How About Sun's VitrualBox 3.0?
Posted: 5. Jul 2009, 02:19
When I started up VirtualoBox 2.0.8, I would keep getting notices that version 2.2.4 was available, with a link to the VirtualBox site. I ignored this for quite awhile, but because I switch back and forth between two PCs uning a KVM switch, I would sometimes leave the Ubuntu side sitting idle for quite awhile. And on occasion, I would find that the mouse would still work correctly on that side, but the keyboard would be locked out. I could force an exit out of VirtualBox, and have the keyboard present again when restarted. I thought it might be related to the screen saver timeout, but now I am not sure. When I decided to go ahead and give 2.2.4 a shot, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it had been updated to version 3.0, so I got that instead.
But the Package Manager would not install 3.0, because 2.0.8 was still present and running. I finally used sudo apt-get remove virtualbox*, and that got rid of 2.0.8. Then the Package Manager was able to install the 3.0 version. I assumed that a reboot was required, and went ahead and did that. When VirtualBox was started, I was warned or told (you decide) that it could modify my existing VDI to work with the new verson, and I told it to go ahead and do so. Oh yeah, I also had to register as a user with Sun, but that was no big deal.If they ever want to know if I am paying for my keep, they can search these and similar forums for my degree of participation.
That is not my reason for writing though. Again, my keyboard locked up after leaving that PC unattended for some time. Not only that, but i used the mouse to kill the open FireFox browser with several open tabs, and then tried to restart it, using just the mouse. I told it to resume with previous sessions, and guess what? None of the linked pages would reload. I guess that means that access to the Network was locked out as well. Maybe other things were effected.
While I really like being full screen when in client mode, I had become aware that the choices from VirtualBox that appear on the left top client's border had been moved to a popup at the bottom of the screen. You can get to them with just the mouse, and I find that handy. I looked under Machine, and there seemed to be a new option or two, one being Reset and another being ACPI Shutdown. Reset seemed to be about like clicking on the X in the VirtualBox client frame and powering off, which does not fix the keyboard or network problems, but the ACPI Shutdown actually took care of both. Now I like that. But I really would rather that I did not get locked out like that in the first place. So it is an improvement, but there are times when you'd just rather it did not exibit this behavior in the first place. Still, this is a gain.
But the Package Manager would not install 3.0, because 2.0.8 was still present and running. I finally used sudo apt-get remove virtualbox*, and that got rid of 2.0.8. Then the Package Manager was able to install the 3.0 version. I assumed that a reboot was required, and went ahead and did that. When VirtualBox was started, I was warned or told (you decide) that it could modify my existing VDI to work with the new verson, and I told it to go ahead and do so. Oh yeah, I also had to register as a user with Sun, but that was no big deal.If they ever want to know if I am paying for my keep, they can search these and similar forums for my degree of participation.
That is not my reason for writing though. Again, my keyboard locked up after leaving that PC unattended for some time. Not only that, but i used the mouse to kill the open FireFox browser with several open tabs, and then tried to restart it, using just the mouse. I told it to resume with previous sessions, and guess what? None of the linked pages would reload. I guess that means that access to the Network was locked out as well. Maybe other things were effected.
While I really like being full screen when in client mode, I had become aware that the choices from VirtualBox that appear on the left top client's border had been moved to a popup at the bottom of the screen. You can get to them with just the mouse, and I find that handy. I looked under Machine, and there seemed to be a new option or two, one being Reset and another being ACPI Shutdown. Reset seemed to be about like clicking on the X in the VirtualBox client frame and powering off, which does not fix the keyboard or network problems, but the ACPI Shutdown actually took care of both. Now I like that. But I really would rather that I did not get locked out like that in the first place. So it is an improvement, but there are times when you'd just rather it did not exibit this behavior in the first place. Still, this is a gain.