Using VirtualBox 6.x and 7.x on a Windows 10/11 Host at th same time and/or within a VM on WSL2 (eg. 6.x on Linux/WSL2)

[floogy]

Hi,

I'm searching for a possibility to run XP guests with graphics acceleration alongside with a VirtualBox 7.x Host Installation (in my case Windows 10).

I read, that for security purposes Oracle introduced new graphic drivers for VBox7 that are not supported by GuestAdditions in Windows OSs =< Windows Vista.

There used to be a separate 2D video support checkbox. But the devs decided to enable that permanently, so the old 2D box is gone now.

Pre-6.0 3D acceleration with the old-school VboxVGA video card had a security hole large enough to drive a truck through. So the devs came up with two new video cards: VboxSVGA (note the S) and VMSVGA. They also changed the 3D system. However they or their bosses decided to not provide 3D drivers in the Guest Additions for Vista or earlier guests.

6.0 kept the old 3D system and added the new. 6.1 has the new only. So if you need 3D in XP, you'll have to stay on 6.0.

viewtopic.php?p=521699#p521699

Now I'm wondering, if WSL2 can help in this case, to install VirtualBox >= 6.1.4 inside a Linux WSL2 guest e.g. Ubuntu 22.04.

I read somewhere, that VirtualBox > 6.1.4 allows to use VMX/VT-x, VT-d and IOMMU parallel to Hyper-V which is needed by WSL2.

With Virtualbox 6.1.4 you can instead enable Virtual Machine Platform and Windows Hypervisor Platform. This version can successfully use Hyper-V as backend instead of conflicting with it. –
Paul Stelian Mar 23, 2020 at 9:50

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/580 ... -same-time

But there is someone with issues on that approach.

I have installed VirtualBox 6.1.18, but VirtualBox still not working with WSL2. (Windows 10 Home) Also, after doing this, my WSL2 won't start. Can anyone confirm it still works? –
Shinebayar G Jan 25, 2021 at 18:56

So that's confusing.

[scottgus1]

I think it was 6.1 that lost 3D acceleration for XP. So you'd have to go back to 6.0 or maybe even 5.2, to avoid possible VT-x issues.

Running it all under Hyper-V in a WSL2 VM is an interesting idea, I haven't heard of it mentioned before. You could try it and let us know.

However, I don't have high hopes of it working. 3D acceleration works with the host OS's video drivers to accelerate the gust video. In this case the host for Virtualbox is the Hyper-V VM, which doesn't have a normal video card and drivers either.

VirtualBox > 6.1.4 allows to use VMX/VT-x, VT-d and IOMMU parallel to Hyper-V which is needed by WSL2.

I'm not certain about all of this. Virtualbox starting in 6.0 requires VT-x to be available in the hosting OS. VT-d isn't part of Virtualbox anymore, and IOMMU? I don't know. I also don't know if Hyper-V allows VT-x through. You won't get VT-x in the Virtualbox VM, though, so only 1 processor for XP.

[floogy]

Okay I'll give it a try and will report later. Maybe I'll find the time this week.