

Mac OS X.5.4 HOST with XPsp3 GUEST VBox v2.0.2

HOST
Mac OS X.5.4
iMac 24" 3.06Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB 800 Mhz DDR2 SDRAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS
Dual Display with 23" Cinema Attached
Hitachi HDS721010KLA330 1TB Hard drive

Latest security updates have been applied. Date: August 6th, 2008

GUEST
Windows XP SP3 corp edition
VirtualBox 1.6.4 ->1.6.6 ->2.0 -> Upgraded to 2.0.2

**NOTE** On Upgrades all from 1.6.4 to 2.0.2 I uninstalled Guest Additions from GUEST, then Reinstalled Guest Additions v2.0.2. History has taught me this is the least problematic way of updating Guest Additions without bugs.
- Notice some UI glitches in GUEST still. The bug where Mouse Cursor disappears when rolling over START MENU is still present from the introduciton of Version 2.0. Only occurs with MOUSE INTEGRATION - GA 2.0/2.0.2 BUG?


General
Name XPsp3
OS Type Windows XP
Base Memory 1661 MB
Video Memory 128 MB
Boot Order CD/DVD-ROM, Hard Disk, Floppy
ACPI Enabled
IO APIC Disabled
VT-x/AMD-V Disabled
PAE/NX Disabled

Hard Disks
IDE Primary Master XPsp3.vdi [Normal, 50.00 GB]

CD/DVD-ROM
Image SomeRandomDVD.iso

Floppy
Not mounted

Audio
Host Driver CoreAudio
Controller SoundBlaster 16

Network
Adapter 0 Intel PRO/1000 T Server (NAT)

Serial Ports
Disabled

USB
Device Filters 0 (0 active)

Shared Folders
Shared Folders 2

Remote Display
Disabled

++ After I made all the above settings I installed XP SP3 with VBox 1.6.4
++ Immediately after Install I installed the Guest Additions, and Rebooted
++ After Reboot I applied Microsoft Updates

I then tested the OS, the shared folders, attaching USB devices to the Guest, no problems.

I have thus installed AVG Free Anitivirus
ArcInfo 9.3
MS Office 2007

No problems thus far, with heavy use of ArcGIS and Office, accessing large data sets and databases from shared folders.

I would like to add that in previous uses of Vbox with XP, I have found the "Windowed Mode" to be most successful without windowing glitches.

After a few more days, I may test Full Screen and then Seamless mode.

I would also like to add that I have noticed that about 1 in 8 installs of XP just simply go wrong regardless of using a Virtual Machine, Bootcamp or native PC with AMD or Intel architecture. Something I have noticed over the years. I have had limited success so far with Vista. I do have one build of Vista SP1 that appears to be very stable on a macbook pro, Bootcamp, but it does not get used very heavily.