Headaches with MSWXP (native OS) & MSW7 (Virtual Machine)

[DrMac]

Let me tell you all that compared to installing Sun Virtual Box on a Macintosh running the latest version of Snow Leopard installing SVB on a MSWXPSP3 is not the same and causes much frustration. Enough of this and on to my problem. In my attempts at getting SVB with MSW7 installed on MSWXPProSP3 I have failed with lockups of hardware attached. Started after downloading and configuring SVB 3.0.6r52128 with creating a new Virtual Machine. Named the VM, allocated 768MB of RAM, specified 60.00 for the VMHD, maximum 128mb of VRAM, the CD/DVD ROM drive and finally enabled the USB controller, the USB 2.0 (EHCI) Controller & USB Device Filters which included my USB trackball. I also specified the location of the Hard Disk and Virtual Machine to be on my secondary drive, letter D: instead of primary drive, letter C: due to limited space. Let me tell you that this is not an easy thing to do. I had to go ahead and first delete the contents of what is created by default on drive C: \.VirtualBox both in the Hard Disks & Virtual Machine folders as this is where Virtual Box assumes the files are to be stored. Not always so. After getting the \.VirtualBox folder on the D: I successfully started the process of installing MSW7 from an .iso img on the DVD in the specified enabled drive that I specified in the VB Settings. After the successful installation of MSW7, I proceeded with installing the Virtual Additions for which the process failed & I never successfully got working. First after the MSW7 install and restart of VM the enabled USB devices locked up my ability to capture the mouse. I was able to use the mouse inside of the VM but not outside to select installing the Virtual Additions. For this I had to End Task on SVB entirely. When on one of numerous attempts at finally getting the Virtual Additions installed, I thought all was well and that I could now use my mouse without pressing the Host Input Key but I instead got a response of the mouse pointer flipping between the Guest OS and VB intermittently. When inside MSW7 (Guest OS) the capture screen would come up and I would then get the mouse pointer of SVB. Now the SVB mouse pointer locks up entirely VB and unless inside MSW7 (Guest OS) I have to End Task on the Guest OS and occasionally SVB. SVB now shows that the Guest OS has been aborted. Let me tell you that running the same Guest OS on my Macintosh with SL just goes to shows how painless using a Macintosh is. I need help and help desperately. Please advise. Thanks for the community's time.

[Sasquatch]

You really should put some new lines in your text, it's unreadable now.

As for your 'problem', you caused it yourself because you enabled VB to capture your mouse directly. VB already provides a mouse for the VM, so remove the USB filter for it.

[DrMac]

Turned off VB to capture the mouse directly. Now how about installing Virtual Additions and getting 3D Acceleration and getting the mouse to work so that I do not have to continuously press the host key to capture the mouse in the guest OS or not. When loading the Guest OS, I continuously get the message about the virtual machine window being optimized to run in 32-bit mode when the color quality of the virtual machine currently set to 24-bit mode instead. How do I fix this?

[Perryg]

You don't need to fix it. Just tell it OK and not to tell you about it any more.

Then, If you start the guest and click on devices (top left of the Guest window) you will see install guest additions. Click on that to install them. If nothing happens then click devices and unmount CD/DVD and then click on install guest additions. Once they are installed you need to reboot. After that you will have better screen resolution and be able to click drag to any size you want.

If you want the 3D effects in Windows you need to boot the Guest in Safe Mode before you actually install the guest additions.

You can read more about this by clicking on the VirtualBox program and then help / content. The users guide will explain this all to you.

[DrMac]

Launched the Guest OS in Safe Mode, unmounted the CD/DVD-ROM and installed the Guest Additions without success. I then searched for the path of where the Guest Additions are on the HD but again afterward in attempting install the GA, no luck. Same to be said when attempting to install from the CD drive(s) that I have on my computer, the drive would not detect the presence of the CD with GA.

[Perryg]

I don't know what to tell you. Everyone gets this to work.

• (1) start the guest in Safe Mode (press F8 several times as soon as you start the guest)
  (2) click on devices tab then click unmount CD/DVD (Click on the devices tab to see that the CD is not mounted)
  (3) click on the devices tab and click on install Guest Additions.
  (4) select install 3D effect and then click on OK.

Watch to see that they install. You should be asked to allow at least one or two maybe more things to install.

[DrMac]

Thanks for the steps for properly getting the VA installed. Let me tell you what I had to do to get them installed. After successfully getting into Safe Mode for the Guest OS, I went to Devices\Mount CD/DVD-ROM and then had to mount the CD drive for which the CD is in. I then had to manually click on the VM additions 32-bit to get it installed. Checked 3d Acceleration and got a message stating that some files are being replaced. After successful install and restart, see in the lower right of the SVB window that the Hardware Virtualization icon is grayed out and when the mouse is on the icon the pop-up states that VT-x/AMD-V and Nested Paging is disabled. When in the SVB Details window VT-x/AMD-V and Nested Paging are enabled & 128mb of Video is used. Any concern or not. Might this be another thing that does not work just like the way 3D Acceleration needs to be installed in the Guest OS which is Safe Mode?

[Perryg]

Look in the computer bios and see if hardware virtualization is turned on.
If you can not find it then you don't have it and 64 bit guests will not be possible in VirtualBox.

[Sasquatch]

The fact that the settings say it's on, but the running VM says it's off is because you don't have hardware virtualization and nested paging available on your system. These settings are turned on by default, but only used if they are available. Even my 4 year old PC, and AMD socket 939, shows these settings as enabled, but it will never support AMD-v.

[Bob Denny]

Doctor Mac --

I would say that much of your frustration is related to how much you hate Windows and love the Mac All kidding aside, you went way out into left field with this one. As another poster said "dunno, everyone gets this to work". I'd take a deep breath, zap the VM, and start again. This time skim read the excellent docs that come with VBox. As soon as you have the OS installed, shutdown and save a snapshot. Then fire it back up and immediately install the Guest Additions. That will reboot, and once you see that the Guest Additions are working (you can change the screen size and seamless mouse capture) shut down and save another snapshot.