virtualbox.org

Hi!

Nowadays androids are getting increasingly powerful. You can buy android phones with 4, 6 and even 8 GB of RAM. Also CPU power is not a problem anymore.

There are various operating systems out there for ARM. For example, there is ARM version of debian linux. Also Windows 10 released ARM version of it. In light of that it would be cool if I could run virtual box on android.

And there IS point in making android version because 1) phones have enough power 2) There are decent ARM OSes out.

I know that it wont run the x86 versions of operating systems but at least it would run ARM version of operating systems.

You didn't search before you posted, right? VirtualBox is an x86 emulator, not an ARM emulator. It cannot happen.

This proposal is so fundamentally mistaken that it's hard to know how to respond to it.

Let's start with this: VirtualBox is a HYPERVISOR, not a CPU SIMULATOR. Those are two utterly different application domains. VirtualBox essentially simulates the peripheral hardware of a traditional WinTel PC - meaning everything except the CPU, because code is intended to run natively, at full speed. It basically works by using the protection features of the CPU to intercept any attempt by guest code to access hardware. On such an exception the VirtualBox supervisor steps in and returns a result which simulates what particular hardware would have returned.

Running on a ARM would require a very different interception mechanism - I don't know if it exists. Assuming it does, simulating PC hardware while running on an ARM processor is entirely pointless, and ARM based devices do not have equivalent legacy standards for their own hardware, nor a user business market interested in funding this development. Even if you did it for free it would still be useless because you'd have no software to run on it: you need considerably more than a Windows kernel adapted for ARM!

There are PC emulators for nearly all famous platforms such as Windows, MacOS, Linux, and Android like Bochs and Limbo so how could it be nearly imposible for Oracle geniuses to produce their Android version of VertialBox. Just say you only seek money and only money. You could if you would Sorry to be so harsh but I feel sorry Oracle put Android users down. Nearly all kind of CPUs and system have powerful and smooth running emulators for Android including 8bit generation such as Z80 (MSX, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad, etc) and 6052 (Atari 400, 800, etc) and Amiga, Atari ST, Sega, Arcade machines, Intel CPUs, Motorolla CPUs, etc. So just now I realize that your VirtualBox is not really an emulator. It is just a simulator. And there is a huge difference between the two. I can't relay on your simulator scientifically. This is a great loose from a scientific point of view. This is so bad to know. Your are not up to the competence. Sorry for you and for me to know that. I'll spread the word that yours is a mere simulator and not an emulator and it cannot be trusted scientifically.

AFAIK no hypervisor in the market can run an ARM product. So you rant is pointless. If you can run an emulator then install what ever guest you want and install the emulator ( it's only a program after all ). Simple as that. But I get the feeling you just came here to stand on your soap box and make a fool out of yourself, so well done my friend mission accomplished.

Eimaster wrote:I can't relay on your simulator scientifically.

You can "relay" on whatever you prefer. Last I checked, Oracle wasn't forcing anyone to use VirtualBox.

To clarify, VirtualBox is not a simulator, it is, as others said, a hypervisor. What that means is that the vast majority of instructions are executed directly on the host CPU, not emulated, not simulated. Yes, the virtual hardware in a VM is emulated. The virtual CPU is not.

Or in not so technical terms:
Your rant reads like "dear dishwasher company, why can't I bake cakes in your appliance?"

... and because I can't bake cakes in my washing machine I'm therefore going to tell the world that these washing machine designers are incompetent, and so make myself look like a total imbecile.

I encourage this. Only good can come of it.