virtualbox.org

I have just downloaded VirtualBox on to Ubuntu 9.04 and have hit a problem. I was able to have my XP CD load but when asked to download the Service Pack 2 to support XP it would not load under any circumstances.

The SP2 showed up as d:/i363 but would not load nor would changing the drive to A: work.

How do i resolve this matter?

You need to mount the file to the CD or burn it to cd first then mount the cd. Boot XP and it should find the CD.

Perryg

Many thanks for your reply. I am at a loss on what is going on with XP. I have 2 CDs one a XP Home edition which also states on the disk Includes Service Pack 2 plus another SP2 disk.

I loaded Virtual Box 3.0.6 from the site and installed it in Ubuntu Jaunty using the home edition disk. Having done that I re-booted the system and found that Applications > System Tools > Sun VirtualBox opened up XP but at that point I was asked to load the SP2. I have tried both disks but nothing happens.

Can you please offer further guidance as I am somewhat new to this and struggling to set things up.

Thanking you in anticipation

Sure can. Unmount the CD/DVD before you start the guest then when asked to insert the SP2 put the second CD in the drive and click on the devices tab at the top left of the Guest window and tell it to mount the CD as drive D. Wait a minute and the install should start. If not then click the continue button when asked.

Perryg

My thanks for your reply. I am still confused as although this time I was able to open the device tab I did not find any reference to the D drive. I see the display showing that the VirtualBox is running and the progress Boxes (if that is supposed to be what I think it is) are showing activity however there is no sign of any activity on the CD drive. Total silence.

So far about 30 minutes have elapsed and I still have the insert disk request displayed. Should it take this long or am I still getting things wrong?

Perhaps not relevant to the immediate problem of reading a CD, but IME, when an XP install CD says "includes SP2" that means that SP2 is already integrated, I would not have expected to see a second CD labelled "SP2". I would install the XP CD first, then check the version given in "My Computer" general tab, confirm that it isn't already SP2.

mpack

Thanks for your reply. I am in a state of confusion with this SP2 request. My XP CD clearly states that it has SP2 yet having downloaded VirtualBox direct from Sun and followed up by opening it and loading the XP CD it still keeps requesting that I insert the SP2 CD. I only have the SP2 CD as I had obtained it for a friend and he had returned it to me.

I have been back and forward attempting to add iTunes but as soon as the window opens I keep getting this request to load the SP2. No matter what I try it keeps calling for SP2. Trying to close down the VB it informs me that "Program is still running" but as far as I aware nothing is running.

When you say check the version in "My Computer" general tab I can't see anything in the VirtualBox to confirm what it states on the XP CD. I am using Ubuntu 9.04 as my OS

I will see if I can get round this impasse and attempt to load iTunes and hope things will work.

If you can offer any further guidance it will be appreciated.

I believe you get a dialogue asking for the Windows install disk, WITH SP2 integrated because some system files got changed and Windows wants to restore them from the install medium. Did you by any chance installed the GA with 3D support enabled in the installer?

Scunnered wrote:When you say check the version in "My Computer" general tab I can't see anything in the VirtualBox to confirm what it states on the XP CD.

VirtualBox it only responsible for simulating hardware, it can tell you little or nothing about what software you installed in the VM, including the OS.

To get the OS version in an XP guest, right click on the "My Computer" (*) icon on the guest desktop, select "Properties". The properties dialog has several tabs, the default is "General", which includes the OS version. On my XP system this says "Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Version 2002, Service Pack 2".

(*) If you don't have a "My Computer" icon on your guest desktop then you need to enable it: right click on the guest desktop itself, select Properties, Desktop tab, click the "Customize Desktop" button, and in the "Desktop icons" panel make sure that the "My Computer" checkbox is ticked. Click "Ok" to exit the first dialog, "Apply" to exit the second. You should now have that icon on your desktop.

mpack

I seem to have caused some confusion here. I am Using Ubuntu 9.04 and wish to load iTunes to let me listen to audio books. It was suggested that VitrualBox would suit my needs as it would let me still work within Linux with minimal use of Microsoft software.

I therefore downloaded VB 3.0.6 and then added Windows XP with SP2 however opening VB will not do anything other than demand that I now add SP2. This appears to be the insurmountable problem for me as I am totally new to VB and only getting the hang of Ubuntu.

Somehow or other I need to get round the SP2 problem in order that I can download iTunes to achieve my aims.

Can you offer up any hope. Am trailing through the user manual but at 264 pages I have a lot of reading to do and so far nothing has jumped out at me with a solution.

Once again my thanks for your assistance.

Oh. I think I see now what message you are talking about - a picture would have been worth a thousand words...

Run VirtualBox (but do not run the XP guest yet). Highlight the XP VM in the list (if there is only one entry then it is already highlighted). Now click the "Settings" button, go to the CD/DVD-ROM item and uncheck the "Mount CD/DVD Drive" option. Click OK (settings dialog disappears). Now run the VM.

If this doesn't fix it then do please provide a picture of the error message.

mpack

I used applications > system tools > Sun VirtualBox and as you advised the only entry was highlighted OK however the "Settings" button is greyed out. (see attached). I clicked the start and once again found that I still have the SP2 request. I attempted to take a shot of this but find that it exceeds the 128 KiB download size. (any idea of how I can cut this to size?).

No matter what I do I keep getting the usual Microsoft start up page opening. It shown that we are 39 mins away from completing the cycle but asks for the SP2 disk to be used. Using the disk does nothing, no signs of any download, no activity on the CD drive.

I will see if I can find some way of cutting down the screen shot and post it if I have any luck.

Sorry to be so negative at the moment but I can't see a way forward at the moment.

Once agaim my thanks for your kind assistance

I think you should start again.

1. Delete the current VM from VirtualBox.
2. Unregister and delete the old virtual disk (VDI).
3. You say you have two CDs, one marked "XP Home Edition with SP2" (the XP install CD), the second CD is marked "SP2". Set aside this second CD - ignore it from now on, it will not be involved.
4. Find and use a tool to create an ISO image of the XP install CD.
5. Use VirtualBox to create a new VM with a new virtual hard disk which is at least 32GB in size. Give the VM 512MB of memory. Do not enable USB, do not add any shared folders. Use NAT networking.
6. Mount the CD/DVD ISO in the VM and start the VM.

Lets see how far that gets.

From the description, I get the idea that the TS removed the install CD from his drive before the installation of Windows was done. Windows reboots after the first part of the installation to continue with the rest of it.

There is one thing I wonder though. Why would iTunes be needed to play the audio book? Ok, it might have some DRM protection, but there are Linux players available that can handle it just fine. If it's still a problem, you can even install some Windows apps using Wine. Winamp for example runs just fine in Wine and should have support for DRM protected files.

Sasquatch

Thanks for your comments. I think that the XP install was finished OK but I will bow to your superior knowledge. The obvious question is therefore how do I remove XP from VirtualBox in order that I may restart the installation again.

With reference to iTunes there is a setup within it that will let me join all the tracks on one CD and having done that on say 11 CDs I am able to listen to a complete book from begining to end without having to select each CD once it has completed its cycle. I can stop and start play at will and the reading will commence from where stopped on an iPod.

I have looked high and low within Linux to find anything that will do exactly what iTunes does but nothing so far comes near to meeting this functionality. This is my reason for wanting iTunes on VB. Wine is a dead loss as far as iTunes is concerned so I am pining my hopes on VB.

If you could offer guidance on removing XP it will be most appreciated