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testing drivers on virtualbox?

Posted: 22. Aug 2009, 15:14
by maxgru
hi!

after installing current version of virtualbox i were really impressed by its performance,above all the gfx performance.

i would like to use virtualbox for testing purpose but i ran into problems as soon as i tryed to load a self programmed driver/kernelmodule.neither official way with sc manager worked nor ZwLoadDriver implemented with direct syscalls.

host os is windows xp sp3,guest os are win xp sp3,vista sp2.

are there any limitations in vb when it comes to kernelmode?on other vm software(virtualpc or vmware) the driver works flawless but they dont offer that good performance =/

any help is very appreciated

max

Re: testing drivers on virtualbox?

Posted: 22. Aug 2009, 16:08
by dmcgraw
I am not sure I understand exactly what you are trying to do.

But if you are trying to test graphics drivers in a VirtualBox VM, it won't work. The VM only sees a virtual graphics card, not the graphics card in the host.

Re: testing drivers on virtualbox?

Posted: 22. Aug 2009, 16:19
by maxgru
i'm not testing gfx drivers,its more security related (SSDT/IDT hooking)...i dont want to test drivers for the virtual hardware which gets emulated by vb.

Re: testing drivers on virtualbox?

Posted: 22. Aug 2009, 18:45
by petrossa
anyhow, the test results will not tell you much. The results will only show how good the VBOX machine emulator is. :shock:

Re: testing drivers on virtualbox?

Posted: 22. Aug 2009, 19:07
by maxgru
petrossa wrote:anyhow, the test results will not tell you much. The results will only show how good the VBOX machine emulator is. :shock:
i just dont want to bsod my real computer all the time :D

Re: testing drivers on virtualbox?

Posted: 22. Aug 2009, 19:18
by petrossa
Still if it doesn't bsod the vbox that doesn't mean it won't bsod the real one. If you are building drivers you'll have to swallow bsod's. Comes with the territory,separates men from boys. :lol:

Re: testing drivers on virtualbox?

Posted: 22. Aug 2009, 19:47
by maxgru
yes,thats true.but i can use the vb for post mortem debugging and dont need to ruin my local computer ;P

but thats not the topic of this thread...so anybody knows wether vb is preventing loading drivers in general?

Re: testing drivers on virtualbox?

Posted: 22. Aug 2009, 19:55
by baf
Well No. VirtualBox tries to behave like a real computer presenting it's virtual hardware and possibly some usb units to the guest.

Re: testing drivers on virtualbox?

Posted: 23. Aug 2009, 01:26
by maxgru
baf wrote:Well No. VirtualBox tries to behave like a real computer presenting it's virtual hardware and possibly some usb units to the guest.
yes,that seems to be the purpose of a vm :) but its a little bit curious that it doesnt work with virtualbox but does with virtualpc and vmware :[

maybee someone of the stuff who is involved in developement can answer me :o