Newbie - Virtualbox location - relocation? Linux Ubuntu

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Linux hosts.
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nomnex
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Joined: 8. Aug 2009, 05:43
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Newbie - Virtualbox location - relocation? Linux Ubuntu

Post by nomnex »

Hi,

I have just installed a virtualbox 3.10 on my system Ubuntu Linux 9.04.

My HDD is partitioned as follow: System 12 GB (logical), Swap 3 GB, home 58 GB (extended). FS is Ext4.

Looking at the vbox default preferences:
Default Hard Disk folder: /home/nomnex/.VirtualBox/HardDisks
Default Machine folder: /home/nomnex/.VirtualBox/HardDisks

What are these 2 folders (I assume Hard Disk folder is the location of the virtualbox)? So, the virtual box(ex) I create will be in" home/my profile" folder.

If I want to have the Virtualbox in home but outside my profile, how to I proceed. And is there a benefit doing so?

I recall in Windoz the default virtualbox was located by default on System (C:). It gave me a problem since my (C:) was full. I needed to create a Virtualbox on (D:). The answer was:
Use Virtual Media Manager then create new HD in second partition (D:). For best results, change "VirtualBox - Settings | Default Hard Folder" to a folder in D:. Then reconfigure your configuration for a specific guest to add the second HD
I couldn't understand the [...]Then reconfigure your configuration for a specific guest to add the second HD[...] part, though.

Thanks
conradin
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Joined: 15. Nov 2009, 04:18
Primary OS: Ubuntu other
VBox Version: OSE Debian
Guest OSses: osx, winxp, I will try more

Re: Newbie - Virtualbox location - relocation? Linux Ubuntu

Post by conradin »

Hi! I just had a similar question. My question was of how to move the image to another disk.
I have a very full hard drive and a very empty hard drive. I am using karmic Koala Ubuntu.
What i did was changed directory to where the Image (*.vdi) was, copied it to my new directorie using sudo cp
then, I opened virtual box. and went to file--> preferences. Then I changed where VBox looks for the image to the place I copied my image to.
I did the same for the place I want VBox to run. This Is how i interpreted "Default hard disk folder " and "Default machine folder"

Then i deleted all the old pointers to my original Virtual Machine. Then I installed a new machine from the image in my new hard drive.
It worked fine. I hope this helps you as well!!
Sasquatch
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Re: Newbie - Virtualbox location - relocation? Linux Ubuntu

Post by Sasquatch »

That's one thing you can do. If you want to have everything from VB on a different location, so also the VMs themselves (including snapshots) instead of just the VDI files, then use the variable VBOX_USER_HOME.

What I did myself was put everything on a different hard drive, including the main VB xml file, symlink it from the other hard drive to my user profile folder, changed the default VM and HDD paths and set up all the VMs I needed. They are stored on a different hard drive and when I move it to a different system where I have the same symlink, I can run them there too. Portable VMs, local VB :).
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